What happens to flagged offensive items?
Hi!
I appreciate that y'all are addressing the recent Twitter discussion, but it would help if we had more of an idea of what happens when we flag an item as offensive.
One thing that happens is that if you have the tickybox checked saying to hide offensive items, those items are hidden from you. Some even seem to be removed (the item I complained about in March appears to be gone! THANK YOU!). But the rest of the process is completely opaque to the user doing the flagging.
Do the items go to a human moderator? Is there some kind of mechanical algorithm at play? Both? Neither? Is there some kind of strike system for users uploading offensive content?
I have questions!
I know the team was looking at this issue earlier this year, but in light of the advice to flag offensive items, and the process surrounding what happens to flagged items being a black box, well... more information would be helpful!
I do understand if, you know, you personally are not allowed to comment on this here without talking to PR or some equivalent. Seriously! That said, well. These kind of uploads are personally hurtful to many, and it feels like The Sims Direct is asking the injured parties to do the emotional labor of combing the gallery for items they find personally upsetting. On the one hand, yes, the Gallery is HUGE OMG and the Sims Team only has so many people working for it, and on the other hand, it's personally upsetting for (in the case of one Twitter user) a descendant of Holocaust Survivors to comb the gallery for Hitlers to report.
Thank you.
- Hi @xochiquetzl_xkvn,
Sorry for the delay, was out of office. I'll answer what I can and give an explanation for what I can't answer below.
Flagged items are manually reviewed by real humans and acted on according to a moderation matrix developed for The Gallery. I can't go into the specifics of this matrix as it would allow less well meaning users to attempt to skirt the rules on technicalities, but it was designed to keep bad actors at bay while still allowing us much creativity and expression as possible.
Moderation of such a huge platform is a very daunting task, so we have dedicated members doing just that and they keep the bulk of the "garbage" in check, but we do still ask for your help to make sure it's as safe as possible.
