A concern I have on the upcoming canvas filters

General
1

The idea behind URL filter on canvas seems a bit confusing to me.

As far as I know, there are about five popular image hosting websites that many use, and they pretty much all let mature contents either due to flexible rules, lack of moderation or lack of a real way to report them when they are not listed public

Some people might use their own server/cloud to upload any content, mature or not due to many reasons:

  • Easier to keep track of and organize.
  • Ensures that they do not get deleted.
  • Avoids terrible compressions

Because it is private, those who would want to use the whitelist-only filters are likely to never see them.

The URLs really don’t have any correlations on what type of content is being hosted, with a small exception of those media hosting websites that specifically allow controversial contents. Those who host these contents on TU does not even know these specialized hosts.

The most controversial type of contents that player tend to discuss seems to be pornographic images involving hand-drawn underaged and fictional anthropomorphic animal characters.
Although some hosting websites like Imgur state it’s against their community guidelines, because the images aren’t exposed to public or individuals through browser, it cannot get reported and stay active.

I fear that some will definitely use the filter which it would also kill condos who creatively use them without hosting mature contents.

So other than journals (which most guests don’t even bother to read), we wouldn’t be able to notify them what type of content we host in our condos… unless you want to spam the chat, hoping they would read it, every time a visitor comes in.
We don’t know what websites are blocked on their client, so we cannot use a trusted website to upload images to assure them what we have and what we don’t.

They would just assume that we have what they don’t like to see and miss their and the owner’s chance to share condo experience.

Condo customization without canvases are, in my all honesty, terrible and doesn’t provide much creativity. Some rooms I’ve designed look pretty awesome without them, but canvases do improve them or it usually just looks like yet another overused designs.

I just fear the URL filter would make innocent condos look awful with no way of really notifying visitors what we have and what we don’t.
Imagine your guests just hopping on your condo with bunch of ugly “BLOCKED” messages all over your structures, cutouts, supposedly invisible canvases.

I just think it’s a wrong way to tackle the problem.

2

While I certainly agree, I don’t think there’s a better solution. It’s either a one big on/off button, or a series of smaller ones pertaining to different URLs.

3

While you do have a good point, and that is an unavoidable issue- the URL filter is more so for the general, “copy image link” method that most people use for these kinds of images. Not everyone will host from something like imgur, so there are a lot of websites that cater to that content that can be removed from the equation from the start.

That said Websites like tumblr, which have a lot of mixed content, will probably have to be whitelisted per the player’s discretion.

4

There could be a weapon for toggling visibility of Canvases that are shot at. Or, as suggested earlier in a different thread, allowing the Canvas owner to toggle “Mature” in the appearance menu for specific Canvases can also ease the burden.

5 Likes
5

Along with site white/blacklisting, there’s user white/blacklisting as well, so there’s some extra flexibility. I personally think it’s the user blacklisting/whitelisting that’ll be used the most, because of the issues you’ve stated, and IMO as long the condo doesn’t seem suspicious (reasonably decorated, no ridiculous amounts of canvases on walls, etc.) then those with a whitelist will probably considering adding you to it.

6

Sorry I’m not up to date on this: Are the developers planning a game-wide filter of certain urls? Or will this be exclusive to parental controls?

7

They’re adding whitelisted/blacklisted urls as an option in parental controls.

8

Ah okay, as long as it’s entirely optional and not on by default then that seems fair. However, when I want to upload something to my condo I’ll use a site like Imgur. What’s to stop that giant domain from hosting porn (for example) as well? Seems like a filter wont stop much unless you wish to block ALL custom images.

1 Like
9

The entire point of the whitelist and blacklist is to add more control for the clients. Blacklist will be the default setting (which is basically what we have now, until the user decides to add blacklisted URLs).

The blacklist/whitelist may not be a catch all, but it’s a tool that can get you at least some control over the content you see it. The blacklist being the least control and the whitelist being the most control. Blacklist mode can also block individual URLS such as a specific PNG or JPG image.

The player trust system will ignore all whitelists and blacklist settings, so players just have to trust your condo to get the full experience without worrying about their blacklist/whitelist settings. Same with not trusting players, if you don’t trust a player explicitly, it’ll block all their canvases.

1 Like