I submitted an app to the store that featured Scringo's new blog/chat room feature, and it was greeted with rejection for the following reason - 18.2: Apps that contain user generated content that is frequently pornographic (ex "Chat Roulette" apps) will be rejected That just doesn't make any sense - these rejection reasons are starting to drive me nuts. The chat room simply allows CHATTING..where on earth does this reviewer get the idea that pornographic content is going to show up in my app? In the future I am going to be submitting apps with the chat and radar features disabled - then I will enable upon approval. I did state my case to the reviewer in the resolution center. If he decides to be stubborn then I suppose I will be submitting yet another appeal

I haven't used Scringo but does the blog/chat room allow for photo uploads? Is that what they are talking about? Even still that is ridiculous.

Wow! so why is the facebook app allowed in the app store then?

Weird....I just had an app approved using Scringo's blog/chat room & radar feature. Maybe try again if you can't get through your appeal.

Very weird. Should I be disabling the radar feature in Scringo before submitting the app? Still trying to figure out why IAP isn't working :-) The default features I have enabled are: Activity, Messages, Radar, Find & Invite Friends, Feedback. Which features do you recommend disabling before submitting the app? Cheers

i've got radar in one (it was pre-chatroom scringo) and chat room in another, both approved ok, in fact the latter was uploaded, reviewed and in app-store all within 4 days. Good idea about hiding the chat room/radar if need be

If you have to appeal again, try the following text: Dear Reviewer, As an application developer, I have no control over how your mom intends to utilize the features and functionality of my app. I would wager that Apple's own native Photo app (with it's front facing camera, and one-tap sharing ability) has been used for more pornographic reasons than any of my own apps (by teens, U.S. Senators, etc). Kind Regards, Mr. Absentia, esq. (ok, maybe leave out the part about his mother, lol)

lol @Stobe! Are Apple about to release their own chat/radar sdk or something?

I have this enabled in 2 apps, although in one I renamed it to 'Who's On' and the other to 'Blog' You can always change the titles back after :)

I'm starting to think that the reviewer you have Abs, doesn't like you.

Ha, ha... I like Stobe´s letter... BTW, although Stobe´s letter is very polite, I´d recommend to never "Disrespect Apple" even if they deserve it...

Just read Stobe's example letter, funny!

haha yeah, Stobe has the right idea still waiting for a response...

Update: apparently user-generated content of any type falls under rule 18.2 This was my initial response to the reviewer: "Thanks for the feedback. I usually can agree with rejection reasons for the most part, but in this case I do not think 18.2 applies to my app at all and I sincerely hope you re-consider. There is a 0% chance that any pornographic content would ever appear in this app. The 'chat room' feature only allows for simple text conversations - users do not have the ability to upload images in any way whatsoever. The image gallery and video sections are not user generated either. No visual content in this app is user-generated. There are no submission rules against profanity and I have rated my app for mild/infrequent profanity in case any such profanity appears in the chat areas. Again, I sincerely hope that you re-consider this rejection. Thank you." And here is his response: Thank you for your reply. Regarding your app, we understand that the chat room is text only and users can not upload videos or photos. However, since the chat room involves user generated content, it would be appropriate to include in the app: - Use Moderators to flag and remove inappropriate content - Require that your users agree to terms (EULA) and these terms must be clear that there's no tolerance for objectionable content - Users need a way to flag or report objectionable content and/or users generating this content - Developer must act on objectionable content reports within 24 hours by removing the content and ejecting the user who provided the offending content - Developer needs a method for ejecting users who violate the terms of the EULA. We look forward to review your revised app.

Yikes. By the looks of that list, it seems that all of those solutions would fall in Scringo's lap. (if my understanding of how the chatroom works is correct). Looks like you'll need to have a chat room similar to the one my kids used to use in Webkinz, where you were only allowed to pick from pre-canned statements like: "Hi." "What's you're favorite color?" "My hovercraft is full of eels."

Scringo is talking about adding an EULA. Keep u posted! "I like turtles"

I want to laugh at Stobes joke, but these rejections are getting painful. Working on #4 myself. At first I laughed, but then I cried. I think that Apple just poked me in the eye.

Yikes! What a pain App*le can be :-) Basically, they are saying that you cannot include a 3rd party sdk like Scringo because you have no direct control over disabling certain functions (other than turning them off) :-) Now why isn't the Buzztouch source download including Scringo sdk in my app? :-)

Finally made it through After receiving that message, I sent another message letting him know that I "deleted" the chat feature from my back-end. My app then went into review and was rejected yet again because there were still links to the chat room in the activity feed I sent another message letting him know that I reset the activity feed and that there were now absolutely no traces of the chat feature left in my app. Went into review and got approved :) At least it's nice to know that the resolution center can be effectively used to argue your case Of course, the funny thing here is that after all of that I could just re-enable the chat feature now that the app is approved. I don't think I'm going to do that though. First of all I'm paranoid that the reviewer suspects that and is keeping an eye on the app, and second of all if I did that that would pretty much mean that I can't submit any updates. From what I've heard, I believe that updates go through the same reviewer here's the app - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/countdown-call-duty-ghosts/id647959593?ls=1&mt=8

OK then, so the lesson is: disable everything, get it approved, and then enable... ... just kidding...

Apple is messed up. I have several apps with chat features and have never had a problem. One reviewer gets a bug up his ass and ruins everything

welp I'm feeling dangerous..just re-enabled the chat rooms. Considering that there are about 1000 new apps and countless updates approved every day, I have to imagine that my app is now a distant memory in this reviewers mind

@Absentia. LOL. Let us know what happens. I disabled the radar and chat before submitting the app, and it went through without any issues. Now that it's in the App Store, I'm wondering if I should enable the Radar/Chat. :-)

I haven't had any issues since re-enabling. I would say go for it

I re-enabled the Radar yesterday but gotta fix some bugs with Scringo & maybe take out the Weather plugin as there is a limit of number of calls for it...working on first bug update :-)

Update: After experiencing having a live chat room in my app, I can sort of understand why Apple requires all of those features. The "Off topic" chat room in my 1D Quiz has absolutely blown up with activity (4000+ posts a day) and there are some really obnoxious and abusive users posting there. Unfortunately, I have no way of banning them - it really seems like a huge oversight on Scringo's part to release a chat feature without giving developers the ability to moderate. Granted, you can write an email to scringo requesting that they ban certain users, but that is not efficient at all. So, unfortunately I currently have no choice but to disable the chat feature. The majority of my users for that app are teenage girls and I just can't have horrible racism and profanity running rampant in the activity feed. I'm really hoping Scringo polishes this feature a bit more

You can moderate in scringo control panel.

I only see the ability to delete posts. Is there an option to ban users that I'm missing?

Delete posts in cp, ban users in the app (iirc)

Hmm well if that is the case then that just leads to another question - how do I log in as a moderator in the app?

No I think you are right, BLOCK user is what I was thinking. One for the scringo folks to add