Media Handling of content that doesn't meet adult content guidelines

[CodeScu1ptor]

TL;DR scroll down to parts in bold.

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Hey Moderators and Staff of NexusMods,

After my latest ban (which was an accident from your side) I promised that I will speak up - so here I do what I promised.

I want to start with the most serious problem, not saturating the forum with other (still serious) issues. I try to be very concise below to summarize the problem, although I would like to support my claims with examples. If it will be ok, I'll add them later in discussion.

Note that anything that will be mentioned below is not accusation of you having some attitude or intentions, but it shows impact on community, which is what it is regardless of your intentions.

My job is senior software engineer, experienced in project work. So I want to propose idea that can be implemented in phases, starting from very small and easy changes.

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Hey Community,

Please participate. I saw people complaining, saying that things have to change. But how are things going to change? You are here to ask for the change. If you're silent, it means that you are happy with everything here.

Read, speak your mind, tell if any of the issues mentioned have impacted you directly, support or criticise ideas, add your own thoughts.

Share this with your friends.

NOTE: Please read and follow  Suggestion Board Rules https://forums.nexusmods.com/forum/9063-suggestion-board/

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Problem:

Current shape of "Supporters" area and handling of content that doesn't meet adult content guidelines (especially content that doesn't meet the criteria by a thin margin)

• Part of the community unhappy with the state,
• User attrition - people leaving website or silently quitting,
• Unnecessary moderation work due to users trying to sneak under the radar into regular images area,
• Supporters area is very unattractive place, having low volume of photos, endorsements, comments.
  • It is not even "Supporters" area, its name indicates something exclusive, but in practice it is NSFW area, with fewer people than regular one,
  • I saw some users removing content from there after it being moved out of regular images area,
  • When moved to Supporters area, images are unavailable (notification about new image still points to removed image, notifications about comments often don't arrive).
• Moderation of regular images area is not fully effective.

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Solution:

Phase #1: (trivial to do, maybe only rules wiki change)

• Allow using existing Adult tag in regular images area for content that is not clearly and explicitly NSFW, but is not SFW (meeting Adult Content Guidelines)
  • Solution is already there, but it is used only for gore and profanity, any content more sexual than allowed by guidelines is strictly prohibited in that area, even under that tag.

Phase #1.5: (maybe as easy as #1, but may require small change that will go into deployment cycle)

• Open up existing adult images area (officially "supporters" area) to Members, make it available for everybody who sets "Show adult content" option.

Phase #2: (much more complicated, to be done later, hopefully can be split further, but this is already a job for devs working at NexusMods, access to code is needed to make sensible planning)

• Introduce 3 levels of tagging for content: SFW (current regular area guidelines), Questionable (not SFW, but only suggestive, revealing, not really fully NSFW either), NSFW,
• Decommission Supporters area,
• Migrate images from Supporters area to regular area as NSFW,
• Unified area will fix issues with moved images appearing as removed and notifications not appearing for comments.

 

Regards,

Code.

Edited May 6 by CodeScu1ptor
Minor editorial fix, highlighted key points

[CodeScu1ptor]

Some evidence - this NSFW image (link) is a collage of photos I found in randomly picked 7 days period on the website (just selected a random page few weeks back and browsed 7 days through).

Minors can now browse such images on the website.

Number of those could go down drastically:

• If moderation would start working together with users, not against users:
  • I have joined Itaku recently. Made few mistakes with adult images classification from the start. Didn't even receive a warning!
  • There:
    • People suggest change instead of reporting infraction. 
    • Moderators help classifying content on the page instead of making people anxious with warnings and punishing them with bans.
    • Staff assumes good will of the userbase and I see that it works - my first set was adjusted quickly not only with different classification, but also with additional tags.
• If people would have decent place to publish photos that are not SFW:
  • Supporters area is out of question, since this is separated, isolated area that is unavailable for most users since only supporters and premium users can have access there,
  • You support many adult mods. How do you expect that images people will post will only meet adult content guidelines?

Edited May 3 by CodeScu1ptor
small editorial, made it easier to read

[VtheIdiot]

I wanna talk about getting banned by "accident". I was caught in a crossfire and that should'nt happen normally because i NEVER did the smallest illegal thing to earn a ban! Theres definetly a need for change in that Topic!

[CodeScu1ptor]

Yes Vince, this is something unacceptable and it is another topic to emphasize. But I decided that I will go with one at a time, focusing attention on one thing, otherwise my own posts would compete with each other.

[showler]

Biggest thing with the regular image share is that it can be accessed without being logged in so that avoids both the age requirement to make an account and any preferences that may be set in an account.

[CodeScu1ptor]

Just checked, anonymous (not logged) users have it preset that they won't see adult content in image share.

[showler]

Yes, if it's properly tagged.

Is that good enough for UK law?

[CodeScu1ptor]

I'm not sure if it is a problem that applies here... This website will probably have to apply specific measures for UK. For example, currently it is possible to simply create account and declare being adult at age gate to access adult mods. Any premium user (including minors who will ask parents for premium to download mods) has only one setting to switch to access supporters area.

So current setup is very likely insufficient for UK and the one I propose will not make things worse or better in these regards.

Edited May 3 by CodeScu1ptor
editorial

[Alushun]

"You support many adult mods. How do you expect that images people will post will only meet adult content guidelines?"

 

This right here makes such a good point.  I don't personally make NSFW content, but know many people who do and it just doesn't make any sense to me that Nexus would either ban the user or delete content that doesn't meet the explicit guidelines when the pic in question features an adult mod that's freely accessible.  Very contradictory.  This is more surface level observation but it just doesn't make sense to me at all.  

[showler]

1 hour ago, Alushun said:

"You support many adult mods. How do you expect that images people will post will only meet adult content guidelines?"

 

This right here makes such a good point.  I don't personally make NSFW content, but know many people who do and it just doesn't make any sense to me that Nexus would either ban the user or delete content that doesn't meet the explicit guidelines when the pic in question features an adult mod that's freely accessible.  Very contradictory.  This is more surface level observation but it just doesn't make sense to me at all.  

People get banned for posting adult images where they're not allowed, not just for posting them.  More specifically, they usually get banned for reposting them or repeatedly posting similar images while ignoring moderator warnings.

I really don't understand how "No NSFW images in the regular imageshare" is difficult for people.