Love shack has two sets us rules. First, the legal mumbo jumbo where all of the "thou shalt not's" and "non accountable" statements are printed out in the usual jargon. Then it's off to read the general rules and user guideliness. No lawyers lurking there, just the, "everybody play nice guideliness" to give the forum some structure.
La Law:
Community Guidelines:
For the most part, everyone on Loveshack played by the rules. After all, people are on loveshack to find love, not conflict. There were a few red flags here and there. Nothing that would shut the place down. A few minor oversights and no reprocussions from the moderator. I've never been a moderator, but I don't know how they would be able to sift through the high volume postings to catch a violation. Having said that, I don't know if the moderator has yet to see the postings or if they minor enough to let it slide.
Profanity @!$#%&*
People are clever disguising profanity on the Loveshack forum. When you are talking about topics like dating, marriage, and divorce, it can bring out emotions. Despite the clever disguise, we all know what the word IS. The "*" was used to fill in the blank spots. There were several variations using the first letter followed by aesterics or all aesterics.
My favorite profanity cover up was on SpongeBob Squarepants (what can I say, the show makes me laugh, tehe.) They used a flipper the dolphin noise to subsitute for the bad words Spongebob had learned.
Personal Information:
It's not wise to give personal information like your phone number becuase you just never know
Duplicate Post:
My guess would be that on a site like Love Shack, there would be tension between what an individual user wants from the site versus what is good for the community as a whole (Kollock and Smith). I mean, let's face it, aren't you on the site to find Mr./Ms. right? (or Mr. right now) A user wouldn't necessarily be interested in the community except as the waters in which he/she were trolling. As discussed in Kollock and Smith,the problem of lurkers or free-riders would seem to be prolific on a site such as Love Shack, where people wanting to find love might just flit around looking for that special someone to pounce on instead of putting themselves out there for someone to find. Did you find that to be the case? I would have liked to see you discuss what the result of the profanity or duplicate post was.
ReplyDeleteIs disguising profanity against the rules? I wonder if the forum just doesn't use some automatic filter that changes any recognized words to those symbols (or some other "harmless" string of characters). Actually I find it quite odd that a site such as the "Love Shack" would even care about profanity given that it sounds to me a more or less mature subject matter anyway.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the duplicate posting, is there a way for a user to delete their post? Many times the duplicate post was a result of accidentally hitting the submit button a few too many times if the web interface doesn't quickly respond (slow connection, server bogged down, etc.), or a user hitting the back button and some oddness happening with the scripting on the page. It looks like that was the case in your screenshot since the post times were so close to one another. I'd say, at least for this example the CS guy that developed the page might be the one to blame or maybe the IT guy who skimped on the server hardware...
Like Stacy I would have been interested in how these issues might have been resolved (or have been resolved by admins/mods in the past, if identifiable, of course).
Are the moderators of forums other users that volunteer or are they part of the site's staff? Unless it's the former, it might be difficult to monitor the amount of content being generated for a large site. I guess the site employs automated tools to search for keywords and maybe this is the reason for workarounds and innuendos. Maybe responsibility can fall on the community for some level of self policing in terms of adhering to guidelines?
ReplyDeleteFrom the FAQ:
ReplyDeleteQ:Why have some of the words in my post been blanked?
A: Certain words may have been censored by the administrator. If your posts contain any censored words, they will be blanked-out like this: *****.
The same words are censored for all users, and censoring is done by a computer simply searching and replacing words. It is in no way 'intelligent'.
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On a different note, I'm wondering if it's due to past trouble that the "Sexual & Reproductive Health and Practices" forum is private and for registered users only?
Interesting site. The interface looks similar to the site I'm studying (Social Anxiety Support)...both use vBulletin software. I also found a few posts with asterisks replacing profanity, but I wasn't sure if it was done by the poster or moderator. I remember that SpongeBob episode! =D I'm also curious as to who moderates the site. In SAS, long-time posters are asked if they wanna be mods. I wonder if the same is true in LS.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely fall into the lurker/free-loader category, but I'm not sure how you would be able to track this type of behavior without administrative access. However, I disagree somewhat with stacy's assessment of the site. It seems to me that the main motivation for joining this site wouldn't necessarily be to find someone, but more to seek relationship advice.
thechickenbus mentioned private forums. I've also come across this in SAS, where the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender discussion forum is made private and members have to get special permission from admin to access it. I'm not sure of the reasons for the separate privacy settings, but I think that this higher barrier for entry would be both a disincentive for trolls, while providing a 'safer' environment for self-disclosure.
I think vBulletin software comes with its own profanity filters that can be customized. I visit a site where the "N" word is censored and is replaced with the word "Ninja". The filters are pretty generic and easy to get around (capitalizing a letter in the word works if it's not the first letter). As for duplicate postings, it seems to be an issue for all of the vBulletin boards that I've seen. An admin needs to delete the message.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kat in that I think the site is more about venting your personal issues than finding someone. Some sites have regional forums that provide a space for members to talk about nearby events and to meet people face to face.
The guidelines on your site brought me back to the assigned reading by Grimes et al, where they talked about two broad categories of online official rules; “source code” pertaining to terms of software use that simply exists; and “civil code” outlining terms of use a user must comply with. To me the guidelines on your site are civil code in theory but are source code in practice because they are simply out there to give the site some structure, as you said. Like others who commented before me, I am also curious who the moderators are and how that relates to the loose structure of your site.
ReplyDeleteThe site you choose is very interesting site. I agree with you that it's not wise to post your personal information in the web. I never post my personal information unless I have to. Does this breaking the rule in the site you choose ? What's the punishment if people happened to make duplicate post by mistake ?
ReplyDelete