Blogger's New Content Policy: No Adult Content (UPDATE)

Update 3/1/2015 --

 Thanks Anon to pointing out that Blogger decided it won't remove all adult blogs, but crack down on commercial ones. I think this is fine and so I'm sticking with Blogger for now, but I might start a Tumblr in the future.

A few hours ago I received the following email from Blogger:

Dear Blogger User,

We're writing to tell you about an upcoming change to the Blogger Content Policy that may affect your account.

In the coming weeks, we'll no longer allow blogs that contain sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video. We'll still allow nudity presented in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts, or where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content.

The new policy will go into effect on the 23rd of March 2015. After this policy goes into effect, Google will restrict access to any blog identified as being in violation of our revised policy. No content will be deleted, but only blog authors and those with whom they have expressly shared the blog will be able to see the content we've made private.

Our records indicate that your account may be affected by this policy change. Please refrain from creating new content that would violate this policy. Also, we ask that you make any necessary changes to your existing blog to comply as soon as possible, so that you won't experience any interruptions in service. You may also choose to create an archive of your content via Google Takeout (https://www.google.com/settings/takeout/custom/blogger).

For more information, please read here (https://support.google.com/blogger?p=policy_update).

Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

(c) 2015 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043

While I don't agree with the changes, fighting Google is a Sisyphean task that I won't engage in, barring a groundswell movement. To me, this is just another example of corporate busybodies uncomfortable with the realities of human sexuality (and oddly comfortable with images of graphic violence), but Blogger is their thingamajig and they can do what they want with it. If Blogger wants to abolish half of its blogs, that's their business.

That said, this blog doesn't contain sexually explicit images or video, so I very much doubt I'll be affected by this. I might want to in the future, but I wasn't planning on it in short term. This does mean that I have to think about what I'll do in the future. Hence, if the Iron Grasp of Google becomes too tight I might be squeezed into Tumblr. I like Tumblr in that it's easier to engage with people and it's more like a social network, but that I don't like for the same reason I don't like Twitter: it's all pretty superficial, and if you haven't noticed I like to write walls and walls of text. Another option is getting a website -- if my writing career takes of this will definitely be something I'll do.

Anyways, if you have any suggestions where I should go in a hypothetical move, let me know in the comments.

AIF Toolkit v1.0.1

Despite the version numbering, version 1.0.1 is a fairly significant release and includes some critical bugfixes and a few new features. Probably most critically is that Hybrid Choices is now compatible with the very newest version of Flexible Windows. You'll need to download the version of Flexible Windows here if you want to use it with Hybrid Choices.

Version 1.0.1 can be downloaded here.

Important changes:
-- New functions in ALC let you create a list of garments that cover a specific area.
-- Documentation for Penetration has been updated.
-- A critical bug in Penetration has been fixed.
-- Bug fix for Simpler AIF where if you make the player a kind of person at the beginning of the game, it doubles their organs (thanks to the author that found this).
-- Hybrid Choices is once again compatible with Flexible Windows, allowing you to create choice-windows (thanks to Hanon Ondricek for alerting me to the new version).

I know a few of you use Threaded Conversation, and I wanted to bring your attention to what I think is a very promising conversation extension called Stacked Conversation. I haven't tested it extensively, but it has some really interesting ideas and definitely deserves a little more notice. You can download it from the Intfiction thread.


I wanted to also give you the AIF Toolkit Recipe Book and a sample game, but these both still need a little more work but I can safely say that they're far enough along now that they will be coming. The game is, I admit, pretty bad, not really something to wait for with bated breath. My problem with writing sample games is that I try to get too fancy, and then I end up attempting a Picasso instead of a Bob Ross. Basically, it's bad on purpose and you shouldn't think of it as anything other than a demonstration.