Sneaking past the editors.

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Sneaking past the editors.

Hello folks..
Can anyone throw any light on the following? Two days ago I put two stories on the site: the second went for editing, as normal. The first, however, "Confession Time", was pasted straight up. Now, this has happened a few times before, but mainly to poems. Just to test the system, I put it through editing and raised the age rating from U to 12. Straight back on..
Intrigued as to what I'd need to do to trigger the naughty words filter, I added a mild expletive. Sure enough, back it went!
Now, "bl##dy h#ll" isn't that awful, but surely it should have activated something? After all, I might have just added a barrage of four-letter obscenity. Worse, I might have pasted up something that was offensive, libellous or just plain illegal! (Under the Race Relations Act, for instance - though naturally I have no intention of doing so!) I might also have included explicit 18-rated material in a story open to all. There are some odd people out there, contributors who like to shock; so what happens to their stories?
I know the editors are snowed under, so how would they spot material that's already been passed onto the site? Are they even supposed to, when there might be a hundred entries in a day? I don't recall anything of mine that went straight in being cherried, and that makes me suspicious that some "lucky" entries sneak straight through unnoticed and therefore ungraded.
Surely everything arriving on site should be pulled aside? If anyone's had similar experiences of pasting up "fireproof" stories, let's hear them.

Andrea
Anonymous's picture
You said it yourself - naughty words, plural. Probably got through because 'bloody' and 'hell', in themselves, are pretty inoffensive... Perhaps you should have tried something even more...er...explicit, like 'get laid'?
Karl Wiggins
Anonymous's picture
You raise a few good points Roy. It seems that if you wish to be cherried, you have to make sure that your piece is passed to the editors for ..... well, for editing. You could write the best piece on the whole website, but if there's no offensive language in it for the filter to pick up on, and you mark it a 15 or an 18, it may not be read by the editors for months. Now obviously, with almost 6000 contributions they've got their work cut out, and not understanding the process fully I have no suggestions. However, I don't believe it's possible to write a fairly innocuous article, and then once it's been passed U edit it yourself to include all sorts of child porn references, for example. At least I hope not. In fact, I'm sure not, because I've edited my own material and the filter has caught hold of something, keeping it off the site until it's been vetted. But editors, by including expletives in a piece is it the only way to make sure it is read and appraised straight away? I am also wary of editing my own work - even if I notice typos - in case I lose my cherry, so to speak.
Andrea
Anonymous's picture
I don't think that's right though, Karl. If I remember correctly, my story 'Yes, Dear' went straight through, no editors editing and yet it was still cherried, albeit 2 days later. I do hope you're wrong, anyway. It'd be a foin thing if we all had to curse 'n' cuss to get our fruit.
Antoinette
Anonymous's picture
Hi guys, My piece "Jessica's Decision" Wasn't sent up for editing and was cherried the same day as posting as well as being made story of the day. I can only assume that they didn't have a lot on that day. As for losing one's cherry, I understand that if you edit and resubmit cherried work, then the cherries disappear, but if you e-mail ABC they put them back on for you. Cherries are precious, keep hold of yours!!! Antoinette
Andrea
Anonymous's picture
Blimey, Antoinette! Wish someone had told me that 30 years ago...
Liana
Anonymous's picture
Most of my stuff is a U, and therefore went straight up as I submitted it, and some are cherried. Some are a 12, or a 15, and some of those are cherried too. l think it depends who is cherrying....I don't think for a moment that the stuff that waits for approval stands a better chance.
Diana Bird, Editor
Anonymous's picture
Lots of interesting points you've raised, thanks. In terms of the filter I will ask our techies about that because if we do have a problem we need to know. Regarding cherrypicks and editing our editors do try and read everything and rarely do they miss a piece. We have a system where we can see which pieces have been read and by whom so we can keep track. At the moment Mark, our very generous cherry-picking editor, is away so the amount of cherries where and when do go up and down according to how many people are reading stuff and how many pieces come on. I hope this makes things clearer. We try to put mainly U and PG pieces on the front page so we are always scouring the site for these, they are probably the most read by us! cheers, Diana
roy_bateman
Anonymous's picture
Blimey, that elicited some intelligent replies - I'm both impressed and educated. It seems that everything gets read eventually, but.. in my experience, little will stop a piece going straight back on once it's achieved that feat once - as if some electronic tag waves it through. I could be wrong. Just a few additions: I was speaking to the Big Man (TC) recently, and he pointed out that the filter is stacked with just about every rude word imaginable, so "bloody" must theoretically be up there. He may have been joking, but he said that even "Scunthorpe" would trigger it. No, I didn't get it at once either - start at the second letter.. And, if stories hang around "on trust", an erotic tale with no four-letter words or medical terms (The best and most subtle sort) could be visible to all if it was incorrectly rated. I often leave rating to the editors, as they frequently disagree with my assessment. There's a thought - a comp. for the best erotic story without a "rude" word! What about it? Just as long as it's not set in Scunthorpe..
Diana Bird, Editor
Anonymous's picture
Good idea! Who'd like to have a go at that?
andrew pack
Anonymous's picture
Boy scouts, girl guides... Apparently the shortest plot summary as well.
andrew pack
Anonymous's picture
Boy scouts, girl guides... Apparently the shortest plot summary as well.
mississippi
Anonymous's picture
She offered her honour, he honoured her offer. And all night long it was honour and offer.
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