AFM: How NOT to get Deleted! The Rules Group

About AFM: How NOT to get Deleted! The Rules Group

Information and Discussion only. As the name says, so members can safely maintain their fotostreams on Flickr without being deleted and without offending others, and earn a "Public/Safe" review rating by Flickr. Most deletions are the fault of the poster, the account holder, so YOU do have the ability to fix that.

The reality behind this group:


Share your experiences or your tips and ideas about how to post appropriately and stay out of trouble. Remember, this group is about getting the most out of the rules, not about getting around them.

You must join to read and interact in this group.

Warning: language may be, of necessity, rather frank, and at times explicit since some problems are related to adult posting topics.

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A place to start: Flickr Guidelines and Flickr Safety Filters

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The most Important threads can be read by members only, so join up:
Step 1, Fix your AVATAR - Step 2, Fix your NAME!
Step 3, Don't get BLOCKED
Step 4, The Community GUIDELINES in Brief
Step 4, The Community GUIDELINES in Detail
Step 5, Don't Store Other People's Stuff, even if it's private!
Step 6, Clean Up Your Profile: Common mistakes to avoid.

FLAG your F/F Pics!
Reposting: FAIR USE and You, the law and Flickr
The 1-2-3s of setting your SAFETY FLAGS on Pics

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Stewart Butterfield [Flickr co-founder] says:
...notwithstanding CC licensing, you can't upload other people photos...
posted spring 05

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George [Flickr Staff] says:
-- Q -- Is it correct that people may now upload really explicit self-made porn and the like as long as they flag it "restricted"? So the "restricted" flag is like a replacement of the "I'll upload my porn as "for friends", add me to your contacts to see it" tactic?
-- A -- I'm not sure I'd phrase it quite like that, but yes. If people want to publish content that's not suitable for children (or would be generally offensive to most people) they may. Then, it becomes member choice to elect to see that sort of content, using SafeSearch (or not using it, in this case). Note that this doesn't mean illegal or prohibited content is OK - it's definitely not.
posted march 07

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George [Flickr Staff] says:
Yes, you can have content that is both restricted and public.
posted march 07

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Myles! [Flickr Staff] says:
Flagging all your photos appropriately, whether they're private or not, is important because... If you put those photos in a group, privacy levels are overridden for group members, and we need to filter appropriately.
posted march 07

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Terrence [Flickr Staff, chief accounts reviewer] says:
Since you missed moderating your images marked as "private", I have reset all your images to "restricted" and classified your account as "public"/"safe".

Please keep the Flickr guidelines in mind when moderating your images in the future.
in a reply to a group member, april 08

THIS is absolute PROOF that ALL content, public AND PRIVATE, MUST BE MODERATED. NOTHING is EXEMPT FROM THE SSVC Safety Flagging requirements!

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Joe [Flickr Staff] says:
In joining Flickr, you agreed to abide by the Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. Flickr accounts are intended for individual use, for our members to share original content that they've created, not to sell stuff:

"Don't Use Flickr for Commercial Purposes Flickr is for personal use only. If you sell products, services or yourself through your photostream, we will terminate your account. Any other commercial use of Flickr, Flickr technologies (including APIs, Flickrmail, etc), or Flickr accounts must be approved by Flickr."

www.flickr.com/guidelines.gne

Please remove the URLs that link to your store/auction(s) from underneath your photos/video and/or any sales verbiage or "for sale" sets at your earliest convenience so that we don't have to take further action on your account.
message to a flickr member july 08

This indicates that URLs are not permitted in your stream, and the user who received this warning was also told to remove the URL watermarks embedded in his pics, since they still constitute "selling." So, while he can watermark his own pics with, say, ©whatido industries, he can NOT use ©www.whatidoindustries.com as his watermark. All Flickr members are allowed ONE URL in their PROFILE page only, which can be to their business.

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Heather [Mgr, Community Standards, Senior Flickr Staff] says:
Filters were never created to imply the idea of artistic merit (or lack thereof), "porniness", offensive, obscene-ness, etc. They're there to ensure that our members can share the greatest possible variety of photos in a way that respects the greater community in as many regions around the world where cultural and legal differences may occur.

For the purpose of this discussion, what's most relevant is that female boobs and both female and male bottoms need to be flagged as "moderated". Any photo that features *frontal nudity* of both men and women needs to be flagged as "restricted".
in Help Forum, sep 09

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A response to a user following a report for specific disallowed images by staff:
Hello [Flickr User],

Images of sexualized urination are a violation of the Flickr Community Guidelines and Yahoo! Terms of Service.

Please delete all content in violation immediately or your Flickr account is at risk of being terminated.

Note: Since these images are not allowed on Flickr marking them as private is not enough, they need to be deleted.

-Flickr staff
reply to a user, Fall 2010

This is proof that staff DO use "sexualization" (our term originally) of an image to render decisions about them. This can take a simple bodily function, as above, and convert it to forbidden content, as it can take an image and push up the required Safety Setting. This also shows directly that simply "hiding" disallowed content as private is not good enough, and based on the experiences of some here, staff do cruise back to see whether a user has complied or not.

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A response to an inquiry about Inline Posting rules (comments/discussions):
Hello [Flickr User],

In-lining non-safe content into groups discussions is not allowed. If we get a complaint, the member will receive a warning to remove all non-safe in-lined content from group discussions immediately. A second violation will lead to deactivation of the members Flickr account.

-Flickr staff
reply to a user, Feb 2011

NON-Safe Inline posting in someone's pictures in a comment or in a discussion topic in a group, including in YOUR OWN PICS, is simply still not allowed. The enforcement protocol is Two-Strikes-Yer-Out as with Avatars. With avatars, your account is set Unsafe and the avatar deleted, and some have received warnings. In this case, the posts in question are YOUR responsibility to remove... BEFORE a second complaint comes in. Some old-timers here may remember the case of a well-liked user who got caught in this, but had so many such posts all over the site, was unable to deleted them all, even in the exceptional month staff gave to do so in this ONE case, because of how well loved this user was, presumably. Remember, you cannot post non-safe images anywhere OTHER than in your stream on its own page or in a group pool. that is ALL.

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Yes, picture posting is disabled. It's not you. :)