Beware of Pornographic Images

Did I get your attention? I hope so! We had our first case of pornography in our wiki today. This was not in the least bit questionable or borderline -- there would be no doubt in anyone's mind that it was pornographic.

So, how did it appear? Well, it turned out we were the victim of a bait and switch of sorts. An employee pasted in a link to an image on the Internet instead of uploading the image to the wiki. Because that method relies on a live link to an image outside of the wiki, when that image is changed by its owner, the image that appears inside the wiki changes, too, instantly. We went from displaying an innocent image to a pornographic image sometime overnight.

What are the lessons to be learned here?

1. Avoid linking to images as a method of displaying them. You are at the mercy of the image's owner when you use a link to display images.
2. All externally-linked images currently in the wiki should be identified and replaced by uploaded images.
3. We need to educate everyone about this risk and how to avoid it.
4. Overview pages for groups, spaces and projects in Jive Clearspace are especially high risks because the Formatted Text widget that people usually employ to display images on those pages only accepts a URL as the way to display an image.

There is a tedious -- but now mandatory -- workaround to use uploaded images in the Formatted Text widget in Clearspace instead of links to images outside of the wiki.

1. Save the image to your computer
2. Upload it as an attachment somewhere in Clearspace. We've created some Image Container pages for this purpose, so people can use those or create their own.
3. After you have published the page with your image attached, right-click on the link to your image attachment and select Copy Image Location.
4. Now go to your overview page, click on Customize, wait 5 years for it to open, edit your Formatted Text widget, click on the camera icon to insert the image, and paste the link you copied.
5. Save the changes to the widget and publish the page.

Please spread the word! Now, I'm going to follow my own advice and audit all the images on the wiki's main page to ensure they comply with this policy.