This blog now officially Safe For Work(tm)
Latin America Rails Summit has been a very nice experience. It has been about a week since I’m back home, and the jetlag that I was experiencing is finally disappearing. I’ve talked to many interesting people, such as Chris Wanstrath from Github, Obie Fernandez from Hashrocket and Chad Fowler.
I heard a… uhm… “interesting” story from Chris. There was a time when he was reading my blog. His boss saw my blog’s banner and thought that he’s viewing non-safe-for-work-content. I heard similar things from several other people. Or, to quote Chad:
“When I met you at RailsConf, I was pleasantly surprised that your personality doesn’t match your pr0n website.” — Chad Fowler, referring to this blog
Or, as Tinco said, “the entire Ruby community wants to read your blog, but they can’t”.
I asked, why not use Adblock? “Too much of a hassle” was the answer I got.
I also pointed out that this is just my personal blog, and that it is clearly separated from the company blog. But the response was “But there’s too much interesting stuff on your blog!”
No more excuses!
Starting from today, there is no excuse anymore! I’ve added a “Censor banner” button, as you can see in this screenshot:
The state will be saved into a cookie, so even if you press Reload, the banner will stay hidden. Therefore, this blog is now officially Safe For Work(tm).
Update: it is now also possible to hide the banner by appending “?hide_banner=yes” to the URL, e.g.:
http://izumi.plan99.net/blog/index.php/2009/04/10/hunting-down-obscure-gc-bugs/?hide_banner=yes
What’s with your blog’s banner anyway?
The girls you see in the banner are actually friends of mine. Yes, I know them in real life. Those who live in Japan or who watch anime are probably familiar with the term “cosplay”. These girls like cosplaying, and I like this particular photo that I shot of them, so I turned it into a blog header. With permission.
Chu Yeow said,
October 28, 2008 @ 2:06 pm
I’ve always wondered about those cosplayers on your banner – wouldn’t have thought you knew them IRL!
Of course, I’m of the opinion that 2D girls are better. Erm, for blog banners, that is.
Jeremy said,
October 28, 2008 @ 8:03 pm
Thanks so much for offering this option.
Mike said,
October 28, 2008 @ 9:11 pm
So picture of two girls, fully clothed and even with head gear, is porn?!
America is becoming worse than Saudi Arabia!!!
Roland said,
October 29, 2008 @ 12:26 pm
so now there is a “safe for work” version…. BUT:
No reason anymore for not showing us more of the girls!
I want a real “not safe for work” version and i guess in .nl nearly everything containing naked skin is allowed
Daniel Lyons said,
December 2, 2008 @ 7:04 pm
I did always wonder what the banner was about, but it never stopped me from reading your blog. People love to impose requirements on other people’s blogs (and lives).
Ethan said,
March 27, 2009 @ 8:09 pm
This baffles me. Two girls, fully clothed, apparently ballroom-dancing or embracing or something. What workplace would object to that?? They’re wearing BONNETS for cripes sake! Who would call that “pr0n,” except maybe someone who thinks about nothing except “pr0n” all day long?
Meanwhile, IT industry magazines are crammed with pics of hot chicks used to sell software and you’re free to leave those on your desk any time you want.
A N. A said,
April 15, 2009 @ 5:24 am
What about adding ?censorbanner=true in the URL?
Then your blog’s URL can be passed around to some colleagues without worries.
Hongli said,
April 26, 2009 @ 10:55 am
@A N. A: Alright, I’ve implemented your suggestion. You can now add “?hide_banner=yes” to the URL.
Alex said,
June 30, 2009 @ 4:18 pm
+1 for the ?increased_skin=yes option…
Pacoup said,
July 6, 2009 @ 4:49 pm
I initially thought I was on a blog by those two girls when I first read a post here (especially with izumi in the URL, a Japanese girl name, yes I know it can also be a guy name). Mind you, my Chinese knowledge didn’t allow me to know that Hongli Lai was a guy’s name, until I saw your avatar in a comment lol.
Anyway, great blog (and professional too!), and thanks for the comments on mine.
a said,
January 16, 2010 @ 7:36 pm
i wonder from which source of irrationality does all this hypocrisy come from. death is bad, pain is bad, pictures of girls you want to make romance explosion on are NOT bad.
Graeme said,
January 19, 2010 @ 8:38 am
Fancy dress is porn? Or is embracing porn? I just do not get the problem.
Rob Gleeson said,
March 19, 2011 @ 2:54 am
I can’t believe people are offended by your blog banner.
“p0rn website”. Get real, and stop living under a rock, aka the 1920s.