Rejection Sensitivity is not a stranger to many or even most of us, and with a lot that has been going on with this site recently, including the user who was sitebanned shortly after a highly visible post about exactly this issue. Really really not a good look, and we want you all to know that we're aware of that. (just as a side note, that ban was made by the sitemods/admins not by us ND mods and I don't know much about it yet, but rest assured we're gonna check into it)

we absolutely understand the fear and apprehension many of you might be feeling. I personally have felt it too, and since that post a few days ago it's been constantly on my mind.

We want this community to be a place where ND comrades can come together to share in what brings them joy, support each other, and feel comfortable expressing themselves, and right now it's clear that we're not there yet.

So we are taking action to improve the atmosphere and culture to ensure that ND comrades don't need to fear being ousted from one mistake, bad take, or 'off' social interaction. We will do everything we can to keep that from happening in our community, and in pursuit of that here's a few important announcements/ ideas that we'd really like feedback on:

Important community stuff!!

First and most important: we want everyone here to feel safe and comfortable to post and participate in this community. I know there's been a bit of fear lately that even just one simple misunderstanding or 'off' social interaction will get you banned and slandered. We just wanted to make it crystal clear that Fakename and I will not let that be the case in this community. I understand very well how it feels for a social engagement to be going great and then suddenly its gone sour and it's your fault and you don't even know why everyone's upset, and then without being given a chance to even learn what the problem was or grow, are cast out. That won't fly here. You won't be cast aside for one or even multiple mistakes so long as it's clear you're doing your best to improve. Obviously, this isn't a blank check for people to be abusive or hateful and get away scot-free, this policy can extend only as far as good faith. If you have any concerns or questions feel free to ask in the comments or dm me!

Second, we've been getting suggestions that we should find ways to help users be able to spotlight their interests, as we've done here with this megathread, one other idea I had is to explicitly state that if you make a post about your interest and you want it spotlit, just @QuillQuote or @Fakename_Bill in a comment in the thread and we'll pin it!

My thought is that, if any of y'all are like me and could accidentally write an essay when I got going about what I'm passionate about, we could have a permanent rotating pinned thread that's essentially a 'daily' interest megathread, and it stays up until someone posts a new one (or 12 hours, or whatever feels right)

Lastly, I want to hear what you all would think of a more robust tagging system of posts, such as how [effort post] is commonly used, but maybe for stuff like [support] when you need to vent and want support, [venting] for when you need to vent but don't want anyone to engage with it, stuff like that. I think this would be helpful for a number of reasons, but mainly because it will normalize being able to directly ask for what you need. It's easy to imagine someone making a post to vent or complain about something but is not wanting or comfortable with people giving advice or pitching solutions. Another thing I think this would help is it would help remove some ambiguity and also set a tone, which I personally find very helpful. Importantly, I want to clarify I'm specifically not saying tag every post, if it's not properly tagged the post is getting removed. You don't have to tag your post that's a bit or a meme or a random thought you wanted to post, but simply to encourage people to use this system when they feel it's appropriate for them.

I think it's okay for someone to explicitly asked to be upvoted, or for support, or to feel comfortable saying "I stayed up all night making this" because you stayed up all night making something that, while it isn't anything special in the scheme of things, is something that you are proud of, and if you all agree I think we should work together to make that a reality in this community!