There’s a channel in the Discord that is my favorite channel. Why? Because it’s a place where we go to chat about love, lust, and a bunch of other things that was kept out of other channels (this happened before I joined the Discord).
We joke about it being where the filth goes to die, but it’s actually more wholesome than that most of the time. It’s about 90% love, identity, and struggles. It’s maaaaaaybe 10% filth, and even then, it’s rarely more than Rated R (in my opinion).
Side note: It fascinates me how in Kpop the showing of the stomach is considered something to scream and go gaga over. I think it’s because of how repressive the society is in general and how Kpop stars are supposed to be pure and innocent. See Victorian England for a similar vibe in which the showing of an ankle could be considered scandalous
I know I’m weird that I’m on the waaaaay other end of the spectrum in that I’m not shocked in the arts when actual genitalia is shown (not in and of itself. If it’s shown for shock value, I roll my eyes, but I’m not scandalized by it), let alone abs or tongue or whatnot. So take with a grain of salt what I’m saying about this channel.
Anyway, recently, Discord along with other SM services had warned that any +18 channels would have to go through a ridiculous and invasive verification process in order to continue being allowed into those channels. The channel I mentioned above had been made +18 at some point, and we were all concerned about it. We were talking about it in a more general channel, and some people wanted to keep it as is so the content creators the Discord belonged to would not get in trouble with Discord. These were people who did not even go into the channel.
Those of us who used it were arguing against keping it as it was because none of us wanted to do the verification process, but we didn’t want to give up the channel. People were focusing on the grot, and I finally said, “Here’s the thing. Grot is maybe 5% of the channel, and the rest of is it very wholesome. More to the point, it’s a place where queer people can gather and talk about things we don’t want to clog other channels with.” Some of those included talks about nonmonogamy, gender identity, friendship between different genders, and more. There were a few straights who chimed in now and again, but a big chunk of us were queer. In fact, that’s how I found out there were more queers in the Discord than I had realized.
It ended when one of the owners of the Discord inquired what was going on. He had forgotten he had made that channel 18+, and when reminded of how it happened, laughed and said it had been a joke. He took off the restriction after making us promise we’d all be good. We did; he did; and the channel continues to thrive.