Changing Trends in Vore

[Trajan]

I'm far too young to be able to have any kind of opinion or info to bring on this topic, but as someone who likes learning about the history of the community, this thread has been very interesting so far.

[theonlymatt]

Tag and definition drift is a real problem. Something like soft vore had very strong concensus on its meaning. Having someone argue about it is jarring, and makes me irrationally irritated. Like, fuck off, you're wrong, learn the terms and yes it does matter.

[Jimmies]

Yeah I feel like people have gotten a whole lot chiller and there's no more slapfights on this site over the main preferences. Maybe with all the craziness in the world people have come to realize that life is too short to fight over this and they see online communities more as a peaceful refuge.

I'm also an example of what you describe. I occasionally include male preds even though I prefer female way more.

Big agreement on this one, the tribalism was so weird. It also seemed to be the norm for people to try to use worldbuilding to lock out scenarios they didn't like - such say saying outright "Only women are able to swallow people whole" or "This group of bishonen wizards only use their magic to shrink and eat women" or something like that. These days people seem to have figured out they can just write what they enjoy without having to focus on what they don't, lmao.

I'm certainly glad that people are more willing to try making content that's not usually their first choice - at best they might find out they end up liking it, and at worst it's just a bit of a change and a possibility for them to meet people who probably wouldn't find their work in the tags otherwise. Speaking of, I gotta check out your stories! I can respect someone who's happy to experiment a bit.

Now, when I posted a male pred story I did get a couple of comments asking if there was a different version... But what they were asking for was a fatal ending version.

Lmao, fair enough! I admit that (to me at least) that doesn't feel too disrespectful... Saying "Is there a different ending" comes off a lot more appreciate of the actual work than saying "I don't like the premise from the beginning, you should change it".

[IddlerItaler]

Big agreement on this one, the tribalism was so weird. It also seemed to be the norm for people to try to use worldbuilding to lock out scenarios they didn't like - such say saying outright "Only women are able to swallow people whole" or "This group of bishonen wizards only use their magic to shrink and eat women" or something like that. These days people seem to have figured out they can just write what they enjoy without having to focus on what they don't, lmao.

Now I don't think "Only X gender can be pred" has to necessarily be a case of kink-subservient worldbuilding - one might just want sexual dimorphism or extreme survival mechanisms like a praying mantis's - but I get what you mean. I still run into worldbuilding which is openly bowing down to a certain interest from time to time. I wanna say it's not my cup of tea, but I'm probably not immune to having it either. Outside of vore, there is the monster girl genre which tends to be porn-adjacent and is often used as a reference point by vore creators who like humanoids. That genre's worldbuilding is often shackled to being "Venus Needs Men: Fantasy Edition" which feels like a waste of creativity when the artist division put god-tier effort into drawing species designs which genuinely look dazzling 10/10.

Lmao, fair enough! I admit that (to me at least) that doesn't feel too disrespectful... Saying "Is there a different ending" comes off a lot more appreciate of the actual work than saying "I don't like the premise from the beginning, you should change it".

Oh yeah weren't they weren't being rude, I just brought it up as a funny example of people being chiller with male preds nowadays.

[RavenousLeona]

A lotta good responses since I last checked this thread, so...

I feel as though 'flagship characters' - a favorite OC of an artist who becomes sort of their mascot - as a concept have declined in use considerably. Characters like Shyguy's Sophie the dragon girl, Karbo's Crisis, or even a species - such as Ragnar's Zerrans... There's just not as much of it anymore, people are more likely to have several 'main characters' they cycle through rather than one omnipresent one. Not necessarily a bad thing - variety is great - but it seems like you're less likely to see fanart of an OC and instantly be able to recognize who they belong to.

An example of this is Aryion's own 404 page - it's an old picture of a bunch of 'flagship characters' having a fight. Back in the day they'd have instantly been recognizable because everyone had one to represent themselves, now the image just seems a bit out of place.

Dude, you're not wrong. While there are some people who still use "mascot" characters almost exclusively, such as Calamari? I've noticed a lot of folks like Shyguy9 and such have at least expanded their cast. I kinda miss seeing Sophie at the least, and I do appreciate the variety, but you're not wrong. And yeah, I can count on one hand the amount of oldbies with exclusively-used mascot characters that still linger here. And both are kitsune.

(...) and then watching the slow slow transformation into a community of people who think it's only about the gooner content, and not, like The Fantastic Voyage, or that one episode of The Magic School Bus where everyone learns about the digestive system.

ANYWAY. there was just a different mindset back then. A stronger mindset on "It's not sexual unless there is actually sex happening". And now days, you see people saying "It has the word philia in it, that means fetish! That mean sexual!" When like... no? It never was? Vore started out as just "vore". It didn't stand for "vorarephilia". Like I was literally there pre-2000, to see when the cannibal murderer Armin Miewes made that word EXPLODE all over the internet. No one was using the word vorarephilia to describe vore before that.

I can both agree and disagree with that too. And I only disagree because vore is mostly sexual to me, myself. That's definitely one thing I've noticed a lot more these days too -- actual physical arousal from preds. In the past I used to remember a lot more of a "satisfaction" sorta thing, like enjoying a big meal, and a lot less of a sexual component to any pleasure from vore. Because of this and my own hangups, let's just say I have problems reading my old flame, Throat_Wolf's She-Wolf series, due to having kids involved even in non-sexual ways. Also helps I have OCD worries about pedophilia. The heavily sex focus on vore these days definitely ruined those stories for me.

...aaaaand, this is probably the last thing you'd wanna read on this thread, I'm certain. I'm sorry. I feel for you. All I'd like to say is: you too have a good point. :x

Like, I got into the community because I was looking up Little Red Riding Hood and "I know an old lady". The first story I read that had the word "vore" in it, was a story of a panda taur who was binging and accidently swallowed a toy, and had to get her boyfriend to go inside to get it out.

Oh yeah, I agree with you 100% on Little Red Riding Hood. I'd had plenty of other vore interest evoking things as a kid, but that was probably the one that started it all for me. Insofar as learning about the term "vore", I think I have YTMND to thank for that.

Increased awareness of vore online. When I first encountered the vore scene it was very secluded. Now the concept is one of the internet's many punching bags.

Swear on me mum, I'm like the only person here who gets a kick out of people joking bringing up vore in Youtube videos. Helps that at least one of them is most likely into vore himself. SonicHaXD, on the off chance you ever read this: my dude, you are the best scaly to ever scale on Youtube. At the least, I can agree the feeling that people are laughing with us, not at us. I just don't feel like this weird fascination is something to be so hung up about. Especially when actual bigotry still abound -- let alone resurging -- in real life.

Besides. I feel like there's a difference between someone a) posting a "cringe compilation" about vore to make fun of us and b) someone informally using the word "vore" to mean someone or something being swallowed whole. I much prefer the latter example, especially if it's someone who probably wouldn't have malice about it anyway.

I'm increasingly seeing people (mostly on reddit) trying to attack people who are into fatal vore. They're often the ones trying to tell us all that 'soft vore' is vore without death, and is somehow the default, and anyone who isn't them is a freak.

Oh, Christ on a cracker. I remember shit like that, and I'm pissed to learn it's around today. I remember one big stink where some furry vore guy bought adoptables just to use them in permavore art, and people went apeshit over it. Honestly, it's not like copy-paste pallette-swap adoptables aren't a sign that someone's a talentless sellout at that point anyway. Or even for an original design, that someone gave enough of a damn about it to use it themselves anyway. In spite of any above-mentioned hangouts about pictures: it's fucking make-believe. People like that need to grow the fuck up, stop rotting their brains on social media shitholes, and follow a bit of oft-ignored advice from the early days on the internet -- if you don't like it, don't look.

...though sometimes, do as I say and not as I do. I wish I knew how to quit Reddit, even though it pisses me off every time I visit. :v

PS -- I agree with IddlerItaler's response. Correct terminology for this stuff exists for a reason. I know words stopped meaning things for the past decade or so, but c'mon. We don't to sink to FurAffinity levels of people not tagging their shit correctly. Blacklists exist for a reason and while I don't wanna kinkshame, it's also valid to be squicked anyway. Avoiding accidental squicking is for the best. Consent is important, after all.

Vore fans who have no idea what Eka's Portal is. There seems to be a generation who think Reddit or Twitter are the places to go for content. They have no idea how to navigate a forum.

Not to mention such aforementioned social media shitholes are the worst place to archive one's art, lewd or otherwise. And yeah, it's kind of a disappointment this site doesn't get the traffic it used to. I'd imagine places like Pivix and e621 are more likely places where people find their vore stuff, but I still appreciate Eka's and prefer it over something like FurAffinity for vore. With places in the early days like the VoreTex long since defunct, the armchair internet archivist in me wants to see Eka's survive as long as it can.

Reddit is like Facebook so you can expect tons of "Why does {thing} exist? I hate {thing}!!!" level of discussion, which gets amplified the larger a place grows and eventually degenerates into "You are with us or against us!" as a once-coexisting opinion is outnumbered and outvoted. When I browsed r/vore furry preds were the main thing people liked to complain about. Checking the most-liked posts of this month I see that it's way more humanoid-dominated than it used to be.

A few years back there was this poll held on r/vore which shows that most people are fine with whatever. There is also a significant chunk of fatal-only fans while non-fatal-only fans are a minuscule fraction in comparison.

Hah, cool to know with that last bit. Again, in spite of kinkshaming, I will never not laugh at sarcastic "did he die" comments on obvious fatal vore because of the way those folks have acted over the years. To be fair I am a vengeful bitch at this point in my life, and thus those with glass walls shouldn't throw stones. People who treat fatal vore fans like garbage due to their own insecurities? Battleaxe to their sugar-glass walls (and then some), if I had my way. >:3c

Tag and definition drift is a real problem. Something like soft vore had very strong concensus on its meaning. Having someone argue about it is jarring, and makes me irrationally irritated. Like, fuck off, you're wrong, learn the terms and yes it does matter.

Yes. Yes exactly. And not just about properly tagging vore art, either. See my replies to Frednurk's quotes, above.

[IddlerItaler]

Hah, cool to know with that last bit. Again, in spite of kinkshaming, I will never not laugh at sarcastic "did he die" comments on obvious fatal vore because of the way those folks have acted over the years. To be fair I am a vengeful bitch at this point in my life, and thus those with glass walls shouldn't throw stones. People who treat fatal vore fans like garbage due to their own insecurities? Battleaxe to their sugar-glass walls (and then some), if I had my way. >:3c

Aye we all live in a glass house and I think we are increasingly aware of that. "X kink is evil" leads to "then Y kink is also evil" very easily. I also rarely ever see people go "Non-fatal vore just doesn't make any sense! It's so unrealistic" anymore because it's become understood that many beloved fatal scenarios are also a smorgasbord of reality-defying elements (same size, cock vore, fantasy creatures, legalized public vore, nobody ever carrying a gun for self-defense, canon characters who would never hurt a fly suddenly being fine with taking out their friends, etc...) and frankly it's just fine like that.

[GastricAztec]

I would like to become a pro comic book artist and bring non-fatal vore into mainstream fiction!

[Thagrahn]

I would like to become a pro comic book artist and bring non-fatal vore into mainstream fiction!

I've noticed a sharp decline in non-fatal and endo based vore stuff lately, so would be nice to get more artists focused on it.
I'm more of a writer, but haven't really had the mindset to really create anything lately.

[RavenousLeona]

And there's nothing wrong with wanting more non-fatal stuff! One of my favorite vore artists these days, Aquadragon35, does a lot of endo and it's quite fun.

I can't say I've noticed a lot of it lately myself either, so having more of it is always welcome. I'm just not a fan of people being toxic about things and to be fair, being a jerk against non-fatal fans (provoked or not) isn't great either. Goes hand-in-hand with the idea of "don't like, don't look" -- if people buzzed off to check out the stuff they were into, rather than ragging on the stuff they don't like, maybe parts of the internet would be less of a cesspit. However, no one's followed that advice since the aughts so... eh, doesn't mean one can't try to not be mean anyway?

Heck, more non-fatal vore being available these days could help quell the more toxic fans by giving them what they're looking for, perhaps. Let alone have more endo art in general, for everyone who likes it. Either way, everybody wins.

[IddlerItaler]

I can't say I've noticed a lot of it lately myself either, so having more of it is always welcome. I'm just not a fan of people being toxic about things and to be fair, being a jerk against non-fatal fans (provoked or not) isn't great either. Goes hand-in-hand with the idea of "don't like, don't look" -- if people buzzed off to check out the stuff they were into, rather than ragging on the stuff they don't like, maybe parts of the internet would be less of a cesspit. However, no one's followed that advice since the aughts so... eh, doesn't mean one can't try to not be mean anyway?

Heck, more non-fatal vore being available these days could help quell the more toxic fans by giving them what they're looking for, perhaps. Let alone have more endo art in general, for everyone who likes it. Either way, everybody wins.

I have seen fatal artists sharing horror stories of people getting outraged and making entire fix-it fics in their comment sections about the prey getting rescued and surviving so I was left wondering "Why couldn't that energy be used to write actual non-fatal stories with a similar premise?"

The answers I've come to as to why that doesn't happen are:
1. Those comments are actually from haters and trolls from outside the vore sphere entirely.
2. Those comments are from people who browse fatal art and only get mad occasionally at particular fatal scenarios, rather than strict non-fatal fans.
3. Those comments are from folks who are too impulse-driven to actually sit down and write stories on a cool mind.
4. All those comments come from a single non-fatal fan who is too busy harassing every single fatal creator in the universe to write any stories.

Thinking about it, now that there's more human content I see way less furry vs human bickering. At the same time I believe that the bulk of the harassment fatal fans get comes from either outside the community or from one particularly mental fan. If non-fatal vore comes to the forefront, fatal creators might have a better time, but I think it would be less due to non-fatal fans chilling out (the vast majority are already chill), and more because you will see the rise of high-profile non-fatal creators whom haters will divert some of their attention towards (for example, one of the biggest endo-lean artists already faced one big drama scenario across multiple sites.)

[Jihhh]

I can't say I've noticed a lot of it lately myself either, so having more of it is always welcome. I'm just not a fan of people being toxic about things and to be fair, being a jerk against non-fatal fans (provoked or not) isn't great either. Goes hand-in-hand with the idea of "don't like, don't look" -- if people buzzed off to check out the stuff they were into, rather than ragging on the stuff they don't like, maybe parts of the internet would be less of a cesspit. However, no one's followed that advice since the aughts so... eh, doesn't mean one can't try to not be mean anyway?

Heck, more non-fatal vore being available these days could help quell the more toxic fans by giving them what they're looking for, perhaps. Let alone have more endo art in general, for everyone who likes it. Either way, everybody wins.

I have seen fatal artists sharing horror stories of people getting outraged and making entire fix-it fics in their comment sections about the prey getting rescued and surviving so I was left wondering "Why couldn't that energy be used to write actual non-fatal stories with a similar premise?"

The answers I've come to as to why that doesn't happen are:
1. Those comments are actually from haters and trolls from outside the vore sphere entirely.
2. Those comments are from people who browse fatal art and only get mad occasionally at particular fatal scenarios, rather than strict non-fatal fans.
3. Those comments are from folks who are too impulse-driven to actually sit down and write stories on a cool mind.
4. All those comments come from a single non-fatal fan who is too busy harassing every single fatal creator in the universe to write any stories.

Thinking about it, now that there's more human content I see way less furry vs human bickering. At the same time I believe that the bulk of the harassment fatal fans get comes from either outside the community or from one particularly mental fan. If non-fatal vore comes to the forefront, fatal creators might have a better time, but I think it would be less due to non-fatal fans chilling out (the vast majority are already chill), and more because you will see the rise of high-profile non-fatal creators whom haters will divert some of their attention towards (for example, one of the biggest endo-lean artists already faced one big drama scenario across multiple sites.)

I find it funny to know there are endo sorts more aggressive about it than even I am and i'm someone who is very aggressively against fatal because of reasons ive explained elsewhere. But I have the common sense to look for the stuff I want or go draw my own stuff at times even if I dont want to upload anything here. I dont really do fetish stuff much because my main projects/flagships so to speak are not fetish things at all, just ignore any of the fetish fuel that my subconciousness creeps into it.