Pinterest Is A Porno Site (Among Other Things)

Pinterest Is A Porno Site (Among Other Things)

As some of you may already know if you read my previous post, or have been following my Twitter updates, I’ve been having trouble with policy violators (aka porno pinners) over at Pinterest. A gaggle of them (for some unknown and creepy reason) have targeted one of my group book boards on the site. I’m not saying this is an attack or anything, but I’ve been getting at least one of these sleazy, sexist profiles following my book board each day for weeks.

Now I’m not overly prudish, or against nudity, and I’m not talking about art shots, nude paintings, sexy celebrity photos, or even those lingerie boards. What I’ve been dealing with is full frontal, sexist exploitation of women (plus a few men as well) and the very definition of pornography. Many of these images are very graphic, very sexual (and sexist) in nature, and in some cases designed to imitate under age schoolgirls. This is not what I signed on to view, and I believe it SHOULD NOT be displayed on a public forum like Pinterest. And I’m betting NOT ONE of those sexist jerks that post these photos would take copies into a crowded public place like a mall and show them to strangers. Yet, they have NO problem doing the virtual equivalent on Pinterest.

But wait, Pinterest has a policy against these types of pins, doesn’t it? Supposedly it does. Yet by my recent experience it is turning a blind eye, and these profiles, boards and pins are flourishing on the site. And to make my troubles worse is their recent change to their reporting process. Now you have to get up close and personal with the pins to report them (so good job Pinterest—to get rid of graphic sexual photos, you have to interact with them). Plus the system is not working properly, at least for me. I may be biased, but it seems Pinterest is making it harder to report violators and to want to report violators. Making it a hassle to report a violation does not encourage people to use the process. As well, they’ve certainly been giving me the runaround about fixing my problem with their system.

I used to love Pinterest, in part because it wasn’t a place I had to navigate around creeps and sexism. I guess that’s changed. I feel like I want to chuck the whole thing, but I put a lot of time into my profile, so I probably won’t leave (though I may have to delete that book board). I do know I certainly won’t be as frequent a visitor on the site anymore. To sum up, all I have to say is this—Pinterest isn’t a family friendly site, so if that’s what you are looking for, either stay off the site or pay very close attention to who is following you and exactly what they are pinning.

Should Pinterest Clean Up Its Act?

Is Pinterest sexist? In my recent experience, yes.

I used to love Pinterest. It was a great site to browse and spend my time as a writer, and the best part was I didn’t have to worry about being bothered by sexist creeps who couldn’t see past the female label.

In the past few weeks that has changed. One of my group book boards suddenly began to be followed by an influx of men whose profiles showed all the respect and restraint of mouth-breathing neanderthals. Now I take some responsibility here, as I had an invite policy that was fairly open. I obviously did a poor job of screening some invitees before I noticed the disheartening trend (and unfortunately this development, and other problems, has closed down the open invite policy for that board).

Now, I have no problem with nudity. The problem I have is with sexist and exploitative images. And in the past few weeks I have regrettably seen plenty, to my undying disgust and frustration.

The following is just an unpleasant sample of what I’ve come across (so if this type of thing offends, you may wish to skip this part):

• Typical nude, Playboy type bending over or provocative poses, all showing ample T&A
• Topless bed sprawling, with women grabbing their parts
• A guy with his private parts exposed and ready for action
• Bondage, with a suggestion it’s non-consensual
• Semi-nude pictures depicting a woman dressed as an underage schoolgirl (and I really hope the model in those shots was not in fact underage)

What’s more, all of the above images (to my knowledge) go against Pinterest policy.

It got to the point that I started reporting and blocking these profiles, as my book board was (and is), for lack of a better term, being targeted by dozens of these creepy guys. Now comes the twist. In the last few days, my report button (how you let Pinterest know their policies have been violated) has disappeared from my profile. I messaged the site (albeit in a bit of an angry, ranting way), told them of my experience AND that the report button had gone missing. This was the first part of their reply:

We're sorry you came across inappropriate content on Pinterest. To keep Pinterest a place that everyone can enjoy, we don’t allow anything that's hateful, illegal, obscene, violent, or otherwise detrimental to our community.

If you’re trying to report a Pin or Pinner, please use our in-product reporting options.

Their “in-product reporting options” are, essentially, the report button, which I stated was missing. They then went on to reiterate the same basic stuff that’s on their help page.

So, at best the guy didn’t read my message carefully and behaved like an idiot, or at worst they have no interest in removing offending content violations and were trying to get rid of me.

The whole experience has soured me on the Pinterest site.

I used to be an advocate for Pinterest, but my future advice—think twice about using the site.

Pinterest Tips

Hello, I’m A. F. Stewart, and I’m a Pinterest addict. Well, maybe not an addict, but I can definitely lose an hour or two on the site if I try. But it’s not all fun and games, it’s also serious marketing for my writing and books. And that’s what I’m here to discuss today on the blog.

I see many, many writers over on Pinterest, but not all of them are using the site to their full advantage. Pinterest is designed for shoppers, and their click-through-rate (which means consumers click the pins and go to the links) is high and growing. The stats for Pinterest as a viable (and still free) marketing tool are too good to ignore.

So why aren't authors and writers utilizing it properly?

I can’t say for certain, but I do hear some writers express qualms and confusion on how to use the site to their favour. So here’s a brief explanation of how the Pinterest site works, and a few of my tips specific to writers and authors.

Pinterest is a visual site; it’s for sharing graphics, photos, memes, cool geeky fan stuff, and book related stuff, like covers, trailers, blog posts, etc. You join the site, create a profile, then you create what the site calls boards. Think of them like virtual scrapbooks, or photo albums, full of pictures. Each board gets a name, a description and a category, and you’re ready to pin your pics to your boards via their bookmark extension widget thingy.  Easy, right?

But in case you’re still confused, here’s the site’s guide to getting started that explains things in better detail: https://help.pinterest.com/en/guide/all-about-pinterest

Okay, you've setup your profile, gotten somewhat familiar with the site, and you’re ready to pin.  Now what?

Here are some things you need to know:

Following/Followers:  Just like other sites you can follow users, and they can follow you.  You may press the big red follow button on a profile, and you’ll follow every board and every pin of that person, or follow individual boards (which is what I recommend for most people). Following individual boards (with pins you enjoy) as opposed to everything vastly reduces the possibility of clutter on the home page, and makes it easier to find pins you like on the site.

Repinning:  If you find a photo you like on the Pinterest site you can repin it to one of your boards, either from the Pinterest home page or the profile of a user. I recommend beginners make use of this feature as it’s a simple way to get started filling boards.

Board Covers: You can leave a board with no cover and the latest pin will show as the face of that board. Or you can pick a cover by choosing a nice pin (via the editing mode). You can also change covers when you like (by editing), but once you choose a cover you can’t return to the former mode.

Group Boards: Groups boards are just that, a group of users who are pinning on the same board. You can join them, or make your own, but like all groups be sure to read and follow the description and rules.

Comments/Messages: Comments can be left on pins, and Pinterest now has a message system, so if you need to contact a follower you can.

Now for my tips for writers:

• Post a bio (and this goes for every social media site writers use). THIS IS IMPORTANT. Tell people who you are and what you do, even if it’s just one line like: I’m a writer. Especially if you want invitations to group boards geared towards books and writers. If they don’t KNOW you’re a writer, you may not be invited to pin. Don’t make people guess.
• Create book boards. You can do an all inclusive board, such as “Books I've Written” or boards for a book series, or individual book boards or a combination of the above.
• Put your book/writer boards on the first row. You want your work front and center. Not everyone scrolls half-way down to find your hidden gems.
• Create niche boards (also see next tip). Showcase your personality and possibly other talents. Geeky boards, fan boards, craft boards, boards for quotes, are all popular and help sell you on Pinterest. There can be some overlap in board topics, but don’t overdo. Six boards on the topic of say, doilies, is too much.
• Be professional, but still fun (see above tip). You’re on Pinterest to market and sell books, but that doesn't mean you can’t display other sides of your life and personality. Just keep in mind the image you want to craft on the site.
• Do not create an empty profile. Once you've generated boards, pin something to your boards. Pin your book cover, find some pins on the site, find something to pin on Google, but put pins in your boards. You can start out slow if you like, with a few boards with a few pins each, but fill your boards. Which brings me to the next tip.
• Do not leave empty boards. They’re unsightly, they’re lonely, they scream “I don’t know what I’m doing”, “I don’t want to be here”, “help me, help me.” In other words, not the image you want to project of a capable, professional writer.
• Do not use cutesy names for boards. Again, not the image of a professional writer. Now, you can be clever with names, have some fun, but text speak with cutesy-pie hearts is not what you should be using. Leave that to the teenagers.
• Do not have all group boards. Now I’m not suggesting you restrict the amount of group boards you want, just have a balancing amount of non-group boards as well. Not everyone wishes to join group boards so if you want followers give them choices to follow. 

What To Pin:

That is up to you, but book covers are a must, book trailers are fun, images with quotes from your books are great, and representative images for places and things from your books can be cool.  You can check out my profile for what I've done to get some ideas and examples:  http://www.pinterest.com/scribe77/

And feel free to repin anything.

Remember you want to present an interesting profile on Pinterest, one that will encourage followers, and repins.  So avoid boring and annoying at all costs.

If you have any questions, or tips of your own, please leave them in the comment section.