Why Can't We Have A Way To Not Be Sent Explicit Projects?
Seriously?!?
I never want to be sent a script like this again.
Why can't we check a box on our profile that says we don't want to be considered for this type of work?
| "Project ID: | 672C9552578B866BF04A |
[Part 1]:
just moan so nautghy. fuck hard."
I mean, how much more unprofessional could you be?
Ripley
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Yeah, that ought to be a couple rungs on the ladder below the minimum here. Like down in the acid pool at the bottom of the ladder. 😕
I'm willing to bet that male BunnyPros don't get this type of garbage where they are asked to moan and fake orgasms.
Why should the female talents have to put up with it?
If this were put on my desk at a regular office, I would file a sexual harassment complaint with HR.
Yeah, I have had some odd requests...but nothing quite like this that I can recall. I know that, on many other services, the ladies will put something like "no explicit sexual content" in their profiles. But, since clients can't see our profiles on VB, that isn't an option. There ought to be some way of addressing this built into the system.
I have been sent auditions for females and other ethnicities/accents that don't align with my profile or settings. I have gotten two inappropriate gig offers like this, I think. Believe me when I say that it is VERY unprofessional. Beyond the ramifications of if my daughters read that email by chance, if this is the type of work a service wants to be known for, I would question whether I wanted to be associated. This type of garbage is why I removed myself from Freelancer.
VoiceBunny QC can reject audio for a half a second of sibilance or a mouth click, but scripts that consist of nothing but profanity and lascivious instructions are just fine and dandy?
What the heck is going on at Bunny HQ??!!??
Definitely in agreement with you, Ripley. Simply being able to 'reject' such a project [at what cost to your stats??] is not enough, in this case.
I can appreciate that the client VB experience is geared towards 'Fast/Simple/Professional'. And a streamlined project submission process would be a critical component in realizing that experience. But, the talent [us, ya know, their vendors] should have the option of not seeing this type of project in the first place.
There's an algorithm that scans for phone numbers and email addresses. Why not one that scans for a pre-selected list of 'vulgar' and/or 'explicit' terms and ONLY allows scripts containing those words to be forwarded to talent who are willing to accept them?
To wit, client selects female talent - in this case, Ripley - for their profanity-riddled project. Upon submitting all the details, etc, client IMMEDIATELY receives a message stating that voice actor [insert Ripley's number here] does not accept this type of project. On that very same screen, the message 'but here is a list of other Bunny Pros who do' appears.
(Not to diminish the acting chops of the Talented Miss Ripley, but whoever submitted project 672C9552578B866BF04A probably doesn't actually care WHICH female talent moans for the mic. Basically ANY female voice between 18 and 81 will do).
Client then selects different talent, and the project promptly moves along toward completion.
Who wins?
VOICEBUNNY.
Why?
First, they better serve their client by saving them the hassle of receiving a rejection - which could take hours to see - and then having to select another female talent and hope THAT talent doesn't ALSO reject the project. VB can't really claim to be fast if their client must try 2 or 3 - or 10 - times to land on a talent who will accept the project. The project goes to a talent who WILL record it, and being less than a 10 word project, might possibly return the completed audio within 30 minutes or less. Sounds much more 'Bunny-Like', wouldn't you agree?
Secondly, they show respect to every roster talent who doesn't want this type of project. Yes, money is great! Show of hands - WHO LIKES GETTING PAID??!!?? Ok, put your hands down now. But respect matters as much - if not arguably more - than what a project adds to our bank account each month.
Long story short - this is an OPPORTUNITY for Voicebunny to become a better platform for EVERYONE involved.
First off, I am no prude. Anyone who knows me could tell you. So this comes from a guy who is looking at this purely through professional goggles. And, granted, I have a film credit where I played a part in a movie about a webcam girl. It was a tasteful film, nothing raunchy.
However, my talent agent does not and would not send me porn auditions. Why is VoiceBunny?
I've only encountered work like this on sites I expect to see unprofessional work from (UpWork, Fiverr, Freelancer, etc).
It's very disappointing. You're right Ripley, there should be a button on our profile. And that button should not be if we want to be excluded from this work. I believe that should be a deliberate opt IN. If this is the kind of work you want to do, we service these clients. I don't think we should have to click to opt out. My guess is more professionals wouldn't take that work than would.
Certainly, if I was going to sell myself out, it wouldn't be for $7.
Ripley -
In no way am I excusing the actions of VoiceBunny for not catching this or setting up systems to be able to screen for this kind of content, but VB's whole motto is Quick/Simple/Done.
Personally, I don't think the person who uploaded this script has a lot of experience working with talent or has been turned down from other places that they found VB on a whim and clicked send. I completely agree with you that at times it feels that we are being over critiqued for trying to operate at peak efficiency. But, we can receive projects all day that do not fit our voice, ethnicity, dialect, or, as in your case, are completely offensive.
We all have our lines in the sand that we don't cross when it comes to our brand i.e. Our Voice. Without our voices, VoiceBunny is just plain Bunny.
What's hard for me to understand how was that not part of the original backend design?? Even harder still, is that the creators/owners of VB, also V123 (Torre), never thought vulgar scripts would ever be uploaded. On V123, you are able to select Adult Content as something you'd like to receive. You're also able to select a whole multitude of other criteria, but that's for a different post.
Here's a solution - Just like there's an upcharge for a language that VB has fewer of If a client has a script that contains explicit content, there's an upcharge. Great way to pay for those programmers to add that explicit content scanning code. Looky there, solutions abound in this thread and ways for them to pay for them!
Hi Ripley and everyone
Allow me to sincerely apologize for the issue presented with this project. We usually don't receive this kind of content requests and we do try our best to screen the majority of projects that we can. However, our team is limited and we get many projects on a daily basis which makes it very complicated to ensure we review every single one of them we receive.
For this specific case, the user was a scammer that was taking advantage of our platform to post some spammy projects. We noticed thanks to your reports and took care of his projects right away. We have also removed their account and are currently taking measures to reduce these cases.
Our algorithm does try to filter certain projects depending on the client, but there are some users that slip by. We do our best to keep things as healthy as possible in our platform and we're really sorry that this happened this time. We're well aware this impacts your experience; trust me when I say we would never ignore that fact. We're growing fast and as we do, different challenges appear that we have to tackle and do our best to do so.
With this in mind, you're key to the success of our platform and for the pinpointing of these new challenges. Your reports of any project that includes disrespectful and/or rude language are very helpful for us and will allow us to review any project that may have slipped by us. Also, all the ideas you share on how we can tackle different challenges are very well taken into consideration. You know we're open to constructive criticism and any comments that are provided in a professional and respectful manner about our platform and we will always do as much as we can to turn them into fixes and new policies that make working with us a fulfilling experience.
Having said this, I would appreciate your patience and understanding when we have troubles. We've come a long way and we're proud to say that many problems present before are not that recurrent now, and we're striving to be better every day that passes. This, of course, will come with certain difficulties that we need to tackle. The more we grow, new issues will come and old ones may even resurface. We know this can create some frustration, but we're not giving up on the potential we have to be great and will keep striving for greatness. We hope you can see that and understand that despite having troubles sometimes, we have also completed thousands of projects with you within the years that have been successful.
Hi Angela,
Thanks for your response.
I understand what you're saying here, but at the same time... this script is up right now seeking auditions in my inbox.
i'll kill you! I'll kill you bitch! skank! I'll murder you fucken whore! This whore needs to die! Fucking fuck! I will fucking murder you! I will fuck you up I will make you bleed bitch! I will fucking END you! I will eat your face! I will bite your fucking tits off bitch im gonna rip your tits off! Eat my cunt! Eat my pussy bitch HAHAHA!! Im gonna eat your fucking face! Why did you fuck my boyfreind! you fucking cunt! ..."
I'm not seeing very many offers from VB these days even though I'm told that I have great stats. The projects I have seen in the past month have mostly been terrible, and when I do see something I want to participate in, I'm told my audio is compressed (when I don't use compression) or is sibilant (which my audio engineer swears isn't true) and the audio is rejected.
I'm confused, frustrated, and disappointed. It's not just the scripts in this thread, it's been others that border on pornographic, overtly misogynistic, or are even blatantly racist.
It breaks my heart to see what has happened to VB in the past year.
Working with you guys was my favorite part of being a VO. The way it looks right now... I don't know that being a BunnyPro is right for me anymore.
All I'm asking for in this discussion thread is a way for me to "opt out" of getting scripts like this.
These people have a right to produce these games, and I'm sure there are some people who like doing scripts like this. I, however, would like to go back to getting scripts like I got last year. Things like eLearning, product videos, video games that didn't involve direct threats of profane violence... you know, normal stuff like you see on Voice 123 and other platforms.
I don't want to seem like I'm attacking you guys. I just am having such a hard time understanding what's happening.
It seems like the VoiceBunny I worked for last year is long gone and I don't know how to get back to it.
Angela & company -
This script is worse than the first one.
There are two explanations for this:
1. This is a legit project that someone truly believes will sell and, whatever your beliefs, the fact is, we're living in an age of 'anything goes'.
2. This is another spammer/scammer that got through the VB system.
There are two solutions here:
1. VB implements a tool within their software to scan for certain words in scripts. If/when those words come up, the script is routed to a VB staffer for manual review and to check/verify the request to determine it's legitimacy. I can't imagine you're receiving an overabundance of scripts like this one for this to be a burden to VB staff.
2. Create a radio button or check box on the talent profile page allowing the talent to make the decision as to whether they'll work on this type of project or not. There are a number of on-camera casting sites that have this set up in their systems (ie: nudity) there is no good reason for VB not to follow suit.
I have no skin in the game on this since I'm still suspended, but I stand with my fellow voice talent in urging VB to take this situation a bit more seriously.
Dawn Davis
Hi
Thank you for your response. We believe all your points are valid and do help us a lot! As I said, without your input, it would be hard to grow and get where we are right now. Please do know we understand the point that you’re making and we acknowledge your discomfort with these cases.
As per this new project that Ripley shared, we received several flags once it was created that helped us make the appropriate investigation around it. After checking it, we came to the conclusion that this is a legit project. We allowed it to stay because the project is well posted, has a clear goal (it’s a script for a video game) and came from a real client who has worked with us in the past. We did, however, have a conversation regarding if it should be allowed to stay taking into consideration the nature of it and the language being used. In the end, we decided we wanted to let it run because, even though we do receive some complaints, we are also aware that there are users that are OK with recording this type of projects. What could be morally wrong for some, can be OK for others. We are strong promoters of free speech and while we know these projects can be controversial for some, we don’t want to censor and/or block a user from participating in a project if they are fine with it. Everyone has different moral values and we want to respect the right of every single individual to define what they feel is right without censoring anyone.
Having said this, I wanted to clarify that in the same way we want to protect the right of some users to post/complete controversial projects, we also want to protect your right to decline to participate in projects that don’t align to your beliefs. Keep in mind that refusing to participate in a contest or speedy that comes your way will not have any impact on your stats as long as you don’t accept it. These projects work in the same way as any other speedy and contest projects and the fact that you don’t want to work on it is totally fine. We give you free reign to choose in which projects you want to work on and we won’t force you to complete something you feel is not right for you. In the same way, not taking care of these invitations won’t impact the overall flow of invitations you receive nor will it impact your ranking within our algorithm. In the case that a project like this comes to you as a booking, we’re always available to reassign it and ensure your stats are not, in any way, impacted either. For this matter, you just need to flag the project and/or send us an email so we’re aware and take all the actions necessary.
The impact to your stats will only come if either one of these things happens:
Now, as I mentioned earlier, all your ideas to overcome the discomfort these projects can cause you are very much appreciated. I read many great points that you’re making and we’re definitely thrilled to see you’re so eager to help us grow and improve our service.
All of you in this thread have shared many ideas in the past with us, trust me when I say we have analyzed them all. However, all of these ideas pile up and our queue of product features and improvements is huge. In order to define, then, which ideas we should develop, we need to determine how important and/or critical they are and how much it will benefit our whole community of Pros if they go live. Keep in mind that we’re a platform of +15,000 users between clients and Pros and we need to ensure what we do benefits the majority, if not all, of our users.
As you can imagine, making everyone happy can be challenging and developing every single idea that comes our way would require unlimited engineering resources and whatnot. To give you an idea, some of the features we have in line include huge projects like time zones, direct communication with clients, the stats calculation, the rating system, our search algorithm, and many, many more. I mention this not to diminish the importance of explicit content projects, but just to show how many things we’re still trying to work on to make the platform better for everybody.
In order for our team to determine an idea’s priority, we need to show how many similar cases we’re receiving on a monthly basis. If we’re only receiving 1 or 2 a year, other features that can have a higher impact to our platform will get developed first. With this in mind, we have to gather the most accurate data to backup getting this (any other) idea to be approved and, in return, developed.
This is where your help really is key! Every time you see a project that includes this type of explicit content, let us know. Your reports help us gather all the data we need faster! You can do this in any way you want. Here are some examples of what you can do:
With all your help, I’m sure we can ensure this happens. We do our best to track as many cases as possible, but you’re the ones actually receiving the invitations. As I mentioned in my previous reply, your help really is key to our growth.
Thanks for your prompt response, Angela.
I agree that if a project is legitimate like this one is, then it should be offered for people who would want to participate. (As it stands right now, however, the project has been available for over 3 days and not even one woman has auditioned.)
I know that to make a change like adding an opt out feature is complex and time consuming, and also not an urgent priority. At the same time, we shouldn't be blindsided by projects like this either.
Allow me suggest that you guys ask the clients to VOLUNTARILY indicate in the title of the project if it contains explicit content, so that we can be prepared for what we may find in the script. If I'm on my laptop at my kitchen table with my next door neighbor or mother in law over at my house, I don't want them to look over at my screen and see a script that says, “fuck!, Shit!,Bitch. Cunt, Die!” and think that's what my work is all about.
You wouldn't need to change any code or redesign any pages, just add a sentence or two to the instructions page for submitting a script asking the client to indicate if the script contains mature language or explicit content.
Would that be acceptable for the BunnyTeam?
Because that would completely and totally solve my issues if the client would just name their projects something like "Video Game Character 3 - Explicit Content."
What do you all think?
Well-said, Ripley. I believe the site could benefit from some simple indicators that the client could fill out. I suggested this a long time back in the forum...but hadn't really thought it out much...and still haven't. But lots of these little things ought to be selectable, and things that we, as talent, might want to opt out of. For example, I don't enjoy doing video sync, even at twice the rate. I would like to have the power to turn away that work without VB or the client thinking badly of me. I might or might not take the option, but I'd like to have that choice. Also, clients don't always indicate when something is intended to be read in :30 or :60 time-frames. I can often intuit this...but shouldn't have to. They should tell us ahead of time if it's timed read. I simply think a handful of these selectable options might be nice...for example, categories of work that we might find problematic. For example, in my main VO career, I turn away work for alt-spirituality (Scientology, extreme far-right stuff I might consider hateful or at least very angry, etc). We ought to have the option to refuse this work without being penalized. I see this is something that might easily be incorporated. It's not a rush priority, but I think it ought to be somewhere in the plans.
Hi!
Sorry for taking some time to get back to you guys. As you know, we're getting many requests and it sometimes gets super challenging to keep up. We have a new team member as well who I'm training so we can both jump to respond to you fast and accurately! That has taken some of time but he's an awesome guy! You'll see him interacting here and via email soon.
Thank you for sharing all these comments. I do agree with all of them and I have already passed over so we can start gathering all the data and thinking of the best ways to do that.
I think Ripley's idea of the copy area is one that we can easily add. It may not happen for all our clients, but it's worth trying it out! We're currently making a major review of all our copy so I'll add this area to see if we can add this change.
Thanks again, everyone!
Angela,
That is the greatest thing I have heard from you guys in a while.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping us come up with a way to address this situation that can work for both the BunnyPros and the BunnyManagers.
I appreciate all of your time and hard work taking care of us here in the BunnyPatch.
Everyone in my Facebook BunnyPros group speaks very highly of you and all you do for all of us.