Jan. 29, 2007 - what a day of hot discussions, with a number of heavy-hitters involved, especially Orthia, N376, jeffryv - all of them attacking lensmaster Margaret and me too for our stand against violation of the TOS by at least one adult lensmaster.
In fact it was me who fueled the whole-day discussion by starting in the Squidoo Lounge a thread that had a title: "Time to celebrate? Mature lenses gone!"
I wrote yesterday that the "Mature" segment (aka "Adult") was gone from Squidoo. I posted that last night at 10:16 PM PST and very quickly there were responses from adult lensmasters telling me that I was wrong and that "Mature" lenses were still present and doing well at Squidoo. One of them even show the users a link to her porno site so that everybody could see. Thank you!
I also wrote that lensmaster Tammy aka Ladylove for the nth time violated the TOS by failing to mark her adult lens "Blow Job" as "Mature" and submitting it instead as belonging to "People" category.
From the morning today (Jan. 29, 2007), the discussion was very hot and intense, but I was too busy to participate in it. I noticed though by looking at today's ranking that the situation didn't change - Ladylove repeated her tricks with even better "success" - her two lenses - were today at:
"How to Give Your Man the Best Blow Job" (LensRank: 85)
"Sex Guide - Adding Spice to Your Relationship" - lensrank of this lens was unknown because is doing again the same trick - 3rd day in the row - she was shifting sidebar (that should be on the right) so much to the left that the category, which was in fact "Mature", was not visible. I saved the PrintScreen pictures of that, but won't show them here as it is a family-friendly place...
Anyway, as I said the discussion in that thread was very intense. I even got insulted by Orthia when she wrote:
"Anyone whining about seeing adult content is failing to take any responsibility for themselves. If you don't like the adult content, turn the Safe Search feature in your account preferences to ON."
For her it was my responsibility to try to avoid seeing adult lens ("Blow Job") in a place where it shouldn't be (People category)!!! Obviously, she didn't criticized Ladylove for showing her lens in the People category - not as an "Adult" lens or for the disappearing act with the "Sex Guide".
Jeffryv was trying to encourage lensmasters who don't like presence of adult lenses to leave Squidoo ("do not use this site") as the Safe Search is not 100% effective. Margaret didn't like that idea; I also don't like it. We all love Squidoo!
Jeff also didn't address the fact that Ladylove clearly violated the TOS, for the nth time, but he wrote what may happen when a naughty lensmaster misleds the community and doesn't marks a "Mature" lens as such - he or she could a) get "reported" by fellow Squidoo members as inapppropriate b) get locked for administrative review.
Finally, jeffryv appealed to the Adult lensmasters - "If your lens contains Adult content, please mark it as such. You can always change it in the righthand sidebar of your Lens Workshop." If only Ladylove listened to him… She didn't - her right sidebar in the "Sex Guide" lens was moved so far to the left that most of the info from it was invisible - especially that part telling that it was a "Mature" lens. I saw that trick being done 3rd day in a row (haven't seen to be done at any other lens).
And her "Blow Job" was again listed in "People" category, having full-blown, official LensRank of 85, higher than "Mastering The Office Prank" (LensRank 86), OMG, the sky must be falling down…
But seriously, it was interesting that Orthia enlightened the public by saying that it was the Citizen Squids' job to deal with the adult lens classified incorrectly:
"If there are adult lenses that are NOT correctly marked, as Jeff pointed out, that's one of the jobs that the Citizen Squids handle. You can help them by reporting lenses that are not marked as adult content."
I don't know where she knows that from, but she must be wrong, because I just wrote that jeffryv - a prominent Citizen Squid - participated in the thread discussion and didn't say anything that he would spank Ladylove for her transgressions - repeated violations of the TOS with her "Blow Job" and "Sex Guide" lenses.
No, I don't think Orthia is right about that… By the way, jeffryv was the only Citizen to take part in that discussion.
There was much more going on to report on and I see it's after midnight (PST) already, but I have to at least write about one unfortunate incident - when N376 was the second person today to violate the Forum Rules and he insulted Margaret and the Amish community she's helping with her Amish lenses. It was really very, very bad and I didn't like that at all…
Margaret, tired by her big battle taking almost all day, let it go rather easily. I expect some consequences, though, from the HQ.
I also just mention that there were some arguments trying to explain the problem (or maybe solution) with the "Adult" issue by blaming it on the technology, various versions of browsers, but that didn't convince me - as that again didn't address the main issue - the problems exist if the rules are not followed!
I'm not a big expert on those AJAX and php coding tricks and most of other computer geek talking so I was falling asleep reading two last posts - N376's and Margaret's, but found her concept of "leakage" very, well, refreshing and funny too…
Because I remembered that the top "Mature" lens today was, Ladies and Gentlemen:
"Used Panties For Sale" - at LensRank #194. No kidding.
By the way, I found a partial solution for those who don't want to see the Mature/Adult category - just clear the cookies and it will disappear from Squidoo Topics - http://www.squidoo.com/browse/topic_list . Detailed instructions are as follows: In your Interenet browser, go to the top of your screen and click on Tools (in Firefox, there will be something similar in IE), then select Options. You'll see there a number of tabs. Select the Cookies tab and click on Clear cookies now button, then click OK. Finally, reload the browser (click a button with such name) and the Mature/Adult category will be gone! You have to Reload to make it work! I'm sorry it's a partial solution only, because the cookies are very naughty and any time I did that, after 15-30 minutes they were bringing back the "hot stuff" again. Really annoying, but still, you may find it worthwhile as it works.
Obviously, as Orthia says, you can - or rather you should, if you consider yourself to be a responsible non-adult lensmaster - turn the Safe Search feature in your account preferences to ON. OK?
Ilona Zuzalek
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The Beatles Songs - My Favorite Kind Of Music
P.S. For those missing my analysis of the current Top 100 by LensRank (as of Jan. 29, 2007), here is the summary - illuminati - 26 lenses, videosense - 7, affiliate contest - 9. The highest new lens in Top 100 - at #61 - "Tribal Belly Dance" by relache. Congrats! By the way, instead of Top 100 we had only Top 99. And whose fault it was? Sexy Sadie made a fool of everyone - see above - "How to Give Your Man the Best Blow Job" (LensRank: 85). But what LensRank? There seem to be two kinds… With and without "Adult" lenses. And what if the lensmaster misleads and uses a wrong category? Then we have a mismatch and maybe spanking...
P.P.S "Ob-la-di-bla-da" - it's what Gil said about the latest algorithm tweak. Which in the geek language means - "Every third sunday we keep the lensrank algorithm on 'random' just to screw everyone up :-)"
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