Sharing content shares the love! But there are some pitfalls. This is how Popplet manages inappropriate content in our public boards…
Part of the amazing growth of Popplet that we didn’t quite predict is how well our visual thinking app can be used by learners of any age. Popplet has been designed with a minimal aesthetic in order to help you to keep the focus on your ideas and information. While other mind map and content collation apps offer you more bells and whistles, our minimal interface gives you a toolset that can get you started straight away. We let you focus on connecting ideas and organizing concepts rather than wasting several hours picking a font or choosing which type of end arrowhead to use (yes, we know what that’s like too!).
This design approach has meant that Popplet is accessible to anyone in any language, which has lead to a globalization of Popplet. The second impact our design style has had is the one we didn’t expect in such large numbers: that Popplet would be loved and used by learners, hobbyists and professionals of all ages. Alongside our many creative professionals and businesses using Popplet, we have also grown a large primary (elementary) school contingent of Popplet users. We are proud that Popplet has become a central resource, for example, amongst kinderchat classrooms around the globe.
With the launch of our new Public Popplets, it is exciting to see more examples of how Popplet is being used by all ages, but with this comes the responsibility to make sure that the content that is shared is age-appropriate to potential readers.
When we introduced Public Popplets, we made sure to add a new “report inappropriate content” button to all publicly presented popplets. This allows anyone in the Popplet community to let us know when there is content in a public popplet that perhaps should not be seen by just anyone that happens along. The Popplet Team is always keen on seeing how people are using Popplet, so we are often viewing the latest public popplets in any case.
If you come across any public popplets that you would like us to review, please click on the report inappropriate content button. We immediately set the popplet back to private, and let the popplet creator know. You can still put any content in your private popplets, that’s none of our business: but we do want to make sure users of all ages are safe to use Popplet at any time.
And with this added functionality comes problems of its own. We do have some Popplet users who click the inappropriate content button on perfectly legitmate content. This happened to teacher Angie Wassenmiller last week. She shared her popplet on cybercheating via our Public Popplets and it was soon tagged as inappropriate (perhaps by a nefarious student who was planning to plagiarise her work?!).
We were able to resolve the problem with Angie quickly. Please be assured that if the same thing happens to you, don’t take it too personally. We will have your public popplets back out there as soon as we can!
Of course, you could always do what Angie did and share a copy of your Popplet in a blog post or on a website! Using our HTML embed code or by saving your Popplet images and publishing them you can share your popplets publicly – and they aren’t adjudicated by our inappropriate content button!
Thanks for your patience if you do have your popplets mistakenly tagged when sharing content. And, please, help us keep the Public Popplets board open, accessible and safe to everyone by letting us know if something doesn’t sit right with you.
As always, keep popping!