Extremely graphic violence

I was reading the forum rules and was surprised not to find a rule against posting highly graphic violent content. I assume that since that sort of thing is never posted, there's an unofficial injunction against it? If so, can we clarify SDF's stand on that formally?

For example, there's said to be video of a Russian law enforcement officer slicing off one of the concert hall terrorists' ears and stuffing it in his mouth. What's the rule about posting that in the Ukraine-Russia war thread?

Report it or tag one of the moderators.

Blitzo said:

Report it or tag one of the moderators.

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There isn't a post. I'm asking what the deal with violent content is in general since there isn't a rule against it.

I would say apply common sense.

This isn't a forum for torture, gore or snuff footage, so frankly the very idea of needing a rule for it seems odd.
And if anyone chooses to post such a thing then it raises a red flag.

Blitzo said:

I would say apply common sense.

This isn't a forum for torture, gore or snuff footage, so frankly the very idea of needing a rule for it seems odd.
And if anyone chooses to post such a thing then it raises a red flag.

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It's a defense forum with several threads dedicated to ongoing wars. Violent and gory content goes hand in glove with that. That there isn't a rule clarifying the forum's stance on such content is what's odd.

I'd say common sense can go both ways on it. That's why I'm calling for clarity in the forum rules.

No, I don't think in this case common sense does go both ways.

Combat footage and death in conflict happens, and links to it when not explicitly gruesome are tolerated on those threads. I do not actively moderate it myself, because if I did moderate it I would outright ban those threads to begin with because they are not worth the effort for this forum.

Deliberate torture and maiming outside of reasonable combat operations (yes, such as slicing off one of the terrorist's ears and putting it in their mouth) is on the spectrum of no go.


Application of common sense here, is that if you feel like one wants to post something graphic and gruesome, and are wondering whether you'll be banned for it, then just don't post it.
If one lives in fear of wondering whether something a bit gruesome they want to post might land them in a ban because there aren't any explicit red lines, that is fine and tolerable for now.


If this becomes a bigger issue then we may need more formal rules for it, but for most of this forum's duration this has not been a particularly frequent issue because people have exercised reasonable judgement.

Are you of the squeamish sort?

richardrli said:

Are you of the squeamish sort?

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I don't think it's a matter of whether people are squeamish or not, but whether that posts are meaningful and significant in the wider topic. And in my opinion, 99.9% of the time, it is not.

In my duties moderating the Israel and Ukraine conflict threads, videos of soldiers getting targeted by snipers or blown up by drone drops don't add anything meaningful to the discussion, ie. those singular events are not going to be a deciding factor to why a battle was won or lost.

Also, it's just common sense decency and respect for human life regardless of who they are. And lastly, theres always a non-0 chance anyone of us could find ourselves at the receiving end of a done drop or bullet in the future, and I rather not have that filmed and posted all over social media for friends and family to see.

(this is just my opinion and doesn't necessarily reflect the views of other moderators or SDF management)

HereToSeePics said:

I don't think it's a matter of whether people are squeamish or not, but whether that posts are meaningful and significant in the winder topic. And in my opinion, 99.9% of the time, it is not.

In my duties moderating the Israel and Ukraine conflict threads, videos of soldiers getting targeted by snipers or blown up by drone drops don't add anything meaningful to the discussion, ie. those singular events are not going to be a deciding factor to why a battle was one or lost.

Also, it's just common sense decency and respect for human life regardless of who they are. And lastly, theres always a non-0 chances anyone of us could find ourselves at the receiving end of a done drop or bullet in the future, and I rather not have that filmed and posted all over social media for friends and family to see.

(this is just my opinion and doesn't necessarily reflect the views of other moderators or SDF management)

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I find that view strange as this is a military forum and I would think in an actual war the footage of combat including the result/effects of various weapons being used would be deemed something of great interest. In other words, yes it is "meaningful" to the discussion.

richardrli said:

I find that view strange as this is a military forum and I would think in an actual war the footage of combat including the result/effects of various weapons being used would be deemed something of great interest. In other words, yes it is "meaningful" to the discussion.

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The counter point to that is this is "Sino" defence forum - so anything ukraine/russia/israel/india/etc related isn't necessary unless it directly involve China.