Limit searches to not show smut

[illini56]

Is there a way to limit searches to not show smut in the Nook Bookstore? If not, can B&N develop one and share it?

[#2]

LOL. I think the option to exclude erotica is a good one, especially if we actually get a box on the screen that says "Exclude Smut?"

There is currently no way to do this.

FWIW, I think B&N probably sells a lot of erotica - it's pretty popular right now. So a "Smut Only?" option might be a good idea too.

[#3]

Based on what comes up in searches, there's no indication that B&N has any idea what category any particular book belongs in, so they just put them in multiple random categories. Before they would be able to select based on categories, they'd have to have decent categorization. That would take actual work.

[#4]

B&N book categorization:

Employee 1: Okay, next we have "Who Moved My Cheese?"
Employee 2: Hmm, sounds like a cookbook.
Employee 1: Okay, Cookbooks it is. How about "Artemis Fowl?"
Employee 2: Definitely put that in both the Animals and Nature categories, and maybe Mythology too.
Employee 1: Done. This next one is titled "Smutty Alien Does Dallas."
Employee 2: Dunno. Just put that one in all the categories.

[#5]

Re: B&N book categorization:

Silly. "Smutty Alien Does Dallas" belongs in Travel.

[#6]

And "Naughty Nurses on Holiday" should be... Christmas. And Medical.

[#7]

"Smutty Alien Does Dallas" => Entertainment - Television - Biography

[#8]

What's the definition of smut? Yours, mine, someone else's? How do they come up with a definition to exclude? If it mentions sex, is it smut? It is to some people. At what point does a romance novel become smut?

[#9]

My definition? If you remove all the sex and the novel becomes are really contrived novella, or short story, then it's erotica. If the story can stand on its own, and there's enough story to still have a story after taking out the sex, it's not erotica.

This assumes that smut = erotica, and is not a value judgment on said erotica.

FWIW, not all erotica/smut has romance in it.

[#10]

Even the Supreme Court has opined that it's impossible to define smut. Here's the famous "I know it when I see it" statement:

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["hard-core pornography"]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that."
—Justice Potter Stewart, concurring opinion in Jacobellis v. Ohio 378 U.S. 184 (1964), regarding possible obscenity in "The Lovers."

[#11]

I know it when I see it too and some of those covers and titles alone would qualify.

There are more than a few porn books that appear. In some states porn cannot be sold to minors. Those at least must already be classified and that would be a start as I am SURE B&N would never break the law by selling porn to minors in states where it is illegal. How do they stop this now.

I am not saying B&N has no right to sell whatever they want but I should not be forced to look at it.

[#12]

Couldn't B&N be accused of censorship if they made a determination that something was "smut"? Could they be sued? If I wrote a book and B&N tagged it as smut, I'm sure there's some legal recourse, that the tagged and categorized the book incorrectly and hurt my reputation. What gives B&N the right to define my book as smut? Based on whose opinion? Yours? Why does yours (and I'm using that generically, not specifically to one person) be the definition by which everyone else has to live with.

You're asking for a way to filter out something that isn't easily definable.

Over on Smashwords they have an experimental filter where they ask the author if it is suitable for those under 18. If not, it gets tagged as adult. They explain this: Please note that adults-only can mean many things. When browsing with the adult filter on, you not only filter out books with adult language, scenes, and sex, but you also filter out some books with no sexual content whatsoever.

[#13]

I suppose that depends on whether the OP is referring to erotica (which is a category of books) or adult-only content. Erotica is a marketing category - publishers use the term, authors use it. So, no, I don't think it's a form of censorship. The problem that B&N has is that their books are NOT correctly categorized. You should not get erotica in a search for sci-fi, just like you should not get cookbooks in that same search. And when you search for erotica you should not get sci-fi and cookbooks (unless they are erotic, of course). Just like when you're browsing in-store, the mysteries should all be together in the same section, not mixed in with the self-help.

Now if someone were to make a value judgment about adult content, I would completely agree that it's unacceptable. That definitely is censorship.

So -
Using marketing categories to help people search --> thumbs up
Making value and/or morality judgments --> thumbs down

[#14]

People have been complaining about the inadequate search function here for well over a year, including this recent pointer to a blog post about the issue -- http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Community-Room/Is-book-search-frustrating-you/m-p/1352376/hig... -- and this one from 2011 about the very same issue we're discussing here -- http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/NOOK-Color-General-Discussion/Sensored-Searches/m-p/889754/hi... It's also interesting to see Pubit authors complaining that they can't find their own books, when they're the ones who've entered the categories into the system. See here -- http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/PubIt-Help-Board/Difficulty-finding-my-nook-book-through-cate... -- and here -- http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/PubIt-Help-Board/bn-com-NOOKbook-search-limitations/m-p/84381... -- for example.

In none of these cases has B&N responded publicly or done anything to ameliorate the situation (as far as I can tell by skimming the threads). Now that we have this shiny new "Ask B&N" board, maybe they'll actually favor us with a response. Not holding my breath, though.

[#15]

Keriflur, I would agree, if the author and or the publisher have categorized it as erotic, that's one thing, but arbitrary decisions by a retailer, not a good idea. I'm not sure what the original poster meant, but some of the posts, "I know it when I see it" leans towards value judgments. Exclusionary searches or filter can have unintended results. Whenever you tell a program to not include something, it's going to do just that. Categorizing is about the only way you can do it, and that assumes the book has been categorized correctly by the author or publisher. Now how the retailer implements the categorization is another thing.

[#16]

This is not rocket surgery. There is a category clearly labeled Erotica, that has over 30,000 titles. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/?sort=R&size=90&dref=2323%2C2327&fmt=ebook&srt=r&store=ebook&sze=10&... Not that hard to recognize that the Naughty Nooners series is adult. Many of these titles can also show up in other searches. It should be an option for any given user to set a preference that anything tagged as Erotica should not show up in other searches.

[#17]

The first amendment applies to the government, not to private "persons" (includes organizations). So-called "censorship" is practiced all the time, including on most message boards (including here). That happens to be fine with me.

And yes, you can sue anybody for anything.

[#18]

"It should be an option for any given user to set a preference that anything tagged as Erotica should not show up in other searches."

Yes, it should, but it needs to be part of a larger initiative to clean up the categories and fix the search. Because right now, if I were to check a box that says "no Erotica", who knows what else I might be excluding? Options only work if the underlying architecture works, and right now we know it doesn't.

[#19]

Actually, if you use the erotica search above, I don't see anything offhand that doesn't belong there. I have run into the problem that a lot of it also shows up in other categories, whether rightly or wrongly, but it looks like 99% of it definitely merits the erotica tag.

[#20]

I assume "smut" is being defined by the OP as any and all sex graphically described in any book, though I could be wrong. As far as the comment on the book covers, there are plenty of books with half dressed men and women on them that contain little to no graphic sex in them.

[#21]

I have frequently found that any basic simple search, even just browsing through new releases, finds clearly labeled and obvious erotica. I don't think we need to jump to any conclusion that the OP wants censorship or vetting of every book that might have a love scene, just a way to avoid the blatant and clearly labeled erotic material.

[#22]

I would really like this option as well, especially for minors who own a nook, the lack of ability to avoid erotica and other pornographic material in even your basic searches is simply unacceptable. I would encourage anyone and everyone who desires this option to not only talk about it here in the forums, but call up customer support and politely share your desire for this option to become available.

[#23]

COME ON PEOPLE! (And yes I just shouted in caps.)
We are talking about full nudity on covers, couples having sex on covers - this is a no brainer. That stuff has been successfully censored for years on TV - all we're asking is the abilty to check a box on our search engine!
I have to go back to KINDLE!

[#24]

Thank you Chris

[#25]

And we're talking about books about BONDAGE and sadism/masochism, no matter how popular, being the Spotlight book earlier this summer. I try to read the reviews and it took quite a bit of reading to find this out. I have no interest in this kind of stuff. If you do, fine. But it really has no place as a Spotlight book for an entire month - or being pre-loaded on new Nooks either. [My father reported such on one I sent him for Father's Day.]

[#26]

Franadora - The book you're referring to has topped the NYT bestseller list for months. Every bookseller out there is pushing it. I can't fault B&N for making it a spotlight book as the readers of America have put it in that position by buying it in such large numbers.

As for pre-loaded samples, I haven't read the sample, but if there is no X-rated content in the sample, I'm not sure I can fault B&N for this either.

[#27]

My mom read the sample and from what I recall, she was unaware it was an erotic book from what she read. I'm thinking if this process to filter out something it would have been done by know by someone other than Smashwords. On another thread some posted about searching for Toy Story. I searched both BN and Amazon and pretty much got the same results.

I wish I could filter out books about serial killers, I hate them, don't want them showing up in my searches.

[#28]

I have a friend who would like to filter out any books with rape in them, and know another person who would like to filter out any books where children die. For me it's books where animals are tortured or are gratuitously killed. I just don't want to read them and hate, hate, hate when I come across it unexpectedly.

As we talked about upthread, though, getting the categories right is about the only thing B&N can do without dipping into the censorship realm. If they get the categories right, and provide a search that allows you not only to include categories but also to exclude them, then they'd be doing everything I could ask of them.

[MessianicReader · Accepted solution]

Sadly, there is currently no option available.  I have brought this up with CS before in both chat and phone support.  I would encourage you to do likewise and share your concern politely.  The more people who share their desire to have an option like this available, the better.