Social Media Moderation: Flickr Experience
Now there is a need for moderation of various online communities. The volume of spam that penetrates popular social networks is not large yet, but already now it is palpable and gives users inconvenience. I want to share a translation of an article about how the most popular photo hosting site is moderated - Flickr . (Translation by Vladimir Shilov ( toodoo ), especially for Habrahabr. )
At 11 am, several Flickr.com employees gather at an unmade desk in order to discuss the details of the administration policy, as they have been doing for 6 years. The first item on the agenda: Brazil. A suspicious number of people from this country began to lay out photos of various dishes. Trading through the service is a clear and open violation of the company's rules.
However, the rules are a rather complicated issue with a system like Flickr. The ban of these users seems logical, however, as one of the people noted at the meeting, the secondary economy is a very important part of social life in Brazil, especially among women. When does a resource policy turn into the destruction of cultural property?
')
So many discussions are born, as elsewhere where a handful of people turn into a complex, unique civilization. What began in 2004 as a convenient resource for sharing the latest holiday photographs turned into a whole parallel universe.
Thirty million registered users posted 2.8 billion photos from their lives, but most importantly, this site showed people the social side of photography. People unfamiliar with each other comment on photos, gather in communities of interest and create a project for documentation and categorization of the visible universe. If the photos reflect life, it reflects life and the site, where there are billions of them.
At first glance, this parallel society was made in the image and likeness of ours, but this is more likely its image that passed through Photoshop. The good moments are underlined, and all indecent is thrown out. So goes with every online community. Generally accepted ethics must be present, otherwise, complete freedom, which appeals to thousands of lawsuits, flames and so on. Therefore, there are directors of the community. And it was especially interesting for me to find out how it all works on Flickr.
Heather Champ, director of the Flickr community, does a rather fine job that is not so easy to notice, but it is thanks to her that Flickr is growing and developing at such a pace.
Let's go back to the Brazilians. A lengthy discussion about the nature of commerce, the definition of art, and human relationships develops at a table in the office of Flickr. Finally, Champ makes the verdict:
“To sell something bad. To sell something you have done with your hands less badly. Change less bad. Changing something with their own hands is less bad than changing something with factory production. ”
Violators are warned. Flickr employees are moving to the next question.
So there is a modification, update and growth of this little nation Flickr. If these are not Brazilian dishwrights, there is something else. Do all images of nudity have to go under the column "under 18"? From the point of view of the international contingent, the morality of whose cultures should be given preference? Of course, we must proceed from the benefits to the community, but what if it starts to differ from the company's policy? What about insults? What if someone feels insulted for not being able to insult?
All this seems absurd, until the moment when you begin to recall some of the judicial processes that are taking place in the world. Society is the freedom of the individual, which rests on the freedom of another person, and this gives rise to strange questions.
In the meeting room, everyone calms down and their attention is turned to the window in the next office, where a smiling employee waves his hand, then takes off his pants and shows his ass. Our room applauds.
Applause sounds like an excellent demonstration of the fact: what seems ridiculous to us can be offensive to someone. How to maintain harmony in the community, where even the slightest gesture can become a ground for mutual aggression?
***
Champ, who is forty-five, has been involved in photography all her life. Despite this, her work has done quite a lot for her worldview. As she herself says: “I’m a good Canadian girl and have never heard of porn on the net before, I’m not talking about watching it.”
She sees the essence of her work as guarding this fuzzy, but sacred "spirit of Flickr." The list of rules the community has such comments as "Do not forget about the children." Chemp jokes only half when he says that he is responsible for protecting the “integrity of Flickr.”
However, there are many details, many compromises. For example, a photo of the penis will be sent by the moderators to the section “for adults”, but what about the photo of the word “penis”? A cloud in the shape of a penis or a penis on Greek statues?
Then comes the question about racism. Can anyone dispute that the company is breaking its own policy by providing services exclusively to non-racists? What is decisive in these cases?
Chemp does not hesitate to impose administrative sanctions. She recently deleted the group “Islam is Hell on Earth” and has no regrets on this score. “We do not have to be a site for everyone. We are not obliged to accept all. For me, the basic principles of Flickr are more important.
And she protects these principles. One person wanted his photos removed and enlisted the help of a police officer. In another case, a certain parent wanted the photographs of his child taken by the other parent to disappear. Who is right? When I looked over Champ’s shoulder, I saw a letter from a woman who asked me to deal with her ex. He laid out at her indecent photos.
"People transfer their relationships to Flickr, and we have to sort them out," says Champ. She sends a warning to this guy and explains her actions to the woman.
At the moment, Champ does not particularly believe that the community can exist by itself. “I don’t know such a community where calm, reasonable voices are not muffled by loud and offended,” she says.
The anonymity of the Internet often makes people go crazy, but Chemp finds many of the users' mental impulses beautiful.
“People begin to make friends, love, marry thanks to us. They adore our service, and I manage to receive a part of their joy. ”
Flickr is much more civilized than, say, Youtube, and that, in part, is Champ's merit. They created not just a reflection of the world, but a cleaner reflection, where the illegal, evil and vile was removed. Looks good if you think about it.
At 11 am, several Flickr.com employees gather at an unmade desk in order to discuss the details of the administration policy, as they have been doing for 6 years. The first item on the agenda: Brazil. A suspicious number of people from this country began to lay out photos of various dishes. Trading through the service is a clear and open violation of the company's rules.However, the rules are a rather complicated issue with a system like Flickr. The ban of these users seems logical, however, as one of the people noted at the meeting, the secondary economy is a very important part of social life in Brazil, especially among women. When does a resource policy turn into the destruction of cultural property?
')
So many discussions are born, as elsewhere where a handful of people turn into a complex, unique civilization. What began in 2004 as a convenient resource for sharing the latest holiday photographs turned into a whole parallel universe.
Thirty million registered users posted 2.8 billion photos from their lives, but most importantly, this site showed people the social side of photography. People unfamiliar with each other comment on photos, gather in communities of interest and create a project for documentation and categorization of the visible universe. If the photos reflect life, it reflects life and the site, where there are billions of them.
At first glance, this parallel society was made in the image and likeness of ours, but this is more likely its image that passed through Photoshop. The good moments are underlined, and all indecent is thrown out. So goes with every online community. Generally accepted ethics must be present, otherwise, complete freedom, which appeals to thousands of lawsuits, flames and so on. Therefore, there are directors of the community. And it was especially interesting for me to find out how it all works on Flickr.
Heather Champ, director of the Flickr community, does a rather fine job that is not so easy to notice, but it is thanks to her that Flickr is growing and developing at such a pace.
Let's go back to the Brazilians. A lengthy discussion about the nature of commerce, the definition of art, and human relationships develops at a table in the office of Flickr. Finally, Champ makes the verdict:
“To sell something bad. To sell something you have done with your hands less badly. Change less bad. Changing something with their own hands is less bad than changing something with factory production. ”
Violators are warned. Flickr employees are moving to the next question.
So there is a modification, update and growth of this little nation Flickr. If these are not Brazilian dishwrights, there is something else. Do all images of nudity have to go under the column "under 18"? From the point of view of the international contingent, the morality of whose cultures should be given preference? Of course, we must proceed from the benefits to the community, but what if it starts to differ from the company's policy? What about insults? What if someone feels insulted for not being able to insult?
All this seems absurd, until the moment when you begin to recall some of the judicial processes that are taking place in the world. Society is the freedom of the individual, which rests on the freedom of another person, and this gives rise to strange questions.
In the meeting room, everyone calms down and their attention is turned to the window in the next office, where a smiling employee waves his hand, then takes off his pants and shows his ass. Our room applauds.
Applause sounds like an excellent demonstration of the fact: what seems ridiculous to us can be offensive to someone. How to maintain harmony in the community, where even the slightest gesture can become a ground for mutual aggression?
***
Champ, who is forty-five, has been involved in photography all her life. Despite this, her work has done quite a lot for her worldview. As she herself says: “I’m a good Canadian girl and have never heard of porn on the net before, I’m not talking about watching it.”
She sees the essence of her work as guarding this fuzzy, but sacred "spirit of Flickr." The list of rules the community has such comments as "Do not forget about the children." Chemp jokes only half when he says that he is responsible for protecting the “integrity of Flickr.”
However, there are many details, many compromises. For example, a photo of the penis will be sent by the moderators to the section “for adults”, but what about the photo of the word “penis”? A cloud in the shape of a penis or a penis on Greek statues?
Then comes the question about racism. Can anyone dispute that the company is breaking its own policy by providing services exclusively to non-racists? What is decisive in these cases?
Chemp does not hesitate to impose administrative sanctions. She recently deleted the group “Islam is Hell on Earth” and has no regrets on this score. “We do not have to be a site for everyone. We are not obliged to accept all. For me, the basic principles of Flickr are more important.
And she protects these principles. One person wanted his photos removed and enlisted the help of a police officer. In another case, a certain parent wanted the photographs of his child taken by the other parent to disappear. Who is right? When I looked over Champ’s shoulder, I saw a letter from a woman who asked me to deal with her ex. He laid out at her indecent photos.
"People transfer their relationships to Flickr, and we have to sort them out," says Champ. She sends a warning to this guy and explains her actions to the woman.
At the moment, Champ does not particularly believe that the community can exist by itself. “I don’t know such a community where calm, reasonable voices are not muffled by loud and offended,” she says.
The anonymity of the Internet often makes people go crazy, but Chemp finds many of the users' mental impulses beautiful.
“People begin to make friends, love, marry thanks to us. They adore our service, and I manage to receive a part of their joy. ”
Flickr is much more civilized than, say, Youtube, and that, in part, is Champ's merit. They created not just a reflection of the world, but a cleaner reflection, where the illegal, evil and vile was removed. Looks good if you think about it.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/41926/
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