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Tgas/Topics: Gay, Lesbian removed by wordpress? Anti-gay censorship?

  1. pinkagendist
    Member

    It seems wordpress has removed Gay and Homosexuality as topics from the reader. When I go to read blogs, then click on gay, or type in gay, I get this message:
    Nothing to read.
    Find your friends, browse our recommended blogs, or have a look at Freshly Pressed.

    I've also tried Lesbian and Homosexuality, and I'm getting the same message. If I type in practically anything else, it works and shows me a series of blogs in whatever other topics.
    Is wordpress now censoring LGBT themed blogs?

    The blog I need help with is pinkagendist.wordpress.com.

  2. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    No censorship whatsoever. We're tinkering with the Reader right now, so some things aren't working all that well.

    For example, I just tried to follow the "salad" and "toyota" tags and got the same error, meanwhile "puppy" works just fine.

  3. pinkagendist
    Member

    Interesting, I've just tried both salad and toyota and they both work. But if I try gay, lesbian or homosexuality, it doesn't. I also noticed that my post only starting appearing in other categories of the reader once I removed the word gay as one of the tags. Is this just a freak coincidence?
    If so, when will the system be working again?

  4. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    I believe it's just a coincidence, but it could be a collection of issues.

    Prior to the Reader, tags related to LGBT were monitored as we unfortunately had to keep track of blogs promoting violence against such lifestyles. I'm wondering if this monitoring may be having an effect on the Reader.

    We're looking into this, but probably won't have a fix over the weekend.

  5. jessielansdel
    Member

    Um, here's mine if you want a look. Gay themed M/M romances;
    http://jessielansdel.wordpress.com

  6. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    jessielansdel, are you having trouble appearing on the Reader too?

  7. tearlily
    Member

    Perhaps any of the people who write about gay or lesbien topics don't have their posts tagged with gay, lesbien, or homosexual? Just a thought. I have no clue but I have just stopped tagging my posts because its kind of annoying. If you wanted to you could always ask on off topic forums or something if anyone has gay/lesbien blogs out there.

  8. jessielansdel
    Member

    @ macmanx, erm, I don't know. My blog is classed as mature so probably not. *shrug*

  9. raincoaster
    Member

    I have personally responded to at least three dozen people over the past few days complaining that the reader doesnt' work and their blogs are not appearing in Topics. Some of them are even fundamentalist Christians. Believe me, it's not censorship.

  10. pinkagendist
    Member

    Hi, raincoaster
    My problems only started today... along with the issue of using "gay" as a tag.

  11. raincoaster
    Member

    Then YOU are luckier than all those dozens of people. It's still not censorship.

  12. disembedded
    Member

    Actually, I have long suspected that WordPress has an anti-gay bias.

  13. raincoaster
    Member

    Maybe it does, but it doesn't have anything to do with this issue.

  14. disembedded
    Member

    Okay.

  15. raincoaster
    Member

    Seriously, it appears to be a universal issue. And I well remember the days when the Gay tag was automatically Mature, but that's not the case now.

  16. disembedded
    Member

    I agree. Thanks, rain.

  17. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    Actually, I have long suspected that WordPress has an anti-gay bias.

    Some of our employees would disagree. Well, actually all of our employees would disagree, but some wouldn't have been hired if we had such a bias.

  18. disembedded
    Member

    That doesn't rule out the bias; it simply indicates that in certain necessary contexts or situations (e.g. legal, public relations), it can be made to appear permeable.

  19. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    Well, I can assure you that there is no bias. You're welcome to believe whatever you need to believe, but there is no bias here.

  20. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    Also, I can see how what I said above may seem like a legal/PR thing.

    A more accurate statement would be, "some wouldn't be working with us if we had such a bias."

  21. disembedded
    Member

    Right.

  22. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    By the way, for those of you just tuning in, this issue is a technical glitch as part of the recent migration from the Topics (global tag) listings to the Reader.

    In the past, these topics (and similar topics that could lead to heated debates) were watched to keep an eye on threats of violence and other terms of service violations that could be attributed with such tagged posts. This "watched" status appears to be interfering with the tag listing in the Reader. It's definitely an oversight on our part, but probably not one that can be fixed over the weekend.

    As mentioned above, there is no bias or censorship, just a technical oversight. For somewhat related info, please see our policy on freedom of speech https://en.wordpress.com/freedom-of-speech/

    To avoid any buildup of unnecessary social debate, I'm going to close this thread. We'll re-open and reply to the thread when the issue has been fixed.

  23. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    This is all fixed up now.

    Sorry for the trouble!

  24. pinkagendist
    Member

    Hi,
    I just checked, my posts are still not appearing in the reader...

  25. thesacredpath
    Member

    @pinagendist, open the posts that are not showing in the pages, make one minor change such as adding a space and then deleting it, make sure you have 10 or less tags and then update the post and see if they will then show up. Again, it might take up to 10 or 15 minutes.

  26. thesacredpath
    Member

    Actually one other thing to try. Set the post to draft and update and then "publish" it again.

  27. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    Yes, please try updating the posts. That should kick it back in action, though it may take a while for them to finally appear after the update.

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