It was an ordinary day. Looking for a place to buy a few gardening tools online. Came across a site that listed the 12 essential garden tools for the beginner. Not sure I would be classified a beginner being that I am probably older than all of the dozen tools listed on the site. Tools listed were gloves, pruning shears, loppers (long handled pruners), garden fork, hand trowel, spade, rake, hoe, garden hose with adjustable nozzle, watering wand, watering can and a wheelbarrow. Sounded pretty simple to me. I checked what I already had and made a list of the rest and began my online search for what I was missing. But, during my search I also came across an Associated Press story written by Barbara Ortutay titled "Facebook trouble for gardening group." Began to read the story and found it rather humorous, yet it probably wasn't meant to be. Story told of a western New York gardening group who tried to help the readers of their Facebook Page with any gardening problems they may have such as an infestation of woolly bugs, plants that don't like inclement weather and what to do about novices that insist on using dish detergent on their plants. Oh yeah...there is one more problem! Seems that when they try and help someone by telling them they should use a hoe in their garden, "Facebook" will flag that particular tool since that word violates community standards. Perhaps by now you may have figured out what I am writing about.
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| The hoe is a gardening tool. |
As a gardening tool, a "hoe" is a sturdy, wide tool that is useful in preparing garden and flower beds and cutting down weeds. I have included a photograph of one for you to view, if you haven't ever seen one before or might have forgotten what they look like. Well, it seems that Facebook's automatic system has certain words that it flags as being offensive and will delete them. Tough for a gardening site to try and explain about a tool if they can't even give it a name. And, being that we have just been through quite a long period of time being in quarantine with many people taking up gardening, trying to explain what a "hoe" is used for while not being able to type the word "hoe" in the response is a definite problem for the gardening group. Well, Facebook said that when a gardening group member responds to a question online about what is...and how do you use a hoe, well they claim using the word goes against their standards for harassment and bullying. Well, it seems that the artificial intelligence programs of Facebook noticed it was against the rules programed into it and deleted the word "hoe". The gardening group evidently asked Facebook why they did that and Facebook in turn read what was being questioned and notified the Facebook group that they have corrected the problem for their Facebook site. They realized that on a gardening site that a hoe is a gardening tool. I assume by now in my story that you realize that to many people a "hoe" is the same as a "whore" and thus would be flagged by Facebook. And, if you still don't know what I am talking about...Google "whore' and if you still don't know what it means...well, forget it and read another one of my stories! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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