Suggestions

Suggestions

Paige_LaMarchand​(sub female) • Mar 14, 2016

First: I love this place and I am so happy to see something so well organized. I want The Cage to prosper. All of these suggestions are to help it to do so.

• More options for orientations--maybe check out OKCupid for ideas. For starters 'gay' and 'lesbian' rather than homosexual.[/*]
• A way to 'love' or 'like' posts.[/*]
• And now I can't recall how many options there were for gender... Be sure everyone is covered (another good one for OKCupid)[/*]
• Ditto for scene descriptors. This one I would recommend looking at that BDSM test or Fet for all the things people can identify as.[/*]
• Also, if the software will allow it, let people identify as more than one or allow the entry to be blank so people can write in whatever they want. For example, I would identify as an asexual lesbian, but currently I can only choose homosexual.[/*]
• Relationship status also needs many options. I don't even know where to start there. Maybe let people make up there own. People get inventive. Oh, BUT definitely have the other person approve the relationship. I don't think the other person has to approve the relationship on Fet so I could say I'm collared by someone and that person may not even know I exist or just think we're dating.[/*]

Cage Monkey​(staff) • Mar 15, 2016

Thank you so much for your interest, for thinking about it and for taking the time to write down your feedback (and for the courage to be amongst the very first to publish in the site blog and forum). it's very welcome and it's extremely important for us to know how the place is perceived and experienced, and finally, welcome to THE CAGE!

Orientations - sexual orientation / role / relationship status:
We try to keep an effective minimal set that would still cover 99% of our visitors and of course thee's always plenty of room left for anyone to describe their exact preferences and title in detail - in  the profile open text boxes.
One of the reasons we do that is to make search more simple and effective, so we seek a set that covers most but is simple.

Could you please elaborate on why you feel that Gay/Lesbian are better words for Homosexual? 
We picked XXXSexual terms because these terms seem to complement each other and they are gender independent (And while gay for example is a word that works both for men and women, Lesbian - is for women only), so homosexual vs heterosexual seems easy and clear,
But - we'd love to hear other opinions. 

Relationships...
There's the open collar field where you can add your partner by name or initials, it doesn't have to be someone from the site, and if you have more than one partner maybe you can combine their initials into the collar, it's more of a symbolic thing so for now it's kept simple, but that might change too. 

We already have a way to love posts, forum replies, magazine posts -  and surely, kink list / scene descriptors is something that's in our mind and we'll work on in the future.

Everything is very much work in progress, everything is subject to change. and many more is surely to come!

Paige_LaMarchand​(sub female) • Mar 15, 2016

First, I love this site and I want it to succeed. In order for it to do so it will need to attract a large number of people.

Kinky people like to be able to define themselves specifically--they don't want someone else to put them in widely defined boxes, which is how very few options will feel.

Genders: At the *very* least, there should be Male, Female, Genderfluid, MTF, FTM, Other. I know I'm leaving things out.
Not having those options will alienate not only the people who do not fit into the gender binary, but also their allies. If you're coming from a more-inclusive point of view rather than an exclusive one, everyone should feel welcome.

Homosexual is a word that went out of favor with gay people in the 1970s. The only English-speaking people who use that word now are homophobic people. It's very clinical sounding. 'Gay' can mean both men and women as in 'gay pride', but then there's the LGBT acronym, which is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender. It's one of those quirks of English.
Other options that are important: Pansexual, Asexual, Bisexual, at the very least. There are loads of others.

Relationships: Not everyone is in a collar. Collars are relatively rare in terms of other types of relationships. People can be protected by, married to, dating, mentored by, in a house with, under consideration to and a host of other things. Also, people can be in more than one relationship. Many people are polyamorous or in open relationships or practicing ethical non-monogamy. So they'd need to be able to list all the different relationships they're in.

The BDSM world is plastic in that way.

That's my overall point, I suppose. The kink world is very plastic. People like to be able to define themselves and the more options you give them to do so, the happier they'll be.

I've just seen the thing about being able to like posts and such. Yay!

Cage Monkey​(staff) • Mar 16, 2016

That's a lot of interesting and useful information that I'll be happy to consider, thank you very much! will keep you updated.

Update...

Cage Monkey​(staff) • Mar 22, 2016

After more debate and consideration, THE CAGE now supports these genders:
Female, Male, Trans MTF, Trans FTM
yay!

Everyone is welcome, and we try to cover as many as possible, but we can't have a unique category for every variation, we support sexual orientation-gender-role, that's quite sophisticated and complicated. Might adapt again if there's a strong demand

Villanelle​(staff) • Mar 22, 2016

Assaf we need a 'troll' category for you

Cage Monkey​(staff) • Mar 22, 2016

Trans MTT?

Cage Monkey​(staff) • Apr 6, 2016

And we've updated "Homosexual"  to "Gay / Lesbian" and thus keeping a single option that is uncoupled of gender.

ThoughtMonster{Queer SM} • Jul 22, 2016

Personally, I (and many others in the U.S.) will not regularly use a site that doesn't allow me to identify as queer.

Secondly, your BDSM options are all d/s. Many of us are sadomasochists of one sort or another. If this is just a d/s site, that's cool, but if it's not, you need some options beyond dominant/submissive/switch.

Paige_LaMarchand​(sub female) • Jul 22, 2016

Yay! ThoughtMonster!

I concur on the D/s things. There's a rainbow of other options outside D/s.

And of course my mind has just gone completely blank on what they are... Like when someone asks you what your favorite film is and you realize you've never seen a movie in your life.