I’ve just been updating my photography blog, a site I describe as “not entirely SFW” in the header, and it struck me just how arbitrary a definition that is. SFW – ‘safe for work’ if you don’t know the acronym – is by no means an absolute anywhere, and varies wildly from place to place.

I work in two very different worlds, one arty and creative where the unusual is usual, and one corporate with strict rules for everything. Things that are perfectly normal
in one may get me fired in the other, and yet I want my web published content to be viewable in both places. So how do you judge what is acceptable content to put on a website when the target audience is so diverse?

The best solution that I have come up with so far is to avoid the problem by splitting my content across multiple sites. My generic, personal, and hopefully non-offensive material is on this one; my photography is on graham_guy.com which includes nudes that might upset some cultures or corporate policies; my business information is on thelacunaworks.co.uk. That way there is less chance of someone visiting one accidentally stumbling onto the other. They can even block one if they like (although I’d rather they didn’t). It’s not an ideal solution, but it is the best I can think of right now.

I’m sure that some people would rather I stuck to the boring, the inherently ‘inoffensive’, but, and here’s the rub, that in itself would offend me.