Maximize Your Flagging Results for Rating Violations

Last edited by on Sun Jan 06, 2008 2:05 pm; edited 2 times in total

Maximize Your Flagging Results for Rating Violations

Do you enjoy taking a few minutes to help clean up the catalog on occasion and want to maximize the impact of your flagging for rating violations? I do! (I suppose years of leading volunteer efforts in child abuse prevention programs made me more aware of certain issues.) The approach below can help you increase the number of potential violations you can find. Luckily for flaggers, most content creators (also called developers) who intentionally violate TOS also want potential buyers to easily find their products, so they leave plenty of clues behind for us!

Here’s how to find more problem items:

1. Make sure you understand the flagging rules for the products that concern you! This is most important!!! The Virtual Goods Policy is here. It is part of the IMVU Terms of Service (also called TOS). IMVU changes it off and on, so be sure to check for updates. Also check out IMVU’s additional direction about right and wrong flagging here. Both of these links have critical information you need to know before flagging!

2. Determine which types of TOS violations concern you the most. [For me, it is Access Pass (AP) and Unfit for IMVU (UFI) items incorrectly rated for the General Audience (GA), which means they are exposed to minors.]

3. Decide which keywords or common descriptions might be associated with the types of items that concern you. See Step 3 in the picture below. [For problem GA clothing, it might be words like triple-X, kinky, etc.] Remember: Many or even most of items found by using those words are probably NOT in violation! This just helps you find potential issues more easily.

Product images and names have been cut off in the image above to protect the innocent ... and the guilty.

4. Decide if you want to “Sort by” the “Hottest” or “Newest” items (or some other grouping), and select that option from the catalog search dropdown box. See Step 4 in the picture.

5. Do a catalog search on the chosen keywords.

6. After the first search results are returned, you can limit your search to the class of items you want to search (such as “General Audience only” or “AP only”) if desired. See Step 6 in the picture. This box normally is in the left hand column but usually doesn’t show up until a first search is completed. (Limiting searches to one class at a time is helpful since the rules for GA and AP are different.)

7. If too many items are returned, you can also narrow your search to certain categories like female clothing, male clothing, furniture, or other choices. See Step 7 in the picture. It’s easier to test clothing with only one gender in a session so you don’t have to change avatars and test skins.

8. Scan the items in the retrieved search results for items that MIGHT be against TOS based on the icon or product title.

9. Check out the items you are concerned about.

a. Look over the product description, product title, icon, and any pictures or videos on the product page. These may make it clearer whether or not a problem really exists.

b. If the item is a clothing item and still looks like it might be in violation, try the item on with a “minimum guidelines skin” on your avatar if you are checking for GA acceptability.

-- These skins and instructions on how to use them are available for FREE for male and female avatars here.

-- If ANY red on the minimum guidelines skin shows, the item should NOT be rated GA. (If a content creator doesn’t appear to be a regular TOS violator, I might let a small amount of red go unflagged. But technically, ANY amount of red showing beneath a GA outfit is flaggable. Use your own judgment.)

-- Please note that there are rules for additional “total coverage” on GA products. Just covering the red is NOT enough. Read the “Minimum Coverage” Section of the Virtual Goods Policy for more information on the meaning of the orange and white colors on the test skin ( here). I generally don’t flag many orange/white issues unless there is a very clear problem (for example, ONLY the red area is covered) since it’s harder to judge what’s actually acceptable in the white/orange areas.

c. Check the back of the outfit.

-- Outfits may be too low in the back or made with underwear that is too small or nonexistent.

-- One content creator left enough clues in their mis-rated product for me to discover that some developers are loading crotchless panties into the GA section. ( Rolling Eyes

How can anyone with a conscience load outfits with crotchless undies or no panties in a catalog section used by 13-year-olds?! Sorry, folks who do that intentionally really disgust me. Anyway … ) If you are testing the item in a regular room using the blue “Try It” button and suspect that problem, just have the avatar sit down or lie down on a furniture item. If you are using the Gold “Try It” feature with a dressing room (where avatars only stand) and suspect that problem, use the “birds eye view” in the avatar window and type the triggerword “BD” (for breakdance) to check the underside of the outfit. Or add Mercuria's [M]inimum Coverage Check spot (available here at low cost!) to any room. If downloaded into IMVU's Dressing Room, it will generally load behind the main platform.

d. Red and orange clothing. Clothing can be confusing to check if items are the same colors as the minimum guidelines red or orange. To verify problems where the outfit color and test skin are similar colors, try a regular skin as well as the test skin. If any of the regular skin fig leaves show where red or orange was before, the clothing item is clearly not GA.

10. Before deciding to flag an item, double-check next to the product icon on the product page whether that item is actually AP or GA! The catalog search criteria can accidentally be reset from GA to “All Items” very easily, so this double-check is IMPORTANT before flagging.

11. Flag items only if they clearly violate TOS!

12. Be sure to include a DESCRIPTION of what the problem is in the flagging report so IMVU can easily spot the problem. (Such as “Red from the minimum guidelines skin shows in the bottom back of the outfit, making this a GA violation;” “This item has strong sexual content because of …, making this a GA violation;” etc.) If your description of the problem isn’t clear and the problem isn’t immediately obvious, there is a greater risk the item may not be removed, and you have wasted your time and IMVU’s in making the report.

Other hints:

13. If you happen to notice a specific developer’s name repeatedly associated with TOS violations, consider doing a search on specifically all of that developer’s items and flag as appropriate. Content creators who repeatedly break one section of TOS often break other TOS rules as well.

14. Check the keywords used on serious violations that you find. Sometimes there are slang words or codes associated certain types of violations that you can use as search criteria to better focus your search results. [Keywords are listed near the bottom of the product page. Please note that at the time of this writing, using AP words as keywords is NOT a TOS violation on GA items and is NOT flaggable! This rule may be changed by IMVU in the future.]

15. If the product doesn’t look right to you, TEST IT despite any words of reassurance on the product page. Reassuring statements and guarantees are often true and made by honest developers, but some TOS violators blatantly lie using these same phrases, apparently to trick people into not flagging. Examples of these statements are:

a. “This product meets the IMVU guidelines for [GA or AP].”

b. “This product has been rated using the minimum guidelines skin for GA.”

c. “Please contact me directly if you have any problems with this product instead of flagging.”

Remember: Use of the phrases above does NOT mean the developer is dishonest. But if you have doubts about the acceptability of the product, don’t let such phrases change your mind about testing it.

Should You Contact the Content Creator Instead of Flagging?

16. I do NOT advise contacting developers about product rating problems. I stopped doing that due to sociopathic and malicious behaviors exhibited by some I politely contacted in private. IMVU keeps the names of flaggers private for similar reasons. However, on occasions where I know the developer’s normal product ethics and believe the problem is an honest mistake, I may contact them privately about product issues.

Some developers claim they can’t check item ratings accurately and therefore aren’t responsible

17. Developers CAN test their own items against the guidelines.

a. Developers can test their products AFTER submitting them to the catalog just like you can by using the free minimum guidelines skin and Mercuria's [M]inimum Coverage Check spot (available here).

b. Developers can also test their items BEFORE submitting them to the catalog (while still in development using the Previewer) by using free development skins provided by IMVU, available here.

c. There’s no excuse for a developer not testing their product. It’s true that there are some vaguer sections of TOS, but this document is aimed at flagging CLEAR problems.

18. IMVU gave all developers 30 days notice before the updated ratings guide went into effect in mid-October 2007. I have no sympathy for developers who still have major product problems, especially those loading new problem products into the catalog on a regular basis.

Remember: Only flag if you have a good knowledge of Virtual Goods Policy for that item! See step 1 for links with those details!

*Edited for clarity based on Nyrissa's input
** Edited to add Mercuria's test spot
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AnakaTarren Joined: 16 Mar 2006 Posts: 2179 Location: USA

Nyrisse,

The wording on #15 has been updated based on your input to help minimize any problem for honest developers. Thanks for your suggestion! Smile

Personally, I'd also like to see an alliance of AP developers proactively monitor and deal with unscrupulous developers through peer pressure or other methods in order to protect ethical AP developers and the community as a whole. This approach has been successfully implemented in many industries where real goods manufacturers and service providers have decided it is preferable to monitor themselves rather than have to submit to outside enforcement. For this to be successful, there is usually some major advantage that the alliance offers (say a stamp of approval or extra advertising) that has value to members and which encourages compliance by outsiders.
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