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New Guidelines: Trip Reports Containing Adult Content

Sonya

Sonya

Queen of VMB
Joined
Nov 28, 1999
Messages
45,341
Location
Western Washington
Trips to Las Vegas
25
I am facing a growing problem with some of the Trip Reports in this section. Although it is not a new phenomena here, it seems to get getting somewhat out of hand and is becoming more of a problem for my primary source of revenue that keeps the lights on here.

This week, I received a penalty from Google Ads because a TR here had a childish slang word for breasts in the title and contained other sexually oriented content.

Before that, another trip report had almost half (7) of the pages flagged, resulting in me getting in trouble for the content from Google. Based on my review of the reported pages, it was mostly because the OP repeatedly referred to gaming machines using sexist/inappropriate language like "whore", "slut" and "bitch".

Other reports have recently been reported for drug use, sexual images, sexual content, offensive (usually sexist) language.

Please remember that this is a public forum that is wholly supported by advertising revenue. I have asked many times to remember that you're sharing these reports with a lot of other people and you need to use some discretion.

I understand there's several members here that celebrate debauchery and degeneracy and I'm not trying to stop you from having fun, but if you're going to have a Trip Report here, you need to keep it on the PG-13 side. That doesn't mean you can't talk about strip clubs and partying and being a "degenerate", but you have to do it in a way that isn't quite so blatantly offensive to our advertisers.

I created the After Dark section so we could talk about recreational marijuana, strip clubs, and brothels here, as they are topics that come up in discussions about Las Vegas. This section has those ads blocked from it to allow these conversations to happen without interference from Google. However, I do not have plans to create a separate section for "Adult" TR's.

We are all capable of a little discretion, please help me by doing your part. Thanks.
 
As you have said, the source of support for the website is unhappy. I agree (and have probably contributed a bit) we could be a little more discerning in our choice of language and reporting themes.
Thanks for putting that out there for all of us to realize how important your support $ base is rather than admonishing us one by one. I enjoy reading trip reports but do so without the need to cringe it could come back to bite me. :)
 
Good to keep in mind. Thanks @Sonya.

When I had my blog several years ago hosted on BlogSpot, I basically talked about the same stuff as in my TRs. It wasn't monetized, but Google still shut it down (with no way to archive either), citing frequent talk about gambling.
 
mickyblueeyes said:
Funny enough I was thinking the after dark trip report section is a great idea specifically for this.
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The problem I imagine would be Sonya (rightly so) not wanting the part of the site that gets by far the most views to be segmented, further impacting ad revenue which she is trying to protect to keep the site going.
 
fudgewapner said:
The problem I imagine would be Sonya (rightly so) not wanting the part of the site that gets by far the most views to be segmented, further impacting ad revenue which she is trying to protect to keep the site going.
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Oh I get the reasoning behind it. I just selfishly want those few gems to keep coming and with there being a section of the site hidden from 'the man', would love to see them go there instead of being neutered or stopped completely. You can't mess with the artistic process of genius and some of those trip reports are genius. It's like Christmas morning when you see a new one posted.
 
iviicrociot said:
I just selfishly want those few gems to keep coming and with there being a section of the site hidden from 'the man', would love to see them go there instead of being neutered or stopped completely.
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I agree with this sentiment, which is why I'm just asking for a little discretion. I haven't made a new rule about TR content and I hope to not have to do too much editing on them going forward.

I have long had a personal rule that I try to interfere as little as possible in TRs, mostly because they are your travel journal you are writing for yourself. I don't enjoy being the Internet Police and moderating is a difficult and thankless job. But I also need to protect this place and keep it going as long as I possibly can. As revenue drops that becomes more difficult. Losing the AdSense revenue stream would be a big problem for me. It's not that much, but it covers the server, the guy who manages it, and some of the software licensing needed to keep the lights on.

I am trying not to single out any particular member, because it isn't just one person. We VMBers do seem to love TRs that go "full degen". Including me, I LOL at a TD report, like the rest of you.

These warnings and them stopping ads on certain pages is nothing new. I regularly argue with them about pages being blocked from ads due to being on the topic of spa recommendations for massages because "massage" is one of the algorithm's dirty words. They have an appeals process where a person will look at the reported page and 9/10 times the warning will be reversed. But there are also times when a TR is reported to me and I look at the page and think, "Oh.. yeah, I get it."

I'm just asking for a couple of seconds of review before you hit "post". Would you post it if your real name was on the post? What if you knew your mom or employer would see it? I'm just asking everyone to think for a minute before you post something that other people, or algorithms, would find problematic. At least try to make it more of a whisper than a roar. :)
 
I'm curious how the algorithm handles the 'B' word as it has a couple of meanings. Both are slang, when used as a verb it's to whine and complain and as a noun it's often pejorative and used against women....but not always. Also, the F word can have some different meanings....some pretty benign others not so much. Do they attempt to dock you for all of these usages on the site or is the algorithm smart enough to derive the context?
 
Sonya said:
I agree with this sentiment, which is why I'm just asking for a little discretion. I haven't made a new rule about TR content and I hope to not have to do too much editing on them going forward.

I have long had a personal rule that I try to interfere as little as possible in TRs, mostly because they are your travel journal you are writing for yourself. I don't enjoy being the Internet Police and moderating is a difficult and thankless job. But I also need to protect this place and keep it going as long as I possibly can. As revenue drops that becomes more difficult. Losing the AdSense revenue stream would be a big problem for me. It's not that much, but it covers the server, the guy who manages it, and some of the software licensing needed to keep the lights on.

I am trying not to single out any particular member, because it isn't just one person. We VMBers do seem to love TRs that go "full degen". Including me, I LOL at a TD report, like the rest of you.

These warnings and them stopping ads on certain pages is nothing new. I regularly argue with them about pages being blocked from ads due to being on the topic of spa recommendations for massages because "massage" is one of the algorithm's dirty words. They have an appeals process where a person will look at the reported page and 9/10 times the warning will be reversed. But there are also times when a TR is reported to me and I look at the page and think, "Oh.. yeah, I get it."

I'm just asking for a couple of seconds of review before you hit "post". Would you post it if your real name was on the post? What if you knew your mom or employer would see it? I'm just asking everyone to think for a minute before you post something that other people, or algorithms, would find problematic. At least try to make it more of a whisper than a roar. :)
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100% get the reasoning behind the request and 100% appreciate how much effort and work you put into keeping this site available to all of us. Sorry you have to spend any time dealing with appeals or that an algorithm would be sensitive to a forum based on Las Vegas experiences.
 
alanleroy said:
I'm curious how the algorithm handles the 'B' word as it has a couple of meanings. Both are slang, when used as a verb it's to whine and complain and as a noun it's often pejorative and used against women....but not always.
Click to expand...

It’s all fun and games until someone attends a dog show in Vegas.
 

  • mnvegasfan’s birthday extravaganza
I’m aware that the moderation of this board isn’t always well received by some people. I like it personally.

I joined Nextdoor which is largely unmoderated. OMG. It’s dominated by whoever screams the loudest and people aren’t hiding behind a pseudonym.

Keep up the good work @Sonya and the other moderators
 
Sonya said:
I agree with this sentiment, which is why I'm just asking for a little discretion. I haven't made a new rule about TR content and I hope to not have to do too much editing on them going forward.
Click to expand...

I can paraphrase and use double entendre with the best of 'em! I am, admittedly, far worse at carving out time to write TRs.

Thank you for all you do to maintain my little place of normalcy!

JaDubya said:
I joined Nextdoor which is largely unmoderated.
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Skip Nextdoor. You're not nearly self absorbed enough to be on there. Furthermore you're adding months, if not, years to your life by not participating. I found it dominated by the NIMBY, no fun, beatch about anything crowd. It reminded me of when I lived in a highrise.
 
@Sonya
Does your contract with them allow you to sell ads directly in the walled off section
I recently did a deal with several dispensaries and strip clubs where we put a card with a code in our short term rentals the customer gets a discount and we get a kickback
If the laws allow it I'm sure something similar could be worked out for here
 
Perhaps I am not faithful enough as a trip report reader, and that is why I missed reports which despite having been written by "geniuses" were also flaggable. Seems to me that a genius would be able to "keep o' the windy side of the law," as a true genius once said.

What I am saying is that a talented writer ought to be able to write a brilliant and entertaining PG rated report. All the same, although the task of writing such a list would be tedious and distasteful, it would be useful to have a list of "No No" words and phrases (posted in "After Dark" so as not to raise hackles) which had been flagged by fussy censors in previous reports. Certainly, there are ways to "wink wink" the same meaning and impact.

I don't give an eff what people write or how they write it, and it is true that geniuses have used foul language and offensive descriptions effectively, but they did so in works bearing only their own names. Free self-expression ought not come at a cost to others.
 
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This thread isn’t the place to call out past trip report content or phrases. If you see something on the board that breaks a VMB rule or is questionable, use the report function.
 
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