Sex Bloggers, Explicit Content Warnings, and TOS Violations

I just opened a MySpace page because my erotic writer colleagues told me I needed one. I opened it for advertising purposes, without which I might not get as many readers. The MySpace page has a blog, and I've been writing to that as well. I'm already addicted to MySpace, uploading sexy pictures and friending people. I even friended William Shatner, Jenna Jameson, Madonna, and the electronica artist DJ BT. Okay, so those MySpace pages are run by their handlers. I can dream, can't I?

I haven't even posted for a week and I've already seen a "terms of service" violation.

I found the sexiest, buff dude MySpace comments graphic. I'd like to show it to you. The problem is that MySpace spanked me for violating "terms of service", and instead of that hot, buff guy, you see a square with "terms of service violation" written on it.

The only way I can show you the picture is to tell you to go to this link. The image is the second one down; the one that says "God's Angel".

I don't even know why it's a TOS violation. I checked my e-mail and there aren't any warnings giving me a spanking. Is it because the image says "God"? Is it because the buff guy is naked and holding his jewels in his hands, and you can see pubic hair? One of my MySpace writer friends, Tess, posted a pic of four buff guys in my comments, and that stayed up. So why are four buff guys allowed to stay up, but one buff guy with wings gets the ax?

The odd thing is that I can't post that picture to MySpace friend's comments sections, but I can post it to MySpace blog sections. Why is the picture a violation in one area but not another? I think it may be a copyright violation, as in the artist who created the graphic didn't give permission for it to be forwarded. That makes no sense, though, since I can post the graphic to my MySpace blog, but not to MySpace friends comments. I have no clue why it's a violation.

I haven't had to deal with TOS violations in years. I used to post to AOL, and I was a master at avoiding TOS violations when people who hated my point of view tried to get me banned by abusing TOS. TOS abuse is when you try to ban someone whose opinions you don't like, or if you just flat out don't like that person. What was funny was that when the people on those AOL forums who hated me tried to TOS me because they claimed I was "harassing" them, THEY ended up getting TOS notices. Three notices and you're banned from posting for two weeks, from what I remember. These people didn't know the difference between harassment and opposing points of view. The message boards weren't their personal platform for them to air their views without rebuttal posts from those who don't agree with them. I remember when I ran my own message board on AOL about family law issues. The people who hated me continuously wrote to AOL admin, saying that I was writing hate speech, and they demanded that my board be shut down. They had their own board, and they complained that I was harassing them when I was only presenting a different point of view - one that they didn't like. In retaliation, they tried to get AOL to cancel my account and shut down my message board. They were quite vicious about it, calling me names, saying they wanted to find out where I lived, etc. In reality, they were violating AOL terms of service by flaming and trolling me on their own message board and on mine. What actually happened was that THEY were banned from posting for two weeks, and THEIR board was shut down. Dealing with TOS on AOL was like playing chess. It was a game, and you had to play by the rules in order to win. The problem is that the rules change all the time, and the rules differ everywhere you go. It's like posting in a carnival Fun House.

The logic behind a terms of service violation is never clear. It hasn't been as long as I've been online. And that affects sex bloggers, who have to deal with "explicit content" warnings.

So, why this image violated MySpace's TOS is beyond me. I won't post it anymore, obviously. Tess says she has images worse than that on her page, and they go through just fine. I don't get it. How can I avoid violating TOS when I don't know why I violated it in the first place?

My experiences with TOS violations (or the lack thereof, for me at any rate), made me think about Blogger boinking sex bloggers with "explicit content" advisory warnings. Who does that to sex bloggers? I don't think the sex blogger ever learns who went all Church Lady on their blogs. I've seen a couple of sex blogs with those "explicit content - choose the red pill or the blue pill" kinds of pages that come up before you get to their blog. How many bloggers have had to deal with content complaints in the past? I haven't had to deal with that at Typepad, where my blog is located. I was surprised by the MySpace image that was deemed a Terms of Service violation. I have no clue why it got spanked.

What are your experiences? Have any sex bloggers seen attacks on sex blogs based on supposed TOS violations?

The Perils of Advertising

About six months ago we updated our PCs to the latest protection suite from one of the well-known vendors. The manufacturer of the software is irrelevant, both of the top two providers of such “Total Protection” software have similar facilities built in. IE7 has a phishing filter and pop-up blocker, and I’m sure that there are various built-in functions and plugins from other browser vendors and anti-virus firms/projects.

Actually there’s a point if anyone wants to write an informed article on PC security/AV protection software, or can point at some unbiased sources of information on the subject, that would be most welcome. As adult bloggers we all visit many sites with less than savoury content, pop-ups and what have you, so being protected is vital.

One of the features of our new protection software is a site advisor that indicates if a site is a known spammer, links to dubious sites, contains content that tries to breach browser security etc. It is flagging up more and more sites, blogs and listings … but not because the sites themselves are fundamentally dangerous, or the owners up to no good. The problem is advertising.

When you sign up for banner ads either directly from a company or from an ad broker you don’t have a huge amount of control over what you display. You can choose not to take adult adverts, but as an adult blogger you’re hardly likely to exclude that are you? Indeed you may choose only to take adult ads as they are in keeping with the theme of your site.

You can’t really blame (most) of the ad brokers either. They have to take ads based on what their advertisers are willing to provide. Dependent on where the actual content is served from they may not be able to screen the ad content for problems and/or follow every click-through link and check for rogue content.

However you have to be aware that if one of the monitoring firms crawls your site and finds you display an ad with perhaps a dodgy pop-up, or link to a site that tries to drop a Trojan on your reader’s site, you will be marked as a “problem” site. If we visit a site that’s carried iffy content a balloon pops up to warn us. On searches sites are red-flagged, so we simply don’t visit them, and on previously friendly sites, even if they aren’t flagged before we enter them the banner ads are starting to cause Trojan warnings to pop up.

So, think very carefully before you take advertising on your site.

Transferring Content to a New Host

OK so I'm yet again thinking about moving from Blogger. Can anyone with the technical know-how please help me understand how I can transfer my existing content on blogger to another host? How easy is it? Is there a magic button ;)? Is there any advantage in starting afresh? Advice, comments, speculation and stories all equally appreciated! Thanks, Imelda x

Sex In The Virtual World - Computer Games

Everyone probably already knows about the nude patches for The Sims. You can also pull the bed out from under your Sims with a cheat code if you can convince your horny Sims to get some nooky in bed. I remember reading of some MMORPGs having problems with groups being oriented towards sex play.

Now, someone playing the online game Second Life has filed suit against another player - for copying a sex bed, which violates copyright. According to an article about the case, "Kevin Alderman operates Eros LLC, a maker of 'adult' items such as the SexGen bed, a piece of virtual furniture that allows Second Life users to simulate more than 150 sex acts. The bed retails for 12,000 Linden dollars ($46). The 'John Doe' lawsuit accuses Volkov Catteneo of unlawfully copying the SexGen bed and selling it on for approximately 4,000 Linden dollars. The beds are sold as 'no-copy' objects, which means that avatars can use them but should not be able to copy them. Alderman has insisted that he does not know how a version of the SexGen bed which can be copied became available."

I have heard of Second Life, but I had no interest in playing it. I prefer to play God when I play with my Sims. I set them on fire. Electrocute them. Drown them. Get them into love triangles. Have them live with people they hate. All in all, good, honest fun.

The only reason the Second Life/SexGen bed caught my attention is because your avatar can engage in 150 different sex acts. Wow. 150? That beats the Kama Sutra. I looked at the Second Life site to get a better grip on what kinds of sex acts can be done on this bed. I found one bed that has 14 cuddle and 13 sex animations - whatever that means.

I found more.

One bed going for L$999 (I think that's virtual money) has 62 cuddle and sex animations, including doggy, 69, blowjob, missionary, taste, ride, and cowgirl.

Another bed included various positions for sex, bondage, and cuddling.

I'm going to take a second look at this game, if you can really do all that stuff. Does anyone who is reading play Second Life? If you do, can you give more information about how the SexGen bed works, and what else is fun about the game? Is it a live game, where you get to create an avatar? I know that I'd have to spend my own money if I play Second Life. I read another article about a man who "married" a woman who played the game with him, and his real-life wife is not happy about it. I found the real wife posting on an Internet forum, and that marriage is in serious trouble because her husband spends too much time with his virtual "wife" and ignores his real wife. Everyone hates on online games, don't they?

SBC Rules V3

I’ve re-written the rules for SBC, they are essentially the same as before, just freshened up a little. I’ve dropped the term “member” because I believe that all sex/adult bloggers who blog (rather than those who create blogs for purely commercial gain) are all part of this site.

Sex Blogger Community Rules

Definitions

SBC: The Sex Blogger Community Site, its content, its contributors (those who post or simply comment)

Resource: A webpage or website which provides a service to Sex Bloggers; This can be to help promote their webpage, improve their blog in some way or assist in problem solving.

1) The Purpose of SBC

To provide a forum for the advancement of adult blogging across all blog platforms.

2) Administration

Administration will be provided by a nominated moderator/primary administrator and at least one other person. The role of the primary administrator will be the day to day maintenance of the blog, whereas the secondary administrator(s) will to provide backup in cases where the primary admin is temporarily unable to discharge their duties.

Currently (23 September 2007) The Primary administrator is Alex (alex@alexsuze.com) The, secondary administrator is Mr Genly (MisterGently@gmail.com).

3) Non-Commercial Status

SBC is a non-profit entity.

SBC will not host advertisements unless it becomes necessary to host on a service that requires payment. In such an event a treasurer will be appointed and charged with the handling of advertisement fees, payments to third parties and accounting/reporting on these transactions.

4) Suitability of Resources

SBC will not promote resources that carry a high ratio of advertising to content. The Moderators decision on this will be final, but all submissions will be judged on both their merits and their benefits to bloggers. Where appropriate discussion about inclusion of such sites will be held on the SBC site.

5) Linking

A member of SBC may not post a link to their own blog, that of another blogger or to a non blog site unless the link points to information relevant and useful to bloggers and consistent with the aims of the community.

Links back to SBC are welcomed, using the link code on the sidebar of the blog.

6) Contributions

Any blogger may contribute to or comment on SBC. Unless comment spam makes it impossible, comments will be open to all for the foreseeable future.
If you wish to contribute a post contact the primary administrator (See Section 2)

7) Behavioural Standards

SBC is a place for civilised discussion and informed opinion. Anyone posting or commenting on the posts on the SBC site should exercise restraint and good manners. Inflammatory, derogatory or abusive behaviour will not be tolerated and may result in the perpetrator being prohibited from contributing to SBC in any way in the future.

8) Contributors

As stated previously, anyone can contribute to SBC, but only recent contributors, those who have provided posts within the last two months will appear on the sidebar. After this time they will be removed as contributors to the blog. However should they wish to contribute a post they should contact the primary administrator (see Section 2) and request to be invited to become a member of the blog again.

Blogger Play and Private Images

Blogger Buzz says:

"Blogger Play will show you a never-ending stream of images that were just uploaded to public Blogger blogs. You can click the image to be taken directly to the blog post it was uploaded to, or click “show info” to see an overlay with the post title, a snippet of the body, and some profile information about the blogger who uploaded it. We also wrote a Blogger Play FAQ with more information.

A caveat: we use many techniques, including Google’s SafeSearch technology, to keep the images clean. Nevertheless, on rare occasions an image that you may find vulgar or obscene will slip through our algorithmic filters. Google does not pre-screen the images that appear in Blogger Play, nor is it responsible for their content. To report a terms of service violation, you may fill out this contact form."


This is actually a pretty cool stream of images. You can click "show info" and see which blog it comes from as well. For the sex blogger, it raises some interesting questions though. "SafeSearch" doesn't address privacy concerns, or the borderline images. Do images that are uploaded to private blogs go through this image stream as well? (I'm going to try to run a test with a friend soon, but haven't had the chance yet.)

As a reminder, Blogger already consolidates all pictures loaded into Picassa albums. If you make a mistake a load an HNT with your face, then you might want to remember to go to the album to delete it there as well.

In the meantime, it's another case of use caution with blogger.

Blogger Content Warning

It appears that Blogger have started to take notice of readers “Flagging” blogs and placing warning/disclaimer messages on some blogs to allow readers to choose whether to read or exit a particular blog.

The warning above was displayed when I followed a link from a listing site while mooching around. What was behind the warning was not so much offensive, just a site peddling the same old trashy content ripped off from other blogs that you’ll find all over Blogger. So Blogger aren’t tackling what I would consider to be Splogs, but are prepared to slap a warning on your site.

Has anyone in the real adult blog world (as opposed to the *yawn* would-be commercial side of blogging) had their blog given the disclaimer page?

NB: the message header is in German because I think Blooger is a bit screwy today and is displaying part of its text in German and some in English. Das ist nicht güt. :P

Blogstormz- The Secret Brain...

There have been a few discussions lately about Blogstormz turning into an ad site. It reminded me of the Artful Dodger. The blogger that started Blogstormz. He stopped blogging some time ago. I unexpectedly found a link to his site today and followed it. He had deliberately left the blog up with the purpose of it NOT becoming hijacked and becoming an ad site. I know that deleted blogs become spam/ads almost immediately.

It didn't work.

His template is still up. It initially loaded with the original post. It still has the comments that were relevant, but the post has been replaced with ads. What's up with that? Does anyone have any ideas how to protect a site or a blog if the blogger wants to leave or go on an extended time period without posting. Any ideas about how long a blog can go without new posts before it may get hijacked? Any solutions besides "Get off blogger..."

The Artful Dodger's [Edit: link removed as the site may link to pages designed to compromise PC security] last dated post was November 2006. I don't know when it became ads.

Contributors

The question has been asked, “Why have I been removed from the sidebar/list of contributors?”

The answer is that I feel that the sidebar should reflect those who have recently contributed to this blog. Those removed had not contributed posts for at least two months and in some cases had never contributed a post.

Anyone can comment on this blog, and if they wish to post they simply have to drop me an email for a fresh invitation.

I outlined this change in my post here.

Google Analytics

I don't know how many of you use site which track how many visitors you've had, but some also provide more in depth information.

The Two site I previously used were

http://extremetracking.com Which I've used for a year and a half.

http://www.mybloglog.com/ which gave me more information on where my visitors were coming from and going to.

I recently came across Google Analytics which gives similar information to mybloglog.

https://www.google.com/analytics/home/

Obviously people may have some reservations with giving Google even more of their information, but it does provide excellent information.

State Of The Community

I hope everyone is returning invigorated from their respective summer breaks. The Sex blog world seems to have become a little stagnant of late with yet more blogs disappearing or grinding to a halt and contributions to SBC being a thin on the ground too.
Nil Desperandum.

You may have noticed that Blogstormz has disappeared from the sidebar of this blog. It’s been turned into an advertising/faux search site. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find sites on which to promote your blog. Most of the directories are flooded with commercial sites or simply don’t provide any traffic.

I don’t know about you guys but I’m getting fed up of stumbling across sites pretending to be blogs which are actually just posts listing links to porn sites. So if any of you have any new ideas … :)