Kiwi Farms
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We're mostly back to 100%. Expect more disruptions that will cause sister service outages for the forseeable future.
EDIT: TOYHOU.SE CHARACTERS CAN BE HIDDEN/DELETED AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE. IF YOU'RE GOING TO POST SOMEONE'S CHARACTER IN THIS THREAD, AT LEAST TRY TO ARCHIVE OR SCREENSHOT.
With the release of DeviantArt Eclipse, ‘do not steal’ autists everywhere are flocking to new bases of operation in order to avoid navigating dA’s horrible redesign. While a lot of people have moved to inkbunny, Amino, or Twitter, the vast majority of younger users have flocked to a seemingly forever invite-only site: Toyhou.se
Toyhou.se (or just Toyhouse) allows a user to make and store original characters they create. It has custom HTML and CSS support as well (which allows users to make their character’s page look like an eyesore straight from the Angelfire days) and allows people to to link characters, create ‘worlds’ for roleplaying in, and allows people to buy and sell their characters using trade listings.
As of right now, the moderation team has little-to-no presence on the site. The forums are basically a wild west where spam is rampant and tickets take ages to respond to. That, coupled with the increasing presence of kids, has made the site’s userbase a cow in itself.
While there are communities/cows that often have Toyhouse accounts themselves, the exceptional nature of the site should not be overlooked. There’s a ton of drama. Enough for an Anonymous slapfighting Tumblr blog, but frequently the closed species drama blogs have Toyhouse-based problems as well. (Archive) (Archive) (Archive) Sadly, a lot of the drama isn't front-and-center and often is drip fed through these blogs when the moderators decide to post asks.
While there is a lot of ‘original character’ exceptionalism in quite a few threads here, what’s not to love about more? Meet... Aviva... who was trafficked into sexual slavery for the Splatoon universe.
Why does she have such an edgy, angst-filled backstory? Because she is literally just Callie from Splatoon. (Archive)
Toyhouse has this issue chronically. There’s been a new trend in character creation lately: Just ripping characters that already exist, changing two things about them, and calling them a ‘kinsona.’ It has become so bad that the website actually had to change their policy on characters in the same vein... leading to gems like this. (Archive)
Tl;dr: Mentally ill Boku No Hero Academia fan says to stop poking fun at people who rip off published media characters, citing their mental illness as a shield for any criticism.
While the comments had a bit of sense, they simply just doubled-down on their behavior.
This post itself is sort of old news in the TH world, but it's not like 'kinsonas' have gone away in the slightest. Just search up the tag and you can find pages and pages of canonized characters with just a few tweaks... or turned into a dog...
Hell, you can even find characters ripped off from Hamilton, of all things. (Archive)
Following this sort of stuff, a lot of these profiles have what’s called a ‘profile warning.’ It’s meant to warn users about darker themes or content that should be avoided if they’re under 18. A lot of users, however, use it as a platform for saying ‘do not steal!!’
These profiles were all found on kinsonas or legitimate traced characters of some sort. Rules for thee, not for me.
Can’t find the creative energy to make your own character? Can’t rip off another character either? Good thing people are selling adoptables! It’s not like adoptables are a new concept in terms of virtual pet websites-- but because there’s no on-site currency for Toyhouse, you’ll mostly see them going for actual USD.
None of these are worth the money they're asking for. If you don't like original ideas, however, you can take a look at existing IP adoptables:
Or... this... for 400 dollars... (Archive)
There’s also other bizarre oddities, like people who horde designs. This person is a good example, they have over 700 characters or so-- the bulk of them being Lion King traces. (Archive) (Archive of Profile Stats)
Of course, the forums are a treat too. Most of it is spam trying to achieve Toyhouse clout (aka ‘Favorites’ on certain characters) and it is just spam because of the moderator’s presence being nil. Some of the subforums are decent or have their own run-of-the-mill art site drama. (Owed art not being fulfilled, forum games being killed by artists, stolen characters, et cetera.) But there’s an off topic board called ‘Vent Board’ that has some... wacky stuff.
Here’s a sampling of some lunacy:
While there is more exceptional stuff on the site, Toyhouse is relatively decentralized compared to its predecessor. It's hard to 'seek out' things, because the keyword search function is pretty much garbage. Being invite-only doesn't help either. However, I felt like that this was a good start and the community was long overdue for a thread of some sort-- especially for once it is easily accessible to people don't have a key.
Whoops...? (Archive)
With the release of DeviantArt Eclipse, ‘do not steal’ autists everywhere are flocking to new bases of operation in order to avoid navigating dA’s horrible redesign. While a lot of people have moved to inkbunny, Amino, or Twitter, the vast majority of younger users have flocked to a seemingly forever invite-only site: Toyhou.se
Toyhou.se (or just Toyhouse) allows a user to make and store original characters they create. It has custom HTML and CSS support as well (which allows users to make their character’s page look like an eyesore straight from the Angelfire days) and allows people to to link characters, create ‘worlds’ for roleplaying in, and allows people to buy and sell their characters using trade listings.
As of right now, the moderation team has little-to-no presence on the site. The forums are basically a wild west where spam is rampant and tickets take ages to respond to. That, coupled with the increasing presence of kids, has made the site’s userbase a cow in itself.
While there are communities/cows that often have Toyhouse accounts themselves, the exceptional nature of the site should not be overlooked. There’s a ton of drama. Enough for an Anonymous slapfighting Tumblr blog, but frequently the closed species drama blogs have Toyhouse-based problems as well. (Archive) (Archive) (Archive) Sadly, a lot of the drama isn't front-and-center and often is drip fed through these blogs when the moderators decide to post asks.
While there is a lot of ‘original character’ exceptionalism in quite a few threads here, what’s not to love about more? Meet... Aviva... who was trafficked into sexual slavery for the Splatoon universe.
Why does she have such an edgy, angst-filled backstory? Because she is literally just Callie from Splatoon. (Archive)
Toyhouse has this issue chronically. There’s been a new trend in character creation lately: Just ripping characters that already exist, changing two things about them, and calling them a ‘kinsona.’ It has become so bad that the website actually had to change their policy on characters in the same vein... leading to gems like this. (Archive)
While the comments had a bit of sense, they simply just doubled-down on their behavior.
This post itself is sort of old news in the TH world, but it's not like 'kinsonas' have gone away in the slightest. Just search up the tag and you can find pages and pages of canonized characters with just a few tweaks... or turned into a dog...
Hell, you can even find characters ripped off from Hamilton, of all things. (Archive)
Following this sort of stuff, a lot of these profiles have what’s called a ‘profile warning.’ It’s meant to warn users about darker themes or content that should be avoided if they’re under 18. A lot of users, however, use it as a platform for saying ‘do not steal!!’
These profiles were all found on kinsonas or legitimate traced characters of some sort. Rules for thee, not for me.
Can’t find the creative energy to make your own character? Can’t rip off another character either? Good thing people are selling adoptables! It’s not like adoptables are a new concept in terms of virtual pet websites-- but because there’s no on-site currency for Toyhouse, you’ll mostly see them going for actual USD.
None of these are worth the money they're asking for. If you don't like original ideas, however, you can take a look at existing IP adoptables:
Or... this... for 400 dollars... (Archive)
There’s also other bizarre oddities, like people who horde designs. This person is a good example, they have over 700 characters or so-- the bulk of them being Lion King traces. (Archive) (Archive of Profile Stats)
Of course, the forums are a treat too. Most of it is spam trying to achieve Toyhouse clout (aka ‘Favorites’ on certain characters) and it is just spam because of the moderator’s presence being nil. Some of the subforums are decent or have their own run-of-the-mill art site drama. (Owed art not being fulfilled, forum games being killed by artists, stolen characters, et cetera.) But there’s an off topic board called ‘Vent Board’ that has some... wacky stuff.
Here’s a sampling of some lunacy:
While there is more exceptional stuff on the site, Toyhouse is relatively decentralized compared to its predecessor. It's hard to 'seek out' things, because the keyword search function is pretty much garbage. Being invite-only doesn't help either. However, I felt like that this was a good start and the community was long overdue for a thread of some sort-- especially for once it is easily accessible to people don't have a key.
Whoops...? (Archive)