NSFW doesn't have only to do with sex or crudity. Unless you are in an animation shop, the splash screen screams "not serious" to anyone not in that scene. My kids draw anime. A boss might go, "Why are you using a toy for real work? Do you need Adobe suite?"

There’s some basic level of professionalism I expect at work. I wouldn’t set an attractive woman as my screensaver or desktop, regardless of the number of layers of clothing involved.

If your workplace has a rule against cutesy mascots, you can use --no-splash to disable the splash screen on all platforms.

I'm not sure what place of work would consider this mascot to be NSFW (maybe a theocratic country where women are forced to hide their bodies for religious reasons?) but the switch doesn't prevent mascot from popping up elsewhere, so if you are in such a place you should probably avoid this program all together (or find a better employer).

There doesn’t have to be a rule against cutesy mascots for the Krita splash to be just a little bit weird. I don’t have pictures of any women, especially young girls, on my desk, and people around me would consider it weird if I did, and I would consider it a little weird if they did. True, the switch doesn’t prevent female anime mascots from popping up elsewhere, yet somehow that’s not a problem I’ve ever had, is it common for you?

No wife/girlfriends/sisters/daughters/nieces in your life? Do you have zero pictures of the boys/men in your life as well? Not even a family picture?

That’s a straw man. The Krita picture of “Kiki” is not a member of my family, or anyone else’s. Nobody in my family is ambiguously young with melon sized breasts, and even if they were I definitely wouldn’t have a picture of it on my desk.

Your verbiage makes it sound concerning, but if it's the following image[0] then I don't see how anyone could misconstrue it with lolita culture. It looks like something you'd see in a Studio Ghibli film.

[0] https://krita.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/electrichearts_...

The visible garters aren’t a clue? Yes the visual style might be similar to Ghibli, in the sense that it’s anime, but see if you can find a shot from any of their films with garters under a skirt. That’s only one of the Krita splash screens. If you look at all of them, the suggestiveness is relatively consistent though not exactly the same from version to version.

Speaking only personally, I can imagine how this image would make some people slightly squeamish if I had it on display at work. I’m not saying you shouldn’t have it on your desktop. You do you. I’m only saying I wouldn’t do it, and not necessarily for obvious or extreme reasons, it’s really just for subtle reasons, but personally I don’t see how anyone could not see the slightly suggestive nature of Krita’s splash screens. Which is fine at home, just not at work (for me).

While no garders, Kiki's Delivery Service has plenty of pantie shots far cringier than a pair of garters.

Cool. I don’t hang those on my office wall either. It’s not a competition for which one’s worse. There are images that aren’t in any danger of bothering coworkers, and images that aren’t appropriate in all settings. Both of the Kikis here land in the second category when it comes to professional workplaces, unless maybe you’re an animator.

As far as Kiki’s Delivery Service goes, Googling it, people online tend to point out that the shots are of bloomers, not panties per-se. It’s not a sexualized symbol like garters are. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0097814/parentalguide/nudity

In most western cultures, visible garters are lingerie not appropriate to a professional environment for anyone who isn't a sex worker/stripper/fashion model.

> That's a straw man.

Then proceeded to talk about "melon sized breasts", which Krita's mascot doesn't have.

If there is an award of the lack of self-awareness, this comment deserves a nomination.

Some of them certainly do. https://images.app.goo.gl/sXTmKVvErm9mgtQZA https://images.app.goo.gl/ucr6f7dfnBUeqMJe7

Still don't see them. You seem awfully keen to die on this hill, huh?

Heh. If any of the official Kiki images has a Kiki with melon-sized boobs, _I_ would have melon-sized boobs, and I've only been on HRT for a year and a half, and am an A-cup. (Aspiring to a B-cup, though!)

I guess using the word melon seems to have triggered some people, and is arguable given the cartoony proportions, but the links I put above are definitely adult boobs, and larger than B cup, relative to the torso/shoulders/arms. The boob size isn’t really the point, the subject matter as a whole just isn’t workplace material, right? I don’t quite understand all the pushback on the idea that these pictures aren’t completely neutral and aren’t 100% appropriate for the workplace.

I think I see your point and agree to certain extent; it is not about the breast size. Even if you see the splash screen from a distance where you can't specifically focus on the body parts, the image itself is reminiscent of typical explicit anime/manga involving young girls (even if there isn't anything particularly NSFW about the image itself). So yes, the potential/implicit connotations can certainly make someone and their co-workers uncomfortable.

Yeah exactly, nicely said, that’s really all I was trying to say, and thanks for replying. The size digression and unnecessary details are my fault.

Are these what you consider NSFW? Your job would have to be assistant to the pope for your workplace to be offended by these.

I didn’t call it unambiguously NSFW. The top comment (not mine) didn’t either, they used the qualifier “semi”. This obviously isn’t porn, it’s art. The famous Lena image has no breasts at all, and it’s considered semi NSFW. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna “it is no longer considered appropriate by some authors” … “Suggestive pictures used in lectures on image processing ... convey the message that the lecturer caters to the males only.”

You don’t have to be in a puritanical setting for some women and men around you to be uncomfortable with your pin-ups, regardless of which body parts are visible. They might never even say anything about it, and yet it can still be slightly inappropriate and/or unprofessional.

Thankfully the cartoon images don't share problematic aspects in common, such as coming from an old playboy shoot. They're not even suggestive of that.

Unfortunately some people still don’t care for these particular cartoon images for whatever reason as evidenced by multiple requests to disable the splash screen, here and elsewhere on the internet. If you believe strongly that these images are neutral and appropriate for work, by all means, show them!

So what? There’s a cli option for fundamentalists. I don’t believe they should be catered to excessively, and thankfully they are not.

> There’s a cli option

Yes exactly! That’s the controversial point that started this entire thread. Glad you came around and we are arguing the same viewpoint now.

I never would have mentioned it.

Holy cow, project much?

These complaints about a... "squirrel girl mascot" where you give graphic descriptions about body parts says more about you than the images/authors.

"The dude doth protest too much, methinks"

Why are the comments getting more flippant, more incredulous, and more unreasonable despite there being lots of discussion already explaining the nuanced and fairly uncontroversial point of view that squirrel girl isn’t the single most appropriate image for a workplace? I’m not alone, and this isn’t the first conversation about Krita’s splash screens being mildly unprofessional. Nobody here is claiming the pictures are generally inappropriate, only that they’re not neutral in the workplace. I don’t mind the art. My kids have similar art. I still wouldn’t hang it on my office wall. If you want to, you should, and see if everyone at your work likes it. I was only trying to add explanation and specificity to my comment precisely because of comments like yours pretending incredulously that there’s absolutely nothing to discuss, and attacking me with ad-hominems.

You should check your comment history if you’re honestly surprised. I found at least one comment offensive.

As I do general puritanism.

"a little bit weird" is a pretty low bar to cross. Enough to maybe go "huh okay", but nowhere close to NSFW. Your average news site carries ads more NSFW than this and most people still browse the web without ad blockers.

Why would the gender of the mascot even matter? Would it be better if the mascot was male?

Depends entirely on your definition of “safe”. And yes my very point was that a little bit weird is a low bar to cross, and yet it’s still crossing a bar. That is exactly why the parent said “semi” NSFW. I don’t browse news sites at work for the same reason. Hey if you want your boss and co-workers to see you with “huh okay” stuff on your screen, and have no concern you might slowly lose on promotions or get HR complaints, then knock yourself out. Speaking only personally, I don’t want anyone in my office to feel uncomfortable with what’s on my screen or with what they think I’m into.

The gender doesn’t matter. It would be just as weird if it was an ambiguously young looking male child/teenager with emphasized anatomy under tight clothing. I would definitely also avoid having that on my monitor or desk.

How... how is that semi-NSFW...?

"It's not from my culture and I find unfamiliar things scary, so I'm gonna call it NSFW"

That’s 100% straw man. The issue isn’t the anime cultural reference, the issue is that the splash screens are a picture of a female child/teenager, which is creepy for adult males to have on display at work regardless of which country you live in.

Just to be sure, is this the image you're seeing: https://krita.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/electrichearts_...

That's the one that comes up on the splash screen for me, and if you see that as in any way "suggestive", that's disturbing to me.

Would you have the same problem if they had Mickey Mouse in their splash screen? After all, he is topless and arguably more suggestive than Kiki is in any way.

No that one’s on the less suggestive side of the various Krita splash screens. (Still not something I would want to hang a poster of at work.) Do a Google image search for “Krita splash screen” and look at the broader set. These are more suggestive than the one in your comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35773999 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35773357

I’m not going to touch the Mickey comment, that’s weird.

That one just seems unprofessional in so much as it is child-like. There is another where she is visibly wearing garters, which is not child-like for the past more than a century.

> regardless of which country you live in.

I usually don't go into these kind on discussions, especially on HN, but allow me to mention that in many countries, nobody would think much of such splash screen even at work. And that doesn't mean in any way that the person in question is creepy or that anyone else around would think so for a minute. If this artwork would trigger a reaction, this wouldn't go further than "hey, nice drawing" without any afterthoughts.

Seeing this picture as suggestive is immensely conditioned by the personal and cultural background of the beholder and his community. These norms aren't universal.

Which countries are you thinking of? This used to be more acceptable in the US, but norms are changing, and they are changing globally. There are still some places in the US where nobody would care, but these places are becoming less frequent over time. And I’d agree that the images do not automatically make someone creepy, but I would say that it might automatically make someone insensitive to those around them, maybe women in particular in this case. This may be true regardless of the past culture of acceptance of such imagery.

Your position is extreme. And by definition one of a minority. If you've got the feeling it's growing, it's called radicalisation, which is a concern for the fate of societies since it's defeating all the efforts that have been made for getting out of some dark ages of the past.

It triggered a lot of reactions from other HNers since such a world view is denying the basic freedoms to express of the opposite gender, and even the freedom to exist.

You seem to have an education, use it to widen your perspective of the world.

Whoa that went off the rails fast. If that’s what you think then I’m certain you have completely misunderstood my position, and I’m not explaining it well.

I was referring to the global closing of the gender gap, for example, which is occurring due to changing norms. You can read about it.

https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-202...

https://www.oecd.org/stories/gender/social-norms-and-gender-...

Why do you think I’m in a minority? What makes you think people here or elsewhere disagree with the idea that some images aren’t entirely appropriate in the workplace? I haven’t said anything that’s even remotely controversial. In the US the law agrees and corporations agree and we all are subjected to anti-harassment tracing every year just to remind us, even while some people reminisce about the good old days when pinups at work were acceptable.

We are talking strictly about the workplace in this thread, not about the freedom to express yourself in your personal life. It seems like you might have missed the premise here and are jumping to wildly mistaken conclusions.

Anime fandom, at least among online westerners, seems to primarily sexualize the cartoons. People who are aware of this may not want to have it displayed in a professional setting.

"It appropriates something from my culture that is sexualized and associates it with child-like qualities which are taboo to be sexualized, which makes it seem pedo-creepy". There, fixed that for you. In western cultures generally, garters are lingerie, and not professional if you aren't a sex worker or lingerie model (or ok, maybe a rock star).

The artist is Chinese...

You’re getting downvoted to extinction but I think it’s a reasonable warning to people so I vouched for it.

Yeah, this guy getting suppressed is a clear abuse of the HN voting system.

I tried to vouch as well and it didn’t work. Does a second flag lock the comment dead?

Vouching never seems to work for me. I used to use it when I thought a comment had been unfairly flagged even when I disagreed with it (as in this case), and I suspect I've had my vouching ability shadow-disabled for diverging from the mean.

Regular downvoting is bad enough, but flagging is effectively an unassailable super-downvote.

I've been using HN for a decade, I thought it was free of the disease of downvoting.

I wish that were so but it fairly obviously isn't. Just jump on a thread about politics or vaccination or any other cultural issue.

Yes, vouching gets shadow disabled if you go against the abusive hive mind that is condoned here.

FWIW, I don’t suspect my vouching is disabled. The comment has been un-flagged now. The churn in this thread is fairly interesting though. I can honestly see why it might be enough of a debate trigger that it’s best from a moderation point of view if the thread was harder to find and comment on.

The post's author made a factual statement relevant to many people who might consider using the software in an office environment. It should not have been downvoted, or flagged. It would have been useful to include information on how to suppress the splash screen though.

That anime character? That's gotta be some extreme prudity where you live to be NSFW. Let me guess, America? Shield your eyes from the Waifu tiddies my child!

I remember the early to mid '90s's when it was still acceptable to have half naked women on PC screen savers, wallpapers or calendars on the walls in the office (Europe). IIRC some German hardware suppliers still gifted us wall calendars with women in bikinis in 2018.

What place are you working at where that is considered NSFW?!

What country are you in out of curiosity?

Even though I don't deny there's clearly a tradition of depicting feminine characters at various levels of sexualisation, c'mon, this mascot is in full-body armour/exoskeleton and a dress over it (or maybe it's an android in a dress)!

Look, this child mermaid on the Photoshop splash screen[1] has no clothes beneath the waist. Is it NSFW too?

[1]: https://www.deviantart.com/mostafaabeelfattah/art/Adobe-Phot...

Yup, Kiki is a cybersquirrel, so an android. For a fuller set of ex-splashes, check https://krita.org/en/about/kiki/ . The current splash was inspired by https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.61379.html .

JFC, when did the world suddenly become full of prudes that see sexuality in everything,

This is not even a prude thing, based on further replies on this thread, I actually find it disturbing how they can take the most innocent of images and find it sexually suggestive. The only requirement to trigger "semi-nsfw" seems to be that the character is female. If this is prudishness, it's the sort of prudishness that's caricatured as coming from repressed perversion of some sort.