I’m no sure if this is the right category for this topic to be in, so I am sorry if it’s not in the right category.
There’s been a lot of stuff going on the Episode community during the past few weeks about a mature app they plan to make in the future. In my opinion, I feel like Episode should’ve have been thought of creating a mature app a year or 2 years ago because the rise of mature stories on the app. Many authors are writing a lot of stories with mature content in them that isn’t attended for a younger audience; they are written for a mature audience. It seems like 90% of stories (I may exaggerating a little bit) contain a lot of mature content, and Episode cannot help but to notice this. Let’s be realistic, you can’t control what an author writes about because they are free to write about anything they’d like; it’s the truth. Therefore, Episode should’ve thought about a mature app a long time ago. Now that the guidelines have been changed and made new, a lot of authors are leaving because they feel like they can’t express themselves in a way through their stories. I can understand them as an author myself. It’s just a lot of crap going on right now, and it’s getting out of control.
So, those who are a part of the Episode community, how do you feel about the mature app? Do you think Episode will create it? Comment your thoughts.
I don’t know if a mature app really is a good idea. How are you gonna decide what story should be in what app, if you have only one more mature scene would it already have to go to the mature app? It will be almost impossible to draw a line between what’s okay or not for the not mature app. Besides that I don’t think we should filter all the mature content out for younger viewers, since some serious subjects that are maybe considered mature are only useful to be confronted with. That brings me to if it would be made, which I doubt, I don’t think it would be successful since I feel like every story would have to be reviewed which would take a lot of time.
This. Plus there are people in the community who seem to think that anything even referencing “mature” shouldn’t be accessible to 13 year olds.
My biggest fear is that it will create even more of a divide in the community. We already have a divide in so many places, I don’t think we need to add more.
I’m also going to add (knowing full well this might make people mad) that some of stories that people say “break the guidelines” or are “too mature” really aren’t??? A lot of them are borderline. Meaning: that if the author just toned it down a pinch or two the story would be fine.
Another thing I’m worried about though is how it’ll be decided? What’s mature to one person might not be the same as to another. A super conservative writer might think even mentioning drugs is “mature” while a more liberal minded one might think it’s just fine for 13 year olds to see it.
Even tho a story can still be mature without breaking any guidelines, but yeah in a lot of cases just a slight change would make stories okay for 13+ even if they are ‘mature’
This as well, here in the Netherlands drugs are way more normal than maybe some other countries so again an issue of what you should and shouldn’t allow
I wasn’t even thinking about that, but it’s a great point as well! Cultural divides would have to be considered too. For example, I know in some places in Europe you can drink at like 16-18 but here in the States you can’t legally drink until 21.
It’s slightly off topic maybe, but I think Episode needs to worry about the app they already have and making it better before they start worrying about a mature app/mature section.
True, drinking age here is 18 (even tho I have been to some countries where drinking was already okay at 16…) I just think it would be impossible and take the episode staff way too much time.
Nah, it isn’t off topic, I mean I agree. If they would just think about their current app first they wouldn’t lose a lot of their readers like they do right now…
I just think there needs to be a better understanding between episode writers and users of what’s mature or not. For example: I was in a thread where people were trying to say a story was against the guidelines/too mature when it wasn’t (At least as far as I understand them) just because it was a more “sexual” story. No one is ever going to be fully satisfied while everyone has their own opinions on what’s “too mature” and what’s “just right.”
I don’t think a mature app of Episode would be a good idea to be honest. Of course the under 16 year olds are going to download the app either out of curiousity or if they’re horny. Pretty sure that it’s going to flop big time!!
I really disagree to a certain extent. I think there are some ones people call out that aren’t necessarily considered “too far” but most of the time, the stories like Buki’s, Cindy’s, Er Gurnery’s, and many other popular and non-popular have broken many rules and are highly inappropriate. People bring them to our attention in the forums. They aren’t wrong, especially of you look closely to what they’re promoting, doing, and saying. A lot of the trending sections before had many inappropriate scenes.
To be honest, I don’t really think Episode knows what it’s doing. I mean, if you look at the adverts that they made for themselves in the past few years, you can see that they’re promoting the sex appeal side of Episode. That was in complete contradiction to their own guidelines (most of which have always been there, can I just say), so people were very confused. They didn’t know what they could get away with and what they couldn’t. The guidelines were saying one thing. The featured stories and the way Episode was marketing itself was saying another.
Now they apply the breaks to the whole sex appeal side of the app basically overnight. Did they not anticipate the backlash that this would cause? If you’re going to advertise yourself as a sex positive app, you can’t contradict that with your own rules. And you can’t police the community stories more than the featured ones, which is what they had been doing in the past.
It’s like this forum. I advertised it as a place where you could get away with talking about a bunch of different things. With that in mind, it is so important that I created a place where people could discuss adult themes. I advertised it as such and I needed to keep my word. Episode, on the other hand, thought they could use the sex appeal (as sex sells) and then not make good on their own promises.
On the one hand you can say “sex sells” because you could even see on the adverts they always had that side to them, to the point my Mum wasn’t keen on me playing it. Would they put an age restriction on it? Even then that would be hard to do as people can easily lie about their age.
Besides what about the grey area, the stories that merely skim the guidelines without breaking any. What would happen with them?
My final thing is: it doesn’t matter what you talk about, in my eyes. It’s how you talk about it. How you portray it. The message you send out.
Teenagers aren’t stupid. They don’t live under a rock. They know what sex is. They can get hold of p**n if they want to because the internet is too big and free to police. They have seen violence – if not in real life, then in films, tv shows, read about it in books… Teenagers are aware of most of the themes people cover in their stories.
The problem is the message that is being sent. Teenagers know a lot. They understand a lot. So what exactly should we be shielding young people from? Well, as I’ve said before, it’s about critical thinking skills. Even a 50 year old adult can be indoctrinated with bad ideas if they’re exposed to them for long periods of time. Even 50 year old adults can be influenced by objectification and casual racism and negative portrayals of sex.
But teenagers haven’t fully developed the part of their brain that gives them a tiny bit of a shield from being influenced by negative portrayals of things like sex and violence. So it is so important that we cover these topics properly.
And that doesn’t mean ignoring or getting rid of them completely. There has been study after study proving that censoring the sex out of a teenager’s life makes them more prone to teenage pregnancy. It’s about educating. Showing the positives.
I…have to disagree with you on Gurney. As someone who’s read her two recent stories I don’t really think they break the guidelines, and definitely not to the extent Bukii and Cindy G do.
The main issue, and I agree with @ShanniiWrites here, is that people are more obsessed with bashing stories that have sexual content than ones that are actively promoting violence. Sex is a natural thing. Shooting people for no reason isn’t
So basically teenage brains are more influenced by the negative aspects of something as opposed to the positive? Do adults just not get influenced by that kind of thing?
Oh we do! We are just more prone to asking questions than teenagers. It’s harder to influence adults – a little harder anyway – because we’re more critical of what we consume.
Hence why so many teenagers give into pack mentality easier. We’ve all been there! The things I did 5 years ago because I was clever but not a critical thinker…
I had critical thinking skills! They just didn’t come easily
A lot of the trending sections before had many inappropriate scenes.
