Community Standards

Standard 1 Clean for All Ages

Everything here has to be fine for a 10-year-old to read.

Not Allowed

• Profanity, crude words or bathroom humor.
• Sexual content, innuendo or double meanings, including on NDT words like penetrant, probe or insert.
• Romance beyond an innocent compliment, or jokes about dating, exes or divorce.

Okay

• Silly puns, corny wordplay and wholesome, cheesy compliments.

Standard 2 Do It Right

Joke about the job, never about doing the job wrong.

Not Allowed

• Jokes that make skipping or faking the work look normal or funny: overdue inspections, skipped calibration, uncalibrated or expired equipment, falsified, backdated or “pencil-whipped” records.
• Passing parts without inspection, changing a result because someone asked, or ignoring a relevant indication.
• Suggesting an inspection is quick, shallow, rushed or done at a glance.
• Ignoring the procedure, technique, code or acceptance criteria, or unqualified people signing work.
• Jokes about a client, boss or anyone else asking you to fake, skip, rush or bend the work, even when the inspector says no.
• Jokes that make training, exams, experience hours or certification sound meaningless, easy to fake or “just paperwork.”

Okay

• Jokes about the amount of paperwork, audit nerves, long code books, permits and schedules.

Standard 3 Safety Is Never the Punchline

Safety can be the setting. It is never the target.

Not Allowed

• Jokes that make light of injuries, deaths or radiation exposure.
• “Glow in the dark,” mutant or superpower radiation jokes.
• Real disasters or tragedies (crashes, collapses, explosions, nuclear accidents), or a catastrophic failure as the punchline.
• Jokes that make safety steps sound pointless, excessive or annoying: permits, lockout/tagout, PPE, fall protection, gas tests, fire watch, safety meetings, barricades or radiation boundaries.
• Unsafe acts presented as smart, brave or funny.
• Violence of any kind: hitting, fighting, throwing things at people, weapons, explosions, threats, war or combat, or figures of speech like “I could kill him.”
• Anyone getting hurt for a laugh, including slips, trips, falls or dropped objects on a job site.

Okay

• Hazards and safety gear as the setting, where the safety step comes out on top.
• Harmless slapstick where nobody gets hurt: spilled couplant, a cable that tangles itself, tape stuck to everything.
• Fluorescent indications glowing under UV-A, because that’s just good physics.

Standard 4 Respect Everyone

Laugh with people, not at them.

Not Allowed

• Jokes about race, ethnicity, religion, gender, age, disability, nationality or appearance.
• Bullying, insults, harassment or anything aimed at a real person.
• Jokes that target a particular person, company or organization, whether it is named or easy to recognize: an employer, client, vendor, school, union, agency or standards body.
• Calling anyone stupid, clueless or lazy: clients, trainees, helpers, Level Is, welders or any other trade.
• Gender stereotypes, such as assuming every inspector, welder or boss is a man.
• Illness, cancer, mental health, burnout or “this job is killing me.”
• Layoffs, firings, pay cuts, going broke or unpaid invoices.

Okay

• Friendly teasing between trades, levels and departments, about quirks and habits.

Standard 5 No Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking or Gambling

Keep the humor on the job site, not the bar stool.

Not Allowed

• Drinking, hangovers, drugs, smoking, vaping or betting, even as a passing reference.

Okay

• “Walks into a bar” as a joke format, with no drinking.

Standard 6 Keep It Private

Protect yourself and everyone else.

Not Allowed

• Names of real people, employers, clients or job sites.
• Phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, social media handles or links.
• Asking anyone for personal information or to talk somewhere off the site.

Standard 7 Protect Confidential Information

What happens on the job stays with the job.

Not Allowed

• Client data, drawings, results or reports.
• Proprietary procedures, export-controlled information or anything covered by a nondisclosure agreement.

Standard 8 Original and Honest

Post your own material and play fair.

Not Allowed

• Copying other people’s jokes or writing word for word.
• Song parodies or lyrics, movie or TV quotes, famous catchphrases, cartoon or TV characters and brand slogans, even reworded.
• Advertising, spam or repeated posts.
• Extra accounts, vote trading or organized vote drives.

Okay

• Your own jokes, or classic formats you’ve made your own.

Standard 9 Keep Politics Out

NDT Humor is a break from the news.

Not Allowed

• Political parties, candidates, elected officials, elections or campaigns.
• Political issues, causes, slogans or symbols, on any side.
• Jokes about government policy debates, or posts that push a political view.

Okay

• Jokes about codes, committees, auditors and regulators doing their jobs.