Racy Avatars - your input needed

[rainydrinkwater]

I think they sould not be too racy. Some of the classics weren't so bad, but it is getting out of hand.

I know for a fact there are female readers on this board. Granted, the amount of males far outwiegh the amount of females, and to be honest my concern is not as much about sensitivity issues, but rather this:

How would you guys feel if a female member here used an avatar of a dude with hid package hanging out?

Would feel comfortable to browse the forums at work? In front of your kids? We as a socety should be far beyond the age of justafiable double standards.

P.S I love, love, love and always will love the woman in Shao's avatar.

[PrairieDog]

I have to agree with three of my favourite posters .

I was thinking about the avatars the other day actuallly. I was like "wow, this site is starting to resemble some porn sites, I am surprised Dobber is allowing this"

Making people disable avatars is dumb IMO. Avatars are one way of identifying ourselves and each other and there is no reason we can't have avatars that everyone could view at work, school, etc.

JHM makes some good points about how you should go about it:

1. Ask for users to tone them down
2. If that doesn't work, warn them individually
3. Last resort - delete their avatars.

At the end of the day, this is a site about FANTASY HOCKEY and the avatars should reflect that. i have definitely enjoyed a whole bunch of these "racy" avatars but lately you haven't been able to read through one thread without coming across 3/4 naked girls on at least a couple of posts.

I agree with this 100%. Give people a chance to smarten up, give them one warning, then take action if needed.

(also, I do like changing my avatar once in a while, but it will always be Teemu in a Jets uni. I will keep the current one for a while, I like it. Have a few more ready to rotate in actually )

[Dutch]

I know for a fact there are female readers on this board. Granted, the amount of males far outwiegh the amount of females, and to be honest my concern is not as much about sensitivity issues, but rather this:

How would you guys feel if a female member here used an avatar of a dude with hid package hanging out?

Would feel comfortable to browse the forums at work? In front of your kids? We as a socety should be far beyond the age of justafiable double standards.

who cares, if women want to do avatars like that, it wouldn't matter a single bit.
As someone previously mentioned, the avatar by youngblood with mcguire being gay with crosby is MUCH more creepy....

[ericdaoust]

Despite what I said previously, I am actually indifferent on the issue. It doesn't bother me but if racy avatars can be removed in exchange for better business, then I don't think it's that big of a deal to just accept it and move on.

Nobody is being punished or banned.

[dyzfunctioned]

I think what people see as inappropriate will vary so much from user to user that really the only options are ban avatars all together, restrict avatars to hockey only, or leave it as is.

I'm sure there's people that might find my avatar as offensive but as was pointed out earlier in the thread, it's nothing you wouldn't see walking down the street, posted on billboards, seen on tv commercials and in magazines, etc.

While DY's avatar doesn't offend me in the least, I find it more offensive than the majority of avatars on this site. There will always be people who take offense to things that other people deem acceptable, hence my point that if something is going to be changed, either all avatars have to go or they have to be hockey only.

I personally don't see the need, I can think of 1, maybe 2 avatars that would be considered "crossing the line" and as a North American our whole idea of censorship baffles me in the first place. European kids see newspapers and commercials with completely topless women on a daily basis and it's not as if they're churning out any more convicts or perverts than we are.

As lanky so nicely put, this place has a certain atmosphere to it and restricting avatars would change that in my opinion.

However, as I said before if this is legitimately causing loss of business (though I see the only complaints coming from people at work (who with the abundance of smart phones these days, don't really have an excuse to complain. If you feel the need to browse during work and can't on your computer, use your phone. Bonus, it's even more discreet) and those saying children visit the site, in which case there's more pornography in an Axe commercial and if they're on the internet anyway I'm sure they've seen much worse) then of course there's justification in asking members to tone it down, but of course everyone will deem appropriateness differently.

[BleedCopperAndBlue]

As one member who might be considered to have a "racy avatar" I find that the option to disable them for those it disturbs works fine.

However, if it's truly impacting your livelihood and traffic to the site I'd have no issue changing my avatar or having "racy avatars" banned in general.

Like I said in the other thread, it's nothing that can't be found everywhere else on the internet and there is the option to disable them - but if they truly have a negative effect on the site (such as reducing traffic), then of course action is justified.

I agree 100%. I hate any kind of censorship but I love this site so much I woud have no problem changing my avatar.

[Dutch]

I think what people see as inappropriate will vary so much from user to user that really the only options are ban avatars all together, restrict avatars to hockey only, or leave it as is.

I'm sure there's people that might find my avatar as offensive but as was pointed out earlier in the thread, it's nothing you wouldn't see walking down the street, posted on billboards, seen on tv commercials and in magazines, etc.

While DY's avatar doesn't offend me in the least, I find it more offensive than the majority of avatars on this site. There will always be people who take offense to things that other people deem acceptable, hence my point that if something is going to be changed, either all avatars have to go or they have to be hockey only.

I personally don't see the need, I can think of 1, maybe 2 avatars that would be considered "crossing the line" and as a North American our whole idea of censorship baffles me in the first place. European kids see newspapers and commercials with completely topless women on a daily basis and it's not as if they're churning out any more convicts or perverts than we are.

As lanky so nicely put, this place has a certain atmosphere to it and restricting avatars would change that in my opinion.

However, as I said before if this is legitimately causing loss of business (though I see the only complaints coming from people at work (who with the abundance of smart phones these days, don't really have an excuse to complain. If you feel the need to browse during work and can't on your computer, use your phone. Bonus, it's even more discreet) and those saying children visit the site, in which case there's more pornography in an Axe commercial and if they're on the internet anyway I'm sure they've seen much worse) then of course there's justification in asking members to tone it down, but of course everyone will deem appropriateness differently.

you, my friend, have hit a homerun with this post.

EDIT: dyzfunctioned, just tried giving you some rep, but it says I can't just yet... Sorry dude, but you deserve a ton of it with this post

[rainydrinkwater]

who cares, if women want to do avatars like that, it wouldn't matter a single bit.
As someone previously mentioned, the avatar by youngblood with mcguire being gay with crosby is MUCH more creepy....

Saying the Mcguire/Crosby avatar is Much more creepy, let alone relatable to what is goin on here is beyond laughable.

Dean's avatar might be considered racy or creepy by a non hockey fan or someone who has zero sense of humor. Whoever brought that up is just grasping for anything to strengthen an arguement. To anyone who is a hockey fan and has heard how Mcguire develops man crushes to the max on certain players would applaud the genius of Dean's avatar.

I don't think there is anything wrong with yours Dutch...or a couple more (Shao, LeTreffle etc.) Those are still on this side of decency, IMO. But some of them are out of hand now, as far as this site is concearned.

And you say you wouldn't care if a woman put up a comparable avatar of a dude, and if it was one like yours I would believe it, but if it was one of the motion ones where the guy is basically rubbing and showing you his junk, I don't think your tone, or the tone most members would be the same.
(I call bullshit on this one)

[Instant Karma]

Wow! This is a great thread for viewing racy avatars!

[Dutch]

Saying the Mcguire/Crosby avatar is Much more creepy, let alone relatable to what is goin on here is beyond laughable.

Dean's avatar might be considered racy or creepy by a non hockey fan or someone who has zero sense of humor. Whoever brought that up is just grasping for anything to strengthen an arguement. To anyone who is a hockey fan and has heard how Mcguire develops man crushes to the max on certain players would applaud the genius of Dean's avatar.

I don't think there is anything wrong with yours Dutch...or a couple more (Shao, LeTreffle etc.) Those are still on this side of decency, IMO. But some of them are out of hand now, as far as this site is concearned.

And you say you wouldn't care if a woman put up a comparable avatar of a dude, and if it was one like yours I would believe it, but if it was one of the motion ones where the guy is basically rubbing and showing you his junk, I don't think your tone, or the tone most members would be the same.
(I call bullshit on this one)

I could care less if a girl put up a guy. You are not required to look at an avatar when browsing a forum... In Europe we are much more open in general than here in North America. Except for the fact, that in North America kids know more than their parents wish they did. No matter how you bend it, there is no pornographic avatars on this website, and if there is please let me know so I can see what you consider pornographic.

The mcguirre avatar to me is much more creepy than beautiful women are. However, it's not even close to being offensive. It's just a personal opinion. I know exactly how mcguire has these mancrushes, and that its funny.

Guys like hockey, women, beer, and cars. So I find it hard to believe that avatars containing any of those topics is deemed offensive on a website aimed at guys. If there is a problem because you are looking here at work hours, than you should probably get your ass back to work anyway , and maybe look at this site when you get home from work.

[Flyer Fan]

Avatars? Who cares? Yeah, they're neat, but nobody comes here for the Avatars Dobber, so do what you've got to do to grow your site!

We'll get over it.

....but I'm thinking it might be a good idea to offer some type of on-line crisis counselling for those of us traumatized by what is sure to be a such a dramatic change to the Dobber site experience.

And oh yeah, you should probably ban all New Jersey Devils based Avatars as well, ...as it stands now, it's only a matter of time until someone posts a pic of a scantily clad Lou Lamourillo, ...and no one wants to see that.

[mister_mcgoo]

I'm mostly with Lanky on this one, I see this community very much as me and my buds hangin out at the sports bar watching all the games on the big TVs and sharing some beers and some laughs. What do guys at sports bars talk about besides hockey? They talk about the hot ass or rack on the waitress as she delivers pitchers and piles of hot wings, am I right? So I say leave it alone but ask our users to keep it PG-13...in otherwords, if you wanna post a pic of your favorite hottie, by all means do so, but keep it tasteful and better yet get a new one related to hockey! I really don't want to get into censorship type shit, I think we've got a great group of guys here and all you need to do is ask them to tone it down a bit and I can't see anyone not respecting that.

[lanky522]

Saying the Mcguire/Crosby avatar is Much more creepy, let alone relatable to what is goin on here is beyond laughable.

Dean's avatar might be considered racy or creepy by a non hockey fan or someone who has zero sense of humor. Whoever brought that up is just grasping for anything to strengthen an arguement. To anyone who is a hockey fan and has heard how Mcguire develops man crushes to the max on certain players would applaud the genius of Dean's avatar.

I don't think there is anything wrong with yours Dutch...or a couple more (Shao, LeTreffle etc.) Those are still on this side of decency, IMO. But some of them are out of hand now, as far as this site is concearned.

And you say you wouldn't care if a woman put up a comparable avatar of a dude, and if it was one like yours I would believe it, but if it was one of the motion ones where the guy is basically rubbing and showing you his junk, I don't think your tone, or the tone most members would be the same.
(I call bullshit on this one)

I was the one who brought that up.

I used it as an example to say that people's ideals of "appropriateness" vary wildly... and this is true. I would scroll past dean's avatar much quicker than any other on the site today.

I frickin' creeps me out out. I have no problem with homosexuals... but I don't really think that it's something that should be "flaunted." You are the way you are... that's fine. Just don't put it in my face you know (for the record, I feel the same way about people that "flaunt" their heterosexuality).

That said. I also think it's Dean's right to use it as his avatar. I certainly always know he's posted something. If i couldn't live with it, i'd block avatars... but i can live with it... so i don't.

And yeah... if a female poster wanted to use something like THIS as an avatar... she'd be more than welcome to do so IMO, but it wouldn't likely endear her to the heavily male audience we have here.

It's like going to a bar with your friends to talk hockey, and bringing up fabric softener. Nothing prevents you from doing it... by all means, go ahead... but you'll get some funny looks.

Bringing up hot girls at a bar with your friends while talking about sports is not so out of place...

[letnry]

I think it started to become a problem when avatar size restrictions were raised. When it was a 50x50 image you could barely see anything anyway, now they are much more prominent part of the post.

By the way, is my avatar considered racy? This is a legit question.

[Thai Domi]

Maybe it's a generational thing, but I'll admit I limit my access to this forum whenever I'm around my kids and other family, colleagues at work, women, the public at large...

It's a smaller point, or another aspect of the same point, perhaps, but I think these avatars show a lack of judgment and I'll admit that I tend to skip or discount whatever message goes with them. I'm here for the commentary which is unmatched on the interwebs as far as I can tell. A boobshot for an avatar is just so obvious I can't help but wonder if the person posting has anything to say that isn't just as obvious. Just my two cents.