[sldev] Your Feedback Wanted on Search Flagging !

[Felix Duesenburg]

I'm afraid this is like shouting against a tidal wave, and maybe off
topic on a dev list. But since feedback is asked I have to seize the
opportunity and say my opinion anyway. While appreciating LL's efforts
to listen to the user community, it's that community that has me worried
much more in this context. I am truly appalled by this correctness
craze. People seem to be more scared of a breast popping on their screen
than of nuclear bombs or legal systems going haywire. Maybe it has to do
with where one comes from... but whenever I see such a thing being
considered, I get a flashback of the so-called German Democratic
Republic, where half the population made sure that the other half toed
the line. To cut a long rant short, I am against any flagging, rating or
other system that facilitates and encourages public denounciation of
perceived aberrations. The only ones who should get a say in this matter
are the immediate neighbours of a parcel, or those living in the same
region or within visible render distance. Whether it's about the
PG/Mature distinction or any individual local standard, the general
public should not get to enforce a regional rule. But there seem to be
so many people actually wanting this that we are led to believe applying
the rule of democracy is the only right thing to do. Then I'm again
reminded that democracy and liberty are two completely different things
- even "good" democracies have the potential to turn hostile against
minority opinions and forms of expression. If I don't like a place I
have the liberty to go elsewhere, only their neighbours can't so easily,
that's why they alone may object. Generally, the liberty of the creator
weighs higher than the casual visitor's individual taste or decency
threshold. But that seems to be just my lone opinion these days. Can't
anyone see that we're going back to the middle ages when we didn't know
to distinguish moral and criminal code...?

Felix


Jeska Dzwigalski wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> You've been asking us to do better with inappropriate content and
> content classification and we've been listening. In an effort to make
> our abuse reporting system easier to access and more effective, we are
> planning to introduce a flagging system for our search results - and
> we'd love to get your feedback.
> 
> ...