[Foundation-l] Personal Image Filter results announced

[Risker]

On 7 September 2011 17:32, John Vandenberg <jayvdb at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 7:26 AM, Risker <risker.wp at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 7 September 2011 17:18, John Vandenberg <jayvdb at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >>  On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 12:55 AM, Risker <risker.wp at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> > On 7 September 2011 10:48, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> <snip>
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >> The closest we could come to a neutral filtering system is an easily
> >> >> accessible on/off switch for images.
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> > Interestingly, this proposal has come up many times completely
> separate
> >> to
> >> > the issue of image filtering.  Many users, particularly those on
> dial-up
> >> > systems or those whose billing is related to the amount of data
> accessed
> >> > have asked for this ability for some time. For them it is a
> >> performance/cost
> >> > issue, and has nothing to do with filtering. Given some of the
> arguments
> >> > that have been made in opposition to filtering, particularly those
> that
> >> seem
> >> > to focus on "the content should be displayed in the way the authors
> >> > intended", I'm concerned there would be equally significant opposition
> to
> >> > even this simple matter.
> >>
> >> Turning off images should be, and can be, done by the user-agent.
> >> We have a help page describing how to do this.
> >>
> >>
> > That would be the page with the great big "this page is out of date"
> notice
> > at the top, giving instructions that are not valid for the most common
> user
> > agents (Firefox 2?).
>
> Every version of Mozilla has included the "Dont load images" option.
> And it is simple to find.
>
>

John, you made me laugh out loud when I read that - it reminded me of how
incredibly non-techie I was before I started hanging out with Wikimedians,
because a few years ago it never would have occurred to me that it was
possible. As it was,   It took me 15 minutes to find the two ways to do that
(without looking at the help page that I doubt anyone would find without
knowing a lot about the project).

I do think David Gerard's suggestion is probably both (a) quite workable and
(b) more likely to create user satisfaction, especially if it's a
straightforward toggle.

Risker/Anne