Report Abuse feature

[severenz]

In an effort to minimize abuse and garbage content, a new Report Abuse feature has been implemented.

- Report Abuse links in Story dropdown menu and footer (when viewing a room/chapter)
- Users do not need to be signed in to report abuse
- Reporting abuse doesn't automatically get your story banned
- Banned story functionality already existed and locks an author out of their story. Eventually, I will probably need to change this to give the author the ability to correct their story.
- Edit Story has reminder of these terms and what can get their story/account banned.

If you have any suggestions, let me know. Thanks.

Also, you can always PM me a story/room link on IS or Forums. Thanks for your help in cleaning up the garbage.

[severenz]

Thoughts on Mature Audience category? I don't want pornographic pictures but I can see where MA implies "anything goes." This is tricky. Any thoughts or advice is appreciated. Maybe I need to make an X-Rated IS haha - InfiniteSexStory.com ?

[Locke]

I'm not sure how much actual abuse is going on. There are plenty of terrible stories, but I'd think it would have to be unreadable to qualify as "garbage content." Or advertising, and I haven't been on IS recently due to the offline forums, but I don't remember seeing any adbots. Just took a look at it (using "Legend," thanks End). Abuse criteria are:

Spam / Advertisement
Hate Speech / Call to Violence
Plagiarism
Pornography
Other

There have been a few repeat stories, and some plagiarism. It's not common (none of this stuff is, especially) but if the site were to grow, there would be more of it. I tend to come down on the side of violence/hate speech; I don't know how blatant a story would have to be to make me hit that button. I haven't written much here. Still - I'm one of the least prejudiced people I know, but some of my characters cross the line pretty hard. I won't lie, it's a lot of fun to write those. Maybe it's an outlet. Human nature takes a lot of pleasure in dealing out pain without reason; that is the basis of humor.

I would be fine with a story about a bunch of white supremacists (or the inverse), even if the narrator is on the "wrong side." One of the plots I have in mind involves a bunch of Nazis and swastikas, laying down the hate on a lot of unfortunate people. That particular story paints them as the bad guys, but if it didn't? I think a truly racist story (where that's the primary plot) is ugly - irredeemably so - and that would frame my comment/rating, but I would let the story stand. There would have to be a very clear call to action. I'll stand by freedom of speech in all but the most extreme cases. This place is never going to be Stormfront. If your protagonist (the reader) is a serial killer out to do a bunch of graphic, race-based killings - and that's all it is - I would hesitate over that story. That's about where the line is for me. Unless there was some other factor involved, I think I would let it go.

[[[When I was in high school, I made a poster/mural as part of a project (for "The Crucible," involving the hanging of John Proctor). The only color I had approximating flesh was a little dark. Totally innocent, but I guess all some student saw was "black person. noose." First the poster was moved behind a projector. Then it disappeared. The teacher claimed not to know what happened to it, except that someone was offended. I always liked that project, and I've always wished I pressed her harder on it, because I want to know who the SOB was and what they did to it (the teacher clearly covered for them. Wonder how that might've gone if the roles were reversed?).

Another time, I wrote a story that was clearly hate speech (against another student, not any particular race). I was suspended for it. There was a lot of noise made about the fact that I called him a Puerto-Rican. Other than his name, that was one of three ways I had of referring to him: "the boy," "the student," "the Puerto-Rican." With additional years and perspective, I can understand the paranoid mind-set that takes the inclusion of a race word as racism, but I didn't get it then. That story is here. It is not my best work; it's petty high school BS from back in the day. It's not pretty - and it is hate speech - but it's not racism. I would ban it here if I knew it was an attack on one person, but not otherwise. And with an anonymous report, I don't know that I would take "that guy is in my high school" seriously.]]]

I'd guess the racism thing is mostly what this is going to be about, though. I'm Southern, born and raised; one of my great-grandfathers had sharecroppers on his land (I've seen their graves in the woods, those you can still make out). Another was an overseer. I've been bludgeoned with this issue my whole life, and I wish the world would just treat people like people, and stories like stories - without evoking or compensating for some historical BS. Or covering it up. There's this tendency - my favorite examples are Joe Paterno and Jian Ghomeshi - for organizations to try to distance themselves from a pariah and erase them from history. They stripped Joe of his career wins and took down his statue. Those things were legitimately earned... add a plaque next to the statue, explaining that he also let Sandusky get away with the rape and so forth, and was not a great person, but don't ****ing whitewash it. Ghomeshi's broadcast archives were deleted, although most of them were excellent (award-winning; he was renowned in those circles) and didn't have anything to do with the harassment/abuse he was later accused (and never convicted) of. He was fired when charges were filed - the program renamed to exclude him - and never reinstated. I think he probably did it, at least some of it.

The Confederate flag is not hate speech.



Pornography.

There are plenty of stories on IS that qualify as pornography. Half of IWT 5 was based on it. Provided that the story is rated MA, I don't know what you'd call abuse here. Photos - so far - don't play a large role in stories of any kind. A few sexy photos in an MA sex story, for flavor, are fine. Maybe you want to draw the line at "graphic" photos that mostly show orifices, or photo-centric sex stories? I'd like to see Dragavan's input here, since IIRC he wrote his fair share of erotica. I don't have any problem with appropriately rated text stories.


"Report Abuse" - as a function - reports abuse to... just you, Severenz? Are you going to make yourself available to judge the claims? In the meantime, I'd hope the stories would still be accessible. Eventually, you'll find illegal content somewhere (I think the forums hosted that, in the form of spam/bots at some point), so do what you have to, but "abuse" in a text-based format shouldn't be that common.

[mizal]

Oh, we can post here now.

Plagiarism seems fairly common, for that alone having the button is useful.

The site is overrun with low quality garbage, I'd see that as the most prevalent issue, but that's not 'abuse' necessarily, just a lot of clutter to step around. But anyone with a habit of browsing open writing sites on the internet should be used to that.

There's another CYOA site exclusively for porn, while meanwhile that's the kind of thing that drives away normal users. I wouldn't link anyone I know IRL or even online in most places to a story I wrote on a site full of weird porn, for instance.

The white supremacist story I actually do see as kind of a grey area, because I can recognize that significant effort was put in. But no one was even talking about stories that contain characters that are Nazis etc and I think that distracts from the real issue, which is:

You, Rolf, a Nordic warrior, stand and survey the landscape around you. Several years have passed since the start of the civil war that compelled you to fight to defend your people from third world invaders. While the tide is turning you fear the White race may win only a Phyrric victory. Far too many have died, though the parasites and traitors died amongst them. Of your own paramilitary unit you are the only one who remains. You are still a young man, and after reflecting on seeing a comrade emasculated by East Africans before you could rescue him, you decide it is time to put your virility to use and father a future generation of your people. With a backpack full of rations and Krugerrands you looted from Albanian gangsters, you decide to change tactics. You sling your rifle and set out across the ruins of Europa in search of White brides.

....

You shoulder your FN rifle and open fire on the scavenging women. There was a time when your heart ached to inflict female casualties, but you know all too well that the third worlders greatest weapons are the wombs of their women. Taking careful aim you fire a single bullet into each of the disorganized women. Conserving your ammo for future battles, but having prevented untold future hordes of third worlders from being born in Europa. The dead and dying women now litter the store.

No matter how personally hilarious most of us found this story while it was being updated, future stories of this nature are going to be pointed to as being totally okay because THIS one is. And unless Sev or whatever other mods are comfortable making these kinds of judgement calls on a case by case basis, a flat rule against them may just be more practical. I don't necessarily see this one or at least what I've read of it falling 100% under call to violence or even hate speech...being presented as a science fiction scenario helps it dodge that for me...but at the same time, ultimately I don't think it should need to. Sev is totally in the clear to say he just doesn't want that kind of story or any other without needing to justify it to anyone, it's his site.

[End Master]

The funny thing about the "Impregnating Europa" story is it probably falls more into the "porn" category given all the sex going on in it.

[mizal]

I'm not sure how much actual abuse is going on. There are plenty of terrible stories, but I'd think it would have to be unreadable to qualify as "garbage content." Or advertising, and I haven't been on IS recently due to the offline forums, but I don't remember seeing any adbots. Just took a look at it (using "Legend," thanks End). Abuse criteria are:

Spam / Advertisement
Hate Speech / Call to Violence
Plagiarism
Pornography
Other

There have been a few repeat stories, and some plagiarism. It's not common (none of this stuff is, especially) but if the site were to grow, there would be more of it. I tend to come down on the side of violence/hate speech; I don't know how blatant a story would have to be to make me hit that button. I haven't written much here. Still - I'm one of the least prejudiced people I know, but some of my characters cross the line pretty hard. I won't lie, it's a lot of fun to write those. Maybe it's an outlet. Human nature takes a lot of pleasure in dealing out pain without reason; that is the basis of humor.

I would be fine with a story about a bunch of white supremacists (or the inverse), even if the narrator is on the "wrong side." One of the plots I have in mind involves a bunch of Nazis and swastikas, laying down the hate on a lot of unfortunate people. That particular story paints them as the bad guys, but if it didn't? I think a truly racist story (where that's the primary plot) is ugly - irredeemably so - and that would frame my comment/rating, but I would let the story stand. There would have to be a very clear call to action. I'll stand by freedom of speech in all but the most extreme cases. This place is never going to be Stormfront. If your protagonist (the reader) is a serial killer out to do a bunch of graphic, race-based killings - and that's all it is - I would hesitate over that story. That's about where the line is for me. Unless there was some other factor involved, I think I would let it go.

[[[When I was in high school, I made a poster/mural as part of a project (for "The Crucible," involving the hanging of John Proctor). The only color I had approximating flesh was a little dark. Totally innocent, but I guess all some student saw was "black person. noose." First the poster was moved behind a projector. Then it disappeared. The teacher claimed not to know what happened to it, except that someone was offended. I always liked that project, and I've always wished I pressed her harder on it, because I want to know who the SOB was and what they did to it (the teacher clearly covered for them. Wonder how that might've gone if the roles were reversed?).

Another time, I wrote a story that was clearly hate speech (against another student, not any particular race). I was suspended for it. There was a lot of noise made about the fact that I called him a Puerto-Rican. Other than his name, that was one of three ways I had of referring to him: "the boy," "the student," "the Puerto-Rican." With additional years and perspective, I can understand the paranoid mind-set that takes the inclusion of a race word as racism, but I didn't get it then. That story is here. It is not my best work; it's petty high school BS from back in the day. It's not pretty - and it is hate speech - but it's not racism. I would ban it here if I knew it was an attack on one person, but not otherwise. And with an anonymous report, I don't know that I would take "that guy is in my high school" seriously.]]]

I'd guess the racism thing is mostly what this is going to be about, though. I'm Southern, born and raised; one of my great-grandfathers had sharecroppers on his land (I've seen their graves in the woods, those you can still make out). Another was an overseer. I've been bludgeoned with this issue my whole life, and I wish the world would just treat people like people, and stories like stories - without evoking or compensating for some historical BS. Or covering it up. There's this tendency - my favorite examples are Joe Paterno and Jian Ghomeshi - for organizations to try to distance themselves from a pariah and erase them from history. They stripped Joe of his career wins and took down his statue. Those things were legitimately earned... add a plaque next to the statue, explaining that he also let Sandusky get away with the rape and so forth, and was not a great person, but don't ****ing whitewash it. Ghomeshi's broadcast archives were deleted, although most of them were excellent (award-winning; he was renowned in those circles) and didn't have anything to do with the harassment/abuse he was later accused (and never convicted) of. He was fired when charges were filed - the program renamed to exclude him - and never reinstated. I think he probably did it, at least some of it.

The Confederate flag is not hate speech.



Pornography.

There are plenty of stories on IS that qualify as pornography. Half of IWT 5 was based on it. Provided that the story is rated MA, I don't know what you'd call abuse here. Photos - so far - don't play a large role in stories of any kind. A few sexy photos in an MA sex story, for flavor, are fine. Maybe you want to draw the line at "graphic" photos that mostly show orifices, or photo-centric sex stories? I'd like to see Dragavan's input here, since IIRC he wrote his fair share of erotica. I don't have any problem with appropriately rated text stories.


"Report Abuse" - as a function - reports abuse to... just you, Severenz? Are you going to make yourself available to judge the claims? In the meantime, I'd hope the stories would still be accessible. Eventually, you'll find illegal content somewhere (I think the forums hosted that, in the form of spam/bots at some point), so do what you have to, but "abuse" in a text-based format shouldn't be that common.

I tested the button with the story that had all the dicks, and the Stanley Parable copy and that Slendytubbies game, although I'd forgotten I already linked to the latter. I think the Stanley Parable might be just about the most plagiarized thing on the internet, I don't understand what about it drives all that copy and pasting.

[severenz]

- The Report Abuse feature stores the reports in database.
- Abuse reports don’t guarantee a story will be banned.
- The reports come to me and are not visible to public. Perhaps I should make them visible?
- I don’t mind erotica but I don’t think I want explicit pics since I’m fairly certain those would have been lifted. Perhaps I need a “graphic” category? *sigh*

There was a recent advertisement story. Guy created an account and posted an ad in his story. That can most certainly go.

I don’t know. Even the plagiarism reports - how can I be sure the person writing story here isn’t the author of the book or video game.

Maybe we change this to a Flag feature and the flags are public and it’s another opt-in the user has to do before reading story?

“This story has been flagged for [plagiarism|graphic content|hate speech] - Are you sure you want to continue?

[mizal]

I think the system you've added is about as reasonable as you can get, assuming you don't wind up with overwhelming amount of reports sort through. But at any rate I don't see the harm in just letting it go for awhile and seeing how it works out.

>>>Even the plagiarism reports - how can I be sure the person writing story here isn’t the author of the book or video game.

Because people who write books and make video games don't usually put a butchered version of it on an obscure CYOA site while plainly being a nine year old. In the extremely rare possibility of a mix up there, it could be straightened out with direct contact. And at any rate, if you're really worried about it, making it the standard response to set the games to private would amount to the same thing as banning them without being quite so dramatic.

But really I think the plagiarism thing is the most straightforward of all of these except for the one about ads. I can see potential grey areas for the others but I don't think you need to spend too much time second guessing yourself about this one.

[Locke]

You might've opened a can of worms here, Sev. I am fine with banning explicit pics, and I think I fall on the liberal/freedom of speech side of this question. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think graphic sex novels need to be a thing here. Just so it's made clear somewhere, so some porno writer doesn't spend a week carving his version of the Pieta before having it taken offline. I take that position mostly because - as you've said - the linked images can become a problem, and in this case the headache isn't worth what we get out of it. Mixed media might be more of a thing in the future, especially if the site grows. For now, I'm specifically not standing up for graphic erotica.

Plagiarism... I can see where there might be a controversy, but I've also seen someone copy End's work and put it up again on this same site (as Mizal said, with less acumen). Sometimes it is that obvious.

Hate speech, as I've said (in long form, because I was drinking): freedom of speech, always, in all but the most explicit instances.

The abuse reports will come to you, Sev, and the system is exactly as effective as your willingness to keep checking them and going through the stories in question. If there is an issue and the writer addresses it, presumably you'd have it set up to ping you for a recheck. The "flag" idea is fine, but if there's no moderation before it goes into effect, any number of stories will be flagged for no reason. Everyone here has had troll ratings at some point (and I remember forum threads where members asked for upvotes to offset the trolls).

Mizal... you quoted my entire post, without referencing it. Is there a faux pas there, or something significant? Why do you want to preserve it?

[Cricket]

You might've opened a can of worms here, Sev. I am fine with banning explicit pics, and I think I fall on the liberal/freedom of speech side of this question. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think graphic sex novels need to be a thing here. Just so it's made clear somewhere, so some porno writer doesn't spend a week carving his version of the Pieta before having it taken offline. I take that position mostly because - as you've said - the linked images can become a problem, and in this case the headache isn't worth what we get out of it. Mixed media might be more of a thing in the future, especially if the site grows. For now, I'm specifically not standing up for graphic erotica.

Plagiarism... I can see where there might be a controversy, but I've also seen someone copy End's work and put it up again on this same site (as Mizal said, with less acumen). Sometimes it is that obvious.

Hate speech, as I've said (in long form, because I was drinking): freedom of speech, always, in all but the most explicit instances.

The abuse reports will come to you, Sev, and the system is exactly as effective as your willingness to keep checking them and going through the stories in question. If there is an issue and the writer addresses it, presumably you'd have it set up to ping you for a recheck. The "flag" idea is fine, but if there's no moderation before it goes into effect, any number of stories will be flagged for no reason. Everyone here has had troll ratings at some point (and I remember forum threads where members asked for upvotes to offset the trolls).

Mizal... you quoted my entire post, without referencing it. Is there a faux pas there, or something significant? Why do you want to preserve it?

Probably would need another active moderator, depending on how strictly you enforce anything.
Anyway, in the end, it's Sev paying the bills.

[severenz]

I've changed the feature to "Flag Story" - no guarantee it will result in banning. I have banned the one story with all the dicks in it. I agree that we don't need pornographic material here. I will be modifying terms accordingly. While it may seem like I'm opening a can of worms, I think collecting "flag data" could be useful. I can add more flags as I see fit. I also would like to maintain freedom of speech as much as I can. But it gets tricky e.g. a story about shooting up a school written by a kid. I'm not sure this is black and white.

Lots of ways to approach this, which is why I started a thread. I appreciate all your input. For now, the only actions I think I'll be taking is banning pornographic images.

[mizal]

You might've opened a can of worms here, Sev. I am fine with banning explicit pics, and I think I fall on the liberal/freedom of speech side of this question. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think graphic sex novels need to be a thing here. Just so it's made clear somewhere, so some porno writer doesn't spend a week carving his version of the Pieta before having it taken offline. I take that position mostly because - as you've said - the linked images can become a problem, and in this case the headache isn't worth what we get out of it. Mixed media might be more of a thing in the future, especially if the site grows. For now, I'm specifically not standing up for graphic erotica.

Plagiarism... I can see where there might be a controversy, but I've also seen someone copy End's work and put it up again on this same site (as Mizal said, with less acumen). Sometimes it is that obvious.

Hate speech, as I've said (in long form, because I was drinking): freedom of speech, always, in all but the most explicit instances.

The abuse reports will come to you, Sev, and the system is exactly as effective as your willingness to keep checking them and going through the stories in question. If there is an issue and the writer addresses it, presumably you'd have it set up to ping you for a recheck. The "flag" idea is fine, but if there's no moderation before it goes into effect, any number of stories will be flagged for no reason. Everyone here has had troll ratings at some point (and I remember forum threads where members asked for upvotes to offset the trolls).

Mizal... you quoted my entire post, without referencing it. Is there a faux pas there, or something significant? Why do you want to preserve it?

Someone--I can't remember who--mentioned that every time you made a long post, you would go back a little later and delete it. Is this true?

[Vesnic]

Thoughts on Mature Audience category? I don't want pornographic pictures but I can see where MA implies "anything goes." This is tricky. Any thoughts or advice is appreciated. Maybe I need to make an X-Rated IS haha - InfiniteSexStory.com ?

Mature or erotica is not the same as porn, obviously. Porn is meant to titillate, not to tell a story. The IWT in question was really "allegorical porn or pornographic allegory", in response to the fact that no one wanted to write a straight-up allegory. Insofar as people wrote sexual content, it certainly had to be couched in a larger story with more going on than just the old in-out, in-out. I trust IS can continue as a place where this sort of story survives and can be easily distinguished from simple smut that really does belong on an adult site.

[severenz]

I’m fine with mature erotica but we don’t need them illustrated. The quality of an erotica story will likely have to be higher. A shitty mystery story is less damaging than a shitty erotica story which subjectively loses its art status sooner.