A Flawed Rule System

A new, Twitter-like app is becoming the hottest topic of the social media world. In this app, users are able to post anything they desire and what they say is completely anonymous. The app is also restricted by location, meaning you only see posts from those within a few miles of your location. This app is called Yik Yak.

Yik Yak is mainly directed towards college students and college campuses, and it allows people to discuss their thoughts on current topics on campus. Like all social media apps, there are certain terms and conditions the users must follow and their membership could be suspended if these rules are broken. Many Yik Yak users follow the rules and post about classes, Mac food, the black swans and various other topics, but sometimes there is a bad seed, which turns into a rotten garden, which turns into an endless sea of offensive Yaks.

I witnessed a negative post ruin a friend's night this past Saturday. Someone completely degraded my friend in a post that included her full name and our sorority's name. '

I decided I would look over the rules that are supposed to govern the users of Yik Yak, and I found that they are not well enforced.

• "You do not bully or specifically target other yakkers."
• "You DO NOT bully or specifically target other yakkers."

I think it's somewhat humorous for the makers of Yik Yak to make this rule so important, but I can't explain how many times I have seen people personally called out by other yakkers in offensive posts. Names are sometimes included, which does not follow the rules. I find some of the yaks offensive even if they are not targeted towards me. People post about how awful Greek life is, how horny they are or how hot that girl was in Mac earlier. 

• "Zero tolerance policy on posting people's phone numbers."
• "Don't clutter people's feeds with useless of offensive yaks. If you see a useless of offensive yak, make sure you do your part by downvoting or reporting it."

For anyone who has looked at Yik Yak, the majority of the posts are useless or offensive. There is no monitoring system on Yik Yak other than the users. It is our responsibility to downvote or report offensive posts, however, a post must be downvoted at least 5 times to get it removed. Each vote is counted once on a post and you cannot vote more than once on the same post, so 5 or more people have to downvote a post, and hope that no one else upvotes that same post, to remove it from the page. Does that make sense? It doesn't make any sense in my opinion.

• "If your yaks continue to be downvoted or reported, you will be suspended." 

If you are actively on Yik Yak, please try to keep it clean. I am tired of seeing your comments about that hot girl in your Chem class or that you haven't had sex in too long. If you wouldn't want your name posted next to it, you probably shouldn't be posting it, and maybe we should all just stick to Twitter.