Racy Avatars - your input needed

[MaxPower]

Honestly? In my own personal opinion (I don't want to be flamed for this, so I say it up front: opinions are like @$$holes, everyone has one and most are full of $h!t.) these "racy" avatars are sad, juvenile, and pathetic. Avatars are meant to be graphical representations of you as a person. Mine is my pool team name and logo, as that is what I am here for.

99.9% of y'all with the "racy" avatars are not hot babes with big cans. I do understand it from the viewpoint of "I'm a fan of hot babes with big cans," much in the way I might put a Flyers logo, or a picture of Bobby Clarke smiling with no teeth...but seriously? Just because porn is 98% of the internet doesn't mean you have to drag it into the last 2%.

Does a rant falling on deaf ears make a sound if nobody cares? <sigh>

m.

[A Watch]

I think the girl with beer taps as nipples went a little far.....

[HockeyHobo]

As Dobber has said in the beggining there were a few avatars that left just enough to the imagination but they are getting stronger as time goes by. There are a couple of positions here:

Dobbers business - At the end of the day this is a business to Dobber and it pays his bills. He has grown this from the humble roots of an idea into one of, if not the, best fantasy hockey sites available. That doesn't happen by accident, Dobber has put a lot of time and effort into the site to get it where it is today and to create a community (more on them in a sec) that wants to come back time and again, whilst drawing in new members. If a few avatars are going to put people off using the site you can understand his concern as it could be costing him business.

The community - There are a lot of members that have been here from the start, or a long time, and i am sure they will remember the site from it's humble begginings and have seen a fair few changes over the last five years. They have a personal affection for the site and, I'm sure, wouldn't like to see anything detract from the site, whilst keeping the easy feel, discussion over a beer feel of the forums.

I'm not sure what i'm rambling on about but the way I see it is if dobber feels an avatar is likely to cost him memebers he has the right to ask the owner of said avatar to tone it down a bit. It's not censorship just a mutual respect for everyone who comes to the site.

[Instant Karma]

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

Agreed. The only people who would be offended by DY's avatar are Crosby and PM. Probably just Crosby.

[PrairieDog]

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

Sexy? Yes.
Racy? No.

[Shao]

The responses and the fact that Dobber asked for our opinion is what makes this a great community.

Most of us are okay with whatever decision, I am too. I come here for the community but it is a business. I am not sure if there is a perfect solution.

A poll like this, although nice to be asked, probably won't reflect the majority and as the results show, won't strongly reflect one decision over another.

I think it was good, but you probably have to go with a gut feeling. Would a compromise work? For how long? My gut feeling is that a compromise would work. I know if you banned me, my family would have to have an intervention for my withdrawal.

Most of us feel this is like a hang-out, and would want to keep it respectable in order to continue. The compromise should work in conjunction with the filter.

If mine is too racy, so be it. This community is very respectful and I have faith that that should be enough.

[Dobber]

Wow, it's been a while since I've started working for myself that I forgot what it's like working for an office/corporation. Just clarify something for me: It's ok to read fantasy hockey sites at work but not ok to read fantasy sites with racy women on them? I'm not trying to be a smart ass, asking that as a question cause corporations should be more worried about how much man hours they lose while they're employees check out this site.

As for kids - I pray and hope that this site is the worst thing that kids see on the net.

Like Lanky said, it's your site, Dobber, you got to do what's right for you but I like old school Dobber. But again, when it comes to what puts bread on your table, you do what's right for you, not what other people like me want. I think 99.8% of the people would keep coming back no matter your decision here.

smack - your point is valid...but not really the heart of the matter. You are referring to people reading over your shoulder. In which case, yes, a fantasy hockey site is just as frowned upon as pics of girls in bikinis.

The heart of the matter, however, is this - a co-working walking by from 10 feet away. Words in a forum with small hockey pictures seen in the peripheral of said co-worker go unnoticed. Girl in bikini or a motion avatar with boobs bouncing....yes, that grabs the attention. Try it yourself and see. You turn your head and notice when you see skin in your peripheral from a distance.
Point: it is easier to sneak looking through a fantasy hockey forum without the half-naked women than it is to sneak looking through the same forum without all that skin.


Hopefully I've addressed this particular point once and for all, as an amazing amount of people have brushed this off uttering similar words as you did.

[Instant Karma]

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

It certainly is. It's the heart of the issue, as I see it. For example, I'd consider joos' and Shao's avatars racy. However, I don't think they cross the line of being in bad taste. In fact, its precisely because they tiptoe right up to that line with a wink and a nudge that makes them so genius.

It would never have occurred to me that DY's avatar was offensive to anyone. I just thought it was hysterical. I would have made it myself if I had thought of it. If DY had considered that it might be offensive to someone, he might not have created it in the first place. That would have been a loss, IMO.

So people are going to have differing opinions of what's racy or offensive and what's not.

I would say Dobber or the admins should keep an eye on the issue and bring it to the individual member's attention if a given avatar is out of line. It is his site, after all.

[Dobber]

What can be said that wasn't added...

First, I think the 3 headed poll won't give a clear answer because to me it seems the three options are: don't remove, remove completely & plea to remove. Therefore options 2 and 3 cater to the same means just a different approach to it. Meaning those members wanting to rid of them are torn between the two options.

I know, I'm adding the two totals for those options in my head, but like to see the breakdown nonetheless.

I like the idea mentioned in the thread of expanding the avatar screening option to remove all avatars and/or remove adult avatars only. If that was the case, we wouldn't need this discussion.

Screening is not an option. A $1000 programming job, a pain in the butt, and just not worth the time in general.

edit: I beleive creating this thread was sort of a plea itself because if you gotta raise the topic obviously it has crossed the line. You can already see the results of it with some members ridding themselves of their racy avatars.

You see right through me
Yes, consider this thread a warning and a plea. But I also wanted the input and feedback in case I was reading the situation wrong.

[Dutch]

smack - your point is valid...but not really the heart of the matter. You are referring to people reading over your shoulder. In which case, yes, a fantasy hockey site is just as frowned upon as pics of girls in bikinis.

The heart of the matter, however, is this - a co-working walking by from 10 feet away. Words in a forum with small hockey pictures seen in the peripheral of said co-worker go unnoticed. Girl in bikini or a motion avatar with boobs bouncing....yes, that grabs the attention. Try it yourself and see. You turn your head and notice when you see skin in your peripheral from a distance.
Point: it is easier to sneak looking through a fantasy hockey forum without the half-naked women than it is to sneak looking through the same forum without all that skin.


Hopefully I've addressed this particular point once and for all, as an amazing amount of people have brushed this off uttering similar words as you did.

To be honest with you, I don't think this is any of your problem to begin with. It's the people at their worksites that would get in trouble if they got caught doing other things than work. So why are you so concerned about it. It's not taking your business awway. It will just shift the visitation hours to your site from 9 to 5, to after hours....

But that's just the way I see that point.

[littleranger]

To be honest with you, I don't think this is any of your problem to begin with. It's the people at their worksites that would get in trouble if they got caught doing other things than work. So why are you so concerned about it. It's not taking your business awway. It will just shift the visitation hours to your site from 9 to 5, to after hours....

But that's just the way I see that point.

Let’s be serious...how many people actually work the full 9-5 aside from Dwight Schrute or Donald Trump...it’s not realistic to think that everyone doesn’t have some downtime...and its just that these pictures make the forum lose credibility and will in fact lose frequent posters.

While losing posters between 9 and 5, people will lose the up to the minute hockey news that they come here for as the information database (community) will be smaller and smaller...cause not many people will have a reason to go on the site if they aren’t getting quick and insightful responses. Also, people will find alternative fantasy hockey sites with updates as often and their community will grow.

As you said people will shift the visitation times...but people have lives at night and go out or watch the game or spend time with their fams, etc...it just seems like these pics are more of a hindrance than anything...

[Old_Smokie]

During break times etc at a lot of jobs that have internet access you are allowed to visit sites etc. I understand that people have right to censorship and whatever but is it really that big a deal? If the guy wants us to tame down our avatars it's not like he is taking away our right to vote or anything. But then again, there will always likely be people who like to blow anything out of proportion.

[ddp]

Haven't changed my Roenick avatar in years! How's my new one boys?!

[Dutch]

Let’s be serious...how many people actually work the full 9-5 aside from Dwight Schrute or Donald Trump...it’s not realistic to think that everyone doesn’t have some downtime...and its just that these pictures make the forum lose credibility and will in fact lose frequent posters.

While losing posters between 9 and 5, people will lose the up to the minute hockey news that they come here for as the information database (community) will be smaller and smaller...cause not many people will have a reason to go on the site if they aren’t getting quick and insightful responses. Also, people will find alternative fantasy hockey sites with updates as often and their community will grow.

As you said people will shift the visitation times...but people have lives at night and go out or watch the game or spend time with their fams, etc...it just seems like these pics are more of a hindrance than anything...

Its not that I mean literally 9 to 5 customers, I mean people will visit when they are not working. At the end of the day we all gotta set our line ups, and we all visit dobberhockey to help us with that. So losing business over some avatars is not a valid argument in my opinion.

[lanky522]

smack - your point is valid...but not really the heart of the matter. You are referring to people reading over your shoulder. In which case, yes, a fantasy hockey site is just as frowned upon as pics of girls in bikinis.

The heart of the matter, however, is this - a co-working walking by from 10 feet away. Words in a forum with small hockey pictures seen in the peripheral of said co-worker go unnoticed. Girl in bikini or a motion avatar with boobs bouncing....yes, that grabs the attention. Try it yourself and see. You turn your head and notice when you see skin in your peripheral from a distance.
Point: it is easier to sneak looking through a fantasy hockey forum without the half-naked women than it is to sneak looking through the same forum without all that skin.Hopefully I've addressed this particular point once and for all, as an amazing amount of people have brushed this off uttering similar words as you did.

I dunno... i guess i just don't like that you'd be pandering to people that probably shouldn't be looking at this site in that situation anyways...

why are we encouraging people to "sneak looking through a fantasy hockey forum?"

Seems to me, if you have to sneak through the forum, it shouldn't matter whether there's pictures or not... if you don't want to get caught, you don't have the webmaster eliminate the pic's, you stop yourself from taking the risk.

I don't understand the disconnect here. How about some personal responsibility?