And rickmb's point is that some people may not even realize that this would be NSFW in some places. Not everyone is an American or knows how prudish people are here.
"but you cannot expect submitters to constantly be aware of such outliers any time they submit a link. Otherwise we would constantly have to check a whole list of obscure cultural sensitivities around the planet"
Of course you know what's not allowed at your work. Do you keep tabs on everything else? I hope so! There are thousands of different cultures out there, better not miss any!
This is increasingly weird for me. I'm self employed, I work at home, or in an office with three other males who are self employed. I drink, I swear, I know how babies are made and have made one with my wife. I like boobs! I have art with boobs on the walls of my house.
And yet I don't want my wife or any of my colleagues to look over my shoulder and see boobs on my screen. I'm not in any _danger_ if that happens, so it's not strictly _unsafe_ for work. But it's embarrassing and uncomfortable. I would be peeved to inadvertantly click on a link, see boobs (they were decent boobs too, it's not like I hate them), and then be embarrassed in front of people.
I didn't really think I was a prude until this thread. I mean, perhaps in a hundred years we'll laugh about attitudes to boobs the way we laugh about Victorian attitudes to ankles and the like? But today, for almost everyone I know ANKLES ARE FILTH^H^H^H^H boobs are NSFW.
It's not a matter of keeping tabs on every possible cultural taboo. True outliers aren't the issue here. Be aware of common issues for the audience of the website you're posting on, and label appropriately. Given the audience for HN, nudity of any kind, sexual content (including text), and profanity in audio/video are all issues for a large enough percentage of the audience that they should have the NSFW label. (If you were not previously aware of these taboos, you are now.)
My own "workplace" is home; I'm a full-time parent, and not at all worried about being fired. But I recognize the issues that are common for others, and label my posts appropriately. Please have the courtesy to do the same.
The first clue on common issues being this site is in English. Not to take an Anglo-centric point of view, but odds are the overwhelming majority of HN readers work somewhere with Western workplace values.
(Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the 'NSFW' tag is quite appropriate in all the main English hubs- USA, UK, Canada, Australia, probably even Singapore)
