Comments on: R Rated Avatars

By: mythago

mythago — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 01:19:14 +0000

Deciding what goes on your own blog is not really “censorship”. If the government bans certain icons, or if you are not allowed to place the icons you like on your own blog, that is censorship.

I have no idea if this is technically possible, but it would be interesting to put something like an ICRA tag with many flags that could be checked incoming - so that if you don’t want sexually explicit icons popping up you simply tell the widget not to display those.

By: RT Cunningham

RT Cunningham — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 10:48:04 +0000

I removed the MyBlogLog widget for three reasons: 1) What the previous commenter said, (2) The visitors weren’t updating, and 3) My page kept hanging. It’s a shame the owners won’t take the time to police it. I foresee a mass exodus from that service.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 08:23:19 +0000

First I do not think he was specific about what he means as R Rated because R rated is exactly what he meant. You know, Nudity, Excessive violence, or otherwise Inappropriate for general audiences. I must totally agree that this is an issue and I have already taken the step to remove mybloglog widget from my site as well as one other like it. What disgusted me is when I was looking at a website maintained by an 11 year old I found a nude photo avatar with links to porn related pages from its profile. The whole 40 or so viewers mybloglog has brought in is not worth the loss of users my site would suffer from keeping the widget in place so it is gone. Thank you for this post. Now I know I am not the only one.

By: Rian

Rian — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 18:58:08 +0000

I had (and have) the same problem. First of all, the mybloglog sidebar doesnt seem to be updating. Ive had the same people listed for weeks. And yea, one of those is an R-rated, borderline X-rates gravatar that I’d like gone.

By: Jason Bartholme

Jason Bartholme — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:01:06 +0000

This is just one of MyBLogLog’s many problems that can be solved by an ounce of moderating.

By: Caroline

Caroline — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:23:48 +0000

I simply use Gravatar, which means I don’t have any such problems. Seems smarter to me.

By: azrin

azrin — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:19:42 +0000

I just don’t bother about them, cos I can’t get anyone to add me to a community

Some of em…are really a cause for nightmares.

Azrin @ http://www.azrin.net

By: charlie

charlie — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:46:13 +0000

didn’t even notice it until i’ve come across your post. i do see what you mean. haven’t seen anything with my profile yet, luckily.

By: fudge.org » Blog Archive » MyBlogLog: YmMV (Your morality May Vary)

fudge.org » Blog Archive » MyBlogLog: YmMV (Your morality May Vary) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 21:33:31 +0000

[...] that I have some direct experience with on my own site. One such post was regarding so-called “R-Rated” avatars. It goes like this, you are looking to get some clicks so you sign up for MyBlogLog and put [...]

By: Jay

Jay — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 21:18:25 +0000

The key thing with MyBlogLog for my website isn’t so much the “R-rated” visitors but the default profile page for me that included “Hot In My Communities” — pure link spam until I removed a few popular DJ communities and a few that were from the click count add functionality of MyBlogLog. So, now I’m back to pure geek/nerdy links and less hot young barely legal stuff.

YmMV (Your morality May Vary)

By: Matthew Jabs

Matthew Jabs — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 21:16:55 +0000

Although I haven’t came across any “R” rated (meaning nudity) MyBlogLog avatars, some are definitely suggestive.

I do know that some people obviously use these images to try & draw traffic. I think this tactic is kind of underhanded, but like you said, you can’t police everyone & everything.

I haven’t deemed it a problem yet, and I run eJabs.com which is definitely a family friendly website.

By: WeblogToolsCollection EspaÃ±ol » Blog Archive » Avatares Clase R

WeblogToolsCollection EspaÃ±ol » Blog Archive » Avatares Clase R — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:36:08 +0000

[...] [Entrada traducida. Original] [...]

By: Improving Online Communities « KarmaWeb

Improving Online Communities « KarmaWeb — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 10:18:47 +0000

[...] all the success came a number of people looking use MyBlogLog for financial gains. From R-Rated avatars to people pretending to be somebody else to other commercial avatars like Mr. Online Pharmacy, [...]

By: theUg

theUg — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 05:58:52 +0000

Iâ€™d argue it is all moot point, actually. In that MBL is next to useless in my opinion.

Who cares who came over and read you? Yea, itâ€™d be nice to show off if, say, Zeldman dropped by, or Huffington took a look at the crap you write. But the better way to build a rep is to write good stuff, and then established people will read it and link to it, giving you some credibility.

If rep is not a question, who needs to know that the lady with her kitty read you, or whether the baby on an avatar cute or dead, which way the cross is turned et cetera?

By: Ajay

Ajay — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 05:32:48 +0000

I’m entering this quite a bit late, but its a complaint I got from few of my friends who asked me why I have “obscene” images on my blog. It took me a while to figure out what they were talking about.

I’m thinking of taking out the MBL code that displays the avatars, because it is slowing down the loading quite a bit.
It’s not as fast as it was earlier.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 04:34:14 +0000

Petit, I would hardly say his reason was silly. It’s a fact that different cultures have different sensitivities. But trying to impose your definition of “R-Rated” by asking someone else to cater to your definition and define an “opt-out” setting is very silly.

By: Petit

Petit — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:44:09 +0000

Hi Mark. It’s worth discussing.
Jonathan ( jturn ). I think you miised the mark ( pun intended ).
Yes Swedes and Iraninans may rate images differently, and you may fancy R-rated avatars ;), even if the reason you give is just a bit silly.
The point is not a matter of overall censorship, it is just not doable. But on your own blog, you’re the master and you get rid of what ever you don’t like. If you don’t want the XYZ-rated stuff to show up on your blog, you can ask some service like MyBlogLog to provide an opt out setting.

By: Kyle Eslick

Kyle Eslick — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:11:50 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. This is one thing Gravatar did right over MBL by rating avatars.

I’ve made use of MBL’s reporting feature a few times to report these avatars that I feel are inappropriate and don’t want on my site.

I may eventually remove my widget.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:45:39 +0000

If you have readers that are that sensitive or impressionable, what are they doing on the internet in the first place??

By: Bethany

Bethany — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:00:02 +0000

Great post, Mark. I think keeping your blog appropriate is not only your right, but your responsibility to your readers who trust you.