Toyhouse
| Website | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Toyhouse or Toyhou.se |
| Owner/Maintainer: | Cyan Crows, a software studio |
| Dates: | October 6, 2014 - Present |
| Type: | Character Organization |
| Fandom: | Multi-fandom, Furry, original species, and original characters |
| URL: | https://toyhou.se/ |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Toyhouse (styled as Toyhou.se and abbreviated TH) is a website currently in beta that allows users to create character profiles, worlds, and post on the website forums.
As of April 2022, those who wish to join must either be given a free code or must buy a membership, similar to Pillowfort or the early days of Dreamwidth. Two free join codes are generated for paid members every week.
History
Toyhouse was made by the small development company Cyan Crows, which is owned by two users: countercanon/corowne (Cy) and masolulu (Lulu). Masolulu appeared to be involved with an original species called Stygian, as well as its Art Roleplay Game, though their DeviantART gallery is empty as of May 2022. Corowne is also involved with original species, namely Elnins, though they appear much more active.
It's likely that one of the inspirations for Toyhouse was due to both creators being invested in ARPGs and their original species, as both ARPGs and original species tend to create a large pool of designs.
Features
Toyhouse's main feature is its ability to allow users to create nearly unlimited character profiles and organize them with folders. Each profile and character profile is completely editable down to the code, making it appealing to many people.[citation needed]
Users have the option of applying user-made codes, creating their own codes, or using none at all. Toyhouse differs from DeviantART, ArtStation, and Furaffinity in this way.
Users can make "worlds," which function as mini-forums and somewhat mimic the group feature from DeviantART. These worlds often serve as roleplay hubs.
Forum
Because the website as a whole has a focus on character creation and the selling/trading of those characters, there are several forum categories dedicated to those topics. The forum also has a "Service Reviews" topic, which is often used for PSAs. The forums have been criticized for an extreme lack of moderation. See Controversy and Discussion.
Filters
Toyhouse users have the ability to filter out content such as nudity, gore, and graphic sexual imagery. Users can also set themselves up with either a soft or hard maturity block, which block out different levels of content from being viewable by minors. The forums also have their own mature block which marks their posts as adult only. Those posts can then only been seen by other adults.
Dekuogs
Dekudogs, a type of character based on canon characters, are a topic of controversy in the Toyhouse community and frequently scrutinized on off-site drama Tumblr blogs such as thdramas.[1][2]
Toyhouse and Fandom
Toyhouse allows the creation of character profiles for original characters and fan characters. It appears to be mostly popular with the furry fandom as it includes a large amount of furry characters, as well as the adoptable and original species communities.
There are roleplay communities based out of worlds within the website; some contain a more general theme (such as life at a university) while others have more plot based roleplay, or are even for a fandom (such as Warrior Cats).
Community members advertise for roleplay (both seeking RP and advertising their RP worlds) on the "Worlds" category of the forum. Occasionally this includes community members seeking NSFW roleplay.
Controversy and Discussion
The main admin of the site, Masolulu, has been criticized for a lack of moderation in both the forums and the website as a whole.
On Oct 29, 2020, Lulu made an announcement post admitting that the site was not actively moderated and tickets had been piling up, causing a backlog.[3] Lulu stated that they did not want to allow mods on the team until they could pay for the mods and until they upgraded the infrastructure of the website.
As of April 2022, having been about a year and a half since this announcement, some Toyhouse users have expressed disillusionment that there will ever actually be a mod team hired on, as tickets continue to take months to a year to be answered except in extreme circumstances.[4]
Outside of a slow ticketing system, lack of moderation has also been criticized for allowing inappropriate site content, such as school shooter idealization,[5] inappropriate usernames,[6] unfiltered gore and NSFW content, and the service review section becoming a place for unchecked callout posts.[7]
Much of the criticism of Toyhouse is held offsite, particularly on a Tumblr blog titled thdramas though there is a forum topic titled "Toyhou.se Pet Peeves" that was started in Nov 10, 2018 that has over 440 pages.[8] However, many of the comments from the thread are complaints about the community rather than the website's management. A few of the comments on the Pet Peeve thread are below.
I absolutely loathe the fact that there's so much disrespect on this site by so many minors when it specifically comes to sexually explicit and NSFW characters. This past month I had a minor favorite one of my sexually explicit OCs while they just turned fourteen. Fourteen. My OC had the filters on so it only meant that the child had faked their age on their account and were able to see my OC being rawed just fine and I. Hate it. I hate the fact that another minor had commissioned over forty pieces of NSFW artwork by multiple artists and had roleplayed smut with one of my dearest and closest friends and yet they got off scott free with just their account's age being altered. They showed no sense of sympathy or remorse, just that they were in the right because "they were going to turn eighteen eventually". Someone favorited all of my R18 characters pre-update when they were seventeen. I had to block them. And then I found out that they vagued about me on the Vent threads, calling me ageist and putting me down simply because I had personal rules set to keep myself safe and comfortable using this website.Motherbeast, Toyhou.se Pet Peeves, page 5.
Some people seem to not have any online etiquette whatsoever. No, you can’t post whatever irrelevant personal shit on public forums, especially on a site lacking moderation. Toyhouse has a bulletin feature. Would you say irrelevant non-discussion topics when making a new thread on some popular subreddit? General & off topic is supposed to be for threads and discussion unrelated to ocs or art. Its not your personal journal. There are many other functions and sites you can use instead 🤔salida, Toyhou.se Pet Peeves, page 252
beating a dead horse but i think its pretty telling that this site has so much going on that a thread like this is constantly being used daily >_> im not familiar with sites that use forums so idk the culture around it but you would think that maybe a thread where people are constantly voicing their very valid concerns into the void is a cause for concern itself... i guess my pet peeve is a lot of things happen on here and like 10% of it ever gets solvedroziist, Toyhou.se Pet Peeves, page 251
References
- ^ Dekudog tag on thdramas, Tumblr. (Accessed 4/8/2022)
- ^ Deku tag on thdramas, Tumblr. (Accessed 4/8/2022)
- ^ This Week’s Downtime (and an update!), Toyhouse. Oct 29, 2020 (Accessed 4/8/2022)
- ^ Tickets, Toyhouse. Jul 13, 2021 (Accessed 4/8/2022)
- ^ shooting has anime gore gif of self harm, guns, suicide, etc. on their profile. Tumblr. Jan 10, 2022 (Accessed 4/8/2022)
- ^ Cocksupreme, Toyhouse (Accessed 4/8/2022)
- ^ Service Review of "Service Reviews", Toyhouse. Dec 31, 2021 (Accessed 4/8/2022)
- ^ Toyhou.se Pet Peeves (update), Toyhouse. Nov 10, 2018 (Accessed 4/8/2022)