The "R" word (or, "College courses must be appropriate for 5-year-olds")

Here's the email I sent to support@edublogs.org this morning - feel free to contact them yourself if you wish. I'll post their reply here as well:

Rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape rape.

This is a test to see whether I'll be allowed to actually make this post. You see, one of my students recently attempted to post on our course blog about the topic of preventing rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as providing recovery support to survivors. She received a message informing her that her post was not approved by the site because it contained the word "rape" "too many times." As I sat in stunned disbelief, many other students in the class reported that their comments on a previous post had been blocked as well for containing "too many" uses of the offending word "rape."

I'm curious: how many times is "too many?" Three, four? Some of the students found a way around Edublogs' policy by substituting terms like "sexual violence" or "sexual assault" - which we all agreed have slightly less of an emotional impact. Apparently Edublogs agrees too, since those terms are not flagged for overuse. But the effect of dampening down the language we use to discuss a horrifying, violent crime is not a helpful one.

While I'm sure Edublogs' policy on flagging such "trigger" words is well-intended and meant to protect users from threats or jokes, it does a great disservice to survivors of rape and their loved ones, and to the rest of society which MUST confront the issue head-on rather than slink around it. Silencing discussion, even on a micro level and from noble intentions, is not the solution. As I"m sure you know, there are plenty of other ways to make threats or inappropriate jokes without using the dreaded word "rape." Normally I support my statements with evidence, but I refuse to provide any specific example here; a 10-second search on Google of "Justin Bieber rape jokes" and such will provide more than enough examples.

I chose to use a course blog this semester to engage my students in real-life writing for public audiences, and I selected Edublogs from among literally dozens of other platforms - I have even upgraded to an Edublogs Pro account, for which I pay the monthly fees myself. I have not yet researched other blog sites which may have less prohibitive one-size-fits-all policies that do not consider context or moderation, but I am prepare to do so if my class will not be able to have free and productive discussions using your platform.

I look forward to your reply, which I plan to post on this blog as well.

Thank you,

Dr. Val Perry Rendel
Lewis University, Romeoville, IL 60446

UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long: 

Hi,

Can you verify - was this message shown when writing a comment and not a post?

The actual message would have been:

"Sorry, your comment has been rejected because it contains one or more of the following words: rape.

Please try posting your comment again, but without these words."

So this means it has nothing to do with the number of times the word was used.

The reason for the banned word list is actually to fight comment spam - which is a major issue we face. Our platform is used by students as young as five years old, so we must ensure they aren't left comments by bots or mal-intending people that are inappropriate.

We provide more flexibility over the banned list on our Edublogs Campus (http://edublogs.org/campus) networks.
Thanks!

 

Barry

Support Ninja

Edublogs

I took Barry the Support Ninja's advice and checked out the Edublogs Campus site, which of course is not free. I've sent a request for a price quote, and also inquired about the nature of this rape-spam he claims they get a lot of. (I mean, I know spambots are a real problem, but is "rape" really a commonly-used word in that context? It seems like, if you were trying to avoid spam, you'd want to flag terms like "diet" or "weight loss.") Anyway, once I find out more information, we can talk tomorrow (and possibly vote) on whether to continue with Edublogs or switch to a different platform.

Part III:
Here's the reply I got just now (8 p.m. CST):

Hi Val

I'm sorry but as Barry explained Edublogs.org is used by students as young as 5 years old. Our banned word list for comments is necessarily to protect younger students from being exposed to comments that contain inappropriate words and to prevent them for submitting comments with these inappropriate words.

We appreciate with older students that some of these words aren't considered inappropriate however we do need to block them on Edublogs.org. On Edublogs Campus networks the blog support team from their institution is able to edit the banned word list because the requirements on their community.

Thanks
Sue Waters
Edublogs Support Manager

And here's what I fired back in a fit of pique (I don't appreciate being lied to about some mythical spam problem):

This is the second time you've referred to "kids as young as 5 years old," and it's not an effective persuasive strategy. Did you know kids as young as 5 years old get raped? All your policy does is reinforce their silence and shame - don't talk about it, and it won't be an issue.

SO THAT WENT JUST GREAT THEN


But wait, it gets even better!

Hi Val,
Our policy to ensure the safety of students and educators who use our service. The banned word list only applies to comments submitted on posts and not to post published on blogs. Not every user moderates all comments on their blogs.

There are several reasons why the words are on the list. Some words are on the list because they are common words used by comment spammers while other words are on the list because some people will use words in inappropriate ways and we can't afford comments with these words to be published on class blogs or younger student blogs. For example, words like Viagra, casino, gambling are on the list because they are words used by comment spammers while words like rape are more likely to be used inappropriately by a student or someone who wants to cause issues.

Thanks
Sue Waters
Edublogs Support Manager

 Here's me again:


Define for me please an "inappropriate" vs. "appropriate" use of the word "rape." I can't help but notice that you are skirting the issue and hiding behind your script as a way of refusing to engage with the very real problem of silencing discussion of a crucial issue. Who knows, perhaps one day my class may even want to discuss Viagra during a discussion of what sorts of medications should and should not be covered by insurance companies. That would be a useful and productive learning experience. We will be having it on a different blog site.

In all seriousness, I know you're doing your job and enforcing the policy, but i's a stupid policy that does more harm than good. You refuse to see that. If you can't at the very least provide an option to allow such words with strong moderation (I'd have been willing to sign an agreement promising to moderate comments, on the understanding that repeated unmoderated violations will result in the shutdown of the site, but I guess that's not an option).

Too bad you couldn't be more flexible.


AND NOW, THE PUNCH LINE (sent 1/31/2014 at 10:33 a.m. CST, exactly 27 minutes before my class starts):


Hi Val,

At this point, you've crossed the line where we are no longer willing to continue the discussion.

I've refunded your most recent payment, shut down your site and attached an export of the content that you can take elsewhere.

There are much better ways to have debates and discussions, and we are under no obligation to take abuse from our customers and can refuse the right to serve anyone.

Best of luck.

There will be no further contact from anyone on our team.

Thanks!

Ronnie Burt

Director of Operations

Edublogs | Incsub

Timezone: Austin, TX (UTC/GMT -6 hours)

Twitter: @ronnieburt

GAME OVER MAN. And that's the way it is, folks. We're happily settled at a new - and free- blog platform, where we'll be able to say all the naughty words we want. Maybe even some that aren't in the dictionary!

At least I got my eight bucks back. :D