Can We Cut It Out With The Racy Avatars?

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grommit

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It has gotten to the point where I can no longer look at this forum with my children. Granted, I am not the most popular guy here, and I will hardly be missed, but surely I am not the most prudish one around. Or am I just the most prudish one left? Is this an intentional effort to keep the younger generation out of the general forum?

I am no longer willing to put up with the following types of pictures in front of my young-uns:
Topless or less covered females, even if nipples or other anatomically precious areas are covered by their hands or whisps of hair or other non-clothing obstructions;
Almost naked or even clothed persons touching or holding themselves or eachother in suggestive if not provocative ways and sexual ways such as but not limited to "Lesbians" kissing.

I love the information and fellowship on this forum and will probably occassionally sneak in now and then when the kids are not around, but if the current trends in avatars continue to progress, there may come a point where I will simply no longer be here.

Some may think this should be moved to a different forum, but this is the forum that is really affecting me and my family. There are other forums here that are dedicated to a broader range of permissible subjects and images, but this is the general forum covering the most general knife subjects and presumably with the broadest range of viewers.

And if the images are modified in this forum, which the cynical part of me is not really expecting at all, Lets then make sure we get my descriptions off this forum also.

I really enjoy sharing my enjoyment of nice tools of all kinds with my children and I am hoping I will be able to continue in that on at least some part of Blade Forums.
 
just turn off the avatars in your "user cp", and you won't have to trouble with them at all. there is also an option to turn off signatures, should any folks be sporting some less-than-stellar sigs of knowledge. that should be sufficient.

abe m.
 
Sorry that you have had the misfortune of having your children view such material. However, to my knowledge, all such material has been restricted to the Whine and Cheese section of this forum, which contains material that no minor should be exposed to. This, however, is the general discussion forum, and I personally fail to see any relevance to knives in your thread. Perhaps this would be better posted amongst the offensive material mentioned....
 
Keep in mind, also, that some people here read bf.c at work whether the boss likes it or not. Having -- shall we say? -- "adult oriented" pictures on your screen at work can prove -- shall we say? -- career-limiting in many work environments these days.

I don't think that anyone here would like to see a fellow knife knut loose his/her job just because they want to have the raciest avatar on the forum.

Disabling avatars is an option, but avatars are supposed to be there as a handy aide. For example, I can quickly scroll down a thread and find my post by looking for my avatar. Then, I can start reading with the posts below it. I can quickly spot posts by specific members (either those I want to read or those I know I can skip) by glancing at avatars. I, and other users, should not have to give up the utility of avatars and signature lines, because a few users insist on abusing them.

That sort of thing can make some other people, especially women and parents of small children, uncomfortable and discourage them from participating here.

And don't give me a bunch of crap about self-expression or freedom-of-speach. Part of being a member of a community means sometimes subordinating your own desires for the overall good of the community. If you want to put up a website of your own full of whatever pictures you want to fine. Charge admission of you want to. But this is a community and sometimes some people need to be considerate of the needs of others.

An Avatar is supposed to be a representation of yourself in some way. That's what the word Avatar means. (Apparently, some of you have strage self-images.) I often wish we could change the function of avatars by allowing each user to assign every other user his own personal set of Avatars. In other words, the Avatars I see would represent what I think of each other member. Now that would be interesting, wouldn't it?
 
Originally posted by Gollnick
In other words, the Avatars I see would represent what I think of each other member. Now that would be interesting, wouldn't it?
Click to expand...

aw, c'mon. 99% wouldn't change, admit it ;)

abe m.
 
leave the choice of avatars to the members, but disable them / modify thread view if you find them offensive/unsuitable for your kids. I like the freedom of expression here, plus I personally don't find them pornographic or anything.

take a couple of deep breaths....then relax.....hope you will feel better after modifying your thread view option.
 
Originally posted by SC_Steel
...and I personally fail to see any relevance to knives in your thread. Perhaps this would be better posted amongst the offensive material mentioned....
Click to expand...

Grommit made it very clear why he chose to post in this particular forum, and I think it makes perfect sense. I also feel he has a valid point.

To carry your misplaced point to a more appropriate area;

I personally fail to see any relevance to knives in 'nakid chic Avatars'

-John

PS - I'm a relative 'newbie' to BF also, and I don't want to promote a 'your opinion is only worth hearing after you have X amount of posts under your belt' attitude, but I think it rather rude of you, SC_Steel, to be so critical of another member after so few posts of your own. This is particularly true since you are wrong, Avatars (whatever they picture) show up in all forums, not just in W and C.
 
I dunno...I think mine is fine. But I see your point about the scantily clad, suggestive women. I just enjoy a beautiful woman:)
 
i support grommit and wish i had mentioned it several times myself. ive even found myself avoiding certain posts b/c i see who started them and know what kind of avatar im in for.
im sure several people know of whom i speak. i for one am embarrassed to have others see those av's - both for how it reflects on the member and how it reflects on me. id hate to have to quit frequenting this place (heck it's my homepage) but the av's are getting progressively worse and more popular.

BTW, thanks for the tip on disabling other's av's. im going to do that right now. i hate it though, several are very neat and give an insight into the person behind the post. me, there's not much there.
 
I think yours is fine too Warthog. As of yet I have not seen an avatar that goes beyond what I personally would consider appropriate for the general forums, but I do respect the fact that others may find some avatars here to be offensive.

There have been requests in the past from moderators and Spark to keep things such as sigs G rated. I would imagine that avatars would be included in this. I guess it is up to Spark what will be allowed and what won't. If he does not see fit to request that people tone down their avatars then I believe that he must figure that so far they have not crossed the line.

grommit, my suggestion would be to take this up with Spark or one of the Super Mods. If they receive enough complaints they will probably do something about it. Until then you may want to follow the above advice and turn off the avatars in your thread view options.
 
For whats it worth I will not change any of my avatars just because someone takes offense to it unless Spark tells me to. And I will sooner listen to him that to you. Granted, I respect the morals and ethics of others, but to tell someone to tone down their avatars because you find offense in it is outright censorship. Would you call television stations and tell them to remove material that you find obscene? Perhaps. Would you call a radio station and do the same? Perhaps. Would they listen? Perhaps. Would you turn that TV or radio station off? Yes, you would. Well, disable the avatars and you will no longer have to view something that you find so offensive and I find beautiful. I think my avatars are tasteful and do not cross the line into pornography. And if you think so just turn it off!!! :mad:
 
grommit: i'm with you. i catch enough noise for this "hobby" without subjecting myself to additional abuse from my spouse or co-workers who happen to spy those interesting avatars while passing the pc.
 
I happen to like K. V. Colucci's avatar. Very pleasant for my eyes after a full day working with numbers. :D
 
I think they are all fine . Its no worst then what your kids see on tv . I say if you dont like them just turn them off. I could see if they was x rated or something, but all the ones I see are fine with me.
 
I feel that it is up to the member to put whatever avitar that he or she feels is appropriate. I for one like to see a beautiful women in each one of my posts, and I like seeing some of the other interesting avitars that people come up with. I also see your point that you don't want your kids to see certain things, but until it comes down from the head honcho I think that I will keep the avitars that I like. Not that this helps your cause but it's just my $0.02, hopefully turning off the avitars in your posts will eleviate the problem.
 
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