Hey guys, it was brought up in a report that NSFW tags should be applied to posts depicting drug use. What do you guys think? I could see it either way and thought you guys might like to weigh in on it. I personally don’t find it particularly offensive but my work environments have never been the type to react strongly to something like this popping up on screen (I think they might be more upset about being on Lemmy at all). Currently there is no rule, and I am fine with that, unless feedback indicates the community would rather play it safe and require the NSFW flag.

  • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    NSFW has typically been used for things that are visually disturbing, like gore and sexually explicit materials. Using it for ideas that aren’t safe for work feels like it would devalue the tag.

    • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      What about a person injecting themselves? I don’t think anyone is necessarily complaining about smoking, but personally I don’t exactly want to be seeing pictures of people injecting themselves or others, others especially, without any potential warning.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        You’re not going to get fired for looking, at work, at a picture of a person injecting themselves.

        That is the basis of the NSFW tag

          • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            So you also have an issue with people breast feeding in public?

            The human body is not something to be ashamed of, the only reason why you think injections are bad is because of war on drugs, people inject themselves or get injections with legal stuff all the time. Vaccines…?

            • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              I’m not sure how you got here from there, but that’s a pretty weird take.

              Many people, perhaps even a majority, are grossed out by needles, in a similar way to blood or other physical injuries. I think warning someone about that is only fair.

              NSFW should be used to warn against things that are visually disturbing, not ideas or concepts.

              • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                And people don’t have trauma related to drinking?

                Do we need to nsfw spiders? What about other phobias…?

                What you find non-disturbing other people will. That’s a very ignorant take.

                • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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                  2 months ago

                  I don’t have any trauma related to needles, and I’ve had plenty of injections and blood tests over the years. I still find needles gross, like I would any other wound, and based on what’s happening in the thread, I’d say that’s a pretty common belief.

            • Oisteink@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Censor it! Most things can be unsafe for work. What if you are a formula one driver?? You should not be breastfeeding while driving a gazillion miles per 860 seconds

              • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                I’m sure most race tracks have breast feeding places actually. Lots of workplaces embrace it, sorry. It’s also legal in public… so…

                • Oisteink@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  Yes! This is all about being offended by breastfeeding! Everything is about breastfeeding!

        • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Most people who need insulin administer it very differently from people injecting heroin, for example. I am sorry for people that do need insulin injections, but I don’t really want to see that without any warning on my frontpage.

          Diabetics I have known that do require insulin injections also usually have a device that covers the needle similar to what an epipen looks like. The needle itself is not actually very visible, and the injection site is often clean and not swiss cheese.

          Basically, I don’t exactly want my frontpage to assault my eyes with heroin addicts posting pictures of themselves shooting up because they think its totally fine to post that since there is no rule requiring that to at least be NSFW tagged.

          • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            An injections an injection. I’m sorry you think there’s a difference.

            I don’t like seeing people drinking on my feed, that’s a drug too. But ones apparently acceptable and ones not? Its probably because of people who think for some reason that natural human functions are to be looked down on.

            People draw arbitrary lines for everything, smoking a cigarette is fine, but a joint isn’t for those same people. You are apparently part of this hypocrisy group.

            • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              One involves poking a hole in someone’s skin, which a lot of people get the heebie-jeebies about. NSFW should be used on things people find visually disturbing.

              • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                Lots of public advertisements depict people getting vaccines.

                Oh no, it’s a needle!

                People find spiders disturbing, do we need to censor those? What about people with dog trauma? You are extremely ignorant if you don’t think people can’t be traumatized by anything. Needles aren’t scary.

                • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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                  2 months ago

                  Needles aren’t scary.

                  That’s a very privileged thing for you to say, I think. It’s also a bit bizarre how much you’ve dug your heels in over this.

      • Hellfire103@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        That possibly counts as gore, regardless of whether the drugs are recreational or medicinal. However, there will be exceptions.

      • Live Your Lives@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        I think you are on the right train of thought for this. A real person injecting themselves probably should be considered a NSFW image but a cartoon/meme character shouldn’t be.

        Ideally we would have NSFW, NSFL, and something like NSFG (Not Safe For Grandma) tags.

        • RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Yeah I don’t think people have much of a problem with a cartoon or a meme, as long as it isnt a real photo of a real person (or AI generated/whatever, looks real).

          Not sure about NSFG tag though, I think that umbrella is too large. Also, depends on the grandma.

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        I’d count that as visually disturbing, in the same way an injury could be. I’d certainly wince at the sight of a needle being poked into someone.

        • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          And some people freak out with spiders, we can’t accommodate every single phobia out there.

          Public advertisements depict people getting vaccines FFS LOL.

    • Aa!@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The tag is for warning people browsing at work not to click… Using it to prevent someone from clicking on a post that would be unacceptable to read at the workplace is exactly what it’s for

      It’s not like it’s censorship, it’s just a warning tag.

    • bigmclargehuge@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I would hazard a guess that this was brough up in reference to a meme on this board showing a close up of someone snorting a line of white powder. I can completely understand why that might not be considered suitable for all places and audiences.

      • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Possibly, but a workplace where even a joke about drug use would be an employment issue would be pretty unusual.

      • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Some people can’t drink at work, the double standards of people is hilarious.

        Looking at pictures of beer or people drinking is no different.

        • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          Some people can’t drink at work

          I think you’ll find that’s most people actually.

          • SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Lots of places have beer fridges, or let their employees hit the bar for lunch or wine and wine clients on the company dollar.

            The hell you talking about?

            You done stalking me yet?

  • southsamurai@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Text is never going to need the tag. To the contrary, if you’re at work reading text posts, and it’s tagged NSFW, it draws the eye more.

    Tagging text posts would defeat the entire purpose of the tag in its useful purpose.

    Drug use isn’t NSFW anyway, not in images or text.

    • Aa!@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      What do you think the tag is for?

      People at work don’t (shouldn’t) click on NSFW-tagged content. If it draws your eye even more, then I assume you don’t browse from work.

      How would it defeat the purpose to tag content that most workplaces would not be okay with? If you don’t mind seeing the content, then the tag might entice you. People at work will recognize it and not click

  • Nicht BurningTurtle@feddit.org
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    2 months ago

    No, depictions of drug use aren’t nsfw. And if we start censoring it, why not also start censoring other relatively harmless concepts like depictions of weapons or cursewords? We don’t want this, and trying to enforce it would add additional, unnecessary work to both you and the admins.

  • Tenthrow@lemmy.worldOPM
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    2 months ago

    I appreciate the many voices here. It seems like consensus is that the tag is not needed as a general rule. I want to be clear, also, that the NSFW tag is not censorship, but also doesn’t seem necessary either. Thank you guys for chiming in!

  • EndOfLine@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I suspect that this may be partially a result of a recent post of mine that some may considered to be in bad taste. So this response is likely to be a bit biased.

    For what it is worth, I considered tagging mine as NSFW but ultimately decided it was not necessary. I thought the image was very clearly a staged representation of drug use. Similar to how the Eric Andre meme is clearly a staged representation of murder. Further, there was no blood nor any indication of physical injury and I liked it to an image of somebody smoking pot or drinking to excess.

    Do I think drug use alone require a NSFW tag? No.

    Should drug coupled with blood, gore, physical injury, exploitation, etc? Possibly.

  • HN82@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    When in doubt, use NSFW. I don’t feel good when people make memes about crack or users because it directly affects me. I stopped following a community because of that. Thanks for asking anyway.

    • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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      2 months ago

      I think this applies to a lot of things including memes that have any kind of adult theme like sex and violence

  • trolololol@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Well mate this tag is more useful to me around kids than in the office. Perhaps because I’m 100% wfh.

    Anyways, I appreciate it also with gore images like certain Ukraine and Gaza pictures. So it’s not just about work for me and others.

    Now if we had a mandatory tag like this for politics I’d do the big brains meme and be soooo happy.

    • Tenthrow@lemmy.worldOPM
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      2 months ago

      Politics aren’t allowed in !memes. We do try to catch it when a political meme is posted.

    • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      But seriously tho, yeah, NSFW in the absence of another more specific tag.

      Some people are recovering from addiction and stuff, good to give them a way to filter it out

  • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
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    2 months ago

    are we talking a joint? if so then it should apply to alcohol and cigarrettes. I can understand for injections. some folks are neddlephobes.

    • Tenthrow@lemmy.worldOPM
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      2 months ago

      The original question came up over snorting drugs through a rolled up C note but would also likely encompass shooting heroin or smoking meth/crack. But the consensus appears to be not to ask for an NSFW tag at this time. So that will be our stance unless you guys decide things are going too far and you want the tag included on posts with that sort of content.

  • Xyre@lemmus.org
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    2 months ago

    I think for issues like this it may be good to develop a practice of using the spoiler tag with a warning attached. This way it’s up to the reader to decide if they want to read it and is flexible enough to cover all of the various use cases.