Reading comics at work

[Gibson]

As I've been adjusting (bumpily) to my newfound status as the creator of NSFW comics, I notice more and more the very issue of labeling things NSFW is a bigger issue than I though it was. On another forum, I saw a woman pretty vehemently lose her shit over an ad on the adjoined site that linked, apparently, to a porn comic (let's leave out that the comic was called The Gay Barbarian and featured no image other than a man's bare chest...I can't speak for anyone else, but I think I would've been suspicious). I've personally been snarled at by a few angry internet people, as well as had more than one personal message asking me to beef up the warnings. Most, like from Rob here and Dan at Smack Jeeves, have been decent and respectful about it, others have a more limited vocabulary. Generally, though, now that I'm aware of it, I see more and more talk about things being labeled NSFW.

I should say that, although Pictures of You has never been exactly safe for work or in any way appropriate for kids...containing drug and alcohol use, vulgarity a-plenty (and in large red fonts), unsubtle violence, semi-graphic sex and nudity, even full-frontal male nudity...it wasn't until there was a full page shot of a topless woman that it was an issue at all. What this tells me is that the problem isn't the content, it's what people can see over your shoulder...meaning something being read in public, at work or at school.

All of this has led to wonder something that never really occurred to me before...is there really a large number of people who spend a lot of time reading comics at work, or at school? Now, I'm not going to suggest that people who do this at work aren't doing their jobs, not at all, but the jobs that I've worked where I've had internet access, even a little time surfing comic sites would be frowned upon if not outright time-prohibitive, so this is something with which I'm unfamiliar. I'm hoping to understand this a little better, maybe get an idea of the patterns by which people read at work (times of day, duration, whether they read at home as well) and I know at least some of the members here read comics from work. Whatever information or anecdotes you can provide, let's hear 'em!

Similarly, if anyone has any similar experiences to mine in having or making comics with boobs and wieners, share those too.

[D.Z.]

I spent a little time at a (non-paying) internship surfing comics when I didn't have anything else to do.

Eventually, though, I got in trouble for it (nosy IT guy with a vendetta against me), so I just went back to surfing Wikipedia, which at least makes it look like you're working. :p

[amanda]

I used to do all my comic reading and forum surfing exclusively at work.  Not that I wasn't being productive - I just didn't have enough to do.

[JR]

While I'm at work, I spend a lot of time online and most of that time is spent reading comics.  I'm at work as I'm writing this (I was trying to write this earlier, but something came up that needed my immediate attention).  However, I have some difficulty getting onto your site while I'm at work.  Sometimes I can read an update (last Friday's I read from work, I believe), but I can't get onto it today.  This might be a problem with Smackjeeves because sometimes I can't view your site from home either.  I've let them know about the problem, but I thought it was resolved.

[Rob]

Dude.. oh dude... people read @#%@&#!%$@ of comics at work. Seriously. Scads and loads and tons of comics are read at work.

I graduated in 2000 but I spent over four years at the job I got out of college and two more at the job after that. In that six year period I spent a ridiculous amount of time on the clock reading comics.

When I was in security for the first three years I just did it on my lunch break. Then after I moved to the night shift I brought my laptop to work and surfed all night long on my own dialup connection through one of the two "emergency" hardlines that the company kept no records on because they didn't go through the phone system.

Then when I became a paralegal/office manager, before I got laid off, I was essentially my own boss most of the time; with my own clients and my own responsibilities. Whenever I felt like taking a break or whenever I didn't have enough to do; which was often, I would surf and read comics.

Tons and tons of comics.  ;D

[ran]

I absolutely do, including POY.

[Miluette]

I probably would (now that I have employment, yay), but I can anticipate working on 5 projects simultaneously at any given moment probably starting tomorrow, so I won't have time to read comics there. :B Most definitely a good thing.

One thing going against any temptation I might have to read comics at work is that my primary screens are enormous iMacs and both of them are facing an area visible to people approaching my office. I'm pretty numb to most mature content in comics now, so I'd probably mindlessly be reading something without even thinking how someone else would react if they saw it. I don't know anything about people's normal sensibilities anymore... "mature" varies with so many people. I measure it against kids; as in, "do I want kids to see this," on a scale from "they can deal with it" to "oh my goodness no." But then I really don't know what kids can deal with these days, either.

[Gibson]

I don't mind telling you, this is interesting. What it means for my audience, I'm not entirely sure.

[D.Z.]

On a slightly different note, Gibson, as much as I appreciated having the warning about NSFW content the first time, it's getting a bit irritating to click through that box every single time I visit the site.

Couldn't you have that warning simply somewhere on your main page, which itself contains nothing NSFW?

[Rob]

On a slightly different note, Gibson, as much as I appreciated having the warning about NSFW content the first time, it's getting a bit irritating to click through that box every single time I visit the site.

Couldn't you have that warning simply somewhere on your main page, which itself contains nothing NSFW?

Almost ALL NSFW comics have a splash page. While it is annoying it is also the only thing protecting the casually surfing first time visitor from getting unexpected boobs on his/her screen.

I just added his update page URL to my favorites list and I cruise right past it.

[Gibson]

On a slightly different note, Gibson, as much as I appreciated having the warning about NSFW content the first time, it's getting a bit irritating to click through that box every single time I visit the site.

Couldn't you have that warning simply somewhere on your main page, which itself contains nothing NSFW?

The answer is no, I can't. The warning isn't something I created, it's a device of my host site and it's been required of me, not only by the ToS on that site but by a personal request from the site admin who is also a reader, to have the warning message. Removing it could result in having the comic flushed from the site, and I really like hosting there so I'm not risking it. I understand and appreciate the annoyance, and you're not the first one to say something about it, but my hands are kinda tied.

I'm not sure about Rob's method, but I believe other people do the same and it works.

[Miluette]

My mature comic has a splash page, too. It's also required by my host. One day I'm going to do something interesting with it. I was planning on making a REALLY quick and unobtrusive Flash intro for it, but then I learned that people hate Flash intros. Also, I still haven't made the artwork for it. So, I have to think of something else.