Automatically unlisted items - what's going on?

[Pamela Galli]

All of my pre-mesh kitchens were delisted. I cant see anything BAD:

Prepare and cook beautiful meals while you entertain guests!

While the kitchen is great fun by itself, it is designed to be integrated with the Dinner Party II dining sets, where your guests can sit down to the meals you prepare in the kitchen. Serve appetizers at the kitchen bar so you can converse and prepare at the same time.

The main kitchen parts are copy-mod, so make all the changes you like and take copies, plus always have the original copy to rez.

The kitchen has three areas that rez food through a menu when you touch them:

1) The food preparation islands (two versions), which includes chopping and stirring animations, where you can prepare full meals which include:

* fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans 
* enchiladas, guacamole, salsa 
* salad 
* sauce for lasagna 
* assembling the lasagna, 
* chocolate chip cookies 

When you are not cooking, a bowl of fruit or a brass pitcher with gerbera daisies.

****************

2) The oven and range, which includes grilling and stirring animations, where you can cook:

* lasagna sauce 
* lasagna 
* shrimp scampi with rice 
* fried chicken and mashed potatoes 
* enchiladas 
* bacon and eggs, 
* cinnamon rolls 
* cookies and cocoa 
* baked potatos, 
* dinner rolls 
* french bread 
* cheesecake 
* tea kettle for the range 
* and you can grill steaks

To rez these, touch the FRONT of the oven.

Touch a burner to turn the gas flame on or off, with sound.

****************

3) The bar (attached to the kitchen), where your guests can:

* munch on cheese and crackers while they sip wine 
* snack on a tray of veggies and fruit 
* have chips and salsa while they drink Margaritas, 
* have pita and hummos 
* have a lovely ivory and gold cup of steaming cafe au lait with cinnamon rolls, 
* use a beautiful rose-pattern teapot that gives a steaming cup of tea along with a basket of muffins to serve 
* sip cocoa and eat cookies you have made 

When you are not cooking, a bowl of fruit or a brass pitcher with gerbera daisies. 

Just touch the bar countertop to rez these.

Yes, the water turns on and off when you touch it. It is an invisible prim so look for the hand before you click.

******************

TO USE ANIMATIONS:

You can get the knife, spoon, or spatula two ways -- you can wear them from inventory, or you can touch the utensil or knife holder to rez them, then simply click on them and choose WEAR from the pie menu.

To choose an animation, right-click the oven or island front and choose SIT, then choose which animation you want to use -- STIR (wooden spoon), CHOP (knife), or COOK (spatula).

Extra cooking and preparation utensils are included for you to lend guests.

**************

The kitchen comes with these:

* both black and steel refrigerator and oven

* Two different styles of copyable matching stools w M & F animation and texture change seat.

* Dish drainer that rezzes steaming sink water - touch plate to get plate and sponge to wash with, then click SIT on dishwater to begin washing. (See enclosed picture to see how to position it - you may need to re-rez water and adjust drainer position several times.)

* Sit on right sink faucet handle to wash hands.

* Hanging pot and pan rack that rezzes 4 or 8 pans from a menu.

* Cappucino / Espresso Maker (rezzes cups that give cappucino, espresso, cafe au lait)

* Toaster (rezzes toast, bagels, waffles)

* Under-cabinet lights (adjust glow level of light beam in texture tab)

* Hanging mini-lights for above island and/or sink

* 2 Wine racks with wine bottles -- one low prim.

* Optional copy- mod walls

* Hanging lamps

* A coffee maker that gives a steaming mug of coffee

* Liquid soap dispenser -- Sit to wash hands

* 6 potted herbs

* A set of four tintable cannisters

* A set pf four pewter cannisters

* A set of three pasta-filled glass cannisters

* Rolling pin

* Cutting board

* Hanging kitchen utensil rack

* Three wicker baskets

* Cookbook

* Hanging dried herbs

* A set of transfer utensils to lend guests so they can help cook

The kitchen by itself is around 70 prims, depending on the kitchen, not counting the items that rez or the extras listed.

PLEASE NOTE: NOT ALL PICTURES REFLECT THE MOST RECENT UPDATES.

*****************

MARKETPLACE DELIVERIES ARE UNRELIABLE; PLEASE READ MY STORE POLICIES FOR FAILED DELIVERY INFO.  IT IS ALWAYS SAFER TO BUY INWORLD!

 

 

[Whirly Fizzle]

49 minutes ago, Pamela Galli said:

All of my pre-mesh kitchens were delisted. I cant see anything BAD:

Prepare and cook beautiful meals while you entertain guests!

While the kitchen is great fun by itself, it is designed to be integrated with the Dinner Party II dining sets, where your guests can sit down to the meals you prepare in the kitchen. Serve appetizers at the kitchen bar so you can converse and prepare at the same time.

The main kitchen parts are copy-mod, so make all the changes you like and take copies, plus always have the original copy to rez.

The kitchen has three areas that rez food through a menu when you touch them:

1) The food preparation islands (two versions), which includes chopping and stirring animations, where you can prepare full meals which include:

* fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans 
* enchiladas, guacamole, salsa 
* salad 
* sauce for lasagna 
* assembling the lasagna, 
* chocolate chip cookies 

When you are not cooking, a bowl of fruit or a brass pitcher with gerbera daisies.

****************

2) The oven and range, which includes grilling and stirring animations, where you can cook:

* lasagna sauce 
* lasagna 
* shrimp scampi with rice 
* fried chicken and mashed potatoes 
* enchiladas 
* bacon and eggs, 
* cinnamon rolls 
* cookies and cocoa 
* baked potatos, 
* dinner rolls 
* french bread 
* cheesecake 
* tea kettle for the range 
* and you can grill steaks

To rez these, touch the FRONT of the oven.

Touch a burner to turn the gas flame on or off, with sound.

****************

3) The bar (attached to the kitchen), where your guests can:

* munch on cheese and crackers while they sip wine 
* snack on a tray of veggies and fruit 
* have chips and salsa while they drink Margaritas, 
* have pita and hummos 
* have a lovely ivory and gold cup of steaming cafe au lait with cinnamon rolls, 
* use a beautiful rose-pattern teapot that gives a steaming cup of tea along with a basket of muffins to serve 
* sip cocoa and eat cookies you have made 

When you are not cooking, a bowl of fruit or a brass pitcher with gerbera daisies. 

Just touch the bar countertop to rez these.

Yes, the water turns on and off when you touch it. It is an invisible prim so look for the hand before you click.

******************

TO USE ANIMATIONS:

You can get the knife, spoon, or spatula two ways -- you can wear them from inventory, or you can touch the utensil or knife holder to rez them, then simply click on them and choose WEAR from the pie menu.

To choose an animation, right-click the oven or island front and choose SIT, then choose which animation you want to use -- STIR (wooden spoon), CHOP (knife), or COOK (spatula).

Extra cooking and preparation utensils are included for you to lend guests.

**************

The kitchen comes with these:

* both black and steel refrigerator and oven

* Two different styles of copyable matching stools w M & F animation and texture change seat.

* Dish drainer that rezzes steaming sink water - touch plate to get plate and sponge to wash with, then click SIT on dishwater to begin washing. (See enclosed picture to see how to position it - you may need to re-rez water and adjust drainer position several times.)

* Sit on right sink faucet handle to wash hands.

* Hanging pot and pan rack that rezzes 4 or 8 pans from a menu.

* Cappucino / Espresso Maker (rezzes cups that give cappucino, espresso, cafe au lait)

* Toaster (rezzes toast, bagels, waffles)

* Under-cabinet lights (adjust glow level of light beam in texture tab)

* Hanging mini-lights for above island and/or sink

* 2 Wine racks with wine bottles -- one low prim.

* Optional copy- mod walls

* Hanging lamps

* A coffee maker that gives a steaming mug of coffee

* Liquid soap dispenser -- Sit to wash hands

* 6 potted herbs

* A set of four tintable cannisters

* A set pf four pewter cannisters

* A set of three pasta-filled glass cannisters

* Rolling pin

* Cutting board

* Hanging kitchen utensil rack

* Three wicker baskets

* Cookbook

* Hanging dried herbs

* A set of transfer utensils to lend guests so they can help cook

The kitchen by itself is around 70 prims, depending on the kitchen, not counting the items that rez or the extras listed.

PLEASE NOTE: NOT ALL PICTURES REFLECT THE MOST RECENT UPDATES.

*****************

MARKETPLACE DELIVERIES ARE UNRELIABLE; PLEASE READ MY STORE POLICIES FOR FAILED DELIVERY INFO.  IT IS ALWAYS SAFER TO BUY INWORLD!

 

 

...and converse is the dirty word...   🙄

[Pamela Galli]

5 minutes ago, Whirly Fizzle said:

...and converse is the dirty word...   🙄

Seriously? 😤☹️😠😳

How on earth did you figure that out?

(And once again Whirly saves my bacon.)

[Whirly Fizzle]

42 minutes ago, Pamela Galli said:

How on earth did you figure that out?

Process of elimination using your text in a MP listing.

[Tari Landar]

And people said I was being unreasonable and making too big of a deal in suggesting that LL get their head out their butts on these MP issues, stop giving stupid excuses, and fix what they've broken WITHOUT requiring merchants to do it themselves. (merchants didn't break *****, LL did)

This is why "oops my bad" is unacceptable to anyone that's dealt with this years-long issue, and why merchants on MP need to be taken more seriously. It's an ongoing issue, not a one time deal, it happens ALL the damn time and LL does nothing to warn merchants, or fix the problem, they just make it worse. What happened to ""making those tools RIGHT NOW "?

Maybe the wrong tool is in the wrong position. 

 

[Pamela Galli]

38 minutes ago, Tari Landar said:

And people said I was being unreasonable and making too big of a deal in suggesting that LL get their head out their butts on these MP issues, stop giving stupid excuses, and fix what they've broken WITHOUT requiring merchants to do it themselves. (merchants didn't break *****, LL did)

This is why "oops my bad" is unacceptable to anyone that's dealt with this years-long issue, and why merchants on MP need to be taken more seriously. It's an ongoing issue, not a one time deal, it happens ALL the damn time and LL does nothing to warn merchants, or fix the problem, they just make it worse. What happened to ""making those tools RIGHT NOW "?

Maybe the wrong tool is in the wrong position. 

 

Amen. We have been more than patient. This is not the worst thing LL has done to waste merchants' time, but it keeps happening and FOR NO REASON. If LL does not want me to mention that one can converse in my kitchens, TELL ME. If there is a good reason not to, TELL ME THAT.

[LittleMe Jewell]

They have intentionally gone in and added some copyrighted company names.  Converse is a RL shoe company and someone (maybe more than one) was selling some shoes where they used Converse in the title and/or description and/or keywords, intentionally trying to gain from the association with a RL shoe.

Unfortunately, when dealing with words, it is pretty hard to code something that analyzes the entire usage of said word to determine if it is being used in a way that violates copyrights.

It sucks, but I don't think they are going to roll it back.  Mostly because the MP listings that truly are violating copyright cost LL time when said companies come to them demanding the listings be removed.  Easier for them to let software do it, even if they get lots of false positives.

 

Regardless of their policy in the past though, at the very least, they could release a list of the copyright words they have added.  Especially if said words can also be part of normal descriptions.

 

As a side note, if you truly cannot figure out what is causing the problem, a Linden (in this thread or a similar one), did suggest opening a ticket so that LL could confirm that they didn't mess something up - because apparently the initial de-listing process was a bit over-zealous.

Edited October 17, 2019 by LittleMe Jewell

[Pamela Galli]

7 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Regardless of their policy in the past though, at the very least, they could release a list of the copyright words they have added.  Especially if said words can also be part of normal description

Exactly. Put whatever words they want on the list, and we will avoid using them. Is this about LL keeping them secret so they can play some kind of gotcha with merchants? If there is an alternative reason, LL, please share.

[m0ld]

4 hours ago, Whirly Fizzle said:

...and converse is the dirty word...   🙄

....Oh. Right. The shoe brand. I feel like LL should have avoided banning brand names that happen to be every day words...

[Tari Landar]

5 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

They have intentionally gone in and added some copyrighted company names.  Converse is a RL shoe company and someone (maybe more than one) was selling some shoes where they used Converse in the title and/or description and/or keywords, intentionally trying to gain from the association with a RL shoe.

Unfortunately, when dealing with words, it is pretty hard to code something that analyzes the entire usage of said word to determine if it is being used in a way that violates copyrights.

It sucks, but I don't think they are going to roll it back.  Mostly because the MP listings that truly are violating copyright cost LL time when said companies come to them demanding the listings be removed.  Easier for them to let software do it, even if they get lots of false positives.

 

Regardless of their policy in the past though, at the very least, they could release a list of the copyright words they have added.  Especially if said words can also be part of normal descriptions.

 

As a side note, if you truly cannot figure out what is causing the problem, a Linden (in this thread or a similar one), did suggest opening a ticket so that LL could confirm that they didn't mess something up - because apparently the initial de-listing process was a bit over-zealous.

There is a way to avoid it.

For the words that are both a copyrighted name, and also an actual word (ie, a verb in this case), don't bloody well add the copyrighted word in all forms to the coding, but rather, if necessary, as it is in its copyrighted form (converse is not a copyrighted word, Converse as it relates to shoes, however, is treated as such-although even the name can't be copyrighted -context is key and yes context can be coded in). If that can't be coded in by whatever code monkeys LL is using, then I suppose they'll have to go back to the old "let LL sort it when people report it" method instead of relying on some arbitrary list of no-no words they won't give us but expect us to know. That's on LL to know which form merchants mean, not the merchant themselves-we can't know context if LL doesn't give a context. Although in this case, it is VERY clear. This is what happens when you make stupid lists without any forethought because you have someone in the position to implement and/or write said list who has no forethought.  (someone is going to find that to be an attack, but I see it as an assessment of both past and current events, the actual individual, or individuals, matters not, the actions, do). I don't think most people realize how long this has been an issue, that it keeps happening over and over every single time the list is changed, the problems it has caused, or how many times we have seen LL say "oops my bad".  There are words on these damn lists that are NOT copyrighted, so that's a really piss poor excuse.-but it's the only one they've got, so they roll with it. 

It's costing LL far more in money and time to have to deal with the aftermath of this BS. It costs them damn near nothing to deal with actual copyright issues, all they have to do is respond when legal action is taken, remove things they are supposed to remove and send a canned response..done, and ALL can be automated even easier. That doesn't cost them jack all, lol. The companies aren't going after LL, they're not financially or legally responsible for what merchants do, their TOS, practices and policies absolve them(as it should, there is a legal process for that and they manage it just fine). To deal with copyright issues takes no time at all, it takes way more to deal with countless tickets from angry merchants when things get removed that shouldn't for no real reason. 

There are plenty of merchants that are going to get fed up if they keep this up, beyond those that already have and won't be contributing, or at least won't be contributing more, to LL's pocket anymore because of it. The fact that its happening with even more regularity now, especially after them saying "we're making tools right now to stop this" is a clear indicator, LL isn't listening, at all, nor do they care, and something is seriously amiss (its not the merchants). While it is the same kind of problem, it literally happens over and over and over again every time they update "lists". Each is its own individual event-and the frequency of them is insane (and, again, ftr, didn't happen to me this time, but has in the past, probably will in the future too, I can be angry FOR other people too  ).  Merchants shouldn't have to go through all these steps, preventative measures exist, better coding exists, people that don't say "oops my bad" when they remove an entire store, or portion of a store..exist.

The MP team is...in a hard place (most of them, some I'm really doubting whether or not they should even be there at this point), they have a hard job, but damn, how much do people expect merchants to put up with? People act like LL does them a favor by having the MP at all, lmao...No, just, no. LL gains just as much from the MP as most merchants ever will, even if it is very much a give and take relationship,, but LL still has gains. If they weren't really prepared to take on the beast that is the MP, they never should've and should've left well enough alone with what we had before-in very capable hands. If a merchant screws up on mp, their rep suffers. LL screws up the MP..."oh, be patient.." oh ffs, no, lol, patience only stretches so far. 

Edited October 18, 2019 by Tari Landar

[Paul Hexem]

Man, I hope LL remains a bunch of screwups forever. If they ever do anything right, the shock will probably put me in cardiac arrest. 

[Whirly Fizzle]

14 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

They have intentionally gone in and added some copyrighted company names.  Converse is a RL shoe company and someone (maybe more than one) was selling some shoes where they used Converse in the title and/or description and/or keywords, intentionally trying to gain from the association with a RL shoe.

That makes sense for Converse, Tiffany & Eames.

But what about leg & like?  Both those words were on the new naughty words list.

Possibly Leg(o) & like was too close to Ikea?  lol

[Arwen Serpente]

It doesn't make much sense. There are still Converse sneakers on the MP that weren't affected. Not to mention brands like Chanel and other top or designer brands. It is terribly haphazard and certainly can't be working "as intended".

[Luna Bliss]

19 hours ago, Whirly Fizzle said:

...and converse is the dirty word...   🙄

Thanks Whirly!    That was it....'converse'.

In all 3 of these entire region designs that became unlisted I said one could "converse by the fire"...changed it to "chat by the fire" and was able to list them.

Edited October 18, 2019 by Luna Bliss

[Alyona Su]

I'm thinking to copyright and trademark the word "And" just to see what happens to the Market Place when I assert Intellectual property rights...

Edited October 18, 2019 by Alyona Su

[Whirly Fizzle]

4 minutes ago, Alyona Su said:

I'm thinking to copyright and trademark the word "And" just to see what happens to the Market Place when I assert Intellectual property rights...

I was having the same evil thought for "rezz" & "LI"  lol

[Pamela Galli]

11 minutes ago, Whirly Fizzle said:

I was having the same evil thought for "rezz" & "LI"  lol

I thought LI was already on the forbidden list.

[Whirly Fizzle]

3 minutes ago, Pamela Galli said:

I thought LI was already on the forbidden list.

Oh I thought that one was fixed. I think LI was flagged for being too close to Loli.

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 hours ago, Whirly Fizzle said:

That makes sense for Converse, Tiffany & Eames.

But what about leg & like?  Both those words were on the new naughty words list.

Possibly Leg(o) & like was too close to Ikea?  lol

Hmm, maybe those are other words that they didn't mean to have these results.  They have already fixed some from their overly-aggressive initial sweep.

This is why I'd suggest everyone submit tickets for each of their de-listings if the reasons do not appear them pretty much right away.  

 

 

1 hour ago, Arwen Serpente said:

There are still Converse sneakers on the MP that weren't affected. Not to mention brands like Chanel and other top or designer brands.

That is interesting.  I hadn't checked to see if the Converse shoes were actually gone - nor had I checked for very many actual brand names.

[Chic Aeon]

I haven't been following this thread but it occurred to me that perhaps the issue comes about when translating words in various languages. So "leg" for instance could have come from another language translated over from something meaning a male body part -- like "eggplant' (which may also be on the no-no list".   

[Tari Landar]

Seeing if a  word in English translates to something "bad"(subjective, but we'll go with that, it makes sense) in another language is easy. All you have to do is plug the word into any half decent translator (actually most in use today are more than half decent, the only thing they don't pick up on is nuances, they will, however, work for this purpose quite well). Then you set the translator to whichever languages the MP uses (and no more than those because...out of scope). voila. I have to do this all the time when I'm working on projects that will need to be translated, or even may need to be translated for/by the end user.  It's a PITA when you're working with a handbook, instructions, and things like that which need to work in conjunction with other words/phrases. It's not very much work at all when you just have a list of words to check, though. 

Oh,  leg isn't a bad word in any of them, let's not add leg to our list. 

If the entire process was automated from the start, as most of us had once suspected years ago, we would have a lot more patience, again, as we had years ago, and many have still maintained (they're saints I tell ya). Although most probably wouldn't still have it if the automated system remained as broke for this long, patience being a virtue and all that. Knowing, however, that this is not the process, that LL themselves changes these lists (note I didn't say re-write the code, just the lists, code is a whole different ballgame lol), by hand, whenever it suits their fancy, we know that each and every change is done intentionally, even if they forget the important step of predicting/testing the results. I could still accept that as being, while not the best way to complete the process, a somewhat reasonable choice if the company was not a multi-million (US) dollar profit a year company and the MP was still in its early years of development. Neither is remotely applicable, however, so those aren't good excuses, lol. I could also accept this as their process moving forward if, and only if....

A-It was not done on the live MP -Making merchants hunt them down to fix problems they caused-even by making tickets, is stupid, a bad choice of processes and causes more problems than it solves for everyone involved, including themselves...STOP doing it, you broke it, you fix it.

B-They stopped saying "oops", especially when the frequency increases exponentially within a very short amount of time. Someone screwed up, stop making it seem like it's something minor, though.  The flub might be, but the result isn't, having sympathy for the folks you screwed things up for isn't hard.  If whoever is working on MP backend is unfamiliar with the code or working with what LL uses, that's okay. It's perfectly fine to be inexperienced, new, or struggle, everyone starts somewhere, right? Give them the damn tools they need to do so, though. Train them properly, give them guidance, provide them with a NON-live version to work on. I have a feeling LL is throwing them to the wolves too and it's not helping any. That's me giving the benefit of the doubt, still, despite all evidence suggesting I should not, lol. That's something merchants on the MP have been doing for years.

C-They warn merchants both via email and merchant home (automated system does this folks) "hey, we screwed up, your store might be affected, please check it"-when they do screw up on the live version of the MP. Even if not everyone is affected, tell merchants so they know to keep an eye out just in case whatever you do to fix it doesn't work-or makes it worse...eh hem.  

 

Right now, LL could still save face, could still solve the problem, and could appease most, if not all, if they followed the above three, and kept following them moving forward. It is the absolute best way to handle this, imo. The fact that the exact same problem has plagued the MP since its very inception, and is actually getting worse, speaks loudly. Maybe not everyone was around to hear it back then, or is only just now really getting a feel for it. But, now that they have,  maybe they can understand the frustrations a bit better. Maybe not, who knows. People assume an awful lot about merchants who complain about this problem, most of those assumptions are wrong. But many of them don't even bother complaining about it until it's gotten to the point of being ridiculous and they've spent hours, days even (sometimes longer), trying to fix a problem they did not cause. 

 

Edited October 18, 2019 by Tari Landar

[Prokofy Neva]

On 9/30/2019 at 10:31 AM, Elvina Ewing said:

Today i accidentally discovered that about 150 items in my store apparently have been automatically unlisted without any notice whatsoever. I only discovered this because i was adding new items and then noticed in the viewer in my Marketplace Listings that some listings were showing not in bold (which means they are not listed) that should have otherwise been listed. I went to my Merchant Home in the browser and saw that about 150 items were automatically unlisted. I didn't get any notice, neither in my Merchant Home (like when it happens when you items get unlisted for say keyword spam), nor in my mail. They were simply silently unlisted.

I was not amused. Thinking that something must have gone wrong with some new Marketplace update, i went ahead and tried to list the unlisted items in a batch. I got an error message " At least one product could not be listed due to a violation in our Adult Content Guidelines. " Then i tried to add the items one by one, and got the same error. I gather, the adult list of words, or the list of banned words, has been updated, thus causing hundreds of items to get automatically unlisted. WITHOUT ANY NOTICE.

It must have happened less than 24 hours ago because i know for a fact that one of the items that is currently unlisted have sold yesterday. I suggest all merchants to go and check their listings for any automatically unlisted items.

As i have over 150 items to sift through to find the offending words it will probably take me forever.

Thank you Linden Labs.

Have had the exact same thing happen, over a hundred items, no explanation, no notice, no apology, and I couldn't figure out what was a violation.

[karenpiper]

Today, I discovered exactly the same thing as you have all been describing here. All 100+ of my items (apart from 1 somehow?!) have been unlisted saying that the folders are empty, when they have been fine for years. I can't really imagine it's due to any tags or keywords I'm using and I can't upload anything new to MP anyway. I only discovered this because I made a dress today and tried to list it, which I haven't done in a while. None of my Piper Moda items are the slightest bit 'adult' or copyright-infringing in any way (shoes, swimsuits, dresses, sunglasses). The very thought of relisting them all again fills me with horror, especially as about 40 of them are gacha resale items too  As the error message says "the folder is empty" but they weren't before!

This is the only item remaining in my whole MP shop which somehow survived...

[Da5id Weatherwax]

LL have had a system to flag inappropriate language in listings in place for a while, and in trying to improve its efficiency and reduce the number of manual interventions required, they have encountered a flaw that is inherent to any such system. That there comes a point where they are having to intervene to revert false positives as much, or even more than, they had to intervene to correct something escaping their filter. That much is almost a no-brainer, the folks having these ideas aren't daft, they can see that the law of diminishing returns will set in at some point. The problem is that this happens sooner than most folks think, and sooner than almost anyone proposing the idea will be prepared to admit.

In my experience, and this is an argument I have had with several employers (with about a 50:50 success rate), any and all effort implementing such a system is ultimately a waste of time.

There are too many "flaggable words" that can also mean something else and be correctly used in that other context. (A donkey, a fool or somebody's hindquarters? Male anatomy or a verb roughly synonymous with "to pierce"? Female anatomy or a group of bird species?) What are you going to do, flag "grease nipple" if it appears under a category indicating an avatar part but not when it's listed under machinery?

Trade marks and brand names are most often everyday words or proper names, only taking on their protected and flaggable status in a specific context, and code can't read context. If my cousin ran a SL business under his RL surname he'd risk getting flagged, even if his products bore no resemblance to the RL brand that uses that name. People win disputes with corporations over this all the time - sometimes even if they are in the same business! (case in point: in St Paul, MN, "John's Pizza" has been a family run restaurant for decades - and their 'za is excellent, I've eaten a lot of them! - "Papa John's " moved into the Twin Cities and tried to force them to change their name with a trademark lawsuit. They lost.)

Users mangle words to avoid simple filters. Coders see this as a challenge and build logic to detect this. In the process they also increase the number of "innocent" words or contexts a rule with trigger on. Scunthorpe. Sparse. Essex (ok, that ones probably ok to flag , use Middlesex instead.)

What it comes down to is this.

Without automatic filters, over a given time period LL staff will have to respond to n listings flagged by users for violating the rules.
If automatic filters are introduced m of those will be flagged automatically and LL staff will therefore have to only respond to n-m listings in that time frame.
But with automatic filters those filters will result in x actions that result in support tickets for a false positive and LL staff will need to respond to these, where before they did not.
And, as filtering logic becomes broader and "more sophisticated", x rises at a higher rate than m does.

What this means, in practice, is that with the most simplistic filters m is small compared to n and the filter provides no real benefit. As the filter increases in sophistication, eventually you reach a point where x > m and the filter becomes a detriment, not an advantage. In almost all cases, this point is reached while m is still small compared to n. So there is actually no "sweet spot" for the folks trying to refine the filters to aim for.

Better, therefore, to not waste time trying to automate it at all but just suck it up and respond to complaints as they are received. In the long term this will actually SAVE staff time and company money.

[Pamela Galli]

Time cost to actual merchants doesn’t seem to figure into any calculations.