I understand the fee to see such images to offset the ad fees lost for displaying them.
But I'm not talking about, "Whee!! I wanna look at some a dem nudie pics..."
I'm talking about I've had a handful of cards (comic art can get racy) that I couldn't see the image due to it being blocked, and this stopped me from adding them to my collection because I couldn't verify what I have. I have to try to go elsewhere and see if I can find the cards and see what set they belong to, then come back here to then add them to my collection.
I was thinking that if there was any way, something like if you bring up a blocked mature image, that by turning editing on perhaps, that would allow you to see the image, you could then turn editing off and add the card to your collection, knowing that you found the correct card image.
If and when someone wants to view all the mature blocked cards, they can pay the viewing fee. But this isn't really spectator sport viewing, it's more along the line of accurately representing your collection. Building your personal database. And by doing it in this manner, anyone who wants to abuse the privilege just to see such images, well it's kind of a tedious roundabout way to go about it, and hopefully wouldn't be viewed as worth the effort.
By having the ability tied into permissions it becomes a tool for those who are positively contributing to the site, and not something that just anyone can turn off and avoid paying the fee.
For me, it was just several cards, not something that has drastically hampered my experience. But it was kind of annoying.
Another thing that was annoying was that I uploaded a few missing images that then became mature blocked, and I kinda felt like if I'm the one adding them to the site for the benefit of all, it would be nice if there was some way I could see the images I uploaded. Again, it was just a few, but if I had a lot of such cards, I wouldn't bother uploading them if I wouldn't be able to ever see them without paying to do so. It is sort of a deterrent to doing the work of adding them.
Then again, in both instances I'm talking a handful of cards. Things more than likely that ended up being freebies included with Wizard magazine back in the 90's when I was picking it up. Perhaps those who actively collect cards that end up being mature blocked are perfectly willing to pay the fee because that is their world of choice. For me, it was an eclectic smattering (which upon writing, sounds like a pretty good name for a band).
Not a true card collector, but at times have collected cards in an ancillary manner to other interests.