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Adult Content and Rating Systems

  1. courtesanconnection
    Member

    I realize this is a topic that tends to be polarizing and arouses very passionate responses from many people, however, I would ask that this be looked on only in the context of a feature request. Not regarding any issues around content or censorship.

    Currently, blog authors on WordPress.com are unable to use the established rating systems from icra.org, rsac.org, and safesurf.com to indicate appropriate ratings on posts and pages without resulting to hand-coding individual posts, and/or making some customized CSS changes to pages. While bloggers can have the blog marked as mature content, and limit its visibility on WordPress.com, bloggers do not have a good tool to try to work with rating systems. Code for the above rating systems maybe placed in text widgets, but this is not intuitive, nor always practical, and serves to place the entire content of the blog in the most restrictive rating, when that rating may only be appropriate for one post.

    While not a fan of rating systems, and well aware of the trend for tags to supersede ratings, I understand there are those who do prefer to use them as a tool. I would ask WordPress.com in a future version, to allow blogs that choose to be considered dealing with mature subjects, the option of applying content ratings to individual pages and posts via an option box.

    Also, I wholeheartedly endorse the efforts to have Dr. Mike cloned repeatedly in the interests of scientific discovery until the ratio of one Dr. Mike for every four WordPress bloggers is reached.

    Thank you.

  2. timethief
    Member

    @courtesanconnection

    (1) I challenge you to send your proposal up the corporate ladder through the use of a feedback or an email addressed to support at this domain dot com, lest anyone assume that wordpress is a democracy where decisions are made by end user voting. WordPress is a business venture of the Automattic Corporation and policy decisions are not made by end users.

    (2) I challenge you and any other blogger with a "mature" blog rating to edit your forum profile and remove the link to your url from it, lest anyone think you are trolling for hits on your "not-safe-for-work" blogs and spamming the forum to get them.

    (3) I challenge you to advocate for your proposal on your blogs as opposed to on this forum, lest we think that you don't know how to blog and are confusing blogging with corporate lobbying or proposing ideas for new technical features.

    (4) I find your sucking up to drmike on the forum to be utterly distasteful. He's far to special a person to be a model for a clone army. He's a one of a kind guy.

    (5) IMO the "mature" blog administrators should get a blog for this purpose, sans any adult content, and then invite input from any and all interested bloggers. Moreover, if such a blog is created then I believe that every username link to a blog for anyone posting on that blog should be broken.

    Oh and in case I haven't provided enough clarity: I say: thumbs down on using the ideas forum as a soapbox for advocating for corporate policy changes.

  3. raincoaster
    Member

    That sounds like something WordPress should do automatically, Timethief; why not suggest it?

    I agree that if standards exist throughout the web AND can be integrated into the tag system here, that we use them. It is already clear to me that posts with the Porn tag aren't generally featured in Top Posts, for instance, so there is some functionality tied to those tags. A little more, coming into line with overall web standards, sounds like a good suggestion.

  4. raincoaster
    Member

    Timethief, it's the ideas forum. This is where discussion of ideas goes. I see nothing inappropriate about posting ideas here; indeed, that's what it's for.

    #4 is sounding awfully like something that DOES belong in the comments section of a blog, though.

  5. timethief
    Member

    For clarity:
    End users do not make policy decisions in corporations. It is standard practice for a chain of communication to be established in all IT corporations that precludes end user debate which can become an open-door to abusive diatribes, spamming and troll posting.

    I strongly believe any blogger with a "mature" blog rating should have the url links broken from their usernames in the forums, lest any blogger unsuspectingly click on a linked username and be exposed to material they did not wish to come in contact with.

    I believe that if this "breaking of links" policy were in effect that no blogger with a "mature" blog could ever be in a position to use the forums to troll for hits on their "not-safe-for-work" blogs and be able to spam the forum to get them, nor could they be suspected of doing so. More importantly, no unsuspecting blogger could be faced with material they do not wish to view when clicking on such a username.

    Previous to the recent change, this forum had a very high rating that I'm sure Automattic would like to see restored.

    I strongly disagree with the use of the ideas forum as a soapbox from which to lobby for corporate policy changes. Knowing that Moderators cannot access, interfere with or re-direct feedback from bloggers, or email from bloggers proposing corporate policy changes, led me to propose that policy and the forgoing "breaking the links" policy to WordPress staff for implementation.

    I issued challenges to the original poster in this thread that were not responded to. Therefore, I have placed this matter in the hands of the Automattic corporation and their agents ie. WordPress staff to whom I have clearly articulated my positions as noted above and the reasons for them.

    Until such decision making has produced a result and until that result been formally announced I will not be entering further dialog on this matter.

    Namaste

  6. nosysnoop
    Member

    And here I was expecting pictures of naked men. You've disappointed me! lol

  7. raincoaster
    Member

    Timethief, if you're suggesting that Mature bloggers not have links to their blogs when they post in the forums, isn't that a suggestion you should make to WordPress? I don't think you're operating from evidence when you claim that all such posters in this forum are trolling for hits, and it seems only fair to treat all posters in these forums with the same level of respect. If WordPress didn't want them here, they wouldn't be here.

    Getting back to the points made by the original poster, it seems to me if I interpret it correctly that these innovations would decrease the number of accidental encounters with mature blogs and mature posts existing outside of mature-themed blogs, while facilitating theme-specific blogging and blog surfing for those who are so inclined. This looks like a perfect extension of WordPress's blogging service, adding to everyone's blogging and reading experience.

  8. joshua1955
    Member

    I hope 'the corporate ladder' at wordpress notices the way some are treating others.

  9. raincoaster
    Member

    In my experience they notice everything, but they do not get involved in personal disagreements, which is what we have here. We're all just WordPress bloggers here.

    I must say I favour the suggested options, because there are many things I'd like to blog on sometimes that would get my blog marked MATURE in a hot minute, but I bypass them. If there was a way those posts could be seen by the Mature-subscribers or whatever you want to call them, but not by the general public, I'd give it a shot. It seems appropriate, flexible, and not that difficult to implement, although it must be said that I am not a techie.

  10. joshua1955
    Member

    They'd be fools to get involved in personal disagreements. But it would be good to know that they notice. At any rate, I think this poster has a valid point. And it takes more than one brain to come up with a good solution. Which is why it seems good to discuss it in a forum. As a group, we may be better at collectively finding ideas to give as more valid feedback to send up that corporate ladder. Because I know for me, I often write about gay things. Not always mature, but sometimes mature (and all I know to do is warn the reader with a 'warning, for adult content' in the title). I also mark all mature entries as private. But that means no one can read it, because it's a public blog. So it's sort of a waste, isn't it? Because I only write mature topics maybe once out of every 20 posts or so.

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