Tags, Alert, and Abuse
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
United States
August 12, 2009 12:53pm CST
I'm sure by now you've all gotten the mylot alert about tag abuse, if not, here is what it said:We have noticed a rash of poor Tagging as of late. As a Reminder, tags are to be used to indicate the topic of a discussion and nothing else. Misuse of tags is grounds for Termination and your account will not be tolerated. For more information on tags please read our FAQ.I and many others have been victimized by the phantom tagger, either with nasty tags added to our own discussions or, like in my case, somebody just randomly tagging discussions with hateful things about other users (they tagged a bunch of random discussions with "angrykitty is a troll") which is completely unrelated to the topics of those discussions.
I am glad that mylot is finally taking decisive action on the tag abuse, as it has gone on for FAR too long (at least 2 years, maybe even three!) but unlike other alerts, this one did not cone accompanied with a place where we could discuss the topic. It tells you to look at the mylot FAQs for more information, and that is great, but they neglect one important thing.
In the tagging FAQs, it tells you that if you find an abusive tag to hit the "!" button to report it, BUT if the nasty tag turns up in your own discussions, you CAN'T DO THAT since the button does not appear for you to report things on your OWN discussions. Also, if you use the "!" button to report a nasty tag on another user's discussion, that OP may LOSE their discussions since use of the "!" button indicates that you are reporting the DISCUSSION and not necessarily the bad tags! I have seen non violating discussions get deleted by people filing false reports which leads me to beleive that sometimes mylot does not investigate what the report is about and just deletes the discussions wholesale, so their advice on the nasty tag problem is not really too helpful.
Here is the link to the mylot tagging FAQs so you can see what mylot has to say about tags and also see what they suggest you do about bad tags:http://www.mylot.com/o/faq/faq9.aspx
this is what they say about bad tags:[b]What can I do if someone has tagged my discussion with inappropriate words?
Please bring this to myLot's attention by reporting it as abuse. Make sure you give us the tag you feel is inappropriate and we will take care of this immediately.[/b] Now, as I mentioned before, the "report abuse" button DOES NOT appear on your own discussions, so what you need to do in such a situation is go down to the "contact" button at the bottom of the page and fill out the form choosing "other" as the subject. In the body of your message to mylot, provide them with a link to the discussion that has been tagged inappropriately and tell them which tags are the ones that need to be removed.
I hope this helps you know what to do if you find yourself the victim of the phantom tagger. Perhaps o the future mylot will take even more steps to prevent this type of abuse such as what we users have been suggesting the past few years, by not letting people tag discussions that they have not posted to and perhaps allowing us to know who s providing which tags, since anonymity is the tool which allows the phantom taggers to thrive.
Have you ever been hit by the phantom tagger? Have you ever seen nasty tags about YOU added to unrelated discussions? Do you think mylot is doing enough to curb the abuse of tags? Are you pleased that they have finally acknowledged that there is a problem?
9 people like this
19 responses
@mysdianait (66005)
• Italy
12 Aug 09
Am I pleased????
I am THRILLED!!
I spent last weekend reporting through the 'contact' link so many abusive tags and to know that it was not in vain is SO rewarding
Seems a lot of users do not realise the importance of reporting. Some call it 'policing' or 'telling tales' but it is for the benefit of everyone and that sort of abuse should not be just left there for all to see. Now that they are also aware of who does it and taking action is even more heartening
MyLot MUST be kept clean and we WILL inform when things are not as they should be, even more so now we KNOW they listen and take action! 
1 person likes this

@mysdianait (66005)
• Italy
12 Aug 09
I think over the last 6 weeks I have sent more stuff through 'contact' than I have posted on the discussions
and sometimes my tone was... uhm 

and sometimes my tone was... uhm 

@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
12 Aug 09
I thank you for your efforts! I noticed the nasty tags about me seem to have been removed, so YAY! It is comforting to see our efforts are not in vain, and yes, it is our duty to keep mylot nice for everybody and to not let abuse go unreported.

@Azaerus (820)
• Philippines
12 Aug 09
I have received the same notice about tagging just now. Though I haven't notice that I have already been tagged with nasty and offending words. Maybe mylot is just reminding everyone about the rules of tagging because some members post some very much abusive tags or foul tags.
I'm happy that mylot has come up to this reminder because I have noticed that some discussions are put up because some members put an invalid tags on their responds which offended the counterpart. Mylot is a very nice social networking site and such acts by members should not be tolerated.
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
12 Aug 09
A LOT of people have been targeted by abusive tags lately, and many of us have been reporting that abuse, which is likely why mylot came out wit the alert to remind everyone of proper tagging behavior. I am also pleased that they have announced that abusive taggers WILL be penalized.
@Azaerus (820)
• Philippines
12 Aug 09
Yes,penalizing those ones who are using abusive tags is a right decision for mylot to do. That way these members will take notice of their actions and realize that what they're doing is not tolerated here in this site.
Really glad you've put up this discussion about the tagging alert,this should be a warning to those abusers out there.
1 person likes this
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
13 Aug 09
Thank you, I'll be very happy if this helps other users.

@Rollo1 (16676)
• Boston, Massachusetts
12 Aug 09
I have seen a lot of inappropriate tagging and it seems that some phantom tagger is targeting certain people and certain subjects. It's cowardly and childish behavior. There's no way to know who has tagged your discussion and so you can't really do anything about it. I am glad that mylot has taken note of this problem. I would like to think that the person or persons doing this immature tagging would see this and realize how ridiculous it is, but that is probably hoping for too much.
1 person likes this
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
12 Aug 09
If mylot removed the anonymity that the abusive taggers currently enjoy, the problem would resolve itself.
Nobody would leave a tag saying something inappropriate if their identity was clearly visible as the person who posted the tag.
@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
12 Aug 09
I'm not that I agree Kitty, there's a lot of people that act like they don't care if people think they are an a$$.
1 person likes this
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
13 Aug 09
Yeah, there are, but I think the vast majority of phantom taggers only do it because they are cloaked in anonymity.
@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
12 Aug 09
I really never pay much mind to tags. I don't tag except for my own. I figure it's not really my place to do so. But, I've seen discussions where someone is saying that someone tagged their discussion without responding to the discussion. Now, I don't know who would waste their time to do that trash but, I think that mylot should fix that as well. I see where they said that the account will be terminated but, we all know how people just open a new account so do you think that's really going to solve the problem? I think that they should just make it so the only one that can tag is the OP. It only makes sense.
1 person likes this

@ZephyrSun (7381)
• United States
12 Aug 09
Wow that's a lot! Since I'm tag dumb, let me asked this- say you post a discussion and add your 5 tags, say I come and respond to your discussion and tag it, does it replace your tags? Or what happens to my tags? Or is a discussion allowed to have more than 5 tags?
1 person likes this
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
12 Aug 09
I see nothing wrong with adding appropriate tags to other people's discussions as it may help the discussion to get more exposure, but I think we should have to RESPOND to the discussion in order to be able to tag it, and we should be allowed to KNOW who tagged what in discussions. I'd sure like to know who tagged over 2 dozen unrelated discussions all over mylot this past weekend saying nasty things about me!

@krajibg (11922)
• Guwahati, India
12 Aug 09
Hi there,
Yes I got the alert and read and was wondering for a while Why people are abusing with the tags? Is there anything I did? I tried to recollect but nothing tat sort came to ma mind. I once again went to the FAQ and read and now I am confused what is next when i respond as there is 'skip' option also there and more than five tags do not have a space and therefore I often skip. Now again feeling shaky what if I ever go on skipping except my own discussion? Shall I be facing the music?
1 person likes this
@mysdianait (66005)
• Italy
12 Aug 09
Rajib my friend I am sure you have not been doing things wrong
There are/were users who were being nasty and leaving abusive tags
Now that willnot happen again - or if it does the user will go back to cyber space ona fast train!
Carry on as always 
There are/were users who were being nasty and leaving abusive tags
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
12 Aug 09
That alert went out to ALL members of mylot to advise them that mylot is taking seriously the reports of abusive tagging. You've done nothing wrong, I'm sure. There is NOTHING wrong with adding appropriate tags to discussions, in fact it is very helpful! The problem is with certain users who add nasty tags to hurt other members and mylot is finally dealing with them.
@patofgold23 (5069)
• Philippines
13 Aug 09
did everybody get the same email?? or just those who violated the tagging rules?
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
13 Aug 09
When mylot posts an "alert" ALL members get the same message.
@patofgold23 (5069)
• Philippines
13 Aug 09
o..i thought i was warned for something i didn't do =)
1 person likes this
@KrazyKlingon (5005)
• United States
13 Aug 09
I was probably the one that sparked that alert. There have been quite a few discussions that were tagged with inappropriate tags that I had been reporting for the last few days. it looked like that they were just going into random discussions & entering in tags.
I'm sure that Mylot can catch the responsible ones, if not by member name, then by IP addresses, & probably server logs. I'd say it's about time they did something. It's been a few days before something got done with quite a few of them.
1 person likes this
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
14 Aug 09
I agree with you completely. MyLot could FIX the problem by only allowing tags be put there by PARTICIPANTS of the discussion, instead of just leaving it as they do now where anyone can tag anything anytime.
1 person likes this
@worldwise1 (14885)
• United States
13 Aug 09
Perhaps I am just naive, AK, but I have never paid much attention to the tags before now. I had not realized that this could be a means of abuse regarding myLot discussions. I think it is a sneaky and underhanded way to cause trouble for fellow myLotters, and maybe the practice of allowing other members to submit tags to our discussions should be done away with altogether. Now that I am aware of this problem I will be on the lookout for this type of activity. Thank you for enlightening those like myself who have been unaware of the potential for harm this feature can lead to.
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
13 Aug 09
You're welcome, thank you for replying! I think mylot could do away with a lot of the trouble if they disallowed tagging be done on discussions that people haven't posted to or made it so we could SEE who posted which tags. But some of us have been asking this of mylot for YEARS and been ignored, so the fact that at least now they acknowledge the problem and say they will punish bad taggers is a pretty good start.
@dreamweaverjan (3471)
• United States
12 Aug 09
Hi AngryKitty; Yep I just logged on and got the alert too!!
I haven't paid any attention to my own posts yet if there are any
inappropriate "tags" on there but I will try to look and see;
I do know that a few good friends on here do suffer with this
very problem A LOT...and I hope it stops for them, for all of us
and soon;
I don't know why people that do this finds it so amusing to them,
I guess they just really have no life you know?
1 person likes this
@krupesh (2608)
• India
12 Aug 09
I thought I was the only one to receive that alert.Usually I submit only one or two tags to the discussions which I would start.Even now to be frank I haven't noticed what kinda tags have been involved with my discussions.I donno whoz doing all these.Might be some newbies who dont know how to submit the tags.Hope it will be resolved as early as possible.
1 person likes this
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
12 Aug 09
Well it does seem as if mylot is finally taking action to address this problem and I am glad about it.
@LiveLove (443)
• United States
12 Aug 09
As far as I know, I haven't been wrongly tagged and that could be for two reasons: I haven't been on as much and I haven't been ticking people off (which I never intend on doing). I really enjoy this site over a previous site and I have no issues with the mylot team trying to take steps to help the problem. I never really knew that it was happening at such a noticeable rate. I will try to do my part and report tags that aren't helping with search or have naything to do with the topic.
1 person likes this
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
13 Aug 09
I appreciate the fact that you will also help mylot by reporting abuse when you see it, thank you. Overall, mylot is a very nice place, but it needs the help of the entire community to help KEEP it nice for everyone.
@skyhss (1142)
• United States
12 Aug 09
Needless to say, i am very glad myLot is addressing our concerns regarding the abusive tags. I hope this will end some of the phantom tagger problems.
I haven't seen any aimed at me for a couple weeks now but was not at all happy when i saw the ones aimed at you and two other people over the weekend.
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
13 Aug 09
THANK YOU for all the time you spend here trying to keep mylot nice for EVERYONE and thank you for bringing the phantom tagger targeting ME to my attention. I really appreciate it. I sure hope that we are turning a corner here as far as the phantom tagging goes, but if they take THAT away from the abusive jerks and the abusive jerks can no longer minus us into oblivion, it makes one wonder what tactic they will use NEXT to try to hurt and annoy people!
@dbabcook (388)
• United States
13 Aug 09
I am not sure what all avenues MyLot has taken to aleviate this problelm but I am sure there are ways for them to handle it. I don't think it is fair to threaten members with an account termination unless they are able to make certain that it was that particular member that made the innappropriate tag. This is just my opinion but I know from dealing with other websites that there are things that administration can do to protect descent members from this type of abuse.
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
13 Aug 09
Yes, there ARE things that can be done to curb the abuse, things we've been asking mylot to implement for YEARS that only NOW are they finally putting into place. Mylot KNOWS who posts what tags, even though we users are not let in on the secret. It is right and fair of them to FINALLY take decisive action against the abusers who DESERVE to get banned for hurting innocent people and making mylot less fun for everybody.
@rsa101 (40952)
• Philippines
13 Aug 09
Very detailed and informative indeed. Well I guess it would be pretty difficult to really monitor each and everyone's posts, tags, etc etc. If you would notice there are thousand of thousands of topics posted or tagged in here and if Mylot does have a small number of people doing the checking of the whole online activity I guess it would take them time to take some action in here. I have seen too that post that violated the guidelines takes too long to be taken down. Sometimes the post can remain days after it there are many responders that replied in it that maybe the moderators consider it as normal post already since the thread is quite long already. I think there is no automated thing doing this. We can always report but the police behind it is not that big to patrol the whole website.
1 person likes this
@dpk262006 (58679)
• Delhi, India
13 Aug 09
Thanks for bringining this to our notice. I was not aware that some users are 'misusing' even 'tags' and are posting nasty words over there. I feel that each discussion should be tagged properly so that if any other member wishes to search he could do it easily.
1 person likes this
@sissi320 (328)
• China
13 Aug 09
Today, I got the alert from mylot.
Frankly speaking, I am not so serious about the tag information, but today, I read the tag introduce again and realize the importance.
So, I will be careful about the tag key in from now on, thanks.
@LetranKnight25 (33117)
• Philippines
13 Aug 09
well, that's really sad in one part. on the other hand, it gives a lot trolls out there a definite disadvantage because they will have more time trying to track
and bug us. but i believe that abuse use of tagging can be a problem too, if the user didn't for the word. i think what the admin wants us to do is Tagged something that is easy to find by mylot users @suparnodatta (362)
• India
13 Aug 09
Hi AngryKittyMSV,
I got this alert about tag abuse today.At first i thought that maybe i have tagged some discussion wrongly..But then i heard from my other mylot friends that every one has got this alert.I personally never give too much time for thinking about tags.One of my referrals who joined in recently asked me that how do we realize that this is a abuse and this is not.I told her to read the faqs.But i don't think that helped her too much.I am glad that you started this discussion.It should clear a lot of confusion about tagging.
1 person likes this

















