Richard Foley (richinud)

Posting content on the internet and then marking it private?

Posted on January 4, 2014

People often arrive at a nudist-friendly website, such as Naktiv, skim read and agree with the mission-statement, want to share their own content, and then get upset that other people can see it. At a very basic level, this is crazy. The Naktiv site is here, by definition to promote the idea that nudity is ok and to resist the popular Faceache perception that nudity equals sex. That people are concerned about their privacy is fine, that people try to generate fear amongst the user base by posting official sounding notices semi-threatening legal action, is NOT fine. People will always share private information if you make it public. The point is to not make it public in the first place, and you can do this with the extensive privacy settings on the site. Making important sounding announcements do nothing to stop nefarious people from doing what nefarious people do. The answers to this seeming dilemma are very simple, and come in several forms:

1. If you are truly terrified of anyone seeing your content, do not post it.

2. If you really do want to share your content with others, and only want some people to see it, then you should use the site privacy settings to restrict access to Friends Only, or Friends of Friends, or Community Only (which is what most people usually want), or similar.

3. If you actually want to post your content publicly on the internet but you don’t want anyone to ever see it, then you live in cloud cuckoo land.

Naturally, as a corollary to the above, site moderators will always have the right to be able to view all content, to ensure the content is appropriate for the user base, and inline with our minimal set of rules.

Having said all of this, it would be surprising if nobody ever had doubts about sharing their information, and/or images, or was new to the idea of promoting a cause by posting interesting and varied images to encourage others to join the activity. It’s quite natural for people who are new to the idea, to be a little concerned about who might see their content, and what other people might think. This is one of the things the Naktiv site is here to do, to promote the very idea that the naked human body is fully acceptable in all context , and to educate people that nudity is nothing to be ashamed of. Hiding your images (for instance) in a secret place is a shameful thing to do, by definition. If someone needs time to come round to the idea of sharing good things with other people to encourage them to join, all well and good. If someone never comes round to that idea, that’s fine too, actually, and the latter is catered for by the existing and extensive privacy settings which are provided around the site. These facilities are here so that you can set your privacy settings to a level which is appropriate for YOU.

The Naktiv site is here to PROMOTE naked activities and to do this we need to show that we are not ashamed of our bodies. We need to demonstrate that there is nothing shameful about the naked human body. We need to NOT HIDE in secret and in terror of anyone seeing images of our naked bodies. This is the core message behind the mission-statement which EVERYONE read, and agreed to, before joining the site. Whining about “respect in the community” is firstly to miss the point, and secondly to stick your head in a dark hole. The ONLY way to secure your uploaded content is to use the available facilliities which are provided for you for expressly that purpose.

The mission statement is an interesting document and is a MUST-READ for everyone, every now and then 🙂

35 thoughts on “Posting content on the internet and then marking it private?”

  1. Regarding privacy settings, posting material (words or images) and being upset about it “getting out”. Anything posyed or uploaded to the internet has the potential to be copied and distributed elsewhere. As a rule of thumb, if ANYONE can see or access it – it can be copied. In fact your browser has already “copied” this text.

    Therefor if you have concerns about it. Don’t post it. If it’s anonimity you crave – to late. Unless you’re using Tor (see https://www.torproject.org).

  2. The Naktiv site is here to PROMOTE naked activities and to do this we need to show that we are not ashamed of our bodies. We need to demonstrate that there is nothing shameful about the naked human body. We need to NOT HIDE in secret and in terror of anyone seeing images of our naked bodies.

  3. To date the only reason I've chosen not to post naked pictures of myself, is based on the desire to control where those images end up.
    The chances of someone being able to identify you from random images used elsewhere is pretty slim. The chances of your image ending up somewhere you'd rather not have it, not to mention complete loss of control of where it ends up from there, is very high.

    In light of the mission statement and what the Naktiv site is trying to accomplish I might rethink things though. Nudity does need to be normalised and not sexualised.
    At home this has worked well to the point that 3 years ago walking around the house naked was out of the question, to now when it is common place and normal.

  4. I am under the impression that the naked body is to be shared by others that is why we join clubs / swims etc.
    To post a photo on a site is exactly the same thing you want to share it with others.
    If not stay at home and dont post photos to a site.

  5. It's fascinating how many people read a blog like this, agree with the basic premise of posting content on the internet and thus implicitly agreeing to share it with other people, and then stomp off in high dudgeon on issues of privacy not being "honoured". Perhaps it's the phrasing…?

  6. I agree wholeheartedly with Richard's point here. And yes I have been nervous about what to post and where. Shortly after I joined I mage my 'clones' collage and set it as my header picture. Then I thounght that anybody who joined would see it as the first thing about me and chickened out – replacing it with a swimming pool shot, and relegated it to the ablum where people would only see it by looking throught all my pictures.
    Now I've put it back as my header as I have become bolder.

    • if you put photos on the internet, does not matter on which site. you always take the changes that people make copies or collect pictures. today he is your friend, tomorrow he copies your picture and disapears. if you dont want take this change then do not put pictures on any site. no site is completly secure and this is not the foult of the moderators as many people like to think.

        • I think it's a little risky talking up the privacy settings to the point people might think it's akin to a privacy vault for images. With 10 years experience in the Web hosting industryi can tell you right now no matter how good the underlying permission system is, there's stilla moderate risk your images might end up in the wild.
          I think of you post images, in light of the mission statement, they should be public.i understand why people don't want to do that, none the less, it runs counter to the spirit of the community.

  7. There are trolls everywhere, and many of them are so quiet you would never know they are there. On most nudist sites (for instance), it's the ones which don't make any noise which you should be most suspicious of. Trolls abound and no matter what you say, or do, they will get your content somehow. The idea of the permissions system is to make it easier for you, as a user, to categorically define who you open your content to.

  8. I love these discussions AND being naked AND don't mind if the whole world saw me in my natural state. Nobody really care and if the world was flooded with pictures of nude people, ultimately even your textile wearing, right winged neighbour wouldn't care anymore.

  9. Here is my doctored version which you can see on my facebook, google+ and tumblr accounts:

    People often arrive at a social media website, such as Facebook, Google+ or the Naktiv site, skim read and agree with the rules, guidelines or mission statements, want to share their own content, and then get upset that other people can see it or upset at what they are seeing other people post. At a very basic level, this is crazy. the Naktiv site, Facebook, Google+ and other social media websites are here for you to share your life with the world. That people are concerned about their privacy is fine, that people try to generate fear amongst the user base by posting official sounding notices semi-threatening legal action and reporting content they find offensive, is NOT fine. People will always share private information if you make it public. The point is to not post it in the first place if you do not want to take the chance of anyone finding out “your dirty little secrets.” Making important sounding announcements or reporting what you find offensive do nothing to stop nefarious people from doing what nefarious people do. The answers to this seeming dilemma are very simple, and come in several forms:

    1. If you are truly terrified of anyone seeing your content, do not post it.

    2. If you really do want to share your content with others, and only want some people to see it, then you should use the site privacy settings to restrict access to "Friends Only", or "Friends of Friends", or similar.

    3. If you actually want to post your content publicly on the internet but you don't want anyone to ever see it, then you live in cloud cuckoo land.
    We all have different viewpoints and are offended by different things. If you see something you do not like on a friends wall or a friend of a friends wall or in a group, do not report it, just simply move on and do not look at the content you find offensive or even block the person posting the offensive content. (I personally will report abusive behavior, especially when it comes to children.)

    Having said all of this, it would be surprising if nobody ever had doubts about sharing their information, and/or images, or was new to the idea of promoting a cause by posting interesting and varied images to encourage others to join the activity. It's quite natural for people who are new to the idea, to be a little concerned about who might see their content, and what other people might think. This is one of the things social media is here for, to share whatever is going on in your life or whatever you find interesting. Hiding your images (for instance) in a secret place or keeping secrets about yourself because you are afraid of what others might do, say or think is a shameful and wrong thing to do, by definition. If someone needs time to come round to the idea of sharing good things with other people to encourage them to join, all well and good. If someone never comes round to that idea, that's fine too, actually, and the latter is catered for by the existing and extensive privacy settings which are provided around the various social media websites. These facilities are here so that you can set your privacy settings to a level which is appropriate for YOU.

  10. I understand that some people, who are new to the idea of posting content to encourage others to join in public naked activities, might at first be frightened to post their material online. That's surely fine, for them to post what they want, when they want, and how they want.

    However, to post content and then threaten people with legal action is only going to alienate them, and re-inforce the traditional nudist / naturist tendency to hide behind secret fences. the Naktiv site stands as a bastion against the secrecy which nudists have traditionally used to hide their activities behind.

    the Naktiv site is here to PROMOTE nudity and to encourage people to take part. Any PR person will tell you that advertising without images is very difficult. We need to get our fun images out into the real world, so as to educate the public that nudity is OK (read the site title again).

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