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threeplusfireI received a call from SixApart this afternoon. They have a new consumer support division, and their manager was returning one of my phone messages. I have to say, I do appreciate someone doing that. I know I would be scared as hell to call back upset customers in a situation like this. Gods only know what kind of verbal abuse might get unloaded on you.
She was very willing to discuss concerns with me. There was no answer to the question as why LJ Abuse said the offending image was deleted due to lack of artistic merit and LJ biz said it was kiddie porn. There was also no answer to the question about how it could be considered child porn if it was an illustration of a story in which the younger character was 22 years old. I tried a couple times, but couldn't get her to say something direct.
The most interesting thing she mentioned was that corporate has a fear that posting explicit standards wouold encourage people to post borderline child pornography. WTF? I totally don't get this. I replied that I felt users would be comfortable with exact standards and that a large part of the issue was vagueness and fear that images might or might not get people banned. Can anyone explain to me how posting standards of content will encourage people to post child porn? I don't know.
She did take full responsibility for the lack of communication of staff. That was a brave thing to do, and I appreciated that. She explained that she felt her staff had been working so much and having long hours on the issue beforehand, so she didn't want anyone to do anything without sleep and more information. She said she did have a big new collection of cat macros from reading comment pages all weekend. They do intend to have a better response time, and not leave users adrift for long periods in the future, which I think is a good step. We talked about the need for a degree of transparency in the practice. She did state that the group evaluting information does include several different types of people with different experience, which was good to know. It does include a couple volunteer workers.
The funniest part of the call was when she stated she wanted to reach out to leaders in fandom. I was thinking to myself "Oops, I am so totally a non-entity in fandom!" But maybe she was talking about my friends, who are much more awesome in fandom than me. Hah. But she talked a lot about wanting to make it clear that the team would not target populations, that they could only refer to the law as their guideline, etc.
So. I'm not completely satisfied. I still think there are huge, worrisome issues. I'm concerned we may never have stark, clear standards. I'm concerned that corporate interests may trump ours in the end. But I am appreciative that this employee did take thirty minutes to talk to me today. Since one of my big complaints was a total lack of customer service, that was a huge improvement. For someone who has to toe the corporate line, she did do a very good job of answering to the best of her ability and being sincere on the phone. One can only hope it is the first of more.
She was very willing to discuss concerns with me. There was no answer to the question as why LJ Abuse said the offending image was deleted due to lack of artistic merit and LJ biz said it was kiddie porn. There was also no answer to the question about how it could be considered child porn if it was an illustration of a story in which the younger character was 22 years old. I tried a couple times, but couldn't get her to say something direct.
The most interesting thing she mentioned was that corporate has a fear that posting explicit standards wouold encourage people to post borderline child pornography. WTF? I totally don't get this. I replied that I felt users would be comfortable with exact standards and that a large part of the issue was vagueness and fear that images might or might not get people banned. Can anyone explain to me how posting standards of content will encourage people to post child porn? I don't know.
She did take full responsibility for the lack of communication of staff. That was a brave thing to do, and I appreciated that. She explained that she felt her staff had been working so much and having long hours on the issue beforehand, so she didn't want anyone to do anything without sleep and more information. She said she did have a big new collection of cat macros from reading comment pages all weekend. They do intend to have a better response time, and not leave users adrift for long periods in the future, which I think is a good step. We talked about the need for a degree of transparency in the practice. She did state that the group evaluting information does include several different types of people with different experience, which was good to know. It does include a couple volunteer workers.
The funniest part of the call was when she stated she wanted to reach out to leaders in fandom. I was thinking to myself "Oops, I am so totally a non-entity in fandom!" But maybe she was talking about my friends, who are much more awesome in fandom than me. Hah. But she talked a lot about wanting to make it clear that the team would not target populations, that they could only refer to the law as their guideline, etc.
So. I'm not completely satisfied. I still think there are huge, worrisome issues. I'm concerned we may never have stark, clear standards. I'm concerned that corporate interests may trump ours in the end. But I am appreciative that this employee did take thirty minutes to talk to me today. Since one of my big complaints was a total lack of customer service, that was a huge improvement. For someone who has to toe the corporate line, she did do a very good job of answering to the best of her ability and being sincere on the phone. One can only hope it is the first of more.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-08 10:04 pm (UTC)I'm confident there are a lot of very hard working, sincere employees at LJ/6A who are doing their best to follow the law, provide a safe environment for everyone, and keep it inclusive and respectful. Unfortunately, it's often hard to see them through corporate policies that make things complicated and difficult.
It makes me feel better to know someone called to at least try to address your concerns.