Can the list of "Banned Words" be manually reviewed by Niantic staff?
Griffinfinity-ING
Posts: 52 ✭✭✭✭
As of now, if a word is on the Banned Word list, it is completely blocked for use in the Title and Description. Submitters get an error message when attempting to use these words. While some words are completely obvious as being "bad" words, there a lot of common words on this list that have completely valid usage and a lot of words that totally innocent in one language but has a random "bad" slang usage in a different language. This is entirely problematic for many reasons. For instance, the word "pipe" in English has many valid usage but it's completely banned because it can be used as a random outdated slang word. I couldn't describe an artwork that uses pipes as it's primary material because it's banned. Another issue is the word Covid/Coronavirus. We're now 2 years into the pandemic and both these words are still banned. Meanwhile, various artwork, sculptures, and murals have been created from this historic event. All of them artwork can't appropriately describe why these exist without mentioning Covid/Coronavirus. We've even seen monuments and memorials dedicated to people who died in the Covid/Coronavirus unable to use these words to describe the purpose of the monument/memorial. Then we have issues where words are "bad" in one language due to a random slang word but not bad in another. Even using a totally different word with a different meaning that incorporates a "bad" word within it is banned. So I would suggest that staff manually review the "Banned Word" list and see if there's any common words that could be removed from this list. You can still have a primary list of banned words but there needs to be an expanded secondary list of "banned" words that need to be manually reviewed by Niantic Reviewers instead of being completely blocked if Niantic is so concerned about the usage.
Comments
And how would Niantic do to stop sudden flux of nomination or edits using banned/bad words? Adding "Sp*******" to the description is already broken enough.
If they want trigger words, like “Starbucks”, to exist, then rather than fully reviewing it, they should just check if it’s a legitimate use of Starbucks, and if it is then put it back into regular voting.
If it’s not a legitimate use of Starbucks, reject the nomination - and give the submitter reasons why it’s rejected! Also, please don’t take my Starbucks nominations from On Hold - wait for me to release them at the very least.
They do nothing at all. They're under no obligation to make handling the banned word queue fast so you're just using trigger words at your own risk if you're doing it deliberately. I'm sorry but why can't I use "pipe?" Why can't Spanish speakers use the color black in their descriptions? Why can't I mention "breast" cancer? Why can't German speakers use the word for "birds?" Why am I unable to describe a "Holocaust" monument? Why can't people from "Middlesex," United Kingdom use the name of their town? Why can't Italians use the words for "mountain" and "purple?"
First, they could stop banning based on words Google maps brings in. The entire town of D!cksburg shouldn't be banned. Nor should the name of the road where you're standing. Currently, those areas are dead zones - you can't submit even if you don't use the city or road in your text.
Second, if the title uses the (externally obtained/ Google) street or city, it shouldn't be banned for it. {Name of town} City Hall ~ should be a valid Waypoint. So should: Beach access on {name of street}.
Holocaust is a banned word. I couldn’t include it in the description of original art dedicated to a survivor.