Shippers Community Rules
Welcome! This forum is dedicated to so-called "ships", i. e. potential/imaginary/confirmed romantic relationships between fictional characters. When participating here, please mind the following rules in addition to the general, forum-wide rules.
1. Don't get too spammy
Forums are not like Discord channels, Twitter or other platforms, where conversations are often a quick back-and-forth chat of very short messages that don't really add any new info or opinions. Make sure your forum posts have some substance and stay focused on the ship that the thread is about.
If your reply amounts to nothing more than "yeah what this guy said", "uhh what?", "bad take" or something, consider using the reaction emojis instead.
2. No bashing or flaming shippings, characters or members
You're obviously allowed to visit & post in threads for ships even if you don't support them, and you're allowed to occasionally voice doubt/criticism towards the ship and its hints. However, it is not acceptable for you to constantly spread negativity & annoy shippers by reiterating that you dislike the ship or that you find it unlikely to come true. Your posts need to be respectful and contribute to the discussion somehow.
Do not make anti-shipping threads and don't submit replies that badmouth a ship. Individual members or shipping communities should NOT be a talking point in your discussions at all. We don't want to read about how you think "Pokéshippers always do X", even if "X" is something neutral or even positive. Discuss the ship, not its shippers.
3. The following types of ships are off-limits
- Incest
- Ships involving real-life people (doesn't matter if it's a celebrity or a forum member)
- Pedophilia, i. e. ships involving a child character and an adult character. Borderline cases with very close age gaps (i. e. ships between a 17yo and an 18yo) are usually exceptions, as are many cases where the fictional setting plays around with the concept of aging, like worlds with vampires, demons/underworld creatures, etc (think Inuyasha or the Twilight series). Use your common sense, best judgment and/or consult shipping mods if you're not sure.
NSFW (not safe for work) is internet slang used to mark content that the viewer may not wish to be seen viewing/reading in public. The marked content may contain graphic violence, pornography, profanity, nudity, slurs or other potentially disturbing subject matter.
In the context of this subforum, keeping discussions safe for work means not discussing mature themes such as the characters' sex life, and not sharing fanworks containing sex, nudity, gore or graphic violence. The Shipping Fics subforum contains an exception; please read the rules there if you're interested in posting NSFW fanfiction.
5. Do NOT post other people's fanwork unless you have permission AND give proper credit
Respect the artist's wishes on whether they permit their work to be shared at all, and if yes, under what conditions. If you can't find info on an artist's reposting rules, you must message the artist asking for permission to share and accept whatever answer you'll get (no answer is to be interpreted as a no). Look out for any warnings/posts by the artist asking people not to repost their work at all, period. It doesn't matter if the warning is hard to find, or written in a language you don't understand. It's your responsibility to find out what the artist wants or doesn't want.
Giving "proper credit" means adding a working link to the place where the artist publishes their work - DeviantArt, Twitter, AO3, etc. Search engines (like Google) and image hosting websites (like imgur, Photobucket) do not count as sources. If you don't know where the fanwork is originally from, don't post it. Keep rule 4 in mind; if the source/gallery you're linking to contains NSFW fanwork, please include an NSFW warning in your credit message. Do NOT share NSFW fanworks directly.
If you have any questions about these rules, feel free to DM any of the Shippers Community moderators (Meowth City, Sushi, Tiffany) and we will gladly help you out.