PSA: LJ Adult Settings and Flags

Hopefully, many of you have heard of the latest round of changes on LJ already, but in case you have not, I'm getting my own version of the word out.

First, the facts. I'm not cutting this because I think it's important, especially for writers and artists which (surprise!) comprise most of my flist. I apologize if I go on a little longer than I generally like to without using a cut.

The Facts

Anyone following the litany of conflicts, dramas, and bad decisions on the part of LJ/6A over the course of 2007 probably isn't surprised by this latest addition to the LJ "features" lineup. It's been in discussion ever since LJ/6A realized that *omg* people wrote, drew, and did things that offended other people!!1!!1 And that minors (under 18, by definition in the US) were accessing content that was intended for adults.

In brief, LJ/6A now offers users the option to declare either their entire journals or individual entries as No Adult Content, Adult Concepts, or Explicit Adult Content. In LJ's view, Adult Concepts is akin to PG-13 while Explicit Adult is more like R or NC-17. Users who have declared birthdays that make them under 18 will have adult content collapsed under an LJ-cut. Users who have declared birthdays that make them 18 or older will see everything normally. Logged off users will see the LJ-cuts indicating adult content but will be able to click on the cut, declare themselves an adult, and view the content more or less normally.

More to follow on the "more or less" in a bit. :)

At the moment, use of the adult-content settings remains voluntary. I can't say that enough. I've seen a lot of panic along the lines of, "What will I do with my communities? My writing journals?" or "I have one thousand past entries now to go through!" No, you don't. Not yet. (And according to LJ/6A, you never will, but I leave that up to you as to whether you trust them in that.) And I'll admit that I was touched by the same panicky feeling, knowing that silwritersguild contains entries that are certainly Explicit Adult and debating whether that justified locking down the comm entirely to minors and really, really, really not wanting to do that but fearing the banhammer enough that, yes, momentarily, I considered it.

But this is voluntary. You don't have to start "rating" your entries according to adult content, you don't have to declare your journals and communities as one or another, and you really don't have to go through old entries, although I really understand why people don't trust LJ/6A to believe that it will always be that way.

And that brings us to the second part of this new arrival: the flagging tool.

While I don't think that anyone is really protesting the addition of the adult settings for those who want to use them, then the flagging tool is a bit more controversial. Look at the top of my entry where the little navigation buttons are; you should see an orange flag. If you believe that my entry should be seen by adults only, then you can basically vote to have it reviewed by LJ Abuse to be declared as such. (And feel free to try it on this entry, if you want to see how it works; even if I amass two dozen flags, this is far from an Adult Explicit post!) From reading the post and comments on the original lj_biz announcement, I have figured out that this works as follows:

• One person finds my post offensive and thinks that it should be visible to adults only. They click the little orange flag.


• My post is put in a "queue." This initially confused me because I thought this meant that it joined a line of posts awaiting review by LJ Abuse. From reading the answers LJ staffer marta is giving on the original post, this is not the case. Once a flag has been registered, then the post waits for more complaints to be made against it. Consider it like this: the initial flag is a reservation, but the restaurant only seats complete parties. So even though one person has arrived, x more are needed before the post can be taken back to that fine five-star Zagat-rated restaurant called LJ Abuse.
  
  Okay, perhaps my attempt at stretched metaphors made it even more confusing ...? ;)


• Once enough flags have collected on any single post, then LJ Abuse will review the post. If they feel it deserves an Explicit Adult Content rating, then that rating will be added.

It is important to note that the same process applies to journals as well as individual entries. If you have the info bar at the top of your friends' page, then you will notice that the same orange flag appears there as well, along with an invitation to Flag This Journal. The same process applies. If enough flags are collected against your journal/community, then LJ Abuse will review it, and the entire journal will be set to Explicit Adult Content.

There is one important difference between having an entry declared EAC and having an entire journal declared EAC: LJ will notify users if their journal has been switched to adult-only but not if a single entry has. So if I post an NC-17 Maedhros/Fingon slash story and enough of my readers think that I should have set it visible to adults only and flag me, if LJ Abuse changes the setting for that entry, then I might never know. But if those same readers find me patently offensive in general, and LJ Abuse agrees, then I will be emailed when the setting on my entire journal is changed.

Also, for the record, LJ considers that when 50% or more entries that are Explicit Adult Content, then the entire journal/community should be declared as such, and entries/journals will only be forced to Explicit Adult Content, never Adult Concepts.

There are a few questions, myths, and misconceptions floating around about flagging that I've seen, so I'll try to address a few here with links to marta's replies so that you have an official statement from an LJ staffer, should you ever need it.

• "One person with a grudge against me can have my entry/journal locked down for adults only." No. As stated above, it takes multiple flags from multiple people to lock an entry. As to what this number might be, I have no idea ... but one person can't ruin your life that easily. (Yet.)



• "But nonetheless, it will be so easy for someone (or someones) with a grudge to flag every entry in my journal." According to LJ/6A, there are safeguards in place to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Only accounts over a month old may flag, and only five flags are allowed in any twenty-four-hour period. Also, apparently, someone who's too flag-happy can piss off Abuse until their flags are ignored entirely.



• "I can be banned, earn strikes, or otherwise be punished if my entries or journal have adult settings changed by Abuse." No. As stated earlier, this is voluntary at this point, and even if Abuse changes the settings on your post/journal, you suffer no repercussions. Again, I leave this up to people to decide how much they trust that things will stay like this forever, but for the time being, it is strictly voluntary and carries no reprisals.



• "What about sockpuppets? Many users have multiple journals, and it's easy (and free!) to create alternate LJ identities to harass me with." There's the thirty-day thing, for one ... so someone's sockpuppets would have to hold a grudge for thirty days before being able to do anything to you. Someone did ask marta about IP tracking, and she was vague ... intentionally vague, I think. Which tells me that IP tracking is probably one of the "several systems in place," but of course, describing those systems in any detail will make them easier to circumvent, and sooner.

I think that takes care of most the worries I've seen around LJ, but if you can think of (or have) another, please feel free to leave it in a comment. I or someone else may have seen the answer somewhere, or if you have an answer, someone else might benefit from it.

There are a few additional concerns, however, that I do not feel have been adequately addressed and think that users should be made aware of.

First, you have been defaulted to "Use moderate filtering (filters explicit adult and offensive content)" on Safe Search Filtering. If you want search results to show users and communities that have declared or been declared Explicit Adult Content, then you will need to change that. Go to Viewing Options to do so. Scroll all the way to the bottom. Change the last drop-down box to "Do not filter my results."

Likewise, Viewing Adult Content should be set to "Do not collapse" unless you want some/all adult content put behind an additional LJ cut. This is also managed on the Viewing Options page in the next-to-last drop-down box. This is the default, however, so if you haven't changed this, don't panic: So far, you should not need to.

Finally, those of you who post stories, artwork, and other entries with ratings and warnings outside an LJ-cut should be aware that your entire posting including warnings and ratings will be tucked away behind the Explicit Adult Content LJ-cut if you choose this setting or have it chosen for you. Again, this will not apply to your readers who have their ages declared as 18 or older, but if you have readers on LJ who don't have accounts or don't log in, then they will not be able to view ratings and warnings without clicking an LJ-cut.

Once they click the LJ-cut, the entire entry will be visible, including the material that you were warning about in the first place.

I think this is relevant because fandom has long standardized the practice of warning for potentially adult or offensive content outside an LJ-cut and then cutting what they know people might not want to see. The new system will make this a moot point for some readers. Now, I'm not trying to hit a panic button and say, "OMG! Someone might accidentally see secks!" or anything like that. But most of us understand that there is a difference between content intended for mature users and content that could be very bothersome or even damaging to some adults, e.g., entries that talk about rape, incest, child abuse, or suicide.

ETA: frenchpony has made a good suggestion to circumvent this problem where you feel it might become an issue, i.e. in a community that defaults to Explicit Adult Content: put your warnings in the title. A lot of authors and communities do this already, and while it's not something I've particularly favored, then I certainly favor it more than having victims exposed to content that might be harmful to them because of LJ/6A's attempt to Protect the Childryn from adult content. *headscratch*

Finally, here are some quick links to serve as references:

The original announcement made by lj_biz.
Your Viewing Options page to control what you can see in searches and how marked adult content will display.

And that brings us to the fun part of this post (for me, anyway):

The Opinions

( The Opinions )