Yakk

It would be nice to have the ability to disable avatars on a per-person basis.

Amoung other things, it solves alot of the problems that the idea in the "NSFW Avatars" thread was aimed at: being able to see most avatars at work. The onus would be on the person browsing the boards, not on the person with the avatar, which makes it quite different.

It would also allow someone to block out avatars they don't visually like.

I could do it manually using a web proxy or by hacking my client, I'll admit.

__________________
Last edited by JHVH : 10-29-4004 BC at 09:00 PM. Reason: Time for a rest.

Slayer

I like the idea. Its not really just for NSFW but Not Safe For Home too. I have young bro and sis at home and I have to close the forum whenever they comes in my room. There are too many avater that is NSFH.

__________________
"the key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering"

iccky

Yeah, if this is possible it would be really nice. I like the avatars, but they do make all of TFP NSFW, which is a shame since I imagine a lot of people would like to spend work time here.

Peetster

User CP, options.
About halfway down you can disable avatars.

Yakk

Peetster, disable other people's avatars on a per-user basis, not globally disable other's avatars.

Lets say I hate the look of atomic bombs. So, I select "never see Peetster's avatar again".

This allows me to enjoy every other avatar, without being scarred horribly by mushroom nightmares. ;-)

__________________
Last edited by JHVH : 10-29-4004 BC at 09:00 PM. Reason: Time for a rest.

laconic1

Yeah I'd like that too, even though that makes me a hypocrite considering my NSFW avatar. I have all avatars disabled and would like to see the safe ones even when I'm on public computers.

HamiC

Love it. Have no idea whether it is a programming nightmare, but love it.

Peetster

OK, I see now.

Silvy

I don't know the structure of the software so wether or not it's a nightmare I cannot judge.
But it's only half of the measure. People change avatars all the time, so setting a single persons avatar to 'show' or 'ignore' will not really work.

I see more in the way of SFW and NSFW avatars.
Everyone can use 2 avatars. One SFW and one NSFW. Then in the user CP everyone can select "show avatars: sfw / nsfw / none"
Allowing some control over the types of avatar you see.

Of course this would still need moderator help (people using nsfw avatars makred as SFW), and it will not prevent mushroom clouds but it's a start.
Then again, deciding what is and is not SFW will probably still lead to discussions.

(Edit: my above suggestion could also be changed like so:
add a marker "NSFW yes / no" in the avatar section that defines the nature of the avatar. Everyone would still have one avatar but wether or not it is displayed depends on the viewers "nsfw avatars on / off" setting.
Am I making any sense?)

__________________
"Do not kill. Do not rape. Do not steal. These are principles which every man of every faith can embrace. "
- Murphy MacManus (Boondock Saints)

Charlatan

Silvy

That was what I was going to suggest.

The only issue I see is that it puts the responsibility of checking SFW/NSFW in the hands of either the users (not always reliable) or a moderator (a bit of a pain in the ass).

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

Silvy

True, and I'm not really advocating that suggestion... I'd say stick with the current setup. But I like sharing ideas...

As for the responsibility. Most users are reasonably mature and can understand the reasoning behind the measure. Also, most will be able to judge pretty well wether or not it is SFW. for the remaining cases the mods will need to answer complaints from users. But the same already applies to forum posts that contain NSFW pictures. When posting a picture it isn't even asked wether or not it is SFW, and it doesn't go wrong that often.

As an aid in this, the board could force that "marker NSFW yes / no" be set. Thus forcing the user when selecting an avatar to think of the nature of the image.

__________________
"Do not kill. Do not rape. Do not steal. These are principles which every man of every faith can embrace. "
- Murphy MacManus (Boondock Saints)

Grondar

It's possible they could assign a user to a semi-moderator position that's primary function (heh) would be to "review" pending avatars and mark them as either "safe" or "NSFW."

Since there are so many users already, maybe all avatars should be listed as NSFW, and then active users that wanted their avatar "cleared" would submit it to the moderator to review.

Initially, that would probably be a huge dose of avatars to review, but with time it should become a more realistic assignment.

I don't think many people get kicks out of "beating the system" and posting a "safe" avatar, when it is really NSFW, but if this is a serious concern, then a "reviewer" may be able to help out.

I have all avatars and signatures disabled, as I find it the best way to avoid akward moments and situations, but I can understand the desire to exclude only NSFW avatars. I guess the issue becomes whether it is worth all the work to create a means for limiting and filtering out the NSFW avatars.

I would venture a prediction that if an option to not view NSFW avatars was created, most, if not all users, would take advantage of it, especially given the amount of browsing people do from public places and workstations.

Take care.

__________________
"Yes, I rather like this God fellow. He's very theatrical, you know, a pestilence here, a plague there. Omnipotence. Gotta get me some of that." -Stewie

Yakk

First, I find that people tend not to change avatars all that often. And those who tend to NSFW tend to NSFW.

A distributed system might be cute, but you really couldn't trust it anyhow, and the infrastructure would be much harder.

A 6 level system:
[ ] Show no avatars
[ ] Show only approved, unchanged avatars
[ ] Show only approved avatars
[ ] Hide only surpressed avatars
[ ] Hide only surpressed, unchanged avatars
[ ] Hide no avatars

You could make it simpler and have fewer levels. =)

You'd have a sparse mapping from {account->account}x{No flag, Hide, Show}. If the user never explicitly set an avatar to hide or show, you wouldn't even store it. This keeps storage down to a minimium.

Some users would show all avatars, and hide only ones they disliked. Some would hide all avatars, and show only ones they trusted. And some would hide/show everything, because they didn't care...

As an aside, someone browsing TFP can implement all of this using a web proxy. The date and user id of each avatar is in the avatar URL.

__________________
Last edited by JHVH : 10-29-4004 BC at 09:00 PM. Reason: Time for a rest.

oldtimer

There are ways of going about this. Particularly, groups.

I'm a bit sketchy on the subject but have heard of them mentioned on boards running PHP. I think you can group avatars based on something I read at vBulletin.org: <a href="http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=24997" title="This may be already included in vB 3; another reason to upgrade...">Avatar Hack: Categories & Usergroups</a>

It's going to take some work on our end to make it work though...

__________________
Slowly but surely getting over the loss of TFP v. 3.0.
Where the hell am I?....
Showering once a month does not make you a better person.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fearless_Hyena

I like the NSFW avatar flag in the user CP idea.

I was going to suggest that too -- we may not even need reviewing if we just set all avatars to NSFW by default. Doing this would avoid people who don't know or care from making a mistake, and I don't think too many active TFP users would intentionally turn off the NSFW flag if it was indeed NSFW. Well they could, but they would get moderated and if they were intentionally defiant the wouldn't have their privileges for long.

Yakk

Fearless, the problem with that solution is it is more work for mods and it places the burdin of NSFWing avatars on the people who don't care if their avatars are NSFW: the viewers care if the avatars are NSFW, the owner of the avatar doesn't.

Mine involves no discipline, no work for moderators, and those who care about NSFW avatars are the ones responsible for flagging avatars which are NSFW to them. The benefit is close to the effort.

__________________
Last edited by JHVH : 10-29-4004 BC at 09:00 PM. Reason: Time for a rest.

Confederate

I just say no NSFW avatars period, lot less hassle. I am member of other boards and even though explicit content is allowed, explicit avatars and signatures are not. It's a good system.

cowudders14

In principle I agree, but the problem with a board where "explicit content is allowed" and this one is that this one practically runs on the stuff, if you go purely by amount of traffic in each forum - the erogenous zone must take a high percentage of all site traffic. Running a board lke that, people will want to display NSFW avatars. Thus, I think I agree with having to specify if your avater is SFW or NSFW, setting all existing avatars upon implementation to NSFW, and having a default option of NSFW when changing an avater. People displaying an NSFW avater who have selected that it is SFW will be warned and banned. Surely that can't be too much work for the mods? Or will it? - I'm not sure.

Anyway, my 2p...

__________________
Moo! I'm mooey!

hotbitch

The idea is awesome!!! You could have something like View / Hide under each user's avatar and it will definitely work better than a) restricting a user's freedom of expression and b) restricting someone's right to view or not something that they personally don't like and having them freak out over it globally and bug you as mod/admin.

And seriously, how hard could this be? Remember, when you put someone in the ignore bin, whenever you run into their posts you get this View / Hide thingy in the corner.

Well, maybe if you give the avatars of user "1234" the code "ava1234", no matter how many times they change it, you can easily copy the same concept as the ignore view / hide posts thingy and apply it to the avatar.

I can't believe we're still talking about programming nightmares in 2007.

Halx

Heh.. everyone thinks they know how to program

__________________
You have found this post informative.
-The Administrator
[Don't Feed The Animals]

MexicanOnABike

meh. this seems like a wasteful feature. I'd be blocking all the safe avatar and keeping all the NSFW ones. haha.

__________________

- Movie Reviews - Ratings-

Dilbert1234567

how hard could it be, you do it

seriously though, could you modify it so when you are uploading your avatar, you select SFW or NSFW, i think we can self moderate our selves, and then the mods could override it if necessary.

__________________
Donate Blood!

"Love is not finding the perfect person, but learning to see an imperfect person perfectly." -Sam Keen

Sultana

If this is easy and convenient, it would be a nice option. As it is, I keep avatars turned off all the time, just to be safe.

Not that huge a deal, really.

__________________
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
At night, the ice weasels come." -

Matt Groening

My goal? To fulfill my potential.

Jinn

Heh.. everyone thinks they know how to program

Not a truer thing could be said.. especially the users..

I can't begin to count the number of support tickets I've seen that say "Seriously, how hard could it be to fix X or add Y feature?"

Oy..

__________________
"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

The_Jazz

While you're at it, how about you edit the code so that everyone on the Politics board agrees with me? Oh, and while you're at it, can you do something so that boobies are safe for work? And if you have extra time, can you find a way to get me a 1% override commission on every liability insurance policy in the US?

I have no idea what a line of code even looks like, let alone how to write one, so everything you guys do is magic to me. Thanks for the hard work.

__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

Willravel

My avatars would be NSFSPECTER.

MexicanOnABike

that'd be cool. but then, what's NSFW? just porn or is violence included? i know a few avatars that would get some weird looks even if they're sfw. plus, with every user changing their avatars every few days, that would be a big work load for the mods.

__________________

- Movie Reviews - Ratings-

Dilbert1234567

yeah it would have to be pretty board, anything that might not be acceptable, nudity violence, riske... things you would not show your grandma or your kids, or your pastor.

then again i don't know if it is possible.

__________________
Donate Blood!

"Love is not finding the perfect person, but learning to see an imperfect person perfectly." -Sam Keen

ubertuber

I say let's not go down this path at all. I think MexicanOnABike and Dilbert together make a good point. We'd quickly be inundated with calls to better define NSFW, NSFH, etc., and more and more content would fall under these umbrellas. That's the opposite of what TFP is. Even if these things were tagged, moderators would have to be able to override, and I personally don't want to make the call on borderline stuff when ninnies keep reporting posts and sending me PMs. The less we put ourselves in the business of censoring content, the better.

I like our current solution - you decide for yourself whether avatars and images are safe for you current environment, and it's a blanket decision.

__________________
Cogito ergo spud -- I think, therefore I yam

Willravel

NSFW: Nudity, violence, strongly sexually suggestive, probably offensive, or adult language.

Jinn

Is a shirt where you can see nipples but they're otherwise covered nudity?
Does it have to be bloody to violent? What about cartoon characters smashing each other? What is "strongly" sexually suggestive? Bobby's line drawings? A girl with a carrot in her mouth? What is offensive? An avatar of jesus hanging upside down? An avatar of saddam hussein? What is adult language? Shit? Fuck? Cunt? Piss? Asshole?

Anytime you try to establish a "standard" of 'common decency' you're going to fail because decency is not common.

__________________
"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

Willravel

No, it's strongly sexually suggestive.
No.
If the violence is clearly cartoon violence on par with Tom and Jerry, it should be okay. If it's Spike from Cowboy Bebop blowing a hole in someone's shoulder, it's not.
Anything that clearly indicates sexuality or is clearly sexually suggestive. Yes. I don't want my 3 year old daughter to come into the room when that avatar is doing it's thing and give her any inspiration for questions that are better left for later.
If it's clear that she's ingesting the carrot (teeth), then it's fine. If she's deep-throating it, then no.
By hanging do you mean like a monkey in a tree or a lynching?
It depends. If it's a picture of him being shot, then it's offensive. If it's just a picture, then it should be fine.
Yes. Also, Bastard, variations on fuck (fucker motherfucker, fuckhead, etc.) and maybe bitch.
Many people on TFP are parents. I can't just kick my daughter out of the room. What I have to do now is hit F11 (moves all windows off screen) when something inappropriate comes on the screen and my daughter is in the room.

Sultana

The only option I can see pleasing everyone is to make it so the user hits an on/off button under each person's avatar to make their own choices and customize their own display. However, I'm sure it's too much coding to be a real option.

__________________
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
At night, the ice weasels come." -

Matt Groening

My goal? To fulfill my potential.

spectre

The problem with that is that a lot of people won't mark their avatars, not to mention that there will always be someone who is likely to put up an NSFW avatar and mark it SFW because they think it's funny.

You could have mods check it, but when you consider that every member on the board can now use avatars, it'll be next to impossible to keep up with. Between new users putting up their first avatar and current users changing their's, there's just no way we could keep up with all of that. I know people want to see the avatars, but if you're at work, why take a chance? Just disable the avatars, it only takes a few clicks. If you don't want to do that, get a a firefox extention like "adblock" and just block out the avatars that you don't want to see.

__________________
"Fuck these chains
No goddamn slave
I will be different" ~ Machine Head

Halx

It's only an issue if you make it an issue. To me, it's rather bothersome to see people nitpicking. Either turn them off or turn them on. I'm not going to censor anyone by making them label themselves or their avatar. I'm not going to tell people that they risk not being identified by their avatar if they choose one with nudity. In fact, I'm going to do my best to treat everything I see as the same because your avatar is what people use to find your posts. Avatars even lend a bit of validity to a post.

If you cant view a 100x100 picture of some breasts, I'm surprised you can even view a website with "adult" word littered all over it.

__________________
You have found this post informative.
-The Administrator
[Don't Feed The Animals]