- 16/11/08
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At RWI, we welcome a diversity of cultures and personalities. Our membership extends to the far reaches of the earth (and from what I've seen from some members, maybe farther) and we are glad to have everyone here. We want this to be a place where people can feel free to express their individual tastes.
That being said, the good of the forum trumps the right of any particular individual to post something icky. We want this to be a forum where everyone feels safe to participate and browse at all times. And this means that we would encourage some sense of responsibility and consideration when choosing avatars and signatures. We are aware that at an all boys' club, there are going to be a few people who insist on gazing upon attractive women (purely for artistic purposes, of course). These may be posted in the Looney Bin, suitably labeled NSFW (Not Safe For Work). However, unless you are planning on confining all of your posts to the Looney Bin, and adding NSFW as a prefix to your usernames, please use a modicum of restraint when selecting representative artwork.
We do have members who would like to be able to participate at work or from home where there are children present. It would be nice if those folks did not have to throw a towel over their screens every time certain members posted. Now, the usual argument is typically presented here, which is that you do have the option to turn off signatures and avatars. This is absolutely true, and a few members do choose this option. But this turns off signatures and avatars for to everyone, not just to totalperv34 (which is, by the way, a real username for someone who just subscribed to my youtube channel, and if anyone might know how to ban this person from my videos, I'd be grateful for the advice), which means that this member is now prohibited from getting to see anyone's signature/avatar. It seems that this should not be strictly necessary, if we could get everyone to agree to use a little maturity and consideration in their choices.
Keep in mind too, that you might eventually want to buy or sell something from another member, and you might look just slightly less trustworthy if you are sporting an avatar that promotes abject pornography or Satan worshipping.
Please consider the following when choosing artwork to represent your person:
1) Avoid images featuring nudity, partial nudity, or other offensive material. Realizing this is subjective, the rule of thumb that I personally apply is that if it's something that you can, say, see on most public beaches (and by public beach, I mean the stodgy, boring, American kind, where women wear tops *and* bottoms, and don't engage in any activity that requires barrier protection), we'll probably let it go. If it's something that's more appropriately confined to the bedroom, please leave it there. If it's something that you wouldn't want your grandmother, toddler, or Sunday School teacher to see, post it in the Looney Bin instead.
2) Avoid any racist images. I think that we all pretty much have a zero tolerance rule for that one.
3) Avoid any frankly violent images. We don't have much of a problem with that, so keep up the good work.
4) Avoid any images designed to mock any particular groups, in particular, homosexuals. I realize that most of the time, this is in good fun, but out of 30K members who like nice accessories, I'm fairly certain that a few of them probably also like other boys. This does not make them, in any way, less of a valuable member to RWI. So leave them alone, please.
That's it, at least for now. I'm sure that some of you will come up with something that we'll have to add to the list. So it's a work in progress.
In the meantime, the staff will endeavor to politely ask you to remove any pictures which violate these suggestions, so that you can do so of your own volition. However, it does retain the right to remove them for you, if necessary.
Thank you all for exercising good judgment!
The Staff of RWI
That being said, the good of the forum trumps the right of any particular individual to post something icky. We want this to be a forum where everyone feels safe to participate and browse at all times. And this means that we would encourage some sense of responsibility and consideration when choosing avatars and signatures. We are aware that at an all boys' club, there are going to be a few people who insist on gazing upon attractive women (purely for artistic purposes, of course). These may be posted in the Looney Bin, suitably labeled NSFW (Not Safe For Work). However, unless you are planning on confining all of your posts to the Looney Bin, and adding NSFW as a prefix to your usernames, please use a modicum of restraint when selecting representative artwork.
We do have members who would like to be able to participate at work or from home where there are children present. It would be nice if those folks did not have to throw a towel over their screens every time certain members posted. Now, the usual argument is typically presented here, which is that you do have the option to turn off signatures and avatars. This is absolutely true, and a few members do choose this option. But this turns off signatures and avatars for to everyone, not just to totalperv34 (which is, by the way, a real username for someone who just subscribed to my youtube channel, and if anyone might know how to ban this person from my videos, I'd be grateful for the advice), which means that this member is now prohibited from getting to see anyone's signature/avatar. It seems that this should not be strictly necessary, if we could get everyone to agree to use a little maturity and consideration in their choices.
Keep in mind too, that you might eventually want to buy or sell something from another member, and you might look just slightly less trustworthy if you are sporting an avatar that promotes abject pornography or Satan worshipping.
Please consider the following when choosing artwork to represent your person:
1) Avoid images featuring nudity, partial nudity, or other offensive material. Realizing this is subjective, the rule of thumb that I personally apply is that if it's something that you can, say, see on most public beaches (and by public beach, I mean the stodgy, boring, American kind, where women wear tops *and* bottoms, and don't engage in any activity that requires barrier protection), we'll probably let it go. If it's something that's more appropriately confined to the bedroom, please leave it there. If it's something that you wouldn't want your grandmother, toddler, or Sunday School teacher to see, post it in the Looney Bin instead.
2) Avoid any racist images. I think that we all pretty much have a zero tolerance rule for that one.
3) Avoid any frankly violent images. We don't have much of a problem with that, so keep up the good work.
4) Avoid any images designed to mock any particular groups, in particular, homosexuals. I realize that most of the time, this is in good fun, but out of 30K members who like nice accessories, I'm fairly certain that a few of them probably also like other boys. This does not make them, in any way, less of a valuable member to RWI. So leave them alone, please.
That's it, at least for now. I'm sure that some of you will come up with something that we'll have to add to the list. So it's a work in progress.
In the meantime, the staff will endeavor to politely ask you to remove any pictures which violate these suggestions, so that you can do so of your own volition. However, it does retain the right to remove them for you, if necessary.
Thank you all for exercising good judgment!
The Staff of RWI