Guest Books and online discussion boards are great methods
of obtaining feedback from web site visitors. Unfortunately,
a number of idiots use these public feedback mechanisms for
more devious means. We had the web site of one of these idiots
shut down a couple of days ago. More on that a little later
in this article.
A very basic method that people use to promote their web sites
is through guest books, forums and feedback pages. They leave
a comment, and also the URL of their site, in the hope that
people reading the entry will investigate the link. That isn't
so much of a problem if the subject of the site is appropriate.
With many search engines also boosting page rankings of sites
based on the number of links that refer to that particular site,
this practice is on the increase.
And this is where the problem begins....
Most of us run web sites that are for general viewing. We have
visitors as young as 12 using our site on a regular basis. Our
online destination is a relatively safe place for young people,
and we want to keep it that way. That means constant monitoring
of our guest book and forums.
In recent months, I have removed many links in my guest book
which refer to sites that contain pornographic and scam material.
While I respect the right of people to view what they wish to
on the Internet, there are limitations. Especially when references
to "that" content appear on OUR site - and even more
so when they involve child pornography.
Last week, a guest book entry included a link to a site referencing
child pornography. We were sickened by the discovery.
Enough was enough!
I had included a statement a month ago in the guest book warning
spammers that I would remove inappropriate links from the guest
book - obviously it wasn't stated strongly enough. We contacted
the free web host, Tripod, that were unwittingly hosting this
site. To their credit, Tripod shut down the site immediately
and is continuing investigations.
We also revised our guest book in line with the new anti-spam
initiative we have launched. We hope other web masters will
join the new free service we are providing. For details:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/antispam/antispam.htm.
In around 90% of incidents relating to inappropriate links in
public feedback pages; the majority lead to free hosting services
members' pages. Most free hosts that I know of do not permit
pornographic, hate, piracy and pinup sites to be published to
their servers and are happy to remove such pages. Many of the
fools that create these web sites do so in the hope of creating
some fast bucks through the affiliate programs offered by adult
industry sites. As far as I am aware, the online adult industry
as represented by it's various official organisations forbids
this kind of promotion by affiliates.
As for the child porn industry - well, those low-life, blood
sucking invertebrates can ALL rot in hell!!! They are parasites,
leeches, nothing more... they suck out the lives of innocent
young people to line their pockets. They are a blight on this
wonderous communications medium - the World Wide Web
Join us in fighting the spammmers!
The incident on our site last week has spurred us on to create
a new program that web masters can join for free. We are now
making it a priority to chase public feedback page spammers
who abuse our member sites and will support other web masters
in this cause. We look forward to teaming up with all those
interested in joining our initiative - for more information:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/antispam/antispam.htm.
As web masters, we have the pleasure of watching visitors use
and benefit from our sites, but also the very serious responsibility
of being responsible for what is contained on them. While we
may post "exclusion of liability" and "terms
of service" notices on our sites, that does not absolve
us from the task of monitoring our content. In the future, there
may also be legal implications, regardless of the disclaimers
we use.
Do you want to be part of the problem, or part of the solution?
Deleting these links is not enough. Even though the sites may
be shut down only to spring up again, at least we can cut off
this avenue of their promotion and keep our guest books and
forums for the purposes they were intended.
Let's do our bit in cleaning up the Internet! We look forward
to your participation; for details:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/antispam/antispam.htm.
"We're mad as hell and we aren't going to take it any more!"
by Michael Bloch
michael@tamingthebeast.net
http://www.tamingthebeast.net
Tutorials, web content and tools, software and community.
Web Marketing, eCommerce & Development solutions.
_____________________________________________
Copyright information....If you wish to reproduce this article,
please acknowledge "Taming the Beast" by including
a hyperlink or reference to the website (www.tamingthebeast.net)
& send me an email letting me know. The article must be
reproduced in it's entirety & this copyright statement must
be included. Thanks.
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