Apologies, I seem to have missed some discussions on this. It was a little surprising when I came back and saw todcon on the front page even before logging in.
Long story short, I donāt think itās a good idea to show NSFW posts to logged out users. The reason would be that some of the NSFW communities and posts are a bit too far out for the average anime fan (who is your likely person that would come across such communities) to be comfortable viewing, and having those posts visible to someone thatās not even logged in (e.g. public) right under the pinned āWeāre not what you think we areā isnāt a great look.
First impressions count, and Iām not sure thatās the best first impression a random person stumbling across here might have.
I understand the original discussion was about getting more members,* but Iām not sure doing this would have that effect. If people arenāt comfortable viewing some kinks and fetishes, theyāre not going to want to be associated with a community that displays these things so openly. The previous method of āYea, you gotta log in to see the NSFW stuffā makes sense, since it gives the user the freedom to block/not receive updates from communities they arenāt interested in, or they arenāt comfortable viewing. Between that, and the current āJust turn away from this community if you donāt like what you see on the front pageā, the former seems better. Imo those that are interested in such niche NSFW stuff would find it themselves after they make an account to browse.
*For what itās worth, my stance on this would be largely similar to CookieJarObserver - itās alright to have a small community and to just treat this place as a āloli-meme friendly version of Reddit.ā Growth may be possible from future migrations resulting from Redditās actions (just like how the original migration occurred and brought the NSFW Touhou subs, along with me, here), so it shouldnāt be something thatās chased.
On the other hand, the āNSFW publicly on displayā route can result in some that really hate/detest some kink right smack on the front page and immediately coming away with the impression that thatās what the entire Lemmy instance is about. Even if it was just one post that popped up at the wrong timeā¦ they wouldnāt know. If someone doesnāt like seeing people die, but they browsed Reddit at a time when r/watchpeopledie had NSFW posts publicly available on the front page, theyāre not likely to think āOh, Iāll make an account anyway, find a community I like, and block that subreddit.ā Itās more likely theyāll go āWhat the fuckā and associate the whole site with what they saw for a few secondsā¦ just like that, the siteās lost a potential person that couldāve stuck around happily in another community and formed part of the desired broader community even if they didnāt likeā¦ watching people die.
For proposed solutions, Iād like to suggest the following (though some of them are probably already done):
- Restrict NSFW communities and posts to registered users.
- Have a pinned public post explaining that NSFW communities and posts are restricted to logged-in users, and have a list of what NSFW communities exist (along with a short description, if any). You can also emphasize the fact that users have full freedom to block any communities they donāt want appearing in their feed.
- Just relax/chill with the current userbase and see if Reddit takes any more actions that cause further migrations. You can advertise about this Lemmy branch/instance in the meantime if you want, but even Reddit didnāt quite gain traction until the Digg exodus/migration (among others). Itās not impossible for further growth to come from external factors just like how this came into existence.
- For those particularly interested to grow their communities, trying to start discussion posts and getting to know members of your community may help. Weekly discussion threads, seeing whoās alive and bothers to respondā¦ itās not much, but itās something.
Iāve used todcon as an example above, since I donāt particularly care for it, but I want to stress itās less about the content and more about the approach. Others might dislike NSFW loli but theyāre alright with NSFW shota, or they might dislike NSFW shota and theyāre alright with cub stuff, or they might hate all these, but lurk to see how this place develops (and to bring the banhamma down or call for it, but thatās another matter). In general, most people have stuff they wouldnāt like to see, so giving them the freedom to decide if they see it (by making an account and letting them decide what to block) is probably going to go down better than someone coming cross the site and thinking āman that place is a bit too crazy for me, given what they allow on the front pageā¦ Iām not going back there.ā
Ultimately, Iād like to suggest that the image of the Lemmy branch should be something along the lines of:
āYes, we allow NSFW loli memes which Reddit used to allow, and which other Lemmy anime communities donāt allow. Thatās what differentiates us in terms of content. If you dig deeper you might find some extra stuff that usually wonāt see the light of day anywhere else, but we wonāt force it in your face.ā
āYou have the freedom to choose what you want to see, and the community might not be very big, but itās actively and decently moderated. Weāre happy with how it is, we wonāt water down ourselves just to pander to the masses/get more people. Thatās what differentiates us in terms of community and moderation.ā
āAt the end of the day, youāre welcome to join us at a level youāre comfortable with.ā
If people go away thinking āYea, that contentās not for me, but good for youā, thatās miles ahead of āI really didnāt need to see thatā¦ and Iām not even logged in, wtf.ā
Happy to hear thoughts of yāall.
Yea, thatās ultimately the question. I think reinstating blurs and removing auto-expansion (for the visitor view) would help mitigate the former somewhatā¦ it remains to be seen whether thatās possible, even if it seems to be broadly supported here.
From a convenience/UX perspective, it makes sense. It brings the experience closer to Instagram/Tik Tok ācardā style posts where the content is displayed without needing an extra click. That said, I think their content there is relatively tame compared to some of the content hosted here, so it might work for them but not so well for us.
I agree - it would also be in line with Redditās approach of āYea you can see NSFW as a lurking visitor, but the thumbnail is hidden and you get a red warning that itās NSFWā. I think itās a fair way to go about it.