Coub.com without #NSFW
Hey there, fellow coubers! We want to explain our decision to close down the #NSFW Community and address your most common questions.
Since its inception, #NSFW was never designed or meant to be a proper “Community” at Coub — instead born out of necessity, as a by-product of content filtering. There are quite a few different topics that are not suitable for work besides pornography and erotica: cruelty, violence, gore, etc. We always wanted to ensure that casual viewers don’t accidentally stumble on such imagery but most definitely never intended to create and maintain an “adults-only” community at Coub.com!
We don’t intend to strictly police Coub or implement draconian censorship, far from it. Fair play requires fair rules. With that in mind, we’ll very soon present a new, expanded and improved edition of Coub Community Guidelines. It will clearly define the topic and specific rules for each Community, as well as general Coub.com content policies and recommendations: what can you post and where, which content is acceptable with restrictions (such as blurring or covering specific parts of the image), and what’s forbidden. Stay tuned!
Now, let’s dive into your questions:
What about mistakenly-labeled NSFW coubs that aren’t sexually explicit or graphical? There were many great non-sexual memes in this category!
All Coub.com users who published NSFW content will soon begin receiving emails with a list of their banned coubs and appeal instructions — so any mistakenly or incorrectly labeled coubs can be recovered and posted to other appropriate Communities.
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If you still have questions about specific coubs, don’t hesitate to reach out at support@coub.com.
Why are you closing the entire Community instead of just removing violating coubs? Or add an option to “Show NSFW” to the settings? Are you planning to open other adult-oriented Communities?
The simple truth is that we aren’t interested in nudity and sexually-explicit content at Coub.com. We recognize that erotica and pornography can be a form of art, but there are plenty of specialized content platforms online that suit the purpose far better than Coub.
What about inappropriate content in other Communities? Why target NSFW rather than do a “clean-up” across the rest of Coub?
Exactamundo! We plan to do just that and improve the moderation at Coub.com altogether. We started at #NSFW only because it had been generating significantly more user reports and disputes than any other Community.
What about “Anime”? Or “soft” erotica: partial nudity, bathing suits, etc. Are there any Communities where such content is appropriate?
Of course, our beloved “Anime” community is not going anywhere! As noted above, we will provide you with updated community rules soon.
What about profanities and foul language? Will they be banned?
Profanities alone will not be a ground for content removal or ban for creators. However, our recommendation system will deprioritize coubs with foul language in the title, and they are less likely to be promoted, appear in any editorial selections, etc.
Using foul language in #tags will not be permitted, and we’re currently working on filtering and removing the existing tags.
Why didn’t you provide an official archiver or bulk downloader for NSFW content?
We’re against mass downloading coubs; thus, Coub doesn’t have such tools, nor do we embrace or approve third-party scripts. Particularly in a case like this. Our support agents will discuss each incorrectly-marked NSFW coub individually with their authors.
What will happen with statistics (views and likes) that authors received for banned NSFW coubs?
If the coub is banned or set to private, all accumulated views are preserved and still displayed on the profile. Once the coub is permanently deleted, all its views and statistics are removed (subtracted from the user’s overall counter).
🤘🏿🔁 Stay tuned,
Coub Team
