A new option that will let users immediately report “objectionable content” to Blogger works by clicking the Flag button.
Aww, poor baby. There you were, clicking that “Next Blog” button, and a new blog appeared that just seemed to call you out on your hypocritical, disingenuous political beliefs. How dare someone be so, so, direct! But what can you do? Who can you call? And will a campaign contribution make the pain go away?
If the blog has recently been republished on Blogger, the site will have a new button in the top navigation bar. The button, called Flag, lets a viewer immediately register their displeasure with what the see in a blog. If enough people hit the button on a particular blog, according to Blogger Buzz, the blog could be “unlisted,” or in the case of spam blogs or ones with illegal content, removed outright.
Blogger cites ‘The Wisdom of Crowds’ as the rationale for the Flag As Objectionable approach. If enough readers find a blog objectionable, then it must be objectionable. While little love will be lost over the disappearance of spam blogs, what if a blog is not particularly objectional, but simply unpopular in the eyes of a majority of Blog*Spot readers?
Becoming unlisted doesn’t remove a blog from the service, it just stops it from being promoted by Blogger. It will still be available to visitors. And Blogger does allow a site to be unflagged. So if you have a change of heart about a blog you flagged in a fit of righteous anger, you can remove the flag you placed on it.
David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
