the reason a lot of rpers stopped using imgur is because there was a good few months' span back in 2015 where imgur actively blocked jcink's entire domain, prompting the first major exodus off of it and scattering off of it. while they did obviously undo that, it actually wasn't because they became more lenient about hotlinking, it was because john actively went in and raised heck with them until they undid it (as he states in the post i linked, actually). but if i remember correctly, their tos still doesn't actually allow hotlinking, so technically, no rpers should be using them at all for image hosting.

honestly, i'm kind of hoping this ends up prompting john to actually release the space upgrade purchases that are currently pending - it'd be nice to just be able to upload all my site graphics to the acp itself, so i never have to worry about them going down unless the entirety of jcink goes down (at which point, i have bigger things to worry about than just my images, lol)

in other words, sure, you can slap a "semi-private" label on a site and keep doing your thing. but if the resulting site experience would be basically the same as if it were a fully private one and/or if you're basically running the site as though it were a fully public one, is the site really functioning as a middle ground between the two? to me, that answer is no, and i really wish we as a community could change that, since i think it would be a huge qol change for the community.

personally, i wish there was something that actually existed between public and private that was actually given enough support from the wider animanga rpc to be a feasible accepted middle ground.

to put it another way - i'm sure there's a decent number of people who aren't willing to rp with everyone and anyone that may come across their site but at the same time they aren't necessarily opposed to new people if they actually vibe well.

there's also the stark reality that it's a whole heck of a lot easier to go private if you have a larger friend group than a smaller one for a couple reasons. the one you'll almost definitely immediately feel is that if you want to do a plot that no one else on the site is interested in, you're basically never gonna see that plot get played since, y'know, pitching want ads to strangers is already a near-impossible task in a best case scenario, never mind when you're trying to pitch one for a private site on resource sites that aren't really open to the concept in the first place. but there's also the more long-term aspect of it where you're only going to see the community shrink, not grow, as people naturally drop off for various reasons + you've blocked out most recruitment opportunities to replace them.

it honestly really sucks because like. i'd love to be able to finally let my soul rest + recover from various areas of burnout. but i know i'd chafe to go private for all the plots i wouldn't be able to play solely because my friend group is limited + we don't always share brainrots + i hate the mood drop that comes from giving up on a hyperfixation plot to not give it the best chance it has of being fed