Well, hello all. This topic struck a chord with me enough to inspire me to register. Let me say that first off, I fall on the side of anti-censorship.
What I appreciate about this site, is that the stories are thoroughly rated, so that I can avoid subject matter that I personally don't find erotic. Snuff however is a tricky issue.
I've seen numerous attempts to define it in this thread, and its tough to say there is a consensus. Personally, what I consider snuff completely kills (heh)any sort of erotic moment for me when I encounter it in a story. It really sucks for me when something thats borderline shows up in a story that didn't have a snuff tag.
I'll explain - I was reading a story here recently that had a pretty harsh basis. Very NC and rough. It did not however have a snuff tag. I'm borderline on torture stories - but as long as they don't get in to outright mutilation, they don't bother me. This story had some rough stuff, but it was well written and I was enjoying it. Then out of the blue - in the middle of a paragraph:
(Feel free to skip the next paragraph if you really dislike snuff)
A bit part character is discribed as being punished by having shit put in her cunt, which was sown shut. The she was left to rot until she begged to die and then was crucified.
Typing that paragraph actually physically affected me. Not in a sexual way either. It just doesn't "do it" for me, and it hurt that I stumbled accross it by accident.
Please don't tell me I didn't have to read it - I can read a paragraph as short as the one I typed above in a glance, and it wasn't much longer than that in the story. I'm not putting anyone down for liking that - whatever floats yer boat - but I do wish authors would be a little more explicit in the description of thier stories if they are going to include content of that, well, icky a nature.
The story was likely labeled "extreme" but unfortunately, that label is even less defined than snuff, and many stories I have seen here labeled as extreme barely made me bat an eyelid.
Ok, nuff said, that's my rant. Thanks for listening.
Bunk.