Search Flagging Forum Transcript

Introduction

Madhavi Linden: hi everyone, thanks for coming. Today jeska and kalpana will be talking about search flagging About the project and get your input and thoughts about it

Jeska Linden: Thanks Madhavi! Kalpana Linden: did everyone get a chance to read the RFC that was sent around PM Sands: did not see it on this topic flagging Kim Anubis: Yep, saw it Jeska Linden: Last week we emailed a proposal for Search Flagging to several places for initial feedback and we'd also like to get your feedback and thoughts as well. Jeska Linden: PM - I'll get you a notecard with it, just a second :) Jeska Linden: We've gotten some really good questions, thoughts and feedback so far and I have a few questions for all of you. Jeska Linden: I'll let you all read it quickly :)

Ability to Flag Search Listings

Jeska Linden: Let's start out with basic thoughts- what do you think of the idea of a simple way to flag search listings as spam/prohibited or improperly listed? Annie Milestone: very good Kim Anubis: A good idea but subject to gaming and grudges. I'd still vote for it, though. PM Sands: looks good to me Leah Salome: I thnk its a good idea as long as you don't get people abusing it. For exmaple, people trying to ruin their competition by creating alts and flagging negatively etc.. Angelo Biondi: exactly Jeska Linden nods

Addressing Potential Abuse of Flagging

Angelo Biondi: after how many times that the parcel was flagged as Spam/Prohibited an action will be done? Kalpana Linden: yes. alts and delidberate abuse is something we need to address Jeska Linden: Angelo - that hasn't been determined yet, we're looking at various ways to address abuse Annie Milestone: Only problem might be, that some events or so don't match any existing category Jeska Linden: (including limiting the number of times you can report per day/per account, etc) PM Sands: This flagging (report abuse) is useful, and would be great to see it on the post forums and JIRA. Anyhow, looks good for inworld. Kim Anubis: I think the flags should roll off after a while. A negative flag a year ago, for example, may well have no bearing on a current build. Jeska Linden: PM - It would be great to have it elsewhere, i agree - this proposal is only for search listings PM Sands: :) Annie Milestone: good point, Kim Jeska Linden: Kim - that is one of the open questions actually, raised by one of the mailing lists - how long is a flag active Jeska Linden: What do you think is a good amount of time, given how content changes? Kim Anubis: That's a hard question Leah Salome: If the flagging was policed and popel caught abusing the system would get afine, that would be a good deterant. make it a really big fine :) Leah Salome: people* Annie Milestone: half a year maybe Kim Anubis: Maybe there needs to be a survey of SL residents to see how often they change their listings Jeska Linden: Leah - we'd be watching for patterns of abuse, it would be handled using the Community Standards as wtih any other harrassment/abuse/griefing/ Jeska Linden: (mostly curiousity) Jeska Linden: Kim - good idea! I'd like to know that for other reasons too ;) Angelo Biondi: the opposite scenario for abuse of the Spam flag is to have some alt that flag their parcel as showcase

Kim Anubis: I was also wondering about the inability to change a flag. I used to make mistakes when we had a rating system for avatars, and I was really glad I could change my votes. Jeska Linden: Yes, the Showcase flag is to work with our plan to change out popular places for the showcase Angelo Biondi: this is a good idea, the flags can be useful, but we also know that often these features are abused Jeska Linden: The first step is making it easier to nominate things from within the client. Jeska Linden nods Kim Anubis: Also, because things are so changeable around here, we could have a situation where flags from a week ago have nothing to do with a current listing. It would be good to be able to change flags. Jeska Linden: Kim - it's tied to a search listing (parcel listing/classified) - so when you create a new one, it should lose the previous flags. I'll ask the developer if there are other ways to tell when something has changed... Kim Anubis: Oh, that's good Angelo Biondi: i agree Annie Milestone: But if a flag disappeaes after some months or so, the user should also be able to flag that item again then, including changing his opinion then Leah Salome: Would flags be visible somehow to all residents?

Preventing 'Gaming' of the Flagging System

Kim Anubis: Then the "game" will be changing your listing every time it gets some negative flags. Angelo Biondi: there are a lot of ppl that give votes/rates on the fly Kim Anubis: The other game will be rating parties, like the old days, but this time to get into the Showcase. Angelo Biondi: maybe they can just misunderstand the content Kalpana Linden: kim: good point. we will be reviewing all flagged content Jeska Linden: It shouldn't be as gameable, because it's not a direct correlation Jeska Linden: ie: you're nominating a place not guarenteeing it'll be included Kalpana Linden: /kim and repeat offenders will also be flagged Jeska Linden: (re: showcase) Kim Anubis: That's really good. But it's still going to put load on the system because people will try to game it anyway. And I worry about system load around here :) Jeska Linden: You are also limited in the number of times you can rate things both by account type and by time Kim Anubis: Limiting flags just makes it more expensive to bribe people. hehe Annie Milestone: but it's difficult: when parcel owner gets roo many negative flags, then he just changes his parcel (rename or whhatever)? Annie Milestone: THat doens't make sense Kim Anubis: The thing is, any sort of rating is going to mean people will try to game it, so . . . I'm just playing devil's advocate anyway :) Jeska Linden: I think the thing to remember is that you are flagging search listings, not content inworld - there is a difference. Annie Milestone: ok I see Jeska Linden: The goal is to improve both search relevance and prevent spam/abuse of listings Jeska Linden: ie: events that aren't actually events, etc Leah Salome: Maybe if you made it so that only peple who had payment info on file could use the flagging system, it might stop some abuse? Jeska Linden: Yup! That's in there :) Leah Salome: or only premium accounts Kalpana Linden: yes indeed. thats in there Jeska Linden: "Anonymous basic residents or residents whose accounts are less than x days old will not be able to Leah Salome: ah ok :)flag content"

Kim Anubis: Only premiums? Jeska Linden: It should include anyone who has payment info on file Kalpana Linden: not only premiums - only "trusted" accounts - where trust could be various things Kim Anubis: Good -- there are a lot of people who rent land these days instead of going premium :) Jeska Linden: Yup :) It's more about preventing anonymous accounts from abusing/griefing

Kalpana Linden: for reference here are some broad topics we know we need to think about (from eedback we;'ve gotton so far): * Griefing Concerns * PG vs M Concern * Human Review * Help Stop Event Spam * Categories Needed * Abuse Tracker Type Oversight PM Sands: I see. all sounds goods. I can only see gamming occuring on nomination by alts -and I've not thought about it enough to offer a fix. Kim Anubis: I think as long as there's human review it's probably going to go pretty well. Without it, though, some freaky things would happen!

Flagging Camping Regions

Annie Milestone: What about flagging as camping region? or parcel Jeska Linden: Annie - I'm not sure what your question is...Can you explain? Annie Milestone: Well, people might flag a parcel as consisting mostly out of campers. So that would give information of about the richness of the content Jeska Linden: There will be several categories that people can choose to flag a parcel with, but we haven't looked at adding open comments (like tagging). Although that would be cool :) Kalpana Linden: the first step though is to clean house- prevent egregious abuses of search listings Annie Milestone: ok Kalpana Linden: and as we learn from that we will add more flagging/tagging capabilities Jeska Linden: *hopefully* ;) Annie Milestone: I see

Flagging Mature Regions

Jeska Linden: Ok I have a few more questions for everyone, then I'll let you back to your Second Lives :) Jeska Linden: We didn't really talk about the mature portion of the flagging proposal Jeska Linden: Mature = the listing is adult only content Kim Anubis: That's tricky, because the ratings are already vague Jeska Linden: Which is a bit of a change. One of my requirements for this is to make the ratings less vague Kim Anubis: yay :) Jeska Linden: But I'm not sure how specific we can be Leah Salome: and also are skins counted as mature? Pictures of naked skins? Kim Anubis: I would go with M and G instead of PG. Kalpana Linden: Leah: we are struggling with that one. anyone have ideas. note: mature flag will not take down any listing, its just informational and perhaps filtering if needed. Jeska Linden: Currently, any content that is publically visible within search needs to conform to "pg standards." I'm not sure if that would change at the moment Kim Anubis: The LL interpretation of PG is different from that in, for example, the film industry Jeska Linden nods Kim Anubis: the US film industry -- it's different elsewhere Jeska Linden: Which has led to much confusion over the years, agreed. Perhaps we can pair a better definition with the search flagging Kim Anubis: and the definition here is vague. I don't know what's allowed for sure, and I have been around for a while. Kalpana Linden: we also need to understand that SL is really very global. so our standards have to be somewhat applicable globally. Leah Salome: Maybe we could do a survey to see what people consider as pg and mature, with certain things Leah Salome: thinsg that arents as obvious as others PM Sands: hmmm. I dunno, not my forte, I guess I'd look at how search engine companies handle it. Jeska Linden: There are also various laws to follow in various countries, which is where things get a little more complex. But thanks, that was helpful feedback!

Classifieds

Jeska Linden: The last question I have...Is about the classifieds. If a classified ad is flagged and removed, the person who placed it will recieve a pro-rated refund for their ad. They can also place another ad at the same time. Does that seem fair? Confusing? Kim Anubis: It makes sense to me Leah Salome: I think that is fair. But maybe repeat offenders shouldnt get a refund - for exmaple if they do it 10 times Jeska Linden nods Maybe he should get nly half back. That might prevent from just try it Angelo Biondi: prohibited contenct could not get a refund Leah Salome: everyones going to make mistakes at the begining Jeska Linden: Repeat abuse could be treated as such by the governance team Angelo Biondi: but generally it's a good idea PM Sands: sounds very fair

Closing Thoughts

Jeska Linden: Ok, that's all I got. Jeska Linden: Anyone else have questions, thoughts? Leah Salome: I just think if the consiquences were a bit harsher you wouldnt get so many people trying to game the system Jeska Linden: Or if you think of things later, feel free to email me Annie Milestone: I have something else, not exactly today's tpic, but a bit related, and maybe a good topic for a special frum: Annie Milestone: *forum Annie Milestone: What I'd find helpful in search in general, is each listing in search would have a main country. Maybe that could be discussed in another forum

Kalpana Linden: annie: yes. could you send jeska a note with use cases where country would help? Annie Milestone: sure Kalpana Linden: that will be very useful. thanks Annie Milestone: ok

PM Sands: thank you Madhavi, Jeska, Kalpana :) Jeska Linden: Thanks everyone :) Kalpana Linden: thank you all! Kim Anubis: Thank you for asking for our input. This is why I love LL. :) Angelo Biondi: nice to meet you all Angelo Biondi: good bye for now Madhavi Linden: thanks everyone for attending