meolox Wrote:Heisig does say in the intro that you can "shock, disgust" the mind to make a story stick so I see no problem with them, I have to say I'm sure everyone else was thinking what I was thinking when I first came across Uncle 叔.

radical_tyro Wrote:For some (most?) of us, perverted stories only help to make it more memorable. If you have a problem with them, simply don't use them. Use whatever story you wish or even better, make your own.

DrJones Wrote:I don't particularly enjoy these stories, as I found most of them useless, but I do understand that some people's humor is defined by high levels of offensive content (that's why things like American Pie sell well), and that in order to study 2000+ kanji you must have fun.

I thought yesterday the following solution. The report button is used to mark stories that appear on Heisig, but I've seen it being used to mark naughty stories, too. The site could implement a filter that hides the entries that have X bad reports (X being adjustable), as does Youtube and some discussion boards I've seen. By adjusting the filter, I won't have to read stories featuring Rocco Siffriedi if I don't want to, while allowing other users to read that kind of stories.

dukelexon Wrote:I'll assume by the word "perverted" you're simply referring to sexually suggestive stories. To be honest ... I don't think there are ENOUGH of them, considering how powerful a tool they are. I have yet to fail a card with a kanji that I've used "titillating" images for ... and I've got a whole lot of them. Playing to my libido is a surefire way to strengthen recall, for me. The hormones really engrave the image in my mind.

So, why complain about them? There's only one reason, and it's always the same. I think we all know what I'm referring to.

The simple truth is ... if you remove arbitrary codes of religious morality out of the equation, there wouldn't be anything particularly remarkable about suggestive stories ... certainly nothing to make a complaint over. They would just be one of the many genres of short narratives that we've accumulated here, with nothing in particular to distinguish them over stories that include mention of food, celebrities, or anything else we deal with in reality. Unless you accept the notion that there's something uncomfortable, and "dirty" about sexuality that makes it something to AVOID talking about, there's not much of a reason to single out those sorts of mnemonics as something you want to see censored.

In short, for those that might support having these stories removed ... consider your motivation. There's something about the old-world, Victorian era mentality about our naughty parts that's lingering in your head ... and repeated exposure to the reality of sex makes you uncomfortable. That's fine. That's you, and it's your choice whether or not you want to make use of those stories or not.

Trying to make a case for why that uncomfortableness should be inflicted on everyone else, however, is not something that jives with me.





I'd be willing to put support behind a "NSFW" tag on stories, so that people can voluntarily warn others. This way, anyone that's really living in the year 1600 can opt to filter those out. Let's not, however, place any more importance on the "report" button. We don't need to start a witch hunt on anything that doesn't meet with the Bureau of Morality's approval.

Let it be up to the author whether or not content is particularly offensive, and the reader whether or not he/she wishes to read it. Don't turn the community into a group police effort, however.

It takes maybe a second or two of brief skimming to understand what the content of the story is about. I don't really buy the notion that this fraction of a moment that it takes to determine that you don't want to finish reading a story is so incredible a burden to shoulder, that you would literally need to "hide" the stories from view. If you can't endure contact with imagery of this nature for even a split second ... it's probably not even safe for you to go outside.

I doubt this is the case, but I think I've made my point. I don't think it would be wise to inflict a site-wide censorship change to remove minimal "discomforts" from a vocal minority.



I'd also kind of like to express a pet peeve of mine, regarding the misuse of the English word "perverted."

"Perverted" does NOT mean anything sexual in nature, though a lot of prudish people tend to use it in that way. A "perversion," by definition, must describe something absolutely twisted, abnormal, and completely skewed from anything approaching normality ... it doesn't even necessarily need to be sexual in nature. Things like bestiality, pedophilia, and necrophilia are "perversions."

People talking about erections, breasts, and specific porn stars in theirs stories ... well, a few may not like it, and a lot of them are certainly rather lazy and without imagination ... but it doesn't come anywhere close to being "perverted." It's just sexually charged.

What's more, there are certain kanji that completely lend themselves to imagery that's difficult to avoid. I'm talking about characters like 奴 (guy), 叔 (uncle), and 架 (erect).

Why fight what makes the most sense, simply to adhere to an imagined set of rules regarding what you're "allowed" to think about?

wrightak Wrote:I don't have any problem with them at all. I would have a problem though if I thought there might be young people accessing the site. But I think that these users will be very rare, if they exist at all.

It might be helpful if people put a few words at the start of their stories saying "may offend" or something. People who like these kind of stories could then actively search for them and people who don't like them can move onto the next story without reading.

Although people can probably already do this by ignoring the stories that have been reported.

Biene Wrote:Some of those stories I found helpful, but most of them I just find annoying and not helpful at all. It's true that Heisig said "shocking and disgusting" might be very helpful for remembering the kanji, but to be franc, the shocking and disgusting stories that play with sexual oriented pictures are quite boring after the umpteen times. "Shocking and disgusting" does not mean it always has to do with sex, neh?

I like DrJones's idea for helping with this "problem", but I guess it would be not worth the additional trouble for Fabrice. Even though Stehr also made a good point regarding the age of possible users of this site.

Anyways, I'll stay in the camp of the Victorian-minded-people and continue to scan past stories that don't help me (which aren't always of the perverted kind).

billyclyde Wrote:@dukelexon,
I for one would not let my kids use this site.

ファブリス Wrote:Frankly I don't see the point in sharing any kind of emotionally loaded stories, be it sexual content or anything else. There are plenty of really excellent stories already which don't need to use any sensible content, and work very well. Unless talking about universal themes like love, death etc, chances are most of those stories make a mental impression only on the author, and do little that any other "regular" story couldn't do.

It's not a question of freedom of expression or what is acceptable and what is not. The study area is a public place to share stories, and you are also a host when you post stories there. Why ruin the party for other people? If you feel you really have to post stories which you know are potentially offensive to other readers, I'm sorry but I feel this is a lack of consideration for others.

revenantkioku Wrote:Nope. The more messed up, the more they stick in my mind.