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I've been noticing that there's been a disturbing trend for people to post bloody/gory images on the "Cringeworthy" page. From what I've seen, it's largely done more for shock value instead of being cringe-inducing. I think that we need to draw the line at pictures of eyeballs stabbed by needles, among other things.

Even though there have been plenty of requests for the people who post this kind of thing to stop (such as the polite and succinct one I made here), the problem is still going on, and I'm not sure if a Moderator's intervention is necessary. I'd hate to see that Image Gallery get locked, but gore quite frankly needs to stay out of it.

Yeah, I think that those images should be deleted. For something to be "Cringeworthy", it needs to be worthy of the physical act of cringing. Shivering in disgust is not cringing. I feel it is necessary to close images for that entry. I don't want it to happen, but I feel that shutting it down is what we need to do. It keeps getting corrupted by either trolls or people who don't know what the meme is.

Gore and body horror is against site rules and NSFW guidelines. I'll have a moderator with the appropriate powers contact you.

Gore is against site rules, mild NSFW gore-ish stuff that makes you cringe isn't.

Your eyeball thing I removed, but you might need to link me the other stuff for a proper review.

Thanks, RM. It seems like most of the stuff has been removed, but I'll be sure to PM you or post in this thread if I see any other real offenders. I just wanted there to be a place where I could share this concern.

90% of these gory images involve bees. Disturbing bees.

Hornets. I don't think I've seen a Hornet/gore picture on that page, but I have seen plenty of Hornets and other creepy crawlies. Those are fine, though.

Something I keep seeing is that some Scrapbooker tagged a bunch of "Cringeworthy" images as "Not Cringeworthy". Some were gore pictures, which is perfectly acceptable, but several are things that can be seen as Cringe-y. Shouldn't whether or not the images come across as Cringeworthy be in the eyes of all of the viewers instead of just one?

I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who noticed this. It needs to stop. This is Know Your Meme, Not BestGore.com.

I have never seen any horrific gore imagery in the Cringeworthy gallery and I hope to god it will stay that way.
The main problem I see with the Cringeworthy gallery is that everyone has a different idea of what is cringeworthy, which makes sense considering that not everyone is going to react the same way to same image. For some, gore is cringeworthy (which doesn't matter since it shouldn't be posted at all in the first place).

If anyone has any gore/porn they need removed, don't hesitate to PM me the link still. I usually get in within the hour. haven't had time to IRC lately, but if it's an emergency i am one of the only people who still uses AOL instant messenger lololol

The cringeworthy gallery has been temporarily locked so it can be checked for inappropriate content. We're brainstorming an alternative solution that would hopefully allow it to be kept open, but if it doesn't work it may be permanently locked.

Yes, it is a pain to see a lot of the Cringeworthy gallery take up the Trending Images and are pretty painful to see while not expecting something like it in a safe site like this. I wouldn't want to see it permanently locked, however but images should be kept to low standard because a lot of images usually doesn't fit the criteria for "Cringeworthy", or are far too Cringeworthy to be in the image gallery itself. Gore, for example in a SFW site like this.

The issue with the gallery at the moment is that it should follow site content rules but generally does not. Things like gore and personal attacks are not allowed, but are currently daily occurrences in the gallery. In addition, the topic of "cringeworthy" is extremely subjective, leading to User A feeling that harmless topic X is crigeworthy, offending User B who enjoys topic X, causing large amounts of drama and fighting. Unfortunately, this also makes enforcement of a common theme a touchy subject, as everyone's definition of "cringe material" is different, mods and regular users alike. One thing I've brought up in this discussion is that perhaps the users in question do consider gore and body horror to be simply "cringe", and are unaware of the site's NSFW guidelines.

The current plan of action is for image moderators to trawl through it and filter out any content that violates the guidelines. After that, we're still figuring it out. One solution discussed in IRC was to put a small clarification of general guidelines, as well as ones specific to that gallery, at the end of the article. The main issue brought up, however, is that some users may forgo reading that section or bypass the page altogether, preferring, as I do, to submit photos directly through the the primary gallery. We are continuing to brainstorm other options, but that is currently our best available option. If it does not work, the most likely course of action is to permanently lock the gallery. I do know that I, as well as a few other moderators and users, would rather see that be the primary course of action – however, I still want to give it a second chance.

Until a permanent solution comes up, however, try to follow these guidelines in that gallery if it is reopened:

• Do not post anything that violates our NSFW Guidelines. This is not a cringeworthy-specific request; these guidelines are for the entire site and can be grounds for suspension or banning if violated repeatedly within a moderator's knowledge.
• Do not use the gallery for personal attacks. Posting screenshots of certain users' profiles, posts or art is unacceptable and does not relate to the gallery topic, no matter how much they make you cringe. This is an Internet culture documentation site, not the vehicle for your personal vendetta.
• Think before you post. Does your image relate to the gallery topic? Is it likely to offend a number of people? Is it truly cringeworthy, and not a "I don't like thing" opinion, which is just that – an opinion? It may be wise to avoid uploading it you can answer yes to any of those. Also make sure the content really is cringeworthy on its own – this video is intentionally bad, for example, a product of the ironic Shrek fandom, and this would make no sense to anyone who does not know the context.

Just help us out here, and we may be able to keep the gallery open. I hate to see an old gallery like that get closed because people can't behave, but if it's going to cause a problem like this then it just may have to happen.

Hmm. Yes… This needs delete too pls.
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/658399-cringeworthy [NSFW obviously]

Out of curiosity, is animated gore off-limits? I've seen a couple of God Of War and anime images that actually are Cringeworthy even if they are violent. I think there's a line between something happening stylistically in fiction and it happening in real life.

I think it might be best to rename this topic "Discussing Cringeworthy Guidelines" or something to that effect. I can probably look through the Image Gallery sometime if need be.

What about instead of disabling the image posting, you'd be directed to guidelines which you have to read before proceeding?

A good idea in theory, but might backfire when launched. Users aren't always in a mood to be forced to crawl through the guidelines each time again, so forcing this like it's an ad or pop-up may demotivate them to upload stuff, hurting our daily uploads.

Personally, I rather see the Site Rules and NSFW Guidelines to be given a MUCH more dominant place on the site, instead of forum threads which are hard to find. I have brought up the issue various times, and suggested solutions, but with no succes.

Guidelines for only for entries that have problems.

There's a few issues with that, though:

• At the core, all of this could be solved by following the general NSFW/Site Guidelines.
• At the moment, I don't believe the site has the ability to insert a guidelines warning for specific articles. I think it would be possible to add, but James is a busy man and as RM said, it would honestly be a good idea to make the NSFW and Site guidelines more prevalent.
• If we added a small blurb at the bottom of the problem articles, it would be very easy to ignore or bypass altogether.
• If we made it a popup-type warning, it may discourage other users from posting as it makes the rules seem to stringent/you have to go through unnecessary steps.

Personally, I'd like to see the guidelines linked at the end of the image upload page, before the submit button; maybe even getting their own permanent page on the site. We have set guidelines that we expect people to follow, but they're hidden in the forums that a fraction of the userbase uses, and beyond that in a subdivision of the forum, never seen on the main forum page unless someone bumps them. Meanwhile, there is no disclaimer on upload pages leading to either of the threads yet we expect people to follow the rules we have hidden away.

Just remember to avoid the slippery slope of restriction bloat. I wish that if an image gets removed, there would be a reason written why it was removed.

This may be something that has been suggested in the past, or perhaps it is completely impractical on a smaller site like this, but I feel we should have a report button directly on the image pages. When I was in my very early days of KYM I saw a post in the rule 34 gallery that was straight up porn (it has since been removed) and I had no idea how I was supposed to report it. I wasn't really aware of who the moderators on this site were yet and I found myself scanning up and down the page for a "report" button. If we don't put a button to directly report images I think it would be helpful to at least put a small instruction on the image pages that tells users how to report images and who to report them to.

Of course, this only really applies to when image abuse has already happened, this doesn't really help avoid it to begin with.

I too agree with the sentiment that the lack of a report button kinda complicates things.

For the images that are reported, however, they must be put under review by the moderators to check whether or not if the reported image/video violates the rules; however, the moderators must do this impartially and ignore personal biases.

And even if the Cringeworthy gallery becomes locked, who's to say that other image galleries, like Rule 34 or Ruined Childhood, won't come under such abuse themselves. We've already seen this in the Ruined Childhood and Childhood Enhanced, in which people start posting images of video games that they personally consider childhood enhancing/ruining, but are probably just using the galleries for nostalgiabation or venting their personal vendettas.

This is called "restriction creep" and "restriction bloat" where restrictions are placed on contents but not removed when restrictions are not needed anymore. Basically, this is kind of slippery slope which ruined sites like TV Tropes.

Either that, or have the picture being uploaded go through a process to see if it fits within the guidelines and is acceptible.