Answer with unnecessary picture. How do we want to treat them?

Question

I am talking about this specific answer. I'm not talking about its quality here (I didn't even read it in full, just the beginning).

What I find "questionable" is the use of those two pictures (even if they are, indeed related to the question/answer).

I find those two pictures are taking way too much place and giving me a mini-heart-attack every time I see them. I know this might sound weird, but they have the same effect on me as if someone were unexpectedly jumping at me.

Since the first picture isn't really necessary, should we ask the OP to remove it entirely and put a text instead? Like:

Oh, you think people with mental illness can just snap out of it?

Why don't you go tell someone who is deaf to listen harder?

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And/Or should we try to resize the picture so it isn't as aggressive? (note: I know it's possible to do it but I don't remember how to do that, so I'm asking here)

Answer 1

I see some good suggestions in the comments for ways we could go with this, but I want to emphasize a way I think we definitely should not:

We should not remove content from people's posts unless it is overtly offensive.

Every time we remove content (whether that's deleting comments or removing answers), we get major push back from users. Add to that that many users I've seen already feel we have arbitrary standards for the wording in questions and answers...and you'll be creating just another issue.

I don't think this is the hill we want to die on, so to speak. If you think an image degrades an answer, make a comment letting the OP know why you feel that way and then vote accordingly. If they edit, reevaluate your vote.

I don't think it's worth possibly antagonizing people over this.

Answer 2

Upper_Case raises some excellent points already, I have a few more I'd like to add for consideration:

1. Accessibility. For people using screen readers a meme (or any image) without alt-text means they might miss a whole lot of information/context. In this case, I think having the text, optionally linking to the site where you found the image as the source of the joke is better.
2. We've had several questions where answerers used images to elaborate their answers. I've seen these had a negative effect as well: Sometimes, answers/comments turned into 'who can post the funniest sign' or 'here's another image of a shoe storage solution'. Having an early answer with a big image hit HNQ especially gives people 'ideas', and then we're moderating a bunch of images/comments that have not much to do with Interpersonal Skills.
3. In addition to what Upper_Case already said about professionalism: Having text (link to the image's source, if needed) will look more professional than a badly cropped, pixel-lacking meme. It won't be as distracting, and text often reads easier than images (think those memes where words don't align left-to-right, and the sentence reads borked!).
4. It would be even more professional if we could keep our images 'on-topic'. I think the only images I'm really interested in seeing on a site about Interpersonal Skills should be about Interpersonal Skills: Schema's like the one in this answer that illustrate the relationship between the people communicating, and the interactions between them. Images that capture an Interpersonal Skill or part of communication theory in a simplified schema, graphs with data. But not memes (and perhaps also no funny signs or slippers, hyperlink those).

I propose we don't use spoiler tags, but link to these images instead of including them in the answer. I propose we edit this answer (and future ones like it), replacing the images with text, and link to images as the source of the idea expressed or with hyperlinked 'like this' constructions, to avoid too much distraction. And that we take our time explaining these choices to the people writing these answers in our edit summaries/comments, probably with a link to this meta discussion.

If the meme or picture is the only thing in answer, and linking to it would leave us with a 'link-only' answer, I think there's not much trouble having it deleted as NAA under our current answer quality guidelines. Humour is a behaviour that can be used when interacting, but we're probably better off describing to people how to humour right than just showing them a meme/sign we think is funny.

Answer 3

I think that a spoiler tag is the most practical suggestion to address this issue, specifically (given site features that currently exist), but we may want to discourage meme-like images in answers. We can also have standards for how memes are posted that support broader stack goals.

Posting memes on the internet is a pretty ingrained practice, though some people are more attached to it than others. I agree with scohe001 in that this is probably not a fight worth picking overall, in terms of disallowing or requiring forced resizing of meme images.

My bigger concerns lie around how we want to handle the information memes convey, because the text in the images will generally not be searchable. If the meme itself is meant to express information vital to the answer in a concise way (which they generally are), then the information most crucial to answers will become invisible to future searchers. This will make it harder for future users to find questions and answers when searching the internet, and will also make it more difficult for regular IPS users to find specific, previous answers.

I suggest three things for how we want to handle meme postings in answers:

1.The meme must contain information directly relevant to the answer. "Fun" memes, or images which are otherwise not necessary to the answer, should probably be discouraged (if not outright prohibited).

2.Meme text, or the meaning/implications/conclusions from the meme text, should be typed out in the answer (just as if it were meme-less). This is strictly an indexing-and-searchability concern for me.

3.Meme images should be hidden by some means or other, by default. I, personally, don't have a strong personal reaction to them but as this site is used by many professionals in professional settings during the workday a profusion of meme images being visible by default is not ideal. Spoiler tags are, I believe, the best current feature to hide memes by default while still allowing users to post them. But I have no particular attachment to that specific approach-- my advocacy extends only as far as my preference for spoiler blocks over meme images on IPS.

The first of these three suggestions could be made a site rule, and we already enforce some standards (if informally) on unnecessary information in posts. The second two might be covered well by entries in the FAQ, and are things that any IPS member with editing privileges could add to a post without causing much of a fuss (since all of the information originally added to the answer will still be there).