Forums

In order to reduce misconceptions caused by the previous list, the moderating staff has decided to revise the General Forum Guidelines with the following goals in mind:

1. Establish a comprehensive set of rules.
2. Keep rules clear and concise.
3. Eliminate ambiguities/contradictions in the rules.
4. Create a consistent mapping of infraction to punishments that is independent of the individual moderator’s discretion.

Some of you may have questions and/or comments about these new rules. If you have any concerns or want clarification, then we would appreciate your feedback. The guidelines will be periodically updated on any changes, with detailed explanations and definitions where necessary.

Cheerio,
Your friendly neighborhood forum mod team

"NSFM: Content that might be considered offensive or too sexually explicit for the wide range of age groups on MAL’s userbase. This includes, but is not limited to, erotic, excessively violent, and bigoted content."
Does this include characters in lingerie? I see a lot of those on MAL.. X.x

Wait, I know nudity is not allowed but now even suggestive poses/clothed character pictures aren't allowed? Cmon, I know theres alot of kiddies on MAL but still...

It's not the kiddies thing. It makes it awkward to go on MAL forums on my breaks at work.. I'm considering just hiding signatures entirely, which is too bad cause some people have some really cool things in their siggys..

EDIT: And we can't forget that this site is probably visited by many non-members too.

I personally would never go on MAL at work but I'm having a hard time showing this site to my friends, especially those who are not familiar with anime. Some of them thought it was a softcore animated kiddie porn site. My friends are open minded to listen to my defense, but I don't think I'd ever show MAL to anyone again unless they already know enough about anime. First impressions are lasting. Not everyone is willing to listen to the whole story. Even if I could change someone's misconception, I don't think I'd bother giving another lengthy speech about it. If MAL aims to become more mainstream, this is bad PR in my opinion.

NSFM images posted to the forum must be contained within a spoiler and appropriately labelled.

The question here is what exactly counts as NSFM.


Indeed. 1 person here and there having that kind of stuff in their siggys really ruins the impression of a site as a whole.. "oh so this is a site for people who like upskirt shots?" It's better to be tasteful since MAL is for all anime fans, regardless of age or how strict their parentage. (Really, think how awful it would be if you were in the forums and your mom walks up behind you and sees a siggy with a character in lingerie? eeek X.x ) It's okay for that kind of stuff to be in the database, since it's easy to avoid, but if we're talking icons and siggys which are in the forums and anime descriptions (for the review section), what are we supposed to do, turn it all off to avoid all the social awkwardness or just start using MAL when we're all by ourselves as if we're on a porn site? xD It has not come to that but, I think here there is a question of where the line should be set and right now I'm not sure where it has been set according to the new rules. :)

MAL won't ever be mainstream and most likely isn't striving for that. The fact that we house information on a large variety on Hentai, doujinshi, Yoai, Yuri, etc is more then enough proof that's not this sites purpose.



I browse this site everyday and I haven't seen one outrageous image yet. Once again this comes down to personal preferences. Just because you and a few others don't feel comfortable looking at Ecchi images and what not doesn't mean the forum rules need to reflect those preferences.

Really, I felt tempted to post a girl holding her covered breast in my sig just to spite you for laughs because it's silly seeing someone trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.

The rules are perfectly fine as is and if you can't handle it, I suggest adblock. You can even use it on images.

yeah..the way i see it is that anything at the level of a hentai main pic(so censored) in the database should be okay about anywhere else since its already on the site(if people are mainly into ecchi and hentai who are we to say they can't show it off to some degree?)..anything more then that i'd think shouldn't be allowed....also for lingerie its mainly just a frilly bikini where odd's are everyone has seen one of those before so would be just sad if that wasn't allowed.

NSFM is defined in the second post of the updated guidelines so there's no debate as to what constitutes NSFM. Lingerie is fine. If it's not showing anything of explicit sexual nature (nipples, genitalia, etc) it's allowed.

MAL is not here to cater to soccer moms and anyone else who may be uncomfortable with sexuality. Ecchi is undeniably a big part of anime and to shy away from that for what the "mainstream" finds acceptable goes against the reason this site exists: allowing users to list what they have watched with a comprehensive database of all anime.

There's a huge difference between having hentai titles in the database and seeing suggestive material on the forums. You don't encounter the titles in the database unless you add them to your list. However, the forum is the primary place where members socialize, something you can't avoid if you want to interact with others.

The growth of a website depends on the buzz it gets. Users won't promote your website if it puts their personal reputation at risk. I think it would be a shame for a place as resourceful as MAL to remain a small clique in its own corner of the Internet just because it allows users to fill it up with what is technically worksafe but suggests otherwise. However, if the admin feels like attracting kids who want to show off their eDgYnEsS by testing how far they can bend the rules before getting banned is their priority, what can we lowly users do? Oh well.

/Thread

I don't need to say anything else lol

I have seen some pictures with nipples but in spoiler tags. Never actual sexual acts though.

Trust me, we have... that you haven't is because it's moderated. Use the report links if you notice violations.

Could I still link to sites with information, that may contain torrent links and the like?

I think it's fine as long as you don't link directly to the download.

Okay. :3 I would think that lingerie would count as erotic but I guess not. o:


I have too.. including one where a person had a real person nude as their profile pic. xD


I was under the impression that links of that type are not allowed at all? At least I have seen so few links to such sites that it makes me believe that.. I think mostly people just refer to it by name, like "(insert site name) has it"

does this also include such as having banner in you sig area or a club badge?

Anything that is in a signature, or on the profile does not fall under this. It is what is in the post that matters.