Google’s Play Store gives a worse age rating to Fleksy, a Gboard rival • Hacker News Board

Re: Google’s Play Store gives a worse age rating to Fleksy, a Gboard rival

#111

Post by Bartweiss » Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 12:42 PM UTC

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #96

Bartweiss wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, this could be as simple as internal app teams not going through the same form, or not getting re-reviewed automatically because it's assumed they'll speak up if they add anything objectionable. And Fleksy's point about being targeted for their increasing use count wouldn't require intentional targeting either - that could just be an automatic "trigger an extra review when user count grows enough". Which doesn…

Letting your own apps bypass the review process sounds pretty anti-competitive to me...

Yeah, that was a weak example on my part. If they're actually skipping the normal review process, that's either malice or unreasonable negligence. And the Google Play followup of "your app is mature and should be PEGI 16" implies a human paid actual attention to this case, which makes it seem much less innocent.

I guess I can imagine some special cases that wouldn't be Google treating itself differently, like triggering reviews when a publisher's largest app crosses a size threshold and assuming established publishers can trusted more generously. But honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Google just carved out an internal exception.

And the PEGI 16 request goes beyond "not the same treatment as Gboard" to "objectively incorrect review outcome", so regardless something is fishy...

Re: Google’s Play Store gives a worse age rating to Fleksy, a Gboard rival

#112

Post by jakemal » Thu, Oct 24, 2019, 4:48 PM UTC

marcusverus wrote: post #107

jakemal wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't you think it should exist?

It's universal sign language for "fuck you". Profanity is frowned upon.

I think Google should steer clear of being the morality police. It's up to people to use emojis (and words) responsibly depending on the context.

Re: Google’s Play Store gives a worse age rating to Fleksy, a Gboard rival

#113

Post by vzaliva » Tue, Oct 29, 2019, 10:23 PM UTC

daxelrod wrote: post #89

vzaliva wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The word "fuck" is in the dictionary. That does not mean it is universally appropriate.

Continuing this metaphor: what age rating would you give to a dictionary containing the word "fuck"?

I think dictionaries must not be age rated.

Re: Google’s Play Store gives a worse age rating to Fleksy, a Gboard rival

#114

Post by daxelrod » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 7:51 PM UTC

vzaliva wrote: post #113

daxelrod wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Continuing this metaphor: what age rating would you give to a dictionary containing the word "fuck"?

I think dictionaries must not be age rated.

That's my point. Every Unicode character may not be universally appropriate, but it's just as silly to age-rate a dictionary as it is a keyboard that simply contains a list of Unicode characters.