To Boob or not to Boob.

[spazzychic]

Should people be allowed to have sexually explicit icons which cannot be cut for work safety? If you read your LJ at work, have you unfriended people due to explicit icon content?

Are there any icons/themes/content which should be banned?

As a note:

Since this is a public post, it should be noted that I am reading responses while on breaks at work so this is not a good forum for showing off your most offensive icons in response. Thanks :)

Comments

[mimerki.livejournal.com]

I tend to assume that if someone is close enough to my monitor to make out a sexually explicit 100x100 icon, they are too close to me and should back the fuck off. In the meantime, they can also act like a grown-up about it.

That said, I do know some people with no bloody sense and no understanding of what should go behind a cut. (Like pix of new nipple piercings. Huge pix of new nipple piercings.) I don't necessarily want anyone banned, but...

[spazzychic.livejournal.com]

My work computer also keeps a cache of the pics etc that have been displayed. While the chances are slim that the powers that be will be rifling around, I would have a hard time explaining cartoon nookie on my computer.

[mearn4d10.livejournal.com]

OMG, Icon LOVE! Can I have it?

[spazzychic.livejournal.com]

Sure :D

[mearn4d10.livejournal.com]

Huzzah! *looks up proper credit*

I so think that. Daily even. Right down to the *eyebrow waggle*

[mimerki.livejournal.com]

I tend to assume (perhaps wrongly) that icon-sized pix will be identified as such by our IT guys and that when they do the periodic smut-surfing-search they are looking for... well, the person who spends all day on the smut sites.

That said, my Geekery icon is my worst offender and will probably remain my worst offender (naked BSD daemon-girl). My Naughty icon is fully clothed.

[ironymaiden]

yes; where you read lj is your problem, as is who looks over your shoulder while you do it.
i've never had to deal with the icon issue, because i used to work at a place where lj was banned and currently i have my own office. i still try not to visit inappropriate websites there. i have issued a friendly reminder to someone who had a NSFW link with no warning.

[butterflysneeze.livejournal.com]

Last time I checked, LiveJournal was a privately-owned venture. The better question might be "Should people quit their whining and accept the terms of service if they want to use LJ?"

I hate people with the mentality that somebody owes them something. If they don't like the terms of service, they can leave. If you've got a paying account and you don't like the TOS, vote with your dollars.

[spazzychic.livejournal.com]

Makes sense. There's a whole bunch of breastfeeders which are angry right now because breastfeeding default icons are a cause for suspension...

[butterflysneeze.livejournal.com]

I'm aware of their self-righteous anger. They're welcome to have all the baby-boob icons they want as soon as they get their own server.

[princessgeek.livejournal.com]

Isn't the question whether breastfeeding icons are sexually explicit?

[spazzychic.livejournal.com]

I suppose so. It's a naked breast which is why it's a violation, but a child eating a corn dog would be just as explicit in an action standpoint. It's possible to show breastfeeding without the nipple.

[virdilak.livejournal.com]

It's the risk I you take when I you am are not being attentive to my your work and screwing around online, and if I you are not being mindful of my your surroundings, well, then that's my your own fault.

[spazzychic.livejournal.com]

Yes, good point. :)

[nfayre.livejournal.com]

I don't think any of my friends have sexually explicit icons. If they did, I'd definitely have to look at modifying my user specs...

Being on a government computer means that there could be someone monitoring what pops up on my screen. So I have to be careful of what sites I visit while here at work.

But yeah, I sort of think that since this blog allows minors that nudity in icons/themes etc should be controlled, or at least have an option where the image is locked if the user wishes. Maybe an extra check box in icon descriptions and then another box in preferences.

I don't think it should be banned, just that I, as a user, should have the option of refraining from viewing the images if I so choose.

[spazzychic.livejournal.com]

Seems like a good comprimise.

[chaoselemental.livejournal.com]

^the naughtiest one *I* have...

what, people have naked icons? damn, gotta get me one of those... :)

Actually I'm more iritated by the Mercury fliers that have the boobies on them. NOT behind a cut, FULL screen... yeah that's great for work surfing.

[spazzychic.livejournal.com]

I comment when I see those. Normally I get a flustered, belated "sorry!" and an LJ cut.

[ayelis.livejournal.com]

This one seems appropriate for this forum, in more ways than one. Oooh, baby!

[ayelis.livejournal.com]

Err... because... when all else fails... play some Katamari! ;)

[ayelis.livejournal.com]

A part of me thinks that "the workplace" should be less prissy and pansy and priggish and prim and prudish and puritanical... But that's just me. I mean, it's only a 100x100 icon. Not a lot of people even read the content on my icons. Case in point. Who would have known this icon was a reference to a song by Men Without Hats if I didn't point it out? I mean, you can barely make out the flashing skeletons, and who would have guessed I got those texture-fills from The Gimp (http://gimp.org)?

I know workplaces nowadays are awful square-toed and straight-laced, but who are the people who have made it that way? And who is judging? Who is judging?

[baeritone.livejournal.com]

To me, it's no one's responsibility to monitor his screen but himself. Odds are, most of us aren't supposed to be here on work time anyway, yet here we are. This is the risk we take, to some degree.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

I've unfriended a few people for EXTREMELY sexually explicit icons (one of a man shooting ropey strands of hot pearly jizz on a barbie doll, the other of a woman SERIOUSLY "chowing down" on another girl), for that exact reason of I don't want it on my computer screen at werk. I always let the person know it's no hard feelings and that I just can't take the risk and they seem fine with it :)

[craziecory.livejournal.com]

While at the Zoo in portland I got some pictures of Monkey Porn.

Been thinking about making it an icon.

its not offensive since it is in nature right?

[spazzychic.livejournal.com]

While it's not something I am terribly eager to see, I'm not offended.

[ayelis.livejournal.com]

They block chat at my work, and even so far as blocking GMail's GTalk service... But they don't block Livejournal. What am I to expect, but that I should blog how my day goes at work? If they don't block it, Blog it!

[thevirtualjim.livejournal.com]

So why are people reading LJ when they should be working?

[spazzychic.livejournal.com]

Because sometimes I am at work at times when I shouldn't be working. For example, breaks and lunches. The last couple of days have had my co-worker out sick so when I am on breaks and lunches I can't actually leave my desk in case someone calls... though I am not, in fact, supposed to be working.

But overall, because small sanity breaks are a good thing.