2y ago

The Anti-NSFW measures have gone a bit far...

So let me start off by saying that I recognize that there was initially a genuine problem with people who didn't want NSFW content being exposed to it.

Some of this was due to the fact that not all content was being correctly flagged as NSFW, and some of it was because a lot of users didn't realize that individual users can choose to completely block an entire instance - which is not only a very easy and fast solution, but also does not require an all-or-nothing approach of defederating from NSFW instances.

A number of changes were made, but some of those lingering changes have meant that people who do want to see NSFW content are not because:

Even having subscribed to several NSFW subs, they are effectively completely missing from my feed.
Most NSFW thumbnails are blurred.

Both of these behaviors should not be occurring if a user has chosen in their settings to NOT hide NSFW content.

However, I will also say that the blurred state is something that deserves its own user setting (i.e. so that a user can choose to NOT hide NSFW, but still want them blurred or not) - preferably with the granularity to set it for various sub-types of NSFW (e.g. porn, gore, etc...).

73 comments

I don't think it went too far. Not exposing people accidentally to NSFW content takes priority over giving people a better experience consuming NSFW content. If you want to consume NSFW content head over to an instance that focuses on NSFW content. For example, lemmynsfw.com will fulfill all your NSFW needs.
That's the advantage of the fediverse, you can have different instances focusing on different types of content. And having the main sites of kbin.social or lemmy.world focus on Non-NSFW content will make the entire fediverse easier to advertise to the public.
- Should be user's choice. Have it enabled by default, but with a possibility to turn it off.
  
  Nope. Content is mirrored and hosted locally, so it's the admin's choice and responsibility.
  Moreover, listening to choruses of "individual choice" are how you end up providing a server for people who feel no responsibility to their neighbours and communities. Structural issues require more than "Fuck you, I can do what I want."
  You can choose to use a different instsnce if you don't like what the admin's doing. Or you can start your own. That's how you can do what you want.
  Edit: I do love the downvotes from the "I can do what to want" crowd, knowing that they're also the "my property, my rules" crowd. Except when they're the ones using someone else's shit, of course.
  It's not a coherent ideology.
- If your solution is to go to a different website instead of subscribing from here and having it served to me here, then what is the point of federation? (Just to clarify I totally understand why people wouldn’t want to be served nsfw when they didn’t opt into it and I don’t mind a bit of an overcorrection for the meantime. I know kbin blew up fast and this can be an expected growing pain that will eventually be worked out)
  
  That's the entire point of the fediverse, if you don't like how content is served to you in one instance, you move to another instance. I am not heading over to lemmynsfw.com and complaining about how consuming SFW content is difficult over there either. You can still consume either content on either platform if you want to but having the two main instances, which currently are kbin.social and lemmy.world, focus on SFW content and neglecting NSFW content makes perfect sense.
  Many people are going to use kbin in public and then not having NSFW content pop up on accident is super important. And while user customization is always a nice thing to have, I can totally understand that the devs of kbin currently have other priorities. And so taking the more drastic approach is perfectly fine.
  
  Federation doesn't mean everything. Each server is allowed to choose how they want to federate, who they want to federate with, and what features they want to support for their users. The entire point is to make it easier to migrate servers, not that servers are discouraged from running how they want.
  If you want nsfw primarily, then join a server that values that. They will choose to federate with other nsfw servers. They will choose to include better features for nsfw content. Complaining about the lack of nsfw features here is like complaining about the lack of English federation on a French server.
  You aren't paying for anything here. You don't get to dictate how a server is run nor what the developers focus on as far as features. Disagreement is fine but the power you hold is the ability to change servers.
  
  You should become accustomed to having multiple accounts, ones for different instances, because this is the fediverse and essentially just semi-interlinked forums. If you want forum specific content that is generally considered spicy, go to that forum directly rather than complain that every other forum not handle your need for spicy content in an effective way for all parties.
  This isnt some faceless megacorp. You are so used to one source for all your content due to reddit, but you should not expect one instance to provide you with all your desired content. Can you imagine how many man hours need to be put into effectively handling spicy content, across all instances? Or, you can just go to the spicy content forums.
  Yes, there is a need for better handling multiple accounts seamlessly, its definitely under development in several apps. In the meantime it's just something to deal with.
- I really don't understand why they don't just join a NSFW instance and be done with it. That's exactly the point of an instance: focusing on meta interests. On top of that those instances are already up and running. It's not as if they had to do it from scratch.
  Why would you inflict this on people who don't want it? There is an adoption risk, there is a legal risk...It's not worth it! Why would we take the risk of being defederated by big federations or big names just so a bunch of you can spread more NSFW?
  There is a toggle dedicated for it, which means it's a point of contention. Go to a safe space, to an instance where there is no contention. Use the fediverse.
- I was told that the advantage of the fediverse was that I could browse and interact with the entirety of the fediverse from one instance and one account. I dont need nor want to be "protected" from what is considered "harmfull" by a bunch of people making decisions in my name at any given moment.
  Now, I understand that controll over federation is one of the advantages of the fediverse, just not the one I am looking for. Is there a kbin instance with an ethos focused on "user choice" when it comes to defederating?
  Better to switch now than later when Im more attached to this instance.
Yeah I would like to not hide NSFW content but I would also like to blur it by default.
- And if it's a user setting, which is my preference, then everyone can decide for themselves whether or not it's enabled.
On most platforms the problem with nsfw is that it upsets advertisers. If we dont have to appease them, what is the problem here? I dont think we should automatically validate a puritanical approach here.
- It's not just advertisers. It's also the payment processing companies, the bible-thumping firebrands, etc. Plus, there's laws to consider. If every NSFW pic isn't positively identified as being of a legal adult who is legally competent and legally licensed to share that content, then you have to assume that it's all minors and revenge. If you aren't legally verifying that every possible user or viewer who can see that comment is also a legal adult, you must assume that your content is being displayed to children. When you have those assumptions in mind (which are also the government's assumptions btw), you absolutely can't have that on your server or your user's computers. If there's any hope of this getting to a point of profit without fully deanonymizing every poster and every user, porn is poison.
- Personally, I think NSFW stuff is an important part of a community, but I also recognize that allowing a community to be overrun with NSFW stuff usually makes it into a NSFW community, not simply a community that allows NSFW stuff. Blurred thumbnails seem to me a good compromise.
  
  There is no reason why blurred thumbnails can't easily be made into a user-selectable feature. That makes everyone happy.
The correct way is to have an nsfw flag on magazines and as a flag standard on all fediverse post metadata, not suggest the magazines on all, let people make whatever they want, make sure it's marked nsfw if it is nsfw, and have true/false checkbox settings in client app and linked to home-instance profile settings: show nsfw posts on all, show nsfw posts on subscribed, blur nsfw pictures on all, blur on all, blur on subscribed, blur everywhere. Then you need to have per instance content configs that default to all disabled that you could enable if you want to control for specific instances. And if you aren't logged in, blur everything by default and probably hide nsfw posts everywhere by default.
Really it's not that hard. I could draw up model schemas and wireframes if you have no idea what I'm talking about or what to build. Probably have to see what it is currently first though if you want it compatible or conventionally the same.
It should all be default hide if not logged in, and have it all be logged in client settings saved on the home instance that the client account is on, mirrored and synced to client apps.
Apps should be number one priority for this stuff, with existing for profit platform replacement instance framework/apps coming soon, ideally there could be universal fediverse apps that integrate modules of specific ux for different types of fediverse apps (mastodon vs kbin) so that it all makes sense. Then, just have tabs within the universal app that even just containerize existing apps but passthrough data. I don't know what this stuff is on, kotlin, java, rust, whatever, i just wanna search for an instance and then search for content on that instance. Load instances the same way you join discord servers. Hell, just make a discord-like server app that people can run, have auth and whitelist but is federated, and people can closet host their own low-bandwidth "fedDIScORD" server instance that uses fediverse accounts and chatlogs and hosts whatever quality voip you want.
I will say I'm very happy with the changes. Not more than once I was jump scared by a big anime shlong on a girl while browsing on my commute. Glad that whatever has changed that it's much more functional now
- so true lmao
- so true lmaoo
Is the NSFW thumbnails being blurred really a big problem? I think you can mouse over them without clicking and they reveal.
- It is if you want the ability to scan down the page and decide what links you're interested in by using the thumbnail.
  If you are interested in text posts, it makes sense to scan the titles. If you are interested in images, it makes sense to scan the thumbnails.
  Having them blurred adds extra work and is an extra annoyance - and since there is an individual user-level setting for whether or not you want to see NSFW content, it makes no sense to mandate the blurring.
  
  Also, mouseover is not an easily doable action on mobile / touch-based interfaces.
  
  I'm sure @ernest will add your porn features. He's the moderator of several porn subs here. But you need to relax dude. This server went from nothing to exploding in a week. There's one developer and he does this as a side gig. Maybe he'll pivot to full time now but it'll take a bit. It you can't wait, other servers have been built with more porn features. Just use one of those, or use both. But overall, calm your expectations.
  
  Doesn't the fact that they're blurred tell you that it's NSFW and therefore what you're looking for?
Isn't the nsfw blur from the enhancement script? and has a toggle?
What changes are you referring to?

73 comments