Forum

These rules represent the general rules in the forum and should be assumed as the default rules. Some boards however have their own rules, such as "Off-Topic" having more lenient rules, and "Personal Journals" having only one thread per member. If you want to know the rules of a particular board, there will be a sticky thread on that board that explains the rules. Please read the sticky thread of each board to familiarize yourself with each board's rules, if applicable. Please note that when we talk about "illegal activities" or "minors", we typically act on and refer to USA laws, as that is where the forum's owners are based. The Adult Area boards run under different rules. To find out rules for the adult board you need to first join the Adult Area. Discord chat follows the same rules for general behavior and posting content. Please click each rule for further information.

Account / Profile
Only one account per member is allowed. Multiple accounts will be deleted and subjected to a ban. If a single Internet connection is used to make multiple accounts (friends, family, etc) please contact a staff member so it can be recorded. PLEASE let us know if a friend/family member/etc. is sharing an internet connection with you. If you don’t, it’s VERY possible either one of you may be banned, even without warning. If that does happen, the person who is still allowed on the forums must contact an administrator to sort out the issue of allowing the other person to return. Please keep your display name to a maximum of 20 characters. We also prefer that you don’t use all caps or foreign characters in your name, but it won’t be an actual offense if you do. You may receive a request from a staff member to edit your name if need be. Display names, profile information, signatures, or avatars cannot contain mature content or links to mature content. Any material violating this rule will be removed by a staff member and may be grounds for severe warnings or banishment. Signatures cannot be more than an overall 300 pixels in height – text, images, etc. included. The entirety of your signature cannot be taller than 300 pixels. Images in signatures are automatically downsized to 500px wide by 150px tall if they are larger than those dimensions. If you use multiple clickable pets in your signature, they must be placed side by side in your signature, NOT listed one on top of the other. If using art that does not belong to you in your signature or avatar, it is strongly encouraged that you ask the artist's permission to do so, or at least provide a link to the artist to give credit. If you claim art is yours that is not, or if the artist has contacted us about disallowed use of the image, it will be removed. This means if you take your profile picture from a website, we'd still like you to credit the artist who made it. You can usually find the artist pretty easily using Google's reverse image search. Please do not have obnoxious or disorienting profiles, signatures, avatars or posts. This means using the ultimate profile editor to make annoying or excessively flashing profiles as this could be a danger to some of our members.
Starting New Topics
Please check if a topic does not already exist. Making duplicate topics is not allowed. Threads with similar topics will either be locked or merged together. However, if a thread is locked due to inactivity you may recreate that thread. Please make sure to post your topic in the most appropriate forum for the subject matter. Any threads posted in the wrong place will be moved to the appropriate section by a staff member. If you’d like to request that a thread be moved somewhere else, you’re free to ask a staff member to move it for you. Please use descriptive subjects in all topics and posts, and do not make titles in all capital letters. Try to make thread titles relevant to the content being discussed.
Posts and Replies
Please do not post spam. Spam can include but is not limited to: bragging, advertising, excessive use of one-word posts, and threads that have no purpose or substance to them. Threads without purpose/substance, however, ARE allowed inside the Off-Topic board. Do not abuse forum features. This includes having excessive quote chains (quotes that are longer than 4 quotes large). Rarely some exceptions may be made for excessively large quote chains. Posts must be a minimum of two words. Do not add word padding/spam to your post just to get around the automatic two-word restriction. The forum has a built-in word counter to make sure posts contain at least two words. Normally, your post should be fine as long as the automatic restriction accepts your post. However, adding meaningless things like (word word) or *word word* or (spam spam) or (two words) to the end of your post just to trick the filter is not acceptable and will be counted as a warning. Tapatalk autogenerated texts will also count as word padding. Refrain from using excessive public displays of affection. Showing affection for someone is fine, just don't go overboard with it. The entire forum doesn't necessarily need to see your affection everywhere so keep the romance in private if possible. Do not ask for a mate publicly, and do not sell yourself or ask for cyber on the forums. This includes asking for roleplays revolving around a romantic relationship. Romance in a roleplay is ok as long as that RP isn't totally centered around romance. TFF is not a dating service and such propositions should be made in private. Religious and political topics are allowed as long as they remain clean. Public bashing will not be tolerated. Anything regarding these controversial topics will be monitored closely and will be locked if a staff member feels the topic is getting too heated. Please do not steer threads off-topic. Make a new thread. Any thread that gets too off-topic will be locked, or split into a separate thread if the off-topic discussion has enough substance. Any material of a sexually explicit nature is not allowed. This includes... Sexually suggestive content (includes art, photos, and posts). This includes blatant sexual references, innuendos or invitations. Any material found to be sexual, including fetish material, will be removed and subject to warnings. Talking about sex in a purely non-sexual way (e.g. being factual or educational but not suggestive) is usually ok. If you are unsure whether a topic is too sexual, please message a moderator before you make the thread or post. Blatantly adult art, RP, or written text. Any image or depiction of explicit nudity is not allowed. Very suggestive content is not allowed. Anthropomorphic characters ARE allowed to be unclothed as long as they are covered by fur/scales/feathers/etc. Otherwise, any clothing on any characters should cover about the same amount of area on the body as a bikini/swimsuit would. Sexual anatomy should never be visible. In addition to images, discussions on the public forum about having sex, turn-ons, etc. are not appropriate and will be removed. Any material found to be inappropriate for minors or offensive is not acceptable. This includes... Alcohol abuse and/or drug references. Alcohol consumption and smoking of tobacco products may be referenced, but abuse of the products is not tolerated. Users not of age to partake in alcohol or cigarettes should avoid the content altogether - RP or otherwise. Roleplays may have scenarios with such items involved, but should not be the main point of any scene. Posting about illicit recreational drugs is not allowed and any mention of partaking in the drugs especially by minors will be removed with significant warnings given. Excessive blood/gore. Some depictions of blood may be okay - cuts, scrapes, drips, splashes, etc., but very detailed, realistic, or extreme depictions may be disallowed. Discussing minor illegal activities (e.g. downloading music/games for free illegally). This includes linking to illegal torrenting sites or giving tips on how to illegally torrent, talking about anything illegal even in a debate context will be removed. Anything that is considered illegal will be removed based on US federal law or majority state law. Even if something is not illegal in your country the content may still be removed if it is illegal in the US. Discussing major illegal activities (e.g. setting fire to a building in real life, planning to hurt someone in real life, etc.). Any serious posts about wanting to harm someone or cause serious damage will be given swift action and the poster will be given severe warnings, possibly resulting in banishment if the content is severe enough.
General
Treat each forum member with respect. Do not personally attack other users. If there is an issue that cannot be resolved with other forum members, please contact an administrator and we will deal with the issue. Please keep profanity to a minimum, and do not use it to curse at or insult other forum members. The forum as a whole is auto-censored by default, but you can turn off the auto-censor by going to Profile > Look and Layout > check "Leave words uncensored." Excessive use of foul language may be removed. Please do not write entire posts, threads, or extended conversations in a language other than English. The majority of a post should be in English, and writing English translations alongside other languages is recommended. Foreign phrases or a few sentences here or there are allowed, but please do not hold extended conversations in another language. If you abuse this to write things against forum rules, the consequences will be high. Please avoid using chatspeak when posting. Grammar and spelling do not have to be perfect (we all have typos or errors here and there), but some effort should be shown, and posts need to be legible. Anything which can be construed as drama will be removed or edited, this includes posts, display names, signatures and more. We fully understand the fact that every member here may have off days and feel down but we wish you to keep such feelings in Personal Messages please. When it starts to spill over into the forums it just causes issues. If you feel the need to vent about something, please use the Rants and Advice board. Do not post private or personal information about another person without their consent. Private information can include, but is not limited to, full names, street addresses, email addresses, ip addresses and any other personal information.
Concerning Moderators
Please do not backseat moderate and contact a moderator if you see someone breaking the rules or have a question. Backseat moderating may include: Telling others to follow forum rules and acting in any other way to indicate authority you do not have. Report rule violating posts instead. There is a “Report to Moderator” button on every forum post that will email all the moderators should you find anything inappropriate on the forums before we do. You can also PM any of the staff at any time. Be respectful of staff members. If you ever feel a moderator responds to anything incorrectly or inappropriately, please ask for a second opinion from another moderator or administrator. This means... Do not ignore the request of a moderator. Doing so will result in much more severe warnings. If you disagree with a request by a moderator, send the moderator (or a different moderator) a message to discuss the issue and see if there can be some mediation. Do not publicly complain about any warnings received. If you feel a warning is unfair, please notify other staff. This includes sarcastic posts and posts along the lines of "I was warned, so lame", as well as posts made in the shout box. We understand being warned can be upsetting but realize that posting about it in the public board will generally make things worse. If you have concerns about being warned, please notify a staff member about it, and we will be happy to do what we can to clarify the situation or reasoning for you. Do not threaten, harass, or flame a moderator. Threatening a mod will not help your case. If you have a concern about a moderator, please message that moderator or another moderator in a calm and collected manner. We're not trying to be mean by giving any warnings, we're just trying to enforce the forum rules. We promise to always do our best addressing your concerns, and we hope you find that our actions help keep the forum as a whole functioning in a calm, friendly, and efficient manner. When reporting to a moderator, only contact one at a time, and let any subsequent mods know who you contacted before them. Just as it says, it helps us keep track of what’s going on so we can do a better job of fixing problems that arise. If you are under a Moderated, Muted, or Banned status, you must obey and respect the rules of that status. Do not try to evade or get around them. Getting other people to post for you or evading your status in any other way when your posts are restricted is not allowed. Doing so will count as a warning and will likely raise your status another level. If you need to say something on the forum, take care of the matter via PMs or ask an administrator if an exception can be made.
Discord-Specific Rules
Overall, forum rules apply to Discord as well. However, we are a little more relaxed there. Don't be a jerk, don't be offensive, don't post adult content, and listen to the staff. We mostly just ask that you show some common decency and know how to behave yourself. Post content in the correct channels. Please try to post content in the appropriate channels. While we understand misplaced content happens unintentionally sometimes, we have specific channels set up for a reason. Each one has a description of what belongs there. Please make use of them. Do not spam the chat. This includes picture spam, text spam, and emoji spam. If a staff member tells you 'that's enough', listen to them. Please avoid posting random memes in General. Pictures posted in General should be relevant to the conversation. We've had this cause issues in the past, so we like to keep image spam to a minimum in the General channel specifically. The Random channel is still good for posting memes. First offense is normally a verbal warning. After that, depending on the severity of the issue, you may be muted, kicked, or banned from the chat. Staff reserves the right to kick or ban users for any reason (though we would rather not have to do so). More often than not, breaking the rules will land you in the Penalty Box on Discord for a period of time, which will keep you on the server but mute your ability to text or voice chat. A kick will remove you from the server temporarily. A ban will prevent you from joining the server permanently. Breaking the rules on Discord can also carry over consequences to your forum account. You may find that you've received a warning on the forum for something that happened on Discord. Likewise, if you've been post restricted on the forum, you may be restricted in Discord as well. We expect you to follow the rules both on the forum and on the chat, and your behavior on either one can very easily affect both. Please do not abuse any chat features. Excessive or inappropriate abuse of any chat feature, including emojis or the @ feature is discouraged. If it's a problem, we'll let you know. If a problem arises on Discord, please let us know via Discord DM, using @ to reach a staff member, posting in the Chat With Staff channel, or PM us on the forum. If you post in the staff chat, at least one of us is usually around to help you. If you see particular staff member(s) are online, you can also DM them or @ them in the chat. Please only use ONE method to contact us. If we're around, we'll get your message one way or another. If not, we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Multiple Discord accounts cannot be used together on our server. Using multiple accounts may result in a ban on the server.