{"id":135,"date":"2009-05-15T14:22:22","date_gmt":"2009-05-15T21:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hiddenelephant.com\/blog\/?p=135"},"modified":"2011-09-06T22:21:12","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T06:21:12","slug":"ridiculous-app-store-rejection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hiddenelephant.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/15\/ridiculous-app-store-rejection\/","title":{"rendered":"Ridiculous App Store Rejection"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently submitted Judge Scrabby, a companion application to Scrabby (an anagram and Scrabble word finder), to Apple’s App Store.\u00c2\u00a0 The application is very simple and, in my humble opinion, does one thing extremely well.\u00c2\u00a0 Judge Scrabby simply tells you whether or not a challenged set of words are valid according to Scrabble game rules.<\/p>\n

Here’s the main screen where a user can get a quick refresher on how to perform a challenge and where they can enter the words being challenged:<\/p>\n

\"Judge<\/a><\/p>\n

I figured in about seven days time I’d hear back from Apple with my approval and I’d be off on my merry way.\u00c2\u00a0 But alas, life with Apple and the App Store is far from easy sometimes.<\/p>\n

About five days after my submission I received a rejection notice from Apple stating that Judge Scrabby “contains objectionable content.” I thought to myself that this had to me a mistake.\u00c2\u00a0 What could be so objectionable about a word verifier?\u00c2\u00a0 Then I saw it!\u00c2\u00a0 Apple was nice enough to include an attachment.\u00c2\u00a0 I opened it and saw the two images below (I’ve censored the “u” for your protection and in an attempt to be less “objectionable”).<\/p>\n

\"judgescrabby_censored\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"judgescrabby_censored_2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So there we have it.\u00c2\u00a0 Some potty mouth at Apple entered a few expletives and deemed my app to be objectionable because the words happen to be valid Scrabble words.\u00c2\u00a0 The funny thing is you can enter the very same words into, oh I don’t know, Safari.\u00c2\u00a0 Give it a whirl and let me know what you get back.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve sent a few emails to the app reviewers pleading my case and I actually got one response.\u00c2\u00a0 That was nice.\u00c2\u00a0 Too bad their response boiled down to “please see our previous email.”<\/p>\n

At this point I’m stuck unless I remove some bad words that a user has to type to actually see.\u00c2\u00a0 But why should I have to do that?\u00c2\u00a0 There are tons of apps in the store that accept these words and do much worse with them.\u00c2\u00a0 Some of the apps have functionality similar to Judge Scrabby.\u00c2\u00a0 Other popular dictionary applications, GASP, actually define the words.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 It all just feels a bit too arbitrary.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe I’m just being too sensitive about this.\u00c2\u00a0 After all, I was born in a communist country.<\/p>\n

You know I love you Apple.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t even begin to tell you how many people I’ve “converted” over the years (my favorites are the ones that say “there’s no way you can convince me to get a Mac”).\u00c2\u00a0 I wouldn’t say anything if I didn’t care.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about money in this case.\u00c2\u00a0 Come on, seriously.\u00c2\u00a0 Judge Scrabby might make enough for me to buy a handful of songs and apps on iTunes.\u00c2\u00a0 I say this as a shareholder, user, developer, and occasional Trent Reznor quoter:<\/p>\n

\n

“Come on Apple, think your policies through and for fuck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sake get your app approval scenario together.” NIN forums<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read more about rejected iPhone apps:<\/p>\n