I don't like child characters unless the site has a timeline feature tbh. If everyone ages, I like kids b/c I like seeing the progression, but if everyone exists in a nebulous "no time moving" sort of deal, I don't want kid characters. To me, the entire point of RP'ing a young character is watching them go from babby to adult.

Like I wanna be clear that I've had RP characters going for 10 years now in certain settings so I'm kinda super in for the long haul. That 14 year old I'm bringing in? The end goal is to see what sort of person they're gonna be at 24.

Also in WoW, sometimes playing with timelines and when a character was born makes some really fun implications for characters (shout out to my 30 year old orc born in Lordaeron-- she was 18 when I started playing her, and I had to make her young during MoP to make her "indoctrination" into the kor'kron feel easier to feel sorry for).

people are allowed to be uncomfortable w/ writing/seeing children being rped, but i don’t rlly think there’s usually anything that deep abt it tbh. most people self-regulate themselves. and i’ve often observed on sites that certain people quite literally never interact / rp with each other in the first place. if the mere idea that it exists on the site or you might see references to the minor in discord chats makes you (general) uncomfortable so you decide not to join, that’s totally understandable! but i don’t think a ban is always necessary, even if site content skews more mature leaning. that doesn’t mean the minor character has to interact with every mature subject / or can’t interact with some of it, and it doesn’t mean they will completely stand out if they don’t interact with all of it.

if there is a genuine problem and harm being done for any reason - that should be addressed by staff. people are at different stages in their life even if they’re the same age, and as long as that holds true, some people will always be more vulnerable irregardless of rper age rules (which i assume exist more so because people perceive similar age group peers as more understandable to them not because of concerns of potential abuse between players)

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back to the original topic of rp ratings; this is in fact the point of having rules and guidelines no? the rp rating is as simple and not entirely comprehensive as it is because it’s supposed to give you a very quick glance and understanding, but it will never be able to substitute in for actual guidelines that clarify what is and isn’t permissible. even within rp ratings, it has always had ambiguous meaning and been up to sites to clarify what each rating means. from that stand point, rp ratings are often a solely surface-level advertising gimmick catered toward the widest interest, but it does serve a use, i think, in terms of concisely summing up the general tone of a site’s allowances

i definitely sympathise with “site was advertised as no hold bars had actual bars, isn’t this false advertising”. i've had conversations in the past about how admins don’t always thoroughly consider what they’re actually okay with being on their site, or how that doesn’t always align with community expectations / maybe because it wasn’t made clear enough or whatever else reason. worse, when the community makes blanket judgement statements about “none of the icky stuff” and don’t clarify what exactly that is? beyond unhelpful to me as someone who has generally permissible feelings towards most things so i guess i’m self-censoring everything now wheee

i do think a very useful admin rp resource would be like… template rules i guess? or a comprehensive / thorough guide on what things admins should consider when they're writing their rules to ensure everyone is on the same page about what kind of site they’re on.

besides that obvi some people will still make complaints, and the admin will either need to reaffirm their own site rules & make it clear to the person about xyz or re-evaluate the rules based on the community vibes. sites do change, and it does really fucking suck when a site that originally said it was totally fine to rp xyz come sink several hours of interest and investment into us reneges on that, which is why i think admins really should consider their values for their sites thoroughly and stand firm with them - but ultimately admins will do whatever they feel is best for the site

anyway tho i do think most people are pretty reasonable / understanding that not every site will suit them. sometimes it just takes some communication to clarify that this maybe isn’t a site that they’ll vibe or be comfortable on