6.1. Categories
The number of categories given ranges from 2 (Youku) up to 11 (Veoh). Spike and Vimeo are the only two that don’t limit the flagging options to categories and leave it up to the flagger to fill in the reason. Vimeo does make some suggestions: “Is this sexually explicit? Did the user not make it? Is it illegal or offensive for some other reason? Please explain below, and the Vimeo staff will consider deleting it.” This strategy of handling flagging takes away the possibility for both Spike and Vimeo to prioritize the incoming complaints and forces them to give them all equal attention and therefore time. Regardless whether they are complaints regarding hate speech or just spam. Leaving them almost no other option than handling them all in a chronological order. On the other hand perhaps there’ll be lot less flagging going on if people actually have to type in an explanation of why it’s being flagged and prove it violates a policy.
Veoh subcategorises the flagging options into ‘Video Playback Problems’ and ‘Video Content Issues’. The sites that include options similar to ‘Video Playback Problems’ are 56.com and Youku. By doing so, they take away the negativity surrounding flagging. Because a user will flag something because he/she doesn’t agree with the content, regardless whether the rest of the community feels the same way. By including these technical support options, the flagger is helping everyone without consequences for any specific user. Changing the act of flagging from an egocentric action (’I don’t want to watch this, please remove this user’s video.’) to a benevolent one (’No one like this, could you please change this.’). For no one likes a video that doesn’t play right, or when the sound isn’t working.
Another aspect of that division between ‘Video Playback Problems’ and ‘Video Content Issues’ is the difference between problems and issues. For every problem, there is a solution. While issues demand discussion and most of the time don’t have one solution.