We only have a very conservative (small) list of words which, when used, will result in submissions getting blocked. These words are widely considered as extremely / patently offensive in almost all use cases and contexts with little to no discretion. Therefore, there should be no confusion. We generally do not believe in using word filters or auto-moderation for the following reasons:

• Such systems are prone to a high number of false-positives (e.g. context, offensive words also having use cases where they are not offensive)
• Such systems can easily be mitigated by bad actors
• Such systems do not discourage bad behavior; they encourage bad actors to try harder to work around them
  • For example, with auto-moderation, someone could try saying something harmful and it will get blocked as if it never happened. They received no discipline for trying to say it, therefore they have no incentive not to keep trying to be a jerk. Auto-moderation targets what is being said, not the behavior of the person saying it. And that is a flawed system.

Granted, this does not mean you can say whatever you want on Midwest Nudists. We still have clearly-outlined rules of conduct. And violating the rules will result in punitive actions / warnings. Remember, freedom of speech does not apply to the internet; platforms have the right to moderate as they see fit for their interests and mission. But we also do not take moderation to the overly-censoring extreme.

We impose a requirement of at least 128 characters of text for the "description" field when adding or editing an image or video in a gallery.

This is because we want to prevent members from simply spamming the website with pictures of themselves. We want members to provide some context for their gallery entries, such as a description of what's going on in the photo, who took it, where it was taken, the story behind the photo, fun facts, etc. By providing context to an image, not only can those using assisted technologies understand what the photo is, but more value is shared with the community.

We do not enforce this as a rule in the Terms and Conditions; the website software will physically prevent anyone from submitting or editing an entry if the description does not have at least 128 characters of text.

Yes. Midwest Nudists is an Ohio-based social media website. As such, we must comply with this new 2024 law.

We believe we are in compliance due to the following regulations and systems we have put in place:

• We do not allow anyone under the age of 18 to use their own account on Midwest Nudists; accounts created for whom the member's date of birth indicates they are under 18 are automatically and immediately frozen upon registration until they turn 18 (they cannot log in until they turn 18).
• While we do allow anyone 13 and over to utilize the site through the guidance of a parent or legal guardian, the account being used must have been created by, and under the name of, the parent or legal guardian. The parent or legal guardian assumes full responsibility. And the parent or legal guardian must be performing all site actions on behalf of the child (they are not allowed to allow the child direct access to their account per the Terms and Conditions).
• Everyone who registers an account with us must agree to the Terms and Conditions. As such, if a child registers an account with us pretending to be an adult, they are in direct violation of the Terms and Conditions and will be immediately and permanently banned (and the account with all its content deleted) once we are made aware they are not an adult.
• Registered accounts must be manually reviewed and approved by staff before the member can log in for the first time. We have an antispam question on registration as well. Children, especially younger children, if they create an account pretending to be an adult, are far less likely to answer this question with decent insight, and are therefore more likely to have their account rejected.

You can read more about the law here: https://governor.ohio.gov/administration/lt-governor/071123

Not at all!

We accept people, places, and events from anywhere in the world. The "Midwest" in Midwest Nudists means three things:

• We pay particular, but not exclusive, attention to places and events in the Midwest United States.
• We pay particular, but not exclusive, attention to the nudist lifestyle of those from the Midwest (For example, those from the Midwest encounter lots of mountains and trails, thus hiking is a particularly common nudist activity for those in the Midwest. And because the Midwest is not along any coasts, beaches are not as common of an activity / venue for Midwest nudists as it may be for nudists in other regions.)
• Several of the original staff / founders of Midwest Nudists originated from the Midwest.

Introduction 

You can use your points balance as a virtual currency with other members for goods or services. Our "escrow" system allows for a trusted system to exchange these points. When a member "escrows" points to another member, those points get held by a third party (in this case, Midwest Nudists) until both members indicate the stated agreement terms have been met. Once both members mark the agreement has been satisfied, the points will be released and sent to the escrowed member. If the agreement has not been met, one of the members can "dispute" the escrow, resulting in the escrow being raised to the Midwest Nudists staff for intervention.

Creating an Escrow 

Let's say, for example, you want to exchange points with another member in exchange for a piece of art they will make for you. Here is what you would do:

• Go to the member's profile and the "points" tab.
• Under "Escrow transactions", click "Send via Escrow"
• You will be asked to provide how many points you are escrowing (e.g. how many points it will cost for the piece of art), a short description, the full agreement terms (in our example, you would detail that in exchange for your points you are requesting a piece of art with [insert requirements here] requirements. For example, maybe you want a black and white 1600x900 line art of a large oak tree in a park. You would put that in the terms.)
• Optionally, you can provide an expiry date. If neither member marked the escrow as satisfied (or disputed) by the expiry date, then the escrow will be canceled, and the points refunded back to the escrowing member. If only one member marked the agreement as satisfied by the expiry date, then the escrow will automatically enter dispute status and be raised with the staff of Midwest Nudists.

After Creating the Escrow

When you create the escrow, your points are deducted from your balance and held by Midwest Nudists. An escrow transaction is created between you and the other member... and the other member is notified of it. Both of you can view the escrow at any time through the link provided, and take action.

When you deem that the other member has satisfied their portion of the agreement, you will mark the escrow as satisfied. Once both you and the other member mark it as satisfied, then the other member will receive your points, and the escrow will be closed.

Disputing an Escrow 

If the other member is not cooperating with their portion of the agreement, or you wish to refund the escrow or have the agreements changed, you can dispute it from the escrow screen. You will be prompted to explain your dispute so staff can get a better picture of what happened.

When either member disputes the escrow, it enters "dispute" state, meaning no more actions can be taken on the escrow until the staff review the dispute and resolve it. Resolution can come in the form of one of three actions:

• The agreement terms are modified, and the escrow exits dispute state / goes back to open.
• The escrow is canceled, and a full refund is given to the escrowing member.
• The escrow is marked satisfied, and either all or a part of the points are given to the escrowed member. If only a part of the points are given, then the rest will be refunded back to the escrowing member.

Introduction

Points are the rewards system / virtual currency of Midwest Nudists. You earn points through various contributions on the website and in the community. Those points can then be used for various things as a virtual currency. We will explain all of this here.

Points Balance, Life-time Points, and Gift Points

Here is an explanation of the differences between each of these three terms used on your points profile:

• Points balance: The number of points you have that you can spend or send as you please
• Life-time points: The total number of points you ever earned or received; this is not necessarily the number of points you have available to use. Your usergroup rank uses life-time points.
• Gift points: Once you reach certain ranks, you will be awarded gift points. These are points you cannot spend (nor do they count towards your life-time points), but you can send them to other members. When you send points to other members, if you have gift points, then the points will first be deducted from your gift points before touching your points balance (they become spendable / regular points for the other member). That way, you can send points to other members without it affecting the points you have to spend for yourself.

Earning Points

The following is a list of ways you can earn points automatically:

 You can also earn points through various other means:

• Sometimes points may be awarded for submitting approved entries on catalogues (such as the venues / clubs directory)
• Members or staff may send you points through your profile or by clicking the "Thank" button on one of your posts
• You will be awarded points if your content gets featured by staff
• Staff may award you points for various other reasons at their discretion

Using Points

You can use the points you have in your balance in a number of ways:

• You can purchase something from the store, such as banner advertising, a virtual gift to send to another member, etc. More items will be added over time. Your points act as a discount towards these items at a rate of $1 for every 250 points.
• You can send points to other members (via their profile points tab or the "Thank" button on one of their posts) as a thank-you for something good they did or for quality content they provided. If you have gift points, then those will be used first (and become spendable points for them) before touching your points balance when sending points to members.
• You can escrow points with other members as a transaction for goods or services from them
• More uses may be added in time

You might have noticed "Voting power" on your profile's points tab.

Some polls in the forum are weighted, meaning that when members vote on the poll, the amount of influence they have on the poll results depends on their voting power relative to the voting powers of all the other members who voted. In short, the more voting power you have, the more you influence the poll results with your vote.

Voting power is based on the number of points you have. This means that as you contribute content and engage with the community, you earn points, which therefore increase your voting power.

Voting power is exponential, meaning as your points increase, your voting power will increase at a slower and slower pace. This is to ensure anyone with a huge amount of points do not completely overshadow the votes of those with much less points. The maximum possible voting power is 10, which is achieved at about 94,000 points.

Often, polls specific to making decisions for the website will be weighted based on voting power. This means those who contributed and engaged more with the community will have a bigger say in the decisions for the website.

Note: in the future, voting power will be based on life-time points rather than your points balance. That way, spending points will not have a negative impact on your voting power.

When to Appeal 

You can appeal a warning or ban issued against you. The following are acceptable times (reasons) to file an appeal:

• You did not violate the rule(s) listed on the warning, or the staff did not tell you what rules you violated or what you did that constituted a violation of those rules
• The staff tried to dog-pile violations
  • E.g. a staff member issued multiple warnings to you for the same incident (even if you violated multiple rules, only one warning is permitted to be issued per incident; all violations are considered collectively in the warning)
  • E.g. you posted one slur in a forum topic, and the staff tried to cite that slur both for spam and for discrimination
  • Note, however, if you say multiple things that independently violate the rules (e.g. saying multiple slurs in a post), or a piece of content otherwise carries multiple separate things in it that violate the rules, then staff can cite those and increase the severity of discipline.
• The punitive actions taken for your violation do not justify your violation and past history
  • Example: Irrelevant actions
    • E.g. silencing you from forum A when your violation took place in forum B
    • E.g. reporting you to spam blacklists when your violation was harassing another member
    • E.g. deleting content A when your violation regarded content B
    • E.g. reversing the points or karma you earned from posting something which had nothing to do with the violation
  • Example: Discipline was too harsh
    • E.g. the staff banned you for posting a single thing in the wrong forum (unless your account standing was in 'danger')
    • E.g. the staff put you in probation for an unnecessarily long time
    • E.g. the staff charged you 1,000 points / assessed 250 bad karma for a single piece of minor spam content
  • Example: Lack of justification / evidence (staff must justify each punitive action they take and must provide evidence of your violation)
    • E.g. the staff issued probation but did not indicate why they put you in probation
    • E.g. the staff found you in violation but did not link to, or attach a screenshot, of the violating content
• For automatic bans, you can appeal if the ban was a false-positive

When NOT to Appeal 

Do not file an appeal under any of the following circumstances:

• Apologies
  • We appreciate that you realize what you did wrong. However, the damage has already been done. And the warning / punitive action must remain on your account for accountability and damage control. Therefore, we will not appeal discipline because you are sorry.
• Bribes or blackmails
  • This is an easy way to get you banned or at the very least, earn another warning with severe discipline. We do not tolerate attempts at bribes or blackmails in exchange for appeals.
• When you are in an emotional state
  • It is not wise to write an appeal when you are still emotional or feeling angry about it. You may end up sounding disrespectful in your appeal which will ultimately result in a denied appeal or possibly even further actions taken. We recommend waiting at least 24 hours (but no more than 72) before submitting an appeal. That way, your emotions can calm down and you can reason better.
• When it has been 72 or more hours since the warning was issued
  • Warnings become final 72 hours after they have been issued
• You already filed an appeal for the same warning
  • You may only attempt an appeal once per warning. Once an appeal decision is made, the warning becomes final.

How to Appeal 

To appeal your warning, do one of the following (we listed each in order of preference from highest to lowest; we prefer you try the top items and only use the lower ones if the top ones are unavailable to you):

• Reply to the Private Topic associated with your warning
  • The staff member is required to invite a higher-up to handle the appeal
  • This option will not be available to you if you are on probation or if you are banned
• E-mail [email protected]
  • You must e-mail from the address that is associated with your account

In your appeal request, you must include the following:

• If the staff did not explain the rules you violated or what you did that constituted a violation of the indicated rules, point that out.
• If the staff member dog-piled violations on you for the same thing, point that out.
• If you believe you did not violate the rule(s) listed, explain why. You should also request to see any evidence the staff used to make their decision to warn you. And when you receive that evidence, explain your rebuttals against it. If the staff cannot provide the evidence on request, then they did not meet the "clear and convincing evidence" threshold and are required to default to accepting your appeal and fully reversing the warning and all discipline.
• If you believe you are in violation, but the punitive actions are too strict or not relevant, explain why they are too strict / not relevant and do not provide a constructive resolution. Propose an alternative set of punitive actions that you believe are more in-line with your violation, and explain why.
• If you are appealing an automatic action taken by spam / hack detection that is a false positive, then explain concisely and in detail what you were doing leading up to the website having taken that action against you. Do not leave any relevant details out. By doing this, the staff can gain a better understanding of why the site did what it did and can then determine if it should have done that or not.

Appeal Decisions Are Final

Once the staff return to your appeal request with a decision, the decision is final. You cannot make any more appeal requests for that warning / violation. It is therefore important to make your appeal count. You will often have no opportunity to amend or resend your appeal before a decision is made.

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