We strive to keep DG a place where a somewhat protective mother or father would feel comfortable letting their 14+ year old son or daughter come and roleplay. There are plenty of ways to show imagination and creativity without resorting to a dating service or a slicked down body competition, etc. Further, even if somebody had made a site like that, they could have made it a lot more PG than it was done. Further, that website had ads displayed to questionable real-world "hook up" dating sites.
I just don't know what the creator was thinking.
Anyways, once again, I applaud the roleplaying work in general, but if you have that much imagination, surely you can focus your energies on something much more appropriate. Besides being against the rules, the website, contest, etc have garnered numerous complaints from adventurers of all sexes and ages. As such, here are my instructions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1) All links/references to the website/contest/concept (hereafter to just be called the website so I don't have to abuse my / button) are to be removed from anywhere on the DG website.
2) All links/references to the website are to be removed from all guild websites, as well as any other website linked to from our own Links page.
3) The website itself is to either be completely taken down or edited to delete ALL references to Dark Grimoire, Valorn, anything in the game or on our own website. This includes links, references to characters, forum names that are the same as character names in DG. (Which is why I suggest just taking it down.) If the site is left up with obvious or even non-obvious attempts to work around this (changing names slightly, or doing *wink wink, nudge nudge* type things), it will be considered to have been kept up.
4) I realize this is, unfortunately, creating some kind of obnoxious "forbidden fruit" type thing where people may try to go underground with their Valorn hookups or the contest. Please try to see the spirit of WHY this is inappropriate for this game of all ages and resist the urge. Any people who try to keep this inappropriate thing up via a new website, or over messaging of any type, will be banned.
Losing a few players, a dozen players, whatever is something nobody likes... but we do think that it is worth it if it keeps the game safe for people of all ages to enjoy positive and fulfilling roleplaying. Enough people complained that I know that even if this goes completely to instant messenger communication outside of DG, I will STILL hear about it and be able to deal with the people responsible based on info from informants. I'm happy to have helped create a world where even the most likeable people have people who nevertheless do not like them, and would be happy to report said likeable person should they slip up.
So just don't. First, because it is the right thing to do. But if that isn't good enough, do it because if you don't I will catch you and kick you out.
----------
Sorry about all the seriousness, but I have a very young sister myself, so being the overprotective big-bro I am I know what a lot of parents feel like. The internet is a dangerous place... I'd really like DG to be a place where parents can feel safe letting their teens roleplay with other teens and adults without fear that they will be sucked in to something inappropriate. I hope I can count on all of you to help us accomplish this.
And please try to stop and think about your ideas before putting them into effect next time... this one REALLY should have been obvious, and I'm a little worried that people apparently though it was A-OK.
