First off, I'm quite late to the party here I've been trying to read the whole thread before posting and finally just caught up to it. And second yea I'll be posting things that have already been said but I want to state my opinion also and I feel I should be able to.
I took part in that thread, I didn't have an avatar with boobs in it but I asked for one. I personally thought it was funny. Am I in the minority of women who don't have a problem with guys looking at girls in bikinis/tight tops/tight shorts/barely any clothing/barely being covered? Probably. And that's fine with me. I personally don't see any reason to get uptight about it. Women are beautiful in many ways.
As for the point, I want to be able to look at QCDN at work without getting in trouble with the boss.
As it was shown there is a way to turn off avatars and other pictures from being seen. It's not that hard to do. You can turn them back on at home or not at all if you feel there will be something offensive.
"But I shouldn't have to do that just to read the forums.." (I haven't seen anyone say this but it is a come back that could have been said)
You don't have to turn them off, it is your choice in the end. If you have a problem with an avatar, ask the person to take it down, ask a mod to talk to the person if you for some reason can't handle asking them yourself.
As for the point, Minors view this site and we don't want to be blamed for them getting in trouble with their parents.
Well they can use the same feature on the board to turn avatars off if they will get in trouble for it. They can either leave the avatars viewable and take whatever punishment may follow, or turn them off and not have to worry about it. We don't know what minors look at on this site. We don't know whether they click those NSFW posts and see things they probably shouldn't.
There has to be some sort of self responsibility to be taken. If you know you might be fired for looking at something or grounded or get in trouble at school and there is an option to cover up the material that would cause such actions to be taken, then use that option.
As for people getting offended. Guess what? Everyone is offended at one point or another in their lives. Some people might be offended that we're allowed to cuss on these boards. Some people might be offended by a girl sitting in a tub of cheetos. Someone might be offended that I'm a woman who doesn't have a problem with other woman's boobs.
We can't cut out ALL offensive material because some people just get offended by the weirdest things. It might be weird to most of us, but it's not to the person it offended. It's something we all have to deal with in one way or another and get over in the end. I've been offended a lot by things on this board. But I get over it. It's someone's opinion, it's how someone feels and in the end we all have that option to feel a certain way or have an opinion about something. Not everything needs to be modded or censored.
In regard to things said earlier in the thread. Generalizations(sp) do not need to be made about the boob avatars or anything else. Just because a man likes to look at a beautiful woman doesn't mean he hasn't been laid, or that he's a kid, or anything else to that effect. Yea some men are pigs but so are some women. Some men like to gawk at women all the time and like big boobs. Some women like to gawk at men and like big *****.(Self censored) It has nothing to do with whether they are children or virgins or just not gotten laid in a while.
Just like saying the women in the pictures were sluts isn't needed. Is the definition of a slut now that a woman poses for a picture in a bikini? Or in a small top? As far as I know, no.
I'm sure some women would read all this and think "Well what if your boyfriend was staring at pictures of a woman in a small bikini hmm? How would you feel about that?" (Not pointing fingers at anyone at all, just giving a scenerio.)
My fiancee and I sat here earlier discussing this thread and laughing at a lot of things said honestly. We both pretty much stand the same on it all. Women are beautiful in many ways and there's really no harm in men looking at pictures of them. I do admit some of the avatars weren't very.. tasteful. But some were. The ones that were I don't see a problem with.
Concerning the scenerio, I wouldn't have one problem with my man looking at any of the pictures that were used in avatars. He can look at women all day long if he wants. There's no harm in that. The minute the line is crossed to where he touches, or tells me something to the effect "Why can't you look like that" I'll kick his ass. But I know that would never come up.
Gonna go ahead and stop here as this post has gotten too long anyways. On one last note. The mods in my opinion are doing what they feel is best for the site. We can't all agree on it. They take a lot of heat for a lot of things and yea sometimes I have agreed things got out of hand with how it was handled. But if you don't like how the mods are doing things, apply to be a mod if the situation occurs that more will be taken. Or atleast be civil at bringing up your point as to why you feel it was unfair that a thread was locked/deleted.
I think a NSFW forum would be a nice idea. Those who want to disagree and say this is a game forum. Well yea it is but a lot of things are posted on here that have NOTHING whatsoever to do with FFXI. It's just how it is. If a NSFW forum was made and you don't like it, don't join it.
A lot of things are really simple to get around so that you don't have to see/read/be a part of something that offends you, but so many people can't see it that way.
If I offended anyone with my post I apologize but I wanted to voice my opinion on some things also. If I get flamed/bitched at or anything else, hey that's your opinion also and I'll respect that. I probably won't post in this thread again but I'll continue reading.
-Aub
(A few more posts have popped up since I've written this. If anything I stated is null because of this I apologize but my eyes hurt from typing all this up and don't feel like I need to edit my post in anyway at this time.)