New Settings & Flagging Tools

[theljstaff]

In an effort to ensure people under the age of 18 do not see inappropriate content, we added a new functionality to LiveJournal today. Ultimately, this functionality will affect a very small percentage of the millions of LJ users, but we want to be sure everyone has a clear understanding of how it works and why we've implemented this change

Comments

[atalantapendrag]

This is a good idea, in theory at least. I hope it works out well in practice.

[wyntermoonwolf]

I concur.

[fengi]

Considering some of the pranksters, crazies and zealots out there, how is possibly a good idea to set up a system by which complete strangers can censor other people's writing according to a highly inflammatory flagging system which can yank any post from public view?

[nicocoer]

That's why the flag is flame colored. :-/

(it would be a good idea if it wasn't random people- maybe restrict it to self moderation + mods (in comms) + your Flist?)

[freakylynx]

I've dealt with too many nutcases and trolls on livejournal to believe it'll work in practice. Not to mention you can create as many accounts as you want, one person with a chip on their shoulder could easily give the impression there's a dozen people flagging your post and get you banned.

How about we just ban everybody under 18? They don't have the income that Six Apart wants, we can eliminate the problem that way too :P

[imagines]

They don't have the income that Six Apart wants

You'd be surprised. I had more throwaway money before I had to start paying for college, food, clothes, etc., and I spent it on things like paid time.

But always remember:

[dglenn]

"The difference between theory and practice is very small, in theory ... and very large in practice."

[nandy_pandy]

In order for it to work in practice, everyone who flags posts must be honest and well-intentioned. Unfortunately, internet anonymity decreases that likelihood. I think we're going to have a great number of cases of people flagging entries (and possibly using sock puppets or getting friends to help out) because they're butthurt over something, disagree with someone, or because they simply don't like the OP.

[laughingimp]

Unfortunately, internet anonymity decreases that likelihood.

IAWTC.

[littlewashu]

I don't even think it's a good idea in THEORY.

[wendyzski]

The part that concerns me is that EVERYONE's LJ has been set to filter posts marked adult. So if your friends do the "right thing" and mark their porny journals so the kiddies can't get to them, if you haven't gone in and manually reset your viewing options, their LJ will just disappear from your Friends page.

I did not ask for "nannyware" tyvm

[thewhitedragon]

The truly stupid part is that not everyone is going to be aware of this "added security feature" either. I've got a bookmark to take me to my friend's list for viewing - had someone not posted about it in their journal, I would have never known about it.

Perhaps LJ/6A should have thought about sending out an email to every person who uses their system to make them aware of these changes. Maybe... umm... prior to doing this so that another 'LJ Wipe" (ref: several months ago) didn't occur.

[wendyzski]

That's part of why I'm posting the info all over the place, so that word gets out.

I have a friend who had 24 "new" entries reappear once she changed her settings after seeing my post.

[atalantapendrag]

*goes to check*

Okay, it's the search options that it's set to automatically filter... but I agree, that is not acceptable! I just posted so my flist will know about that.

[wendyzski]

Except for one small problem.....

If you read your Friends page from a bookmark (like most of my friends and I do) then the page that is pulled up is technically the result of a "search" - it searches for content on the journals you have selected.

Which means that these settings DO apply, and content that you have selected that you would like to read will be blocked unless you manually change your settings. I think that's pretty sucky.

If they had put the default as "no filtering", I really wouldn't have a problem with it. I don't to use this option but I'm sure there are people who do. The rest of this thing (aside from the wildly-abusable flagging feature" does sound like a reasonable compromise between "We must protect the children" and "I have a constitutional right to write Teletubbies bondage fic".

[atalantapendrag]

No matter what, having anything AUTOMATICALLY set to filter content as a default, without making that very clear with instructions on how to change it, pisses me off a lot. And thanks again for the head's-up on that.