Prequel Booru hypocrisy

And yeah, another response to Pepsicat’s more recent post on the Prequel fanart thing. I’ve been there. Frankly, he’s 100% right. Well, at least in that there’s definitely inconsistent application of the ‘rules’. His examples are awfully hard to argue against!

Problem is, I’ve also been on the other side of the fence before, being a moderator. Their job is thankless and frankly impossible. Even worse because a single pixel can make the difference between something that’s ‘over the line’ and something that isn’t. Because there IS NO LINE. Take, for instance, that dancing Katia image by Zokva. (currently my phone’s background btw! I’m a child of the 80s I guess!)

http://www.prequeladventure.com/fanartbooru/post/view/2880

Now I don’t know if that’s officially ‘lewd’ or not. It certainly can be, depending on your point of view, and got a Questionable tag. (a GOOD thing if you ask me for attracting attention! I got shot down for using it once for just that purpose. Justifiably so BTW.) Well that exact same image (but with hair) had been posted and didn’t get the tag for months. (it does now). Again, I’m not sure I’d call it hypocrisy so much as inconsistency.

But it’s DAMN hard to define those edge cases, esp. when it’s a judgement call and there’s more than one person doing the judging at different times. Not just hard… impossible.

So what’s the solution? There’s really only two.

1 – No moderation whatsoever. (Chaos)

2 – No booru whatsoever. (eliminate the problem by eliminating the cause)

Neither of which is likely to happen. So the result is just real-world edge cases. What’s ‘not appropriate’ for the booru, and what’s OK but Questionable? There’s really no clear answer. It is up to the judgement of those charged with enforcing it. I have a lot of empathy for both Pep and the moderators really. I stopped being a moderator (not there, elsewhere) for just that reason. I didn’t want the responsibility of it. So I do wish them all the luck in the world for trying to do an impossible job.

Fortunately edge cases don’t come up that often, but when they do, someone’s going to get burned and I REALLY regret it was Pep because I really, really like his work. Not as technically proficient as some others, but damn, it’s sure better than a LOT of stuff posted there recently and he’s got a real affinity for Katia that comes through clearly. (And he’s not NEARLY as lewd as me!)

EDIT: And… I might be completely wrong on that particular Katia image example. Maybe it WAS tagged as Questionable all along. Ack! Kinda sucks to be THAT wrong. Er… yeah, I meant Pepsikat’s examples… yeah! Those! Forget this one. 🙂

On Responses

First off, I’m afraid this blog is taking on less emphasis on Prequel and more on my ongoing lewd Skyrim stories. Hopefully that’s ok. But this specifically concerns a post from Pepsikat that I wanted to weigh in on. The only reason I’m not replying directly is that Tumblr doesn’t let me compose a more lengthy response in any good way.

The basic issue was that Pep doesn’t get responses or comments on his posts. And that is a shame. I truly sympathize because I am going through the exact same issue (though I don’t do arts, just screenshots and stories which really isn’t the same thing admittedly).

Almost invariably I’ve been getting 0 comments or even likes on anything I post. And it is frustrating. I have statcounter set up so I know people are looking at my stuff, but almost nary a peep. I do have that advantage. And I do have to say almost though, because I do get some and those are precious to me that someone is out there. But very, very few.

Few enough that I’ve on occasion decided I’m just not going to do them anymore. Is it because they suck so bad? Because they’re lewd in nature? Probably both really. I got one criticism from an author on Sofurry that was completely true, justified and honestly written to try help me improve my writing. And that more than anything just about killed my inspiration to keep doing them. If my ability is honestly irredeemable, then I might as well just quit.

But I didn’t. And the honest reason why I didn’t is because I still enjoy doing them. It’s the closest thing to creation that I know how to do. If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t do it. So I continue, and still get almost 0 feedback. And it’s still frustrating as hell because I think if I found my own stuff out there somewhere, I would like it. That and because once these stories get lodged in my head, I want to see them completed too.

So I’ll continue regardless of the feedback I (don’t) get, because I still have fun doing them even if no one else sees them. And who knows, maybe someday I’ll actually improve! It’s at least conceivable. Until then, I guess I’ll just keep posting lewd furry stories for my own ego and entertainment. As long as they’re still fun for me to create, why not? Not like I’m doing anything ELSE creative with my time!

New mod on the horizon?

So my current “Kitty” arc on tailsofthekhajiit is nearing completion. I’m debating if I should go on to the next arc, or design another mod for Prequel again. With no updates in SO long, I’ve got no new material to work on from Prequel. However, I thought about doing one of these outfits as a Skyrim mod:

Dodger Outfit

Pros: Nice cleavage slit for lewdness purposes. Cons: Black and white. No canon colors. (is there?) I’d have to make up my own colors. Knowing Dodger/QW, it would probably be muted tones though. Probably a dark green shirt, brown belt, tan pants and leg wrappings. I guess.

Rajirra Outfit

Pros: Pretty similar to existing stuff in Skyrim so it would likely be fairly easy to do. And I really do like Rajirra, even if that nasty Kaz made her Do Bad Things. Cons: Pretty similar to existing stuff in Skyrim so it wouldn’t stand out so much for what work I DID have to put in it. Plus, Rajirra is probably history as far as the actual Prequel story goes so it wouldn’t even be relevant anymore.

Intestines. No… not really. Shopkeeper nightie.

Pro: It’s a nightie. With white frills. Con: it’s just a nightie and really isn’t very unique to Prequel. Frankly I could probably hack this one out in a day. But it’s hard to come up with much else recent.

Evil Quill Weave Outfit (again)

I’m more than a little ashamed to admit it but… I lost my Evil Quill Weave mod. And I REALLY liked it too. IMHO probably one of the best I’ve done. EvilQW doesn’t show up much anymore, but I regret intensely that I didn’t save it.

Pros: I get to have Evil QW outfit again. (And I could come up with a use for it in my next Kitty arc, like, EASILY!)

Cons: Ever do some really good work (even a recipe) and then NEVER be able to do it again? That’s exactly what I fear here. Between the leather texture and the shiny red skull button, I seriously think I might never be able to do it as well again. And I’d always have these damned screenshots to remind me of that.

Or… I could skip it and start on the next Kitty arc.

So, any suggestions? And this time I’ll try my BEST to make it available to the public by not using any mods that are specifically prevented from doing so. I MIGHT even make it for the standard model so it’s not overly lewd. (but don’t count on that. I may not be Rek, but it is something I tend to gravitate towards.)