I would suggest that they either shouldn’t be surfing the net at work, OR, in the event they work somewhere that allows personal internet use, they refrain from clicking links in any thread that’s even slightly NSFW.
Of course, that’s far too sensible for anyone here to see as a reasonable viewpoint, though…
Your point is valid, but there is a situation where a broken link may be desired in a non-work environment. Suppose you are browsing with a laptop in a public place, and would prefer onlookers don’t see embarrassing pictures.
Or for that matter, browsing at home with your grandchildren or nieces and nephews running in and out of the room.
A Monkey With a Gun, bummer that you went about this the way that you did. There could have been productive discussion in worthwhile review of this particular board policy. The mod-baiting sunk any chance of that.
I am completely with you on the nature of your initial critique. I would have liked to see it lead to a better discussion. Martini Enfield made the case well.
A Monkey With a Gun, the broken link / two-click rule is well established board policy. There is no discussion to be held as to whether or not it is against the rules to violate board policy.
What could be valuable would be to discuss whether this particular policy is a good one / necessary one or not. Such a discussion might not lead to a change of the rules, but we could at least have gotten some good on-topic dialog with the mods.
I’ve always (I think) observed this particular rule, but I know I’ve often thought it a silly rule in the specific instance of posting in a Thread that specifically addresses NSFW subject matter as laid out by the OP and the Thread title.
Sort of the way an OP, or Thread title, can be sufficient to warn about unboxed spoilers in Cafe Society. We generally consider it courteous to box spoilers, but when the very topic of a particular Thread calls for details about a particular work, when the OP specifically requests information that, upon being presented, will “spoil” the work being discussed, the onus is upon the reader to avoid the Thread if avoidance of spoilers is desired.
It’s just silly to set up a situation in which the full text of every response has to be placed in a spoiler box.
Martini Enfield makes an excellent point in that clicking on a Thread, the topic of which is NSFW, the reader has already made the “First Click”.
Note: Yes, I realize that current Board policy applies the broken link / two-click rule regardless of the topic of the Thread.
I mean to discuss whether or not it should be the case that the policy extend as far as that.
Two clicks and/or copying and pasting broken links is an annoyance.
It is a minor annoyance, one well worth putting up with in deference to common courtesy in general discussion threads.
It seems to me, though, that it is an unnecessary annoyance and a preferably avoidable annoyance in the case of discussions wherein the very topic of the discussion is warning enough.
An on-topic link, with the subject matter of the link mentioned in the post wherein the link is posted, should not be treated as if it were the same as RickRolling. There’s no “gotcha ya” going on here.
As to protecting readers from “accidentally clicking on a link”, really? Really?
I’ve never “accidentally clicked” on a link ever in my life. Am the only one who amounts to somewhat more than a cyber-Jerry Lewis? Who are these people “accidentally clicking” on links? Doesn’t the person doing the clicking have a certain amount of responsibility in this?
I would be surprised to see a change in board policy over this but, mods, don’t I make at least a good point or two? C’mon, you want to agree with me, don’t you?