+4
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Lack of transparency about rules.

As I'm sure many of you are aware, many users from Reddit are now shuffling around to find a better website. This is primarily caused by a lack of transparency coupled with inconsistency on the part of Reddit; at least it is for me.

I am trying numerous sites so that I can recommend them. However, I cannot recommend Snapzu when there is a significant lack of coherence and transparency in what would be considered rule-breaking.

First off, there seems to be no explicit rules laid out. The "Etiquette on posting & commenting" section in the prologue implicitly talks about each point as if they were rules. If we assume they are rules, then some of them are worrying/hypocritical on part of Snapzu.

"7. Don't troll. If you troll, you will have a bad time."

The 'rule' above me is ridiculous, and shows a willing precedent for subjectivity on the topic of rule-breaking. How does one even define 'trolling'? I have seen many occasions where someone with a differing opinion to the crowd is labelled a 'troll'. (Some) people are weary about incoherency and inconsistency in rule enforcing, as it allows for the admins to manifest their personal biases within the site.

"8. Don't post racism or hate speech."

Again, a distinct lack of definition under what constitutes either of those things. Are anti-immigration policies racist? Would any demeaning vernacular addressed to a crowd be considered hate speech? Both words 'racist' and 'hate speech' have lost most of their meaning over the last 10 years, and can be considered many things.

Lastly, hypocrisy. I received this excerpt in an email from Snapzu- "Due to recent events at reddit regarding censorship, we are processing new invite requests more frequently to meet with unexpected demand."

Snapzu, don't imply that you are a proponent of non-censorship. If you want to heavily moderate boards and topics, that's obviously fine; just don't purport to be anything but. Either way, I would appreciate clarification on this two rules.

9 years ago by auxio with 5 comments

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  • drunkenninja (edited 9 years ago)
    +5

    Hi Auxio, I can appreciate a clear expectation of the rules and while you mention trolling, racism and hate speech is important to fully understand, we have further explained exactly what we don't wish to see in the TOS agreement, here is an expert that applies to your question:

    User content:

    All content you post may be able to be viewed by other users of Snapzu, including any third parties, and should be considered publicly available for anyone to see. Snapzu is a content discovery service which supports and promotes the sharing, use and re-use of content being posted. You own your content, and you retain your rights to all content you make available, however, by making content public, you grant Snapzu a non-exclusive, worldwide royalty-free license to use, copy, display, process, modify, publish, broadcast, transmit, exhibit such content in any and all media, and to distribute it by all distribution methods. When you delete your user content, it will be removed from Snapzu, however, you understand that any removed user content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time.

    By using Snapzu, you agree not to make available content that is:

    Threatening - Don't threaten people, you wouldn't threaten someone at your birthday party. Don't PM threats and don't post any type of threats in snaps / text posts or comments.

    Harmful - Whatever you wouldn't do to yourself because your brain instinctively tells you "its bad", don't do to other people. Unless you're a psychopath, then, just, use the code that your father taught you on how not to hurt others.

    Unlawful - Illegal stuff gets everyone in trouble, so lets not do illegal stuff. Don't post illegal downloads, music, pictures or anything else that would otherwise land you in jail if engaged in on another medium (like a bazaar).

    Abusive - Don't partake in abusive behaviour either by yourself or in a group. No witch hunts, no bullying, no posting of personal inf...

    ... Read Full
    • auxio (edited 9 years ago)
      +3

      Thanks for your response. I'm not sure the quoted part of the TOS really clarifies much however, since it is still very much up to interpretation: namely the sections Harmful, Abusive and Harassment. When you use words like 'obvious', it indicates that there is still a lot left being unsaid.

      In fact, I'm probably more confused now. Especially with: "Whatever you wouldn't do to yourself because your brain instinctively tells you "its bad", don't do to other people. Unless you're a psychopath, then, just, use the code that your father taught you on how not to hurt others." These sections seem to be guide as to not break rules, rather than just telling us the rules directly.

      • drunkenninja
        +8

        Auxio, I appreciate your push for total clarity, but to be absolutely honest with you it is a a set of guidelines. We are making this up as we go along, and most importantly we are learning from the experiences and feedback of the community as a whole. I wouldn't imagine doing it differently, especially when it comes to forcibly setting hundreds of rules in an attempt to plug up all the loop holes that come with such a concept. Nope, we are doing our best to give the people here a good idea of what not to do, and at this point I think it's more than enough. Having said that, we don't have the experience, the time nor the will to create a 30 page document specifying in lawyer speak what is and is not allowed, it's just not possible. However, if you do have a detailed rule document like that, and are willing to share it, I would be more than happy to read through it and see if maybe we can do something differently. We are always open to try new things!

        • auxio
          +1

          And that's absolutely fine. It's your website, and you can do anything you want with it. I like the format and features, just it's the rules are a bit ambiguous for me to put any significant contributions towards this site. I'll wait a while, and see how things turn out in a few months.