Hello and welcome to the first Grommr Annual Report.
Our team decided to start producing this annual report as a way to peel back the curtain a bit on both our communities and our work. We hope this gives our members a better idea of what’s happening both in the community as a whole and behind the scenes.
This report contains three sections:
The first section is an infographic featuring datapoints about Grommr member activity in 2023.
The second section is a roundup of data from our admin team’s work throughout 2023.
And the third section is a timeline of technical, community and admin developments since Grommr’s launch in 2011.
Grommr Community Data 2023
Admin Data 2023
This section of the report includes data from our admin team’s work across all five Grokio Communities.
Policy Violation Reports
In 2023, we received 51,981 reports from members (which we call “tickets”). These tickets can range in subject matter from technical issues and feature requests to community questions to reporting rule violations.
Of the 51,981 tickets received, the vast majority (around 75%) were reporting a rule violation on the platform. The following pie chart provides a breakdown of percentages of tickets handled by policy violation type:
Rule Violations Glossary
Ban Evader: A member who re-creates an unauthorized account after being permanently banned.
Disparagement: Disparaging another community member in the newsfeed.
Donation Requests: Requests for money or in kind contributions in the newseed, or unprompted via private message.
False Portrayal: Pretending to be someone else or maintaining more than one profile.
Harassment: Harassment via the newsfeed or private message, including sexual harassment
Illegal Activities: Any activity that violates the law, including the sale of drugs or sex, pursuing minors, threatening others, etc.
Intolerance: Any racist, misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic or ableist content.
Promotional Content: Promoting paid content outside of the limits set for the community.
Photo Policy: Posting public photos that violate our photo policy.
Spamming: Repeatedly posting the same or similar content in the newsfeed.
Trolling: Posting inflammatory content for the sole purpose of provoking others.
Investigations
Every ticket submitted to our admin team is investigated. When evidence is not publicly available (for example, in a newsfeed post or public photo), our admins will request screenshots or other forms of proof. In rare circumstances, where physical evidence is not available, our admins may rely on the accounts of witnesses.
If the evidence proves a violation of our rules, the admin will take appropriate action. The resulting actions may include the removal of content and/or the warning, temporary suspension or permanent removal of a member.
Our admins take no action on 6% of reports we receive, as a result of determining that the reported behavior is not against our rules.
A further 10% of reporters are not able to provide enough evidence for our admins to take action. Action is only taken when our admins receive credible evidence to support the reporter’s account.
Appeals and Escalations
Whenever a member requests a second opinion on a decision an admin has made, the ticket is escalated to our Senior Admin Team, which reviews the ticket fresh and makes a final determination. This process ensures that members get a fair hearing in situations where they disagree with the original decision and also helps to prevent mistakes by one admin from having larger consequences (such as permanent removal).
Admins also occasionally escalate a ticket to the Senior Admin Team if it involves highly sensitive circumstances, such as illegal activity or the removal of a longtime member’s profile.
In 2023, 4,134 tickets were escalated to the Senior Admin Team for review.
Member Removals
While we wish we never had to resort to permanently removing members, unfortunately, it is required as part of keeping our communities safe. For most rule violations a member is given warnings and even a temporary suspension before being permanently removed. For more extreme rule violations, such as illegal activity, members are removed immediately.
The majority of profile removals are for ban evasion (members who had previously been removed and then re-created unauthorized accounts).
In 2023, our admins removed 11,033 profiles for policy violations.
Verifications
Our admin team performs two kinds of verification when needed: Age verification and photo verification.
In the event that there is reason to believe a member may not be at least 18 years of age, our admins will reach out to verify their age via a government-issued ID. Failure to verify results in the permanent removal of the profile.
In 2023, we performed 1,660 age verifications.
We also receive reports from members who suspect a profile is not the person they are presenting to be in their photos. When we agree, our admins will reach out to verify their identity, requesting a custom-photo with specific instructions. Failure to verify results in the removal of all photos and a temporary suspension for a first-time violation, and, if photos are re-posted and the member is unable to verify again, permanent removal. First-time violations by new profiles are permanently removed.
In 2023, we performed 1,533 photo verifications.