Adults Only
Aug 18 '00 (Updated Nov 16 '00)
Dear Epinions,
I'm a pervert.
When I'm around my peers, I have a tendency to use vulgar language. I use the A-word, the B-word, the C-word, the D-word, etc. Please understand: I'm not a bad person. I don't even ride a motorcycle or wear leather and, as my Norelco review can attest, I'm usually clean-shaven. But heck, there are some situations where family-unsafe words are simply the most appropriate, effective, and--darn it--proper words to use. Even though epinions tells me, "Do not use offensive language or content," sometimes I really think I should.
Indulge me in some examples:
- I wrote a review of one of George Carlin's comedy routines. Carlin is best known for disturbing shoot at the Supreme Court with his "7 Words You Can't Say on Television" routine. How am I supposed to write a thorough epinion about this routine without using any of the seven words in question?
- I wrote a review of Jesus' Son, a book by Denis Johnson, which has a guy named F---head as its protagonist. To avoid using "offensive language," I resorted to the use of an apostrophe and some innuendo, but I felt like a *$%\+#@} nerd having to camouflage myself like that. (A dumb nerd, I mean. I'm down with the geek movement.)
- I wrote an epinion about a 17+ videogame called "Kingpin," where the main attraction was the ability to dismember and torture enemy polygons. I soon received a message asking me not to write about such gratuitous violence. How can I do that without reviewing "SnuggleBunny 3" instead?
- A lady on epinions was reviewing a "back massager." In her review she, uh, described its secondary use and explained how well the massager worked in that, err, situation. In most communities, that review would be considered wildly offensive, but wasn't it a valid review as well?
Clearly, Epinions is a resource site intended for people of all ages. It even says so in the "Help" pages. So here's what I propose: Let us write epinions using harsh language and sexual content, when appropriate, and label them as such. There is no need to worry about this turning Epinions into a cesspool, since even in the Adult area, low-quality reviews are subject to poor ratings. In addition, Epinions could encourage users not to write Adult articles by offering higher royalties for "family safe" opinions, under the logic that "clean" epinions are easier to off-source--and thus more valuable--than potentially objectionable ones. The idea is not to encourage offensive content, but to provide a safety valve to handle its inevitable growth. Simply put, more options for authors and parents results in a better website for everyone.
Epinions already has the filtering technology to hide grown-up material from non-members and children... all it would have to do is adapt the filter it currently uses to hide "Not Recommendeds" from non-members.
Once again: Let us voluntarily classify our epinions as Adults Only.
Not only will this allow me to use the S-word when quoting memorable movie dialogue without worrying about disrespecting a kid who stumbled to the Pulp Fiction category on his way to the Pokemon reviews, it will also substantially increase membership.
Who wouldn't join epinions just out of curiosity to know what those "Adults Only" epinions say?
Sincerely yours,
ruff,
whose bark is as
bad as his bite.
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Epinions.com ID:
ruff
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Reviews written: 69
Trusted by: 46 members
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