I once belonged to a forum called HephaestusNetwork. I lost interest in it because of the uncontrol of avatars. There were many that were offensive and unatractive to me.

Planet-Tolkien is a family website, and therefore there should be more control.

I realize that an avatar represents ones choice and personality, and in no way intend to inhibit or restrict that.

What I propose is a kind of [hide menu] or minimize option so that one can choose which avatars they do not want to look at on a regular basis.

I don't know if this is practical, or even possible, but I would like it if the council would take this into concideration.

I just hope noone will be ofended with this, It is not personal. I just want Planet-Tolkien to continue to be a site where people could be on without worrying who is looking over your shoulder.

I don't have a problem with any of them really. I am just seeing it in a family perspective.

For example, I forget who's avatar it is, but there is one of a vampire with blood all over his/her face.

It might offend some people, that is why I brought it up.

Again, I mean no personal offense

I don't agree. This may be a family site but there are far scarier things in Tolkien's writings than Vampires and blood so if someone is old enough to read Tolkien they are old enough to deal with Vampr's avatar.

I find the anime type avatars offensive. So nyer.

I dont seem to have an avatar myself, any links to some decent non-anime, family friendly, politically correct, parentally locked, high security clearanced... i digress, but appreciate some help here!

Well i do apologise, but it was in a research paper i read awhile ago...

To be honest i used to like the Manga stuff, legend of the overfiend (badass film) and akira stand out as classics... but that whole Pokamon thing , OUCH, why did the japanese have to do that to us??? There's Chinese water-torture, then there's the Japanese Manga Mind-melter - revenge i suppose is sweet!

Toon Army... hmmm isnt that something to do with football, Newcastle United fans?

hey nay bother lil lady... was only kiddng ya, your anime avatar is ... *struggles to utter the foreign americanism* errrr, cute?

Ban all avatars!

I think the Council keep an eye on avatars and wouldn't allow anything offensive to slip past.

The cutest avatar has to be taz's. His can stay.

Personally, I'm very broadminded and very little actually offends me. As a Council Member, however, I tend to take a step back and try to decide if what is on these pages could cause offense or distress to any other member. If I feel something is inappropriate for the site, I edit it and attempt to contact the person concerned as to why I have done so. Everyone, however, has slightly different values to each other and what someone deems okay, another might not. Sometimes editing posts goes against the grain for me, because I am a great believer in the freedom of speech and expression, but at the same time I feel Taz has given me a responsibility to make this site safe for children, and that is a great goal to aim for in this day and age.

In answer to the above question, therefore, I would do something about an avatar I thought was unsuitable for the family friendly image of this site, not just if it offended me personally. As we have seen in the above posts, however, some people have negative feelings about anime images. This surprised me a little, and until now I have never really made a connection between them and paedophiles (what a sad world). I have just had my eye out for pornographic images and those showing excessive gore. So far I have not come across any avatar I would judge unhealthy for a young person to see on this site. If I did I would have it removed as quickly as I could.

I think as Council Members you have to trust us to be the judges of matters like these, however. Fair enough, if you saw something you did not like, contact us as Rednell suggested, so that we could do something about it. As we have seen though, if we removed everything that caused offense to anyone, we would pretty soon have no avatars, and probably very little site content left at all. That is not something we want to aim for.

Being able to switch avatars off is one way around this, but not one I can really comment on. Taz does all of the building and hard construction work around here. I'm not sure how long something like that would take him to achieve, or even if it is possible.... I'll have to leave that one on Taz's door. In the meantime, be assured we will do our best to ensure no unsuitable images appear as avatars on this site.

so i take it that a naked Arwen is out of the question???

How about a compromise, Liv Tyler/Arwen in a bikini as my avatar?

oh please? she wont mind, i asked her, honest i did... it'll be a reverential statement of my unhindered admiration for her veritable assets!

Yes?

*rubs Head and guards soft sensitive masculine parts*

Bloody wimmin!

In case anyone was offended by my little anime avatar ( ), I like anime because I am an artist and the drawing of an anime is more fun than the result! Forget the shows *shivers* but I like the sketches. That okay, Vee and Aelric??? Oh, Aelric, how's the head??

LoL - This guy is ruthless. Talk about cut&slash!

Hey, you call me girl, I call you guy.

Revenge is sweet

I don't think I ever called you a girl. I may have thought you were because your avatar looks like a girl. Just
don't call me Virumor! I keep being mistaken for him in the chatroom. How anyone could confuse the two of us......

And Lord Aelric - next time I aim lower.

Go for the brains.

Ok now, who's offended by my Vampyr Avatar ’ ?
*Shows his teeth*

*MUNCH*

Oh, you meant *him* ....

I'm sorry Vee, I must have gotten confused. You are very, feminine.

I was wondering when Vampyre would show up in this thread. I actually think your avatar looks preety cool.

Now, I will not try to guess gender. Since I have major whiplashes from Vee...

Sorry to say, but I did think it was a female. I don't know why mine looks like a female also though.... Hm...

No, I don't think it looks female. The eyebrows are a bit too thick for a female bloodsucker.

Yup. The eyebrows are too thick to be a females. Unless its Freida as a vampire.

Actually, when i first saw your Avatar (Anilorak), I thought it was a female. I still cannot see what makes you think my avatar looks like a female.

Also, V, why do you not use an avatar?

I think it's one of those phsycological things. When I chose my name and avatar, I was thinking male, so they looked and sounded male to me. But others may not see it that way.

Anilorak was just a name I randomly came up with one day, I was thinking Ani, like Aniken Skywalker, and then I just added a lorak randomly, nothing special.

I thought my avatar looked like one of those little male elvish type people.

The same thing happend with Vampyr. I thought it was a female because of the long hair, but now that you say it was a male, I can see it.