Disallowing Nude or Inappropriate Images is About More Than Kids Seeing Them
I recently had someone who wanted to post nude images in a thread on PhotoshopForums.com. When they learned they couldn’t, they made a sarcastic comment about how I was afraid that “little Billy” might see the images.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard something like this, basically suggesting that because I didn’t allow nudity, profanity or something else along those lines, I was being a “soccer mom” or prude, or I was making a moral judgement of them.
It’s odd how people judge things or think they know something, when there may be much more to the issue than appears at first glance. Sometimes because they don’t like that they can’t do something.
If you come across this post because you had one removed for that reason, or you have one removed in the future, I’d like to ask you to consider that there may be more at work than just what came to your mind immediately.
PhotoshopForums.com is a community of design semi-professionals and professionals. They work at an office with a boss and coworkers near by, on a computer that is monitored by the company. They work at a coffee shop with other patrons about them. They work at home with kids and a spouse.
My point? Most people do not want a nude image, or even links to nude images, popping up unexpectedly when they are in these environments. They need to be able to visit PhotoshopForums.com with the lowest possible risk of that happening (while acknowledging that risk still exists).
What that means is that our community is work friendly. Don’t get me wrong, we also try to be family friendly (though it isn’t always possible) and, in line with that, I wouldn’t want any nude images. But, the overarching theme is that it is a work friendly community. It’s as much about “little Billy” as it is about Joe Q. Professional.
It’s not that I am a prude or that I have anything against nudity or nude images (I don’t). It is that we have a specific goal and a specific audience and we have created an expectation. Others will have different goals and expectations and may allow things we don’t, like nudity, more extreme forms of profanity and the like. That’s not a bad thing, it is just different.
If you find a community is different from your expectations, you may want to look for one that fits in line with what you want, rather than trying to make the entire community conform to you.
