Before anything, I want to say that I'm sure the team is putting in countless amounts of effort into the site overhaul, and I completely respect them for all the work they're putting in. Overall, I don't think the new site looks bad at all, and most of the important features were kept in.

However, there is one main complaint I had with the new site.

I don't mind the fact that there's an automatic blacklist whatsoever. I feel like for people new to the site, who are 9 times out of 10 not going to be into what's blacklisted, it's a solid way of making sure they get a good first impression.

However, what I don't like is that, even when you do remove them from the automatic blacklist, everything that was there is still completely hidden if you're not logged in. I'm hoping this may just be a way that the team is testing out the blacklist, and that this feature will be removed in due time. I just think it's a large inconvenience for users like me who frequently go incognito and don't want to have to log in every time they want to see a pic that they want. (Also don't take into note of the fact that this account is literally a day old, I forgot my old login information a while ago.)

If anyone on the team decides to read this, thank you! I'm just curious if there's any particular reason for the new addition is all.

Thanks for reading!

-TotalPunkSkunk

This is also my biggest complaint! Who decides what is "commonly objected to" for the anon blacklist (and why are snuff, vore, rape, bestiality and puke not on it?) and after explicitly clearing the anon blacklist, why are some posts still hidden until I log in?

Please consider:
- is isolating particular tags on an auto-blacklist AND blocking access to those tags when logged out basically labeling certain porn as 'too dirty' for 18+ users?
- isn't opting all users into that list reinforcing existing stigmas about that particular content? (some percentage of those users would have a neutral opinion and have otherwise left those tags off their personal blacklist)
- won't tags on the auto-blacklist stay on that list forever due to underexposure caused by the auto-blacklist? (some percentage of users will ignore the defaults, stay blacklisted and fail to upvote/downvote art)
- won't other tags eventually need to be added to the auto-blacklist? What is the criteria and process for changing the list? Otherwise, what is the rationale for singling out just these particular tags/fetishes?
- as others have noted, linking to posts (for example in a Telegram group) and not knowing if the link will point to a login wall is a big deal!
- indeed I personally browse incognito/cookieless and typically avoid logins when possible. This is a step backwards in access and functionality.

Again, I would be curious to hear the rationale behind the change, and some words on the direction the site plans to go with it in the future!

My biggest problem is my username

I agree. For some people, a kind of porn is acceptable, for some it isn't. It would be better to just remove it.

totalpunkskunk said:
Before anything, I want to say that I'm sure the team is putting in countless amounts of effort into the site overhaul, and I completely respect them for all the work they're putting in. Overall, I don't think the new site looks bad at all, and most of the important features were kept in.

However, there is one main complaint I had with the new site.

I don't mind the fact that there's an automatic blacklist whatsoever. I feel like for people new to the site, who are 9 times out of 10 not going to be into what's blacklisted, it's a solid way of making sure they get a good first impression.

However, what I don't like is that, even when you do remove them from the automatic blacklist, everything that was there is still completely hidden if you're not logged in. I'm hoping this may just be a way that the team is testing out the blacklist, and that this feature will be removed in due time. I just think it's a large inconvenience for users like me who frequently go incognito and don't want to have to log in every time they want to see a pic that they want. (Also don't take into note of the fact that this account is literally a day old, I forgot my old login information a while ago.)

If anyone on the team decides to read this, thank you! I'm just curious if there's any particular reason for the new addition is all.

Thanks for reading!

-TotalPunkSkunk

That's what I'm actively asking to be educated about. Yet, every time I ask why the blacklist is enforced at all costs unless you create and log in an account, the people responsible for that decision either ignore the question, answer in an extremely evasive way, or outright lock the thread.
The more the subject gets avoided, the shadier it feels; Implementing a blacklist for extreme tags by default for new users is the right thing to do, but an educated, non-logged user should have the option to turn off this forced blacklist.

The blacklist itself is kinda incoherent, since some "less harmful" tags like watersports are involved by default, yet more extreme tags like snuff, crushing, vomit, stinky_feet, or hyper are not in the list. If the goal was really to protect new users from extreme tags, those would likely be involved.
By enforcing a blacklist that cannot be disabled unless you create an account and log in, non-registered users are segregated from the registered users, since they cannot access the full content of the website. Not only this is unfair, but it is worrying.

The fact that guests cannot disable the forced blacklist, along with the fact that the wildcard was removed recently for unregistered users make me fear that account creation and use is strongly pushed/encouraged. Take a few more steps and there's a reasonable chance some tags, artworks, or website features like wildcard will be locked behinf a paid subsciption, once every user is used to log in everyday, because otherwise, they won't have access to the full content.

e621 was amazing because it hosted content in an organized way, allowed you to browse everything while remaining anonymous, and didn't require anything from you when you just wanted to see porn on a porn website.
I am afraid that this is the beginning of a slippery slope for this website I spent so much time on. I know there are alternatives, but I'd rather try to post this message to hopefully make people in charge think about the consequences of these seemingly pointless changes, than just leave because of poor choices from the administration team.

yflash said:
I agree. For some people, a kind of porn is acceptable, for some it isn't. It would be better to just remove it.

I'm sorry, but are you saying remove it, the pornography; or remove it, the automagic blacklist?

Remove the porn of the automagic blacklist.
Obviously.
Wait, we already did that .

I meant remove the global blacklist

Keeping a global blacklist seems like a good idea for me. Some content is easily sensible for many others, but I agree some changes could be optimal. Gelbooru, another imageboard based site, has these sensitive tags blocked by default, although it is not needed to log in to find the option to view these tags.

I find that is a good example. Maybe we could keep the default blacklisted tags, but not locking them might be more inviting for less sensitive users. This is just a suggestion, though.

My Biggest problem is that I cant see a single picture on my ipad. I set the setting to show the lowest amount at the smallest thumbnails possible and it still doesn't work. this ipad has been able to view this site for years until now. I don't know what else to do and its my only source of this site.

My current hatred for this site is not the favorite cap. I had to open a SECOND fucking account just to continue and I was almost at 100k with this one.

Regardless of the system there will always be problems, that said many of the above concerns are valid. Yet I believe that the automatic blacklist is the right step to take for 2 primary reasons.
Firstly, it helps prevent underage users from gaining full acess to the site, however I feel this could still be improved upon.
Secondly, it forces users to acknowledge and use the blacklist, which I hope will significantly reduce the number of complaints about art that offends some users.
Again no system is perfect and I know there are problems, but for now why not at least give this method a chance?

The default blacklist isn't necessary and it's a shortsighted decision.

It does increase the stigma of the topics and does not give the users who are into that stuff peace of mind. People are only going to begin to feel more alienated and this only gives precedent for any and all tags the admins find unsavory to be blacklisted automatically.

It's incredibly targeted. Vore and snuff weren't even included. It would be less controversial for the admins to remove the automatic blacklist instead of enforce it at this point. The admins clearly don't know what the users want after this whole fiasco.

It's more work for the community as a whole. People who want to view the stuff now have to make an account and go through the trouble of configuring it and then log in every private browsing session whereas before they would've only had to navigate to e621 and type in their query, no big deal. It's more work for the admins now that they have their own blacklist to curate as fits their whim, forget whoever has to be subject to it. They'll have to update it as soon as the community thinks up some other clever tag they don't like.

E621 has supported the type of content listed in the auto blacklist in the past, if that's bound to change why not just get rid of the content and posts as a whole? It will make a lot of people's current process of deciding to stay or deciding to go much more convenient. People will inevitably stop coming here for that kind of content the way the site is presently configured, so if that's the admin's intention then good job. E621's bad reputation is still gunna prevail lol.

kodanis said:
Firstly, it helps prevent underage users from gaining full acess to the site, however I feel this could still be improved upon.

That's a false argument. Sure, a potential underage person won't be able to have their delicate eyes scarred by mind-shattering watersports, but they can enjoy rape, eye_penetration, prolapsing_anus, snuff, crushing, death_by_penis, vomit, stinky_feet, or other vanilla tags lile these.
On top of that, nothing will stop them from creating an account if they want to. It's not like it requires an ID or any proof of age, which defeats the purpose of a blacklist made to protect people who aren't meant to be on this website on the first place.

This also raises a serious question; Who is in charge of picking the fetishes to be banned from the commoner's sights? Where do you draw the line between an extreme fetish, and a slightly less extreme? Why isn't snuff on that list yet? How about rape? That sure is a sensitive topic.

kodanis said:
Again no system is perfect and I know there are problems, but for now why not at least give this method a chance?

Because such a system is completely pointless, and there were given zero reasons about why there is suddently a discrimination against certain tags, while it was fine so far.
Even worse, there isn't a single good reason the blacklist cannot be disabled by a guest; by doing this, the guest knows what they are doing, and should take responsibility about their decision to remove the blacklist.

There is no communication regarding the reasons of such an enforced blacklist for unregistered users, and I'm dead certain they won't even acknowledge the fact that the blacklist could absolutely be disabled by guest users if they wanted to.

For all those reasons, I suspect that there is something shady going on. Everyone knows that when a website starts to gate their content behind hoops you have to jump in, it's a good sign, right? I can see some tags and website features being locked behind a premium account with ease, they just have to normalize the fact that everyone needs an account before makung it a thing.

Yeah, going to have to say my biggest complaint is being forced to make an account to view pictures.
And seeing the 18+ pop up as well not sure how hard or easy it is to find this website by accident or not.
Still not sure why websites ask if you are over 18 or not they do know you can just click yes or just lie about your age on any website.

moonlightstarfire said:
Yeah, going to have to say my biggest complaint is being forced to make an account to view pictures.
And seeing the 18+ pop up as well not sure how hard or easy it is to find this website by accident or not.
Still not sure why websites ask if you are over 18 or not they do know you can just click yes or just lie about your age on any website.

It's more of a formality than anything, a legal thing too. It's basically a "hey you're going into a place that's very nsfw" gate. Can you lie? Yeah damn near everyone on the internet these days has at one point or another. But to be greeted immediately with porn without that warning is kinda rude. Like at least let me know if I'm going to see someone getting railed if I stumble into the website (although as you mentioned, it's difficult to "accidentally" find this place.)

Yes I agree, the blacklist not clearing up when I clear it without an account isn't intuitive and just makes the website feel broken in that way. That arguably gives me a far worse "first impression", had I not known about the site for a while now. The way I see it, a site known for hosting all sorts of "strange" content, there's bound to be something I won't like. But for a feature of the site to not work? Unacceptable in my eyes. I hope that blacklist (or lack thereof) works proper later down the road, without the need for an account.

When you explicitly search for them and still can't find anything... Yeah, Google did the Evil thing and blocked them even then, too.

A metatag like '-blacklist:*' or the like would be a nice trick.

longdongjohnny said:
My current hatred for this site is not the favorite cap. I had to open a SECOND fucking account just to continue and I was almost at 100k with this one.

There's a fucking favorite cap?!? That's news to me and super bullshit!

My biggest complaint is that i cant search throuhg favorites anymore. i used to be able to filter throgh them but now its impossible, its just a bunch of images. takes the point out o

kirill2525 said:
My biggest complaint is that i cant search throuhg favorites anymore. i used to be able to filter throgh them but now its impossible, its just a bunch of images. takes the point out o

That does seem odd. But the fav:<username> still works, so you can use that in regular search.

kirill2525 said:
My biggest complaint is that i cant search throuhg favorites anymore. i used to be able to filter throgh them but now its impossible, its just a bunch of images. takes the point out o

This is a known problem and I've already lodged it as a bug report, so that page will get it's own search bar soonish.

redflag said:
My Biggest problem is that I cant see a single picture on my ipad. I set the setting to show the lowest amount at the smallest thumbnails possible and it still doesn't work. this ipad has been able to view this site for years until now. I don't know what else to do and its my only source of this site.

Same and now I'm fucked over can't see anything on phone and changing settings didn't do shit was able to view everything for 5 years but the update and all I see is blue bullshit did they copy the ps4s os? I've seen enough blue screens to Last a lifetime

dizzy61313 said:
Same and now I'm fucked over can't see anything on phone and changing settings didn't do shit was able to view everything for 5 years but the update and all I see is blue bullshit did they copy the ps4s os? I've seen enough blue screens to Last a lifetime

Update your browser to support modern JavaScript.

notmenotyou said:
Update your browser to support modern JavaScript.

Could you please give us an information notice about the forced blacklist for guest users?
Why was it implemented?
Why can't non-logged users turn it off?
How were the tags selected, and will they be updated?
How will this "feature" evolve in the future?

So far I see that this is a major complaint for a lot of users, and it wasn't addressed even though there was multiple posts about it.
Giving us info about it, and acknowledging that users are displeased about this feature would be a nice move.

fuckforcedlogin said:
My biggest problem is my username

hello, brother

killed e621 extended and now i cant subscribe to pools

You can, just not with e6extend .

is there a tutorial on rss or something?

I just realized that this whole thing has created a form of kinkism and while I will withhold my opinion on the blacklist defaults I will say that's fucking hilarious

colson10 said:
is there a tutorial on rss or something?

Not that I know of. The search I linked has some details, but you need an RSS reader first. A lot of people seem to like feed.ly ; personally I use a desktop RSS reader, Rawdog, but I know most people won't find that to their taste.

After you have an RSS reader setup you can add feeds; the link I gave you outlines that (in various threads; multiple explanations, mostly by me..). That part is simple enough IMO. There are probably pool-specific RSS feeds, but the instructions given cover getting feeds of generic searches (in this case, something like pool:12345 being appropriate)

Explanations are slightly inaccurate (RSS atom feed urls have changed *slightly* with new e621), but the difference is pretty obvious.

savageorange said:
Not that I know of. The search I linked has some details, but you need an RSS reader first. A lot of people seem to like feed.ly ; personally I use a desktop RSS reader, Rawdog, but I know most people won't find that to their taste.

After you have an RSS reader setup you can add feeds; the link I gave you outlines that (in various threads; multiple explanations, mostly by me..). That part is simple enough IMO. There are probably pool-specific RSS feeds, but the instructions given cover getting feeds of generic searches (in this case, something like pool:12345 being appropriate)

Explanations are slightly inaccurate (RSS atom feed urls have changed *slightly* with new e621), but the difference is pretty obvious.

thanks king

I must also give my thanks to your autocorrupt, lol

longdongjohnny said:
My current hatred for this site is not the favorite cap. I had to open a SECOND fucking account just to continue and I was almost at 100k with this one.

Wouldn't be surprised if there's some amount of posts in that cap that are just deleted at this point.

honestly, the staff here seem to want to copy twitter, insta, youtube, etc.; nonsensical content censorship, horrible UI redesigns, and generally shit nobody wanted or asked for. I mean, the site "died" a long time ago when varka stopped giving a fuck and let people like ratte and notmenotyou have positions of authority (even though their combined list of offenses is greater than that of every banned user in the site's history... mostly due to the fact they can ban anyone on a whim for any reason (and they do, often) and there's literally nothing you can do about it). I mean, there's other shit staff here too. Some jannies. And Angel or whoever? The one who lets the corrupt staff do what they please. It takes a tremendous effort to make reddit mods appear as though they have a brain cell, but the staff here does it in sparkly spades. Not even Smogon staff have such a smooth brain.

Oh, and I haaaave to mention how funny this whole thing is, like it's not obvious as hell they're trying to artificially raise the number of registered users. Actually hilarious!

This site will die in time. Not literally, of course, but most users already make throwaways because making a presence on this site is no longer meaningful, and usually ends up a bad experience. Especially after the redesign. It's like playing Overwatch. You like it and want it to be better but the reality is that it's nothing but a hollow shell and you need to stop beating a dead horse hoping it'll wake up. It's sad, really. I grew up here. Watched this place turn into what's practically a normie safe space. It's a fucking furry porn site lmaooooo. Not even an archive. But staff wants to dust the place up and make it look like something it isn't. Coming from a position of authority on, man... feels like half the internet I just feel disappointed, and upset.

I would've deleted my account long before going and posting this, but the function appeared to be broken (surprise, right?).
Hopefully I can later.

fucksitechanges said:
honestly, the staff here seem to want to copy twitter, insta, youtube, etc.; nonsensical content censorship, horrible UI redesigns, and generally shit nobody wanted or asked for. I mean, the site "died" a long time ago when varka stopped giving a fuck and let people like ratte and notmenotyou have positions of authority (even though their combined list of offenses is greater than that of every banned user in the site's history... mostly due to the fact they can ban anyone on a whim for any reason (and they do, often) and there's literally nothing you can do about it). I mean, there's other shit staff here too. Some jannies. And Angel or whoever? The one who lets the corrupt staff do what they please. It takes a tremendous effort to make reddit mods appear as though they have a brain cell, but the staff here does it in sparkly spades. Not even Smogon staff have such a smooth brain.

Oh, and I haaaave to mention how funny this whole thing is, like it's not obvious as hell they're trying to artificially raise the number of registered users. Actually hilarious!

This site will die in time. Not literally, of course, but most users already make throwaways because making a presence on this site is no longer meaningful, and usually ends up a bad experience. Especially after the redesign. It's like playing Overwatch. You like it and want it to be better but the reality is that it's nothing but a hollow shell and you need to stop beating a dead horse hoping it'll wake up. It's sad, really. I grew up here. Watched this place turn into what's practically a normie safe space. It's a fucking furry porn site lmaooooo. Not even an archive. But staff wants to dust the place up and make it look like something it isn't. Coming from a position of authority on, man... feels like half the internet I just feel disappointed, and upset.

I would've deleted my account long before going and posting this, but the function appeared to be broken (surprise, right?).
Hopefully I can later.

I also grew up with this website, and a lot of kinks with it.
I have been trying my best to get information on why the forced blacklist was implemented, directly quoting Notmenotyou in no less than 6 threads he has been posting in, with constructive intentions, be it only to get informations on why the blacklist was implemented, how tags were selected, and what it will become in the future, and how it will be handled, and was gloriously ignored everytime.
Seeing that almost every thread discussing the forced blacklist, or requesting information on it is getting locked, and every discussion/question on it ignored, I can only think that the administration staff prurposefully implemented it for a reason they do not want to disclose, and hope users will just suck it up and roll with it without questioning its nature.

Now that you mentioned "artificially rising the number of registered users", I guess it can make sense. My guess was that they were purposefully slowly removing features for unregistered users (Wildcard, ability to see every post...) to later make it registered-account exclusive, and boosted the number of tags searchable to later make the same features they removed for unregistered users locked behind a "premium" account subscription. Think about it, how many people with too much money would be ready to pay a fee to browse e621 with "premium features", like the ability to use the wildcard, access to premium tags, and the ability to search more than 3 tags? My guess is that that's what they're aiming at, otherwise there would be some sense of transparency in their motives, and not this "Don't worry about it" reasoning behind this entire overhaul.

Again, now that you mentioned it, the number of registered users must have an influence on something, and it seems that recent changes were tailored in order to inflate that count. Even though I kinda fail to see the end goal behind this maneuver, I'm sure users won't gain anything from it in the end, sadly.

nukedukemii said:
I have been trying my best to get information on why the forced blacklist was implemented, directly quoting Notmenotyou in no less than 6 threads he has been posting in, with constructive intentions, be it only to get informations on why the blacklist was implemented, how tags were selected, and what it will become in the future, and how it will be handled, and was gloriously ignored everytime.

Here is the official explanation from NotMeNotYou, for your enjoyment.

bitwolfy said:
Here is the official explanation from NotMeNotYou, for your enjoyment.

Thank you. This gives me the answers I was looking for.
I am glad to see that the staff is planning to implement a way to bypass the blacklist for guests. I couldn't ask for more.

However, I would strongly advise into making the linked post its own sticky, as it would reassure a lot of users having concerns regarding the forced blacklist.
Again, communication with the userbase is the key to a smooth transition/changes.

nukedukemii said:
Thank you. This gives me the answers I was looking for.
I am glad to see that the staff is planning to implement a way to bypass the blacklist for guests. I couldn't ask for more.

However, I would strongly advise into making the linked post its own sticky, as it would reassure a lot of users having concerns regarding the forced blacklist.
Again, communication with the userbase is the key to a smooth transition/changes.

I couldn't possibly agree more.
But somehow, I feel like people would ignore it anyways. After all, people keep asking for the "old theme" to be brought back, and the reasons why that won't happen have been stickied.

I really don’t like how things got rearranged on mobile :/

bitwolfy said:
I couldn't possibly agree more.
But somehow, I feel like people would ignore it anyways. After all, people keep asking for the "old theme" to be brought back, and the reasons why that won't happen have been stickied.

Even though there are always idiots, I think we could still do more to emphasize that 'bring back the old theme' is nonsense because it's based on the false premise that this is a thematic change.

When people say 'bring back the old theme' they need to be told not 'no' but 'that is not the kind of change that has occurred in the first place.'. The credibility of the demand itself should be undermined, rather than implicitly accepting that it is a logically possible demand and stating that the admins are choosing to reject that possible course of action.