HFGF Community,
A couple of flags happend in the BGGAR thread recently that the moderator team believes touches on matters that should be addressed more globally to minimize the risk of future trouble for HiFiGuides Forum at large. One flag expressed concern over using photos of children and another flag addressed the image used by Moondrop in an advertisement - although there is doubt as to if the image was meant to be used as an ad by Moondrop. Let’s address each of these in turn.
Posting images of the likenesses of people, particularly children, gets into shaky legal territory that the forum would be better off avoiding entirely. Moving forward, the mod team will be on the lookout for any images of people, particularly minors, that are posted when clear consent cannot be established. If we see such images, we will first ask the poster to remove them. If the poster does not, one of the mods will take them down. This guidance does not apply to posting YouTube videos that have faces in them (like DMS’ or Josh Valour’s reviews) or sharing professional ads that have images of people wearing headphones, for example. Those are examples of cases where consent is clearly implied. What should be avoided are posting images taken in amateur settings of any adults - and again especially children - who are either not you or not a child under your legal guardianship. Even in cases where the poster knows consent to use children’s images is explicit, it is still preferable to not post those images as it can be difficult for the Mod team to verify that consent. It should be standard practice to find a different way to express the point you wish to make.
As to the Moondrop ad image, it falls under a category of sexually exploitative. The mod team affirms that the discussion about the appropriateness of the image and its use in advertising an audio product were fair game for the Forum. We also affirm that the posting of the image to start that conversation is also appropriate for the Forum. However, we also believe the image should have been hidden behind a drop-down with a warning to readers that the image may be potentially offensive and not safe for work. The image is shared in this present post below as both an example of the kinds of content that should have an extra layer of being hidden and also as to how such images should be presented in the future.
WARNING: may be NSFW
We will ask that the original post that contained this image be edited to this format and will be on the lookout for future similar posts to be treated similarly. And to be clear, this new guidance applies forum-wide.
To be fair, it seems that Moondrop may have also been a victim of someone posting this image without their permission. Therefore, this new policy guidance should not be read as an indictment of Moondrop but simply as guidance for the posting of potentially offensive images.
Thank you to all the readers for reading this post and for helping to make HFGF a fun place for audiophiles to gather.
Sincerely,
HFGF Mod Team