Bitcoin Forum

I am recovering methamphetamin addict. This guys avatar triggers my addictions/craving for meth.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=126291

Please disallow drug pictures in avatars. TNX.
(Also I would guess such pictures are NSFW, in most companies.)

You have AdBlock installed, right? Block his/her avatar. It's just a couple of clicks.

Its probably not going to be a rule[1], but you might just block[2] it.

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1011789.0
[2] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1012710.msg10992272#msg10992272

All the support to you, but I don't think that avatar is "not safe for work -NSFW" he had a discussion here : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1011789.0  ([Serious] Avatar Rules Discussion) and theymos has replied :


This is the two users:

- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=358121
- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=222075

Maybe you can ask to that user if he can remove the avatar (or better change it with another one). Good luck.

I think such an avatar was not allowed as per theymos post over what is allowed as avatar (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1011789.msg10977206#msg10977206). Since Methamphetamine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine) are obviously NSFL (Not Safe for Life), IMO such an avatar like smaragda (http://smaragda) one is not allowed here. Also, smaragda avatar image seems to have taken from a Crystal meth image hosted on wikimedia and used on Wikipedia Methamphetamine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine) page.

I agree that heavy drugs avatars should not be allowed on the forum.

as theymos said, he might do something if he receives several complaints about an avatar. I think this particular avatar will draw quite a few complaints.

I am recovering Monero addict. Please remove your avatar then.

Is Monero NSFL (Not Safe For Life)?  ;D

It depends of our personal point of view, but we can agree that monero isn't NSFL so all the avatars related to monero are good.

aren't tools for disabling other users avatar and sig coming? they should help against those type of things, there is no need to not allow them completely

Yes, I lost a lot of money in Monero. It's NSFL for me.


*My point is to show how absurd is his request. It's not about Monero specifically. Even he has Bitcoin logo in his avatar, I'd give same answer. I don't support that kind of censorship in avatars.

I don't like such images but it's better to ignore the user whose avatar you don't appreciate and like. I don't think it is NSFW though.

You can also use the "ignore" button, it ignores the user, and doesn't show his avatar, signature, or posts. The downside to it though, is that you won't be able to see any of his posts.

Good luck on your recovery!

Good luck with your recovery but would go with the Ignore feature to avoid triggering the urge
As for avatars in general re-enabling them and letting them go fairly free means drugs are ok as images

Lol, not safe for live..? So funny :)

I just PM'd the man. No reason we can't ask nicely :)

I agree with the OP, i think he should make a poll a out it.

Crystal Meth? Understandable. Marijuana? Not so understandable. And marijuana is ranked in the same class of controlled substance as crystal meth (Schedule 1) While I can see your point OP, I am a recoving opiate addict. I take suboxone daily for my addiction. But everytime I see a OC80 or a Opana, I still want to do it, but have the sell worth and control to not "fixate" to much on it and let it go. Sure, I love seeing pictures of piles of pills that people has, that's the drug of choice where I'm from. I don't think images of drugs should be moderated. Just my opinion.

If someone's avatar is seriously offending someone I think it should at least be considered to be removed. This isn't the darknet or anything, there's still rules to this shit. As everyone's opinion is subjective, some avatars will be approved by some people while rejected by others. At least for me I think it would be in bad taste to let people have avatars of illicit drugs when there are people complaining about it. I don't really care what measures can be taken to hide the avatar by the person alone as there's probably other people who find it offensive. I would personally request to have the user change it, unless it's really that important to have an avatar like that as your profile picture for everyone to see.

Here we go again..

I think your Crystal Meth avatar is questionable at best since seems to infringe avatar rules as set by theymos. However, if you really have compassion for OP you should kindly address his concerns. Also, i'm not going to support a battle for freedom to wear avatars with illegal drugs.

None of both. Just another event that has sparked staff hate. We should she tecshare here soon :P.

It was more of a joke.

Install adblock and block the avatar.  Don't force your views on others.

I think this is a pretty dick thing to say. There is a huge difference between being a recovering drug addict and being annoyed at shitty alt coins with no value.

Assuming the OP is telling the truth then he it trying to get his life back on track after most likely hitting rock bottom. A monero avatar is noting more then a minor annoyance at the very worse.

in theory the OP could end up relapsing and ruining his life and/or someone else's life from looking at the avatar in question. You might end up being annoyed for another 2 seconds while scrolling past his posts after looking at his avatar.

There is a huge fucking difference. I am not sure if those kinds of avatars should be censored or not, however you need to learn to be much more respectful.

Isn't smaragda essentially forcing his views onto other people? His user title has little to do with anything imo, and I think its pretty immature. Besides there are several people who are unwilling to make threads or posts about this subject that find would find his profile picture highly offensive. According to statistics, unless bitcointalk is in some different world. This isn't the darkweb, I think this site should still have some type of relative jurisdiction. I doubt if someone was wearing a shirt around 24/7 with crystal meth shards on it that they would get very much support from the community. Again, freedom of speech is necessary. But respect for others is as well.

Thank you.

No, I'm not. I'm referring to the avatar you have for your account. That everyone can see including people such as the OP as well as other people not willing to make posts or threads about it. Your user title has little to do with anything. Its like showing a meth addict smoking a pipe saying "don't try this at home kids".  Not trying to be an ass, but just have respect for other people. 

I was planning to make the same "joke". Not so much because it's supposed to be funny, but mostly because it's absurd to censor ourselves based on what someone feelings might be. Everyone can feel insulted by anything. I am sure there are people who made huge losses by some alt coin and might got depressed because of it, so any logo of that alt coin can make them feel bad too. Doesn't mean it shouldn't be allowed. I think that was the point of EAL.

I think the rule of "NSFL" is clear enough and unless it was a photo of a half-dead meth junky that's bleeding on the streets, it is obviously pretty safe.

It's fair enough that there are some instructions for OP to self-censor, and it seems with this topic (adblock, ignore, etc), there are ways. Also I would personally probably still change the avatar out of respect and because it's a pretty lame avatar, but should be allowed imo.

I guess asking nicely didn't work this time. Sorry, I tried :-\

This is not the government trying to censor you. This is a human being asking for help in order to better his life. There is a major difference.

I don't think you would like it if you were aware and fully knew that you were the reason why another human went through self destruction because of you

I don't think EAL had ever invested any money (or BTC) into monero. I think he is more pro-bitcoin (as most people on here are).

I don't think someone who saw the name/logo of a shitcoin that they lost money on would potentially do any real damage to them.

On the other hand there is a real possibility that someone who sees pictures of hard drugs could relapse. Sure it is possible to use, among other things adblock to not see the specific avatar the OP is using, however it would be possible that he make a miner change to his avatar in the future and he would then again see the avatar, or someone else could download/use the sam avatar which would cause the OP similar harm.

Sure when ignoring the original context of the OP EAR's statement might be funny,, however when taking the topic of discussion into consideration, it is far from funny and just inconsiderate

Lets just assume for a second this is true. This does not require you to do this in public now, does it? Could be your bathroom mirror, your desktop wallpaper or a 1000 different places.


The first is not possible. The URL for e.g. your avatar is: https://bitcointalk.org/useravatars/avatar_<YOUR_USER_ID>.gif
Maybe the ending changes depending on the format the picture was uploaded as, but that could be blocked as well. Its certainly possible that someone else uses a similar avatar though, which again is blocked with 2-3 mouse clicks.

What I learned from the "horny manga girl flaunting breasts is NSFW" discussion is that we cant keep everyone proteced and we should not. The internet is a reflection of society in general. OP might as well see an addict on the street. That would probably be a greater challanger for their selfcontrol.

I also agree with BadBear that the discussed avatars tell a lot about the person wearing them. I might also think they are idiots/racists/yerks/sexists/etc, but they also have a right to express themself and their views.


I agree. EAL's reply was out of line, but Im also certain that it was made in light mood without much consideration.

It is unfortunate that any avatar causes negative feelings, but I don't want to censor avatars that are offensive/disturbing to only a small minority of forum members. Many people will be negatively affected by many different images, and while banning each individual thing might not be a big deal, banning them all would make the avatar rules uncomfortably restrictive, I think.

I don't think that is plausible. If you were looking at a dead man or injured man and some drugs near to him with a daily reminder*, it may help you. What you said now doesn't work IMHO. You may like to use that avatar, but you should also consider other's request. I hope you will.

* I am not saying to put it, just an example.

I can understand your position and I would like a friendly agreement could be reached between OP and smaragda; however, I just wandering what a NSFL avatar should be to be deemed as such. As per your post a NSFL avatar image is not allowed, since illegal drugs while being of course illegal are also dangerous to health and obviously not safe for life I'm just guessing what is a NSFL content?

He can simple use ad block plus or similar to hide the view of a specific avatar, if there is only an "user complaint". I think theymos should receive a lot of "complaint" by the community and after he can 'act' but now it seems there is not the case.

Sorry, but i don't see only 1 user complaint at least after re-reading the last 3 pages. I see a few more. However, I think that following the re-introduction of avatars some users are simply trying to test how much extreme/illegal/objectionable/etc images are allowed to stay.
Personally, I would like a clear boundary set by admins and put among the sticky rules.

The community majority should disapprove that avatar not one or only few users, however the solution to that problem has been given *adblock*, insert the link of the user avatar in the filter, confirm and reload the page... et voila! The censorship is not a good thing and there is always a "second way" to resolve the problem.

I may agree with you that having to resort to censorship is at best a failure; however, i think we really need a better explanation of what a NSFL image is. Adblock could be a nice & wonderful ad-hoc temporary solution to de-escalate the whole issue but this would not explain what a NSFL image is. Otherwise, we'll see similar avatar & complaint thread popping up everyday with ever worse images & moods. As marcotheminer said before: Here we go again..
Just my 2 satoshi, however.

What case? My point came after the above statement. I took your statement serious and asked why you would need to have a reminder on a public board instead of a more private place.


IMHO neither of the pictures are NSFL. My understand of NSFL is something that watching alone would scar you. Typically rotten.com would be considered NSFL.

I only see shattered glass on this guy's avatar. What the hell are you talking about?

Thats what we're talking about, the glass.

I am going to block it. Thanks for all the good wishes.

Additionally, there is a another untalked-of effect: it advertises hard drugs (in this example meth) to young kids or other easily manipulative people.
(Even with very clever disclaimers like: "I DO NOT CONSENT". :-P)  

---> It was just a friendly suggestion to improve the forum (rules).
[No try to censorship anything or "forcing views".]

Thank you.

Blocking is the best solution, though hopefully in the new forum we will be able to ignore individual avatars so you won't need to block the entire user or turn off all avatars.


I don't really buy this. A kid isn't going to see an image of what he probably thinks is glass and suddenly subliminally think yum, drugs, I must buy some crystal meth. Even if they new what it was I doubt it'd make them interested in trying it but we can't be responsible for nannying everyone and if you've got kids that's up to the parents to effectively police though sheltering them from everything will probably do them more harm than good in the long run.

I'll do it for sure. My questions were about understanding what NSFL was. I got some of it...but, my post about it you partially capture with screenshot was deleted.

I get it, but I think you should see it as a step in the right direction. If this hasn't triggered a relapse it means you are to the point where you are strong enough to see this and keep in control. Each time you see it it will be easier and that is progress. I think your recovery should ultimately not depend on you never being exposed to the substance in any way as it will happens from time to time even if you try to avoid it. There is things you don't have control over, but how you react to them is entirely yours. Good luck, what you are doing is hard and you get my respect for giving it your best.

A local marketing company (name I won't release on here) did a study into anti-meth ads.
We had recovered meth addicts and current meth addicts together watching the videos (in separate sessions). The ads they were shown was a serious series of short 'anti-meth' ads which were suitable and ready to be published on television.

The test came to a halt because the videos of meth was and is enough to trigger a recovered addicts behaviors. We found this out because a group of them locked themselves in our bathrooms and decided to give into their cravings. (This set off the smoke alarms)

So yes. Images (and videos) even Anti-images are enough to trigger a reaction. They have huge power.

Please consider changing your avatar.

Where did these so-called 'recovering' addicts suddenly get their meth from? I don't buy this. I think if they were that weak or susceptible to their cravings it wouldn't take them much to relapse anyway. Why can't you name the marketing company?

The addiction is a failure of a minority.
It's not good thing to limit our freedom of speech because of a failure of a minority.

You can ask it, but you can't exact.

If you don't like it, then use adblock.


My next avatar :o ::)
https://i.imgur.com/EsPIl7et.jpg (https://i.imgur.com/EsPIl7e.jpg)

This is interesting. I always thought part of overcoming addiction was confronting your addiction. Where I'm from, advertisements for alcoholic beverages are shown on TV and supermarkets can openly sell beer and wine seemingly without regard to the possible effect this might have on recovering alcoholics. However, I'm not sure if their needs should take precedence over the majority of society. Banning these practices would probably inconvenience quite a lot of people and the same probably applies here. An overly restrictive avatar policy could conceivably cause more harm than good.

Very well said. Because what happens next is the feminists come in here and let all sexist (read: boobs, asses, pretty women) avatars remove. Next you'll have the christians ask for removal of blasphemious pictures. And then the muslims walk in and demand the forum to be closed completely because it's against the Qoran...


-> adblock

In other words, religion, religion, religion.

I think this forum is beyond religious influence.  Or at least I hope....