NEST takes consent very seriously. We expect that you will clearly negotiate what ALL scene participants are looking for and what you’ll ALL agree to do, and to stick with that. Just because someone is tied up does NOT mean that they will agree or consent to whatever the person(s) doing the tickling, etc will want to do.
Any play or scene that occurs in any of the private or public spaces of the NEST Hotel, or in any servers or virtual rooms maintained by NEST requires the participants to engage in knowing, explicit, and voluntary consent. This consent must be clearly asked for by both or all parties, and must be clearly given by each party involved in the play or scene. Any party can revoke their consent at any time before or during any scene. People who cannot consent include (as examples) people who are: under 18; drunk; people in sub-space (such that they cannot consciously assess risks); and being harassed into play.
Anyone engaging in a scene with someone without knowing, explicit, and voluntary consent, or who they know or should know is incapable of giving knowing, explicit, and voluntary consent, is committing a consent violation. Depending on the severity and the circumstances, that person may be subject to sanctions, up to and including being removed from the event without refund and being banned from any future events. As part of negotiations, any and all people involved should be prepared to discuss, among other things: the relative experience of the people involved; what the expectations are; how long the scene should last; and what the parties’ respective aftercare needs are. All attendees are reminded that a negotiation that ends with no play is a successful negotiation; not everyone is a good match for each other.
It can be difficult to discern whether play is occurring at any event, and this issue is complicated by the on-line nature of the NEST Discord server. Therefore, attendees should be as cognizant as is reasonable when entering online rooms to neither interrupt a scene, nor cause a scene to be witnessed by people who did not consent to witnessing that scene. This can be difficult, so we ask all attendees to be as patient as possible in this regard. If you believe you are witnessing a consent violation, please do not interrupt a scene in progress, but contact a staff member as soon as possible to investigate the matter; please note that some attendees may be involved in ongoing relationships with expanded consent protocols.
NEST will make Staff members available to handle questions, concerns, or complaints that may arise during NEST weekend. The organizers encourage everyone to err on the side of contacting the members of Staff with any issues you have. The default position of our Staff is that they will not share information about complaints unless a ban or similar sanction is recommended, for the limited purpose of keeping track of repeat offenders, or to correct the record in the event that false statements are made about the consent handling process. The organizers intend to follow the recommendations of the Staff handling the complaints as to what actions should be taken in the event of a consent violation.
Although having a prior history of complaints or sanctions at other conventions or communities does not necessarily mean that a person is automatically unwelcome at this event, the organizers plan to contact other organizations to assemble a list of people who will be either unwelcome at the event or monitored closely. The NEST owner reserves the right to share the identity of people on any list of unwelcome people with specific attendees on a case by case basis in the event that there is a history of issues between the people concerned. Finally, if any person uses a scene name different from their usual scene name, or otherwise hides their identity for the purposes of avoiding any ban or limitation on attendance, then they will be considered a consent violator and subject to immediate expulsion from the event without refund as well as a permanent ban.