One, can someone update me on the whole Ivy situation?
Two, I think we can all agree that we hate how strict these guidelines are…people stories are getting removed for the littlest of things. It’s literally rated a teen app why are the littlest of things not allowed. Even if the story does get vulgar or really descriptive in certain scenes MOST authors give you the choice to skip at least 2 TIMES so why is everything getting reported or removed. I just feel like this whole this is pointless. So many hard working amazing writers get their stories removed and then banned over these guidelines and it just isn’t fair. This app isn’t even for kids 
it’s for teens. Meaning 13 and up. Most of the things that are against guidelines are stuff we’ve seen and heard since we were 10. I don’t get what the big issue is.
Does anyone know what we can do to change them or if that’s even possible?
Moved to Episode Fan Community since this is about Episode. Make sure to check out our Forum Tutorial for more info about creating topics, and feel free to PM me if you’ve got questions. 
On a side note, please keep discussions related to Ivy in the Ivy thread: Ivy (mature) app is here?
Thanks 
my bad! thank you!
ANDROID
IOS
it’s 12+ so not even PG13. It is very sad and unfortunate that stories are being removed but they are being removed because they show extremely mature content that’s 16+. Episode did a survey before changing their guidelines and the majority was under 15.
While I agree 100% with this. I do not think a lot of parents are happy with the app itself. For some reason many think it’s taboo for kids under 13 knowing about s**. I understand violence and horror though.
Ivy it’s an episode version app but for 16+ audience. Which at the moment is in beta testing. If you have an android and live in the USA you can test it. If you have an IOS you have to be in Australia to test it.
thats terrible…so instead of fixing the original app their just gonna make a whole other app so topics can be more mature. I just feel like they could have kept episode and made it 100% clear that this is a mature app proceed at your own risk. 
plus I head the Ivy app only has beta stories like their isn’t online writing yet which is also wack. episode is either gonna do really well or really bad from this, i just think this problem could have been resolved in a better way…
The guidelines have been in place for years, but they have been getting more enforced recently. Considering episode is a 12+ app, I wouldn’t say it’s specifically for teenagers because there are literal children using it. A 12 year old’s prefrontal cortex (which plays a big part in decision making) has just started to develop, and it’s so important that they are exposed to good influences and role models. The guidelines are in place for a reason, if you break them, your story gets removed. The app’s rating hasn’t changed, and I’m not sure why people expect them to change their rules for people who want to read mature stories on a children’s app. Ivy will be out soon, and I’m sure waiting a while won’t kill anyone.
Honestly I think it’s a good thing they are making a different app. Because episode is really entertaining and passes time, and 12/13 year olds enjoy it. Just because some people are wanting more mature topics doesn’t mean they should change the whole app. I think that Ivy is a great idea because it allows those people to get what they want while kids can still read episode stories (hope that makes sense).
I do agree that many stories are being taken down for small things while episode originals have more issues than they do.
Aside from the fact that not that many stories actually get removed & when they do the authors are often given a chance to rewrite them anyway…even if they work hard, why would the stories not be removed for breaking the guidelines? It’s part of the TOS for using and writing on episode. It’s not like the guidelines are a secret and as a private company Episode reserves the right to change them.
I actually don’t think they’re very strict at all. If anything, some of the terms need way more clarification. I’ve read some of the stories that have recently been removed and they were not removed for “small things.” They were removed for consistently breaking the guidelines. A lot of times Episode doesn’t find these things because when they review stories, they don’t necessarily read the whole story.
There are a lot of issues in a lot of stories and many of them aren’t even captured by the guidelines, so when something does violate the guidelines, it’s pretty serious. And as mentioned, if authors have a couple things that break the guidelines they are given the chance to edit it to pass review and get on rank. It’s when stories violate the guidelines over and over and over or when the violation is so massive and central to the story that Episode removes the stories. But even now there’s stories that were removed and were not originally supposed to be given another chance, but the authors are now able to rewrite them and republish - though the new ones must be within the guidelines. So if anything, Episode could actually be a lot stricter with some of the content it let’s fall through the cracks.
i get that for sure and I agree. but isnt ivy also a 18+ app now ? episode’s 14-16 readers and writers can’t even go on it i believe
ivy is 16+
oh my bad then you’re right. i just hope there is a way that we can write if this app actually becomes legit because Lord knows we can’t be rolling with the stories they write forever
me too! i really wanna write on Ivy!
you’re right I agree. but then again…it’s not episode’s job if the app is rated 12+ and we have 10, 11 year old kids on it reading PG-13 stories that isn’t their fault that the parents
parents cannot be on their kids’ phone 24/7 so they blame the app.
[random comment here]
Just a thought… I think it might be a good idea to make an age restriction on some stories and have ages verified (via email to parents if under 16/18 whatever). I know it would be a little annoying and not impossible to get around, but it would potentially make it more age appropriate for each individual reader.
I never said it was episode’s job lol. I said that we should be enforcing the guidelines instead of saying they’re “too strict”. The stories I’ve seen get taken down weren’t appropriate for 12 year olds, do you expect them to bend their rules to keep mature stories on an app meant for kids?
oof too much work. the app wouldn’t be as popular as it is now. but not a bad idea. i get the concept.
right and i just don’t think that’s fair
Just a thought 
I’m over 18 so it’s not as much as a problem for me lol
i know but we can’t do much. we just have to wait for Ivy.