It seems somewhat unethical for Grommr to use others photo content to make money the way they do. The number of restrictions that non-XL users have is pushing many users to Twitter bc the regulation and paywall on grommr is so intense. You have ads on the app for non-XL users, so what is the need to not allow users to see all of another users photos? For a web community that is for a minority community who already finds it hard to find people like them it seems cruel to charge over five dollars per month on the only site available for them. Correct me if I am wrong but it seems the developers for Grommr charge more than they need to keep the site running. I come from a CS background and if things don’t get better I’m considering making my own site because this community deserves a space that is more accessible and equitable for all.

Adding an FAQ section explaining moderation, such as the size of the team, that they're based in the us, and the main expectations grokio has for moderation would be very helpful for preventing misunderstanding between users and moderators. And it could be updated as users ask questions. For the initial FAQ, I would recommend issuing a site-wide survey posted in a pinned post by the administrator account asking users what they want to know about how the site is run, things they wish they knew when they started using the site, and any questions they might have in general. It would be much more useful than the closest thing the site has, the blog, and while the rules are useful some FAQs explaining questions users have about them and how they're enforced would make the site's moderation much more transparent. I notice grokio already has an faq but it's hard to find, and doesn't really address questions users have about the moderation of the global chat. It's also not very easy to read, the text is very small and the topic list leaves a bit to be desired

Since art theft is such a big issue on ferzu I think it would be a good idea to create a page or something with artwork people can use if they don't have their own art (yet). This to hopefully bring the numbers for stolen art down. I think a lot of the time when people use stolen art they probably don't know any better. Instead of only having rules saying you shouldn't steal art I think it would be a good idea to give them another option so they feel less inclined to steal art in the first place.

Artists on ferzu could choose to donate art to this cause (I definitely would donate) and there could be a link to the page in the rules with something along the lines of "if you do not have any art yet you can find some free to use art in this link. Don't forget to credit the artist if you do end up using the art though." and maybe the welcome bot could add this to their welcome message too. Less importantly I think this would be a great way to support artists too if this idea works, because it could help them get their art out there and attract customers.

With the latest update to the rules, the promotion of paid, community-relevant content has been codified. FOSTA/SESTA concerns have been addressed by excluding particular services.

With this in mind - I believe that people making promotional newsfeed entries (photos, posts) should be given a checkbox during the submission process that allows them to indicate the new content being submitted is paid content promotion.

Eg. "[x] Paid content promotion"

This would then include a standard icon of sorts at the beginning of their post - perhaps "Ad" or "Promo" in reversed colours and maybe a means of either including or excluding those posts in one's feed through the "My type" filter.

For people who a person is following, they've clearly expressed an interest in that person's posts, and just like "My type" filter in general, those people would still appear in "My Newsfeed", but not in the Global or Local feeds of someone who had excluded promotional posts.