In Soviet-Russia, Photos Tag You!
Censorship is the Kobayashi Maru of user experience: the no-win scenario. Even under the best circumstances, it’s an impossible labor. Poorly done, it is an ethical and customer-service nightmare.
Since they were acquired by Yahoo, Flickr has implemented a censorship scheme that is so poorly thought out, it’s offensive.
If you use Flickr, you are obligated to tag anything in your photostream which might be offensive. Later (at night, while you are sleeping, no doubt-- like the tooth fairy, but with uncompromising moral fiber), someone at Flickr will look at your account and verify that you have correctly tagged your offensive images. If you do not do this, or Flickr disagrees with your self-policing, your account is labeled as ‘unsafe’. Oh, and anyone else can decide to come along later and tag your images as offensive, too. Presumably, this could render you ‘unsafe’, as well.
I give them credit for making the whole scheme usable on their site, but the underlying logic is flawed. I would need a chart to graph the *numerous* ways this could potentially get under people's skin. Indeed, this is a no-win for Flickr.
| Tagged with: | Censorship, Community, Flickr, Folksonomy, Tags, Yahoo, Yakov Smirnoff |