Profile pictures
What's up with all the new people signing up to this site with pictures of them wearing clothes? Why would you sign up to a nudist site and be afraid to show yourself nude? They should be proud to be nudists and not hide behind clothes. That is what this site is for, the freedom to be nude and be social with others and make good new nude friends. Stay nude everyone!!!
Your hypothesis may in some cases be true. When I joined this site not posting a few photos of my well aged and worn naked body was never in question. It is my personal belief that as a nudist what purpose is there to be clothed in your photos. I know there are trolls here just to look at our photos and get their jollies from reading posts, being retired now and not caring who knows of my love for living naked, hope they enjoy. What does concern me is when I come across a profile that is years old and the member is described as a Super Nudist and then look at a completely blank profile. They describe in their profile that they are retired, have only one or two friends, no locations, and show up in group threads and on the forum giving advise and pontificating their adventures to all, yet there remains absolutely nothing to verify any truth to their posts. To them I say get real, put up or shut up.
For us it is a matter of comfort and privacy. We have different types of pictures for different types of people on this site. For those that we aren't friends with, most of our pictures are clothed. If we aren't friends, but you are certified, there are some naked ones you can see. Friends that aren't certified have other nude ones. Certified friends can see all of us, including our face. In order to see the different photos, there has to be some sort of commitment on your part on this site. I don't want people just looking at pictures of my wife (or me) just for their pleasure. If we have common interests, that's fine, but not just for voyeurism.
Our pictures ... all our pictures are set to Friends Only or Certified Friends Only. I've kept our friends list hovering around 150 and even that's too many. Many of those haven't logged on in months and years, but others we are in touch with via messages and email. I/we are pretty selective and look over perspective friend's profiles thoroughly before making that choice to add them. After some conversation and getting a feel for their reasons for being here, we'll accept or deny them as friends.
My stance on profile pics is varied. Though I prefer that members have full, non pixeled faces as their profile pic, I understand the need for some privacy and for some anonymity ... BUT, with that comes speculation by others about your true self and your true reasons for being here on a nudist website. Then there's the profile pics that scream ... "look at what I got!" Those people never make it as friends and rarely, if ever, make it onto one of my groups. I don't get the profile pics with just a chest picture, or a butt only, backside only, FEET only ... what is up with a profile pic of your feet!?
I agree that being a nudist website, you should be able to post a picture of yourself nude and not worry but that's not the case with this site nor with the internet in general. I'd be willing, without hesitation to post a picture of myself or both of us nude as a profile picture but my wife asked me not to and I respect her wishes. Those that do, I congratulate them on their courage and ability to do so.
Profile pics run the gamut on here; full on in your face penis pics, bent over butts ... all the way to cartoons. For me, it's not so much the profile picture as it is the person in the profile. You can learn a lot about members by what they're willing to share and what they are not willing to share, in their profiles. Those that are a bit reserved usually don't do well in the "trust department" on a nudist site and those that divulge a bit too much information can also be treated the same way.
Just my .02 cents! ;D
I see 3 possible explanations for no nude pics on a NUDIST website:
1) some are just easing into this. like us, last yr. Look at the corner and see how long they have been members or profile statement for info as such. We need to allow for shyness and people to move in at their own comfortable pace.
2) there may be people who have a real or perceived fear of nude pics creating negative effects upon employment. I have to allow the possiblity of that being true for some people. But usually conclude it's just an invalid excuse for wanna-be's hiding behind the billboard, wanting to see but not willing to be seen.
3) FAKE nudists who are here only to feed their voyeurism. When I see a TN stock photo and all NA on profile. I immediately block 'em.
agreeing with daytonacouple and others: we have choices on the permissions setting available to us. USE THEM:
public - smiling faces only
(Apparently unpaid members can see only 6 photos - so my 1st 6 are fully clothed).
if they are not willing to committing to a nominal membership/sustaining fee, then they deserve to see/do nothing in this site.
friends - partial reveals
certified friends - the full monty
I've set as a plan to stopping accepting non-certified friends on our 1 yr anniversary date and deleting those that are not.
are you a TRUE NUDIST or not?? get certified or move on.
I really can't see the point of joining a nudist website and not allowing others to see me naked. Even filtering who can see me seams perverse. OK I accept that some have employment reasons to be careful. And I'm more likely to distrust a "member" with no profile info or a lot of NA's. I think it's easier to fake photos - they can be uploaded form other sites and reused. But filling out an interesting and convincing profile description is harder.