Odd Question About the Community

[Gamma Vector]

I've noticed that members here regularly censor their faces out of their pictures. I'm wondering why this is, and if it's a rule or just convention. I haven't been active around here in a couple of years (and I never posted much back in the day - I was always a lurker) and I can't remember if this was standard practice back when I joined or not. I DO vaguely remember the board having some trouble with creepers back in the day. I remember stories about hair being forcibly cut (as punishment, because parents didn't like it, because it got caught in something, etc) being banned because they were attracting the creepers. Seems to me that might have been what started the censor craze as well, but I can't remember exactly.

So, do we still have a problem with creeps? Or are people just censoring out of habit/extra-carefulness? Is there a rule about not showing our faces in our pictures? If so, is the rule the same for forum posts and blog posts? I couldn't find anything about it, but I wanted to make sure, since I just posted a picture in my blog that does show my face (showing off my new haircut).

[neko_kawaii]

No rule about it. People censor their faces for different reasons. Me, I don't plaster my real name or my face on the internet.

[lapis_lazuli]

I censor mine out because I don't know where the pictures might end up. Once they're on the internet, pretty much anyone can access them and I just feel uneasy about that. I don't even post photos on facebook..

[Sarahlabyrinth]

I think it's mostly done for privacy reasons. I don't worry too much about my face showing but I don't use my real name.

[wilderwein]

Same as neko_kawaii. It's just a personal preference. The idea of someone who possibly may know me, and find me and possibly stalk me in any forum/social network etc without knowing about it, creeps me.

Lapis_lazuli I also don't post pictures on fb for similar reasons

[Robot Ninja]

I put photos that show my face in my album, so only members can see them. I'm fully aware that they might end up somewhere else on the internet anyway, but I don't want to just hand them to any potential weirdo who comes poking around LHC looking for pictures to be weird over.

[cat11]

I think some people also don't want people they know recognizing them... desire to keep things private. And if you had a stalker on here (I would be particularly afraid of this at longer lengths that get more attention) you might end up regretting posting your face :p

[spidermom]

I don't subject people to my face very often because I'm getting kind of old and ugly, plus I'm missing a couple of teeth, and I rarely like pictures of my face. I don't share what I don't like.

[DreamSheep]

I think it is just privacy and to maintain anonymity to an extent :)
I mean, we're all really good at identifying each other from hair (in fact someone from the board apparently recognised my hair on the street! :p (though my face has also been here for members only so I'm not fussed) - but most people identify each other using faces, so keeping it out maintains privacy. :)

[Lady Mary]

Just privacy reasons. :)

[Anje]

It's worth remembering that some sections of this site (basically the forums on hair topics) are visible to all the Internet. Some people here have had pics show up in places they don't approve of, because some stranger swiped it. Obviously, this would be worse if your face is showing and you're recognized.

Me, I occasionally show a pic or two with my face, but infrequently. (Actually, I don't post tons of pics anyway. I don't take lots of pics of myself and often dislike how I look in them. So... yeah.)

[woodswanderer]

My face is on Facebook and I don't care, but I don't post my face on here much in case creepers come by. I have a couple face shots on here though, so probably not much point in locking the barn door after the horse gets stolen. It isn't a huge deal to me.

[Aurum]

Because I make ugly faces trying to get good pictures of my hair. ;)

Honestly, my reasoning is more along the lines of what's been said here. I'd rather not my show my face if I don't have to, and usually you don't when hair is the focus.

[Kat]

What everyone else said, plus, in case I meet up with someone I know, I have the choice of not telling them it's me to keep them from 'net stalking, and, in case I say anything that pisses someone off, I don't want them knowing my name/where I live/what I look like, etc.

[Wildcat Diva]

I show my face occasionally and I don't worry about it.

[ghost]

I don't post pictures very much, but I don't deliberately censor my face. If I'm facing away from the camera, it's just to get a length shot :)

[trolleypup]

It has been a long standing tradition here. Both for privacy reasons, and because the focus is on the hair...and faces can distract from the hair (seriously, sort of).

I mostly don't post my face, but sometimes I do...I'm way too easy to find on the internet to worry about it too much. Also, if someone is perving off my hair pictures, I am amused that they might get a shock when a front picture shows up. (A male LHCer was notified of his hair pictures being popular on a pervy site...and joined to post a "Hi! This is ME!" picture)

[cathair]

Bout as public as I'm ever going to get. What business is it of other people to see my face?

[flickm]

When i joined, I didn't really realise how full the profile would be (and i was too manically focused on getting info about henna to take it in), so i used a breakdown of my real name. When I thought about it, I wanted to choose a more anonymous name and tried to rejoin with a different name, but got had an automated response telling me I couldn't have two profiles. I emailed the mods to ask them to delete my original profile, explaining the reasons, but nobody answered my query. Since flickm (or variations of it) lead to my wordpress profile/blog, my twitter account and various other routes, with pics of me (since I'm a writer and therefore have an online presence - which I didn't want to bring over to the forum, incidentally) I thought, in for a penny, in for a pound, so showing my face or not was no longer relevant, since people only have to follow the profile name to find me on twitter, Amazon and other places, face an all (subsequently I've filled out a full profile with all my activities, since it's all traceable anyway).

But i do understand that not everybody wants to be recognised online. Also, many pics are taken, in the mirror, of the back of people's heads, to show hair growth. I think ultimately, with even locked down Facebook profiles, and other social media accounts, most of us are trackable if someone really wants to take the trouble.

I also think a lot of people lack confidence and don't want to show their faces because they think their hair is the only attractive thing about them. To anyone thinking that, i want to say you are all gorgoeus in your different ways. Sometimes i would love to put a face to the personality behind the words written in this forum.

[Wosie]

I'm just very shy and try to stay as anonymous as I can. It just makes me very uneasy, to know that peeps all over the world might be looking at my face... I also barely ever meet people irl, which contributes to my uneasiness.

:oops:

[KittyBird]

I'm just very unphotogenic, so instead of taking 100+ pictures in order to get one where my face looks somewhat nice, I just cover it up. I do have a few pictures that shows my face though.

[Unicorn]

Personal preference really. I don't want my face all over the net and I know once a pic is up, you lose control of where it goes. I have precisely 4 pictures that show my face, up on the net, all from others taking group photos of events and putting them up. I've never put a photo of face on the net and can't see myself doing it. I've even refused to do it for work on one occasion, citing "personal reasons".

You'll see that I've chosen a name that would produce precisely nothing useful if googled.

Unicorn

[flickm]

You'll see that I've chosen a name that would produce precisely nothing useful if googled.
Unicorn

I beg to differ. A google search threw up this: http://bit.ly/1IoKQqF, which is an amazing shop in Oxford, where i live :)

[Unicorn]

I beg to differ. A google search threw up this: http://bit.ly/1IoKQqF, which is an amazing shop in Oxford, where i live :)

Context; I meant nothing useful in terms of tracking me. There are so many instances of "unicorn" on the net that even tracking it to LHC to take a level of patience that would render it pointless unless you already know that "Unicorn" is here. Tracking it to the real me? Well perhaps if I was Bin Laden, someone had several weeks to spare and they had a significant level of tracking knowledge, it may be worth the effort required. Even then, I'm not certain they could. :)

Unicorn

[pixldust]

There are some pictures in my album that show my face, though obviously I've blanked out the faces of people I am with in some of them. They show my hair short, so wouldn't be of any interest to pervy types anyway. I can understand why many people, particularly those members with exceptionally long hair, would want to keep their faces hidden. Sounds like there are a lot of stalkers/pervs out there.

[lapushka]

The "Mane" forum is a public - internet readable - forum, so no wonder people keep their faces out of threads. I'm even careful not to post my hair pictures anywhere on the post your picture thread on the mane forum, but rather on the other hair showing thread on the poll forum (as that is private).

I also won't be posting past classic as that seems to attract certain people more, I've noticed.

[flickm]

Context; I meant nothing useful in terms of tracking me. There are so many instances of "unicorn" on the net that even tracking it to LHC to take a level of patience that would render it pointless unless you already know that "Unicorn" is here. Tracking it to the real me? Well perhaps if I was Bin Laden, someone had several weeks to spare and they had a significant level of tracking knowledge, it may be worth the effort required. Even then, I'm not certain they could. :)

Unicorn

Yes, i realise that :) I was being ironically humerous (or possibly not, since you took it seriously - ah, the pitfalls of cyber communication)!), plus was amazed unicorn threw up anything so interesting and near to home. I was expecting a load of fluffy, lurid pics of My Little Pony or similar . . . I clearly have nothing better to do than sit here googling unicorns ;(

[Linguaphilia]

My biggest concern is that my real name only turns up professional stuff on Google. So no links whatsoever to hobbies such as my hair. I am not really THAT concerned about "creeps", as I don't really believe I have much to fear from "creeps". They might enjoy a picture, who knows, but really, people who see you in reality might enjoy the memory of you too, later at home, if you know what I mean.

My only concern, again, is to keep the professional me and the "hair me" separate. I don't think that's hard to do, as serious forums or online stores keep your real name and address secret.

Now if someone were really intent on finding me, they could probably analyse my posts, and subsequently spend a lot of time googling, trying to find out who I am in real life. But I don't think I am special enough to justify that kind of behaviour, so I feel pretty safe.

Another thought; most people's faces are usually pretty hard to recognise in real life with pictures only, especially if you only have one picture with your face in it. I don't think the face is the single factor in recognising someone, though. There's your body shape, and of course the hair. I think I might easily be recognised in real life based on my body + hair alone. But really, only people interested in hair would recognise me, which would be a fun thing, not a bad thing... Except if it's the hypothetical creep, but most hair ******ists are not going to stalk you or assault you on the street...

[Unicorn]

Yes, i realise that :) I was being ironically humerous (or possibly not, since you took it seriously - ah, the pitfalls of cyber communication)!), plus was amazed unicorn threw up anything so interesting and near to home. I was expecting a load of fluffy, lurid pics of My Little Pony or similar . . . I clearly have nothing better to do than sit here googling unicorns ;(

Pardon my rather literal brain... I miss on-line irony often.

I've googled unicorn too, There's quite an unexpected mix, none of it me! :cool:

Unicorn

[Upside Down]

I am pretty relaxed since there are pics of me performing in a (embelished, but still) bra.
Tribal fusion bellydance.

So, yeah, hair, face bodyparts, its all out there. No nudity, lol.

And, I have a serious job. Some clients have seen me in both worlds but I only had positive reactions. So, google away world.

PS if I censor my facr it means I hate how I look in the pic, but my hair looks amahhhzing ;)

[alexis917]

I don't have any other "social media" pages, unless you count my email, for which the username is different. I only have a handful of pictures on here, of which, less than 5 have my face. Plus, they're older pictures. I'm not worried about "creeps". If I were to regularly take photos I would probably censor my face (I'm pretty critical of pictures of myself), but I usually don't bother taking pictures from the front of my hair. Boobs distort length :mad:

[Ephemia]

I have so far posted only two pictures, and both have been of my hair in a nautilus. I'm a very private person, and right now I don't think I want to post any pictures of my face or full length anywhere here. I'd say I'm quite a recognisable person, even just from my hair. There's no particular thing I'm worried about, and I'm sure anyone who really wanted to could figure out who I am and find my Facebook profile picture, which does show my face. If anyone who knew me was to come on this site and read my posts, I'm pretty sure they'd guess it was me. I suppose there isn't any way of being 100% safe from creeps. Anyone could spot me out one day and decide to stalk me for one reason or another.

[HairPlease]

I am a non-internet persona person.
I don't have any social network except linkedin which still doesn't show my face. I don't share any pictures of my face online because of personal privacy preferences. It's not for creeper prevention or anything (although that's a bonus), just for me. I'm a semi introvert anyways. :)

[Arctic]

The "Mane" forum is a public - internet readable - forum, so no wonder people keep their faces out of threads. I'm even careful not to post my hair pictures anywhere on the post your picture thread on the mane forum, but rather on the other hair showing thread on the poll forum (as that is private).

Just headups, that the poll forum is public with all it's images viewable to non-members alike (unless you post them from your LHC album with strict privacy settings).

[lapushka]

Just headups, that the poll forum is public with all it's images viewable to non-members alike (unless you post them from your LHC album with strict privacy settings).

Wow, didn't know that!

[PixieP]

I'm not worried about my privacy; I have a public instagram, and a public tumblr (where I post 99% Sims 3 related things, but a selfie every once in a while). I wouldn't post my full name in public or my home adress, but I'm not worried about my face, as my avatar shows, lol.

I would probably censor if I took pictures of my hair with face showing and the face was ugly tho XD

[Robot Ninja]

I would absolutely censor if my hair looked awesome but my face looked bad. Or if I felt like taking a picture of my hair from the front but didn't feel like putting on makeup, since I don't want pictures of my naked face on the internet.

[Alien Girl]

My hair pictures are for my hair, not my face :)

[Loktra]

I always thought this was funny too...experience has made me much more afraid of irl creepers than online ones!
But then, I'm one of those who is VERY easy to find online, through no choice of my own, so I guess the idea of posting pics of my face on a forum where my real name isn't attached just hadn't occurred to me as overly risky.
Creepers gonna creep, doesn't matter what you do. Do what you need to to feel safe.

[strawberryfine]

I'm an old member who has just returned this month, July, 2015 and the anonymity factor was just comfortable for me personally. Otherwise, I probably would never have posted. I think I first posted here in April, 2004, not really sure. Suffice it to say I was here at a timely when there were some stalkers/creepers infiltrating. I respect the moderators decision to make anonymity an option for us. I have never seen any rule against showing your face in a photo. I just personally prefer the anonymity option because there really are some pervert/creepers out there and I think we all want to keep this forum the safe, clean site it has always been. I would say post at your comfort level. I don't do Facebook either. Strawberryfine