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The Latest Escort Directory

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:12:40 -0500

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There is hundreds of adult film companies today, releasing tens of thousands of productions, recorded directly on video, with minimal sets. Of late, web-cams and web-cam recordings are again expanding the market. Thousands of pornographic actors work in front of the camera (and still thousands more behind the scenes) working to satisfy pornography consumers' demand.

Online Forums: 21 Common Member Complaints

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 02:03:07 -0500

Online Forums are an excellent way of connecting with people all over the world. Online discussions promote sharing of ideas, communication and provide a sense of community. Unfortunately, the benefits can sometimes be overshadowed by frustrating features which irritate members even to the point of leaving the forum.

Online message boards should be built with usability and readability in mind. A user-centric functionality makes visitors more comfortable and the experience all the more enjoyable. Of course forum software is constantly being upgraded to become more user friendly. Whilst some faults are easy to fix, others are inherent in the nature of open online discussion.

Here are some common complaints about Online Forums:

1.    Spammy Comments - Forums can become flooded with spammers. Also called trolls, they destroy the forum experience by posting irrelevant self -serving messages just for the sake of gaining a link to their website.

2.    Wasting time reading or scrolling through irrelevant and unnecessary comments.

3.    Excessive Advertising - ads are annoying on any website, but even more so on forums, because they are made to be interactive. Members are constantly searching, reading and posting. Advertising is highly scorned, especially when it interferes with posts and the forum's usability.

4.    Content being too narrow on large screens - users have complained about posts being too cramped and un-expandable even with wide screens.

5.    Small HTML editor even when maximized.

6.    The forums' fundamentally addictive nature. Let’s face it, forum use can become obsessive. Members have left simply to stop themselves from spending too much time on the forum. Their behavior leads to procrastination and difficulties with time management.

7.    No preview prior to posting - although most software does have this feature.

8.    Amateur search function.

9.    Too many "me too" type comments - especially for expert forum users. Industry experts such as SEOs and webmasters use forums in their line of work. They bounce ideas off other specialists and like to stay abreast of news and events. They only want quality relevant posts.

10.    Smilies not being recognized in posts - this is a must for forums. Online discussions are a place where emotions can run high, especially on controversial topics. It's also where people try to build and maintain relationships and show respect for one another. Emoticons provide that oomph often needed to emphasize and give character to the user's point. One user has even stated she feels naked without emoticons.

11.    No spell check option - many people should actually have this feature.

12.    Site accessibility being disabled when editor is open.

13.    Spammy posts not being removed - highly annoying, especially when a member is trying to obtain relevant answers to their important question.

14.    Having to type unique names or titles when uploading images - this requirement seems very unnecessary and can really agitate members.

15.    Too complex to use - once again usability is key. If new members can't figure out how to use your forum, they are more than likely to give up and leave.

16.    Quantity of posts outweighing quality (signal to noise ratio). Some forums actually promote mass posting without screening quality. Some even run competitions, offering prizes to the person who has the most posts that month. This just encourages members to write meaningless short messages just for the sake of adding something. Forum owners should focus on encouraging quality content.

17.    Over ranting - members raving and carrying on about a topic in a trivial manner. There's probably not much moderators can do about the matter other than close the thread, depending on what the forum rules allow them to do.

18.    Overly small post character limits.

19.    People posting untrue comments or exaggerated claims - this is absolutely frustrating for genuine members who try to uncover the truth for others. Members get attacked by other users for stating their opinion, even when it is factually correct. This is however, the nature of Forums, where people can speak freely, even if it's factually incorrect.

20.    Overuse of sarcasm - another aspect that can't really be helped but which annoys some members.

21.    Unscrupulous moderators. Members appreciate dealing with moderators who are fair and honest. Many feel unfairly singled out and picked on when moderators take action against them. The best way of aiding this situation is to have clear forum rules and for moderators to give members an opportunity to rectify their own behavior where possible. Before action is taken, notice and reasoning should be given to the member to keep relationships civil.

Obviously the pitfalls of online message boards aren't enough for people to cease their use. It is however useful for forum owners to see how others feel about online discussion sites.

Online Forums: 20 Forum Spam Mods & Tools

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 06:02:41 -0500

Online forums, unprotected and unmonitored, are a ripe environment for spambots and manual spammers. Luckily, tools and mods have been developed to make it harder to penetrate online discussions.

Here is a list of anti-spam options for online forums:

1.    Email Verification - requires the registrant to click on a validation link automatically sent to their email address. Many online forums have success with this feature since spammers rarely click on the link.

2.    Open Proxy Registrant Blocking - a mod which blocks anyone requesting registration via an open proxy server. Requests from these servers are typically malicious.

3.    Member Profile Required Field Configuration - enables admins to specify required fields for member profiles. It's advisable not to require too much personally identifiably information. An idea would be to try requiring reasons for joining the forum as one of the mandatory fields.

4.    Cryptographic Signing - disables spambots by ensuring that a. posts have come from the appropriate comment form, b. that the form was generated for that user and c. a required period of time (say 5 seconds) has elapsed between the time the form was generated and submission. Unless all of these conditions are satisfied, then the poster is fronted with a preview of the post, enabling humans to submit at that stage.

5.    Textual Confirmation (TC) - like captcha, it requires human input of an answer. TC asks the registrant a question like "what is 2 + 3" or "what letter comes after E in the alphabet". The questions are simple enough for any human to answer, but undetectable by robots. If the answer is incorrect, the registration is rejected.

6.    Disabling website signatures - many online forums hide the signature fields at the registration stage. This mod denies registrations where information has been entered into the hidden signature fields. Most spambot registrations are eliminated this way because they are made to fill in the URL and signature fields. If you have an IP ban activated, their IP will also be automatically blocked. This mod is recommended by many online forum site owners.

7.    Swear filter - enables admin to specify common spammy words such as pharmacy. The filter can usually perform a number of functions such as replacing those words with alternative words or characters, deleting the word or deleting the whole post. Some swear filters can ignore whitespace and even all non-alphanumeric characters (so a post containing the word p.h.a!r.ma.c.y would be deleted because only the plain text would be readable).

8.    Image verification or Captcha - requires registrants to retype the words or characters they are shown in a distorted image. Other computers can't read these images, thereby preventing automated registrations to online forums.

9.    Spambot Profile Information - this mod will reject registrations which have filled in the profile details where the message specifically stated "leave the Profile Information blank".

10.    IP Blocking - another filter for online forums where administrators can ban certain users by their IP.

11.    Flood Control - admin can limit the number of posts or thread creations per user within a period of time defined by the administrator. This prevents a user generating multiple successive posts and therefore stops spambots from flooding the forum with irrelevant short messages. It can generally be disabled for certain user groups.

12.    Mass pruning - enables mass deletion of inactive accounts based on conditions chosen by admin. For example, deleting basic members who have not logged into the online forum within the past year and who have no posts. You should send a warning email to all members notifying them of mass pruning and advising them to log in if they wish to keep their account.

13.    Member Reporting - every post and thread should have a "report" link, enabling members to alert moderators/administrators to spammy posts.

14.    Profile Link removed from registration process - if a request is submitted with that field enabled (which would normally come from an automated request) the registration is rejected.

15.    URL filter - blocks users based on nominated URLs.

16.    Domain Name Filter - enables administrators to input a domain name list or extract required domain names from large lists to filter.

17.    Link Rejecters - prevents messages being posted to online forums by guests or visitors if they contain a link. The mod sends a message to the guest asking them to remove the link prior to posting. If the message was generated by a bot, the message will never get posted since bots won't redo the post.

18.    Blacklist Mods - these services track thousands of names, IPs and email addresses used by spambots and automatically reject registrants containing those details.

19. External Filtering Services - used to verify whether questionable data is spam or not.

20. Spam Subforum - hidden from genuine members, spammers are directed here away from the main site.

Whilst it's difficult to stop 100% of online forum spam, the above tools will help to dramatically reduce instances of attack.

Online Forums: 5 Simple Tips to Stop Forum Spam

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 05:50:18 -0500

Online Forums provide so many benefits to all involved. The site owner is able to earn income and promote other websites through the forum, the moderator can earn experience and act as arbitrator of an online community and of course the members, who get to share ideas and experiences, receive practical advice and even gain some exposure.

Unfortunately, spammers and trolls destroy these experiences. Spammers and spam bots are a grave concern to any forum owner. Left unmonitored, spam can really devastate an online forum community. Fortunately, there are some tricks and tools available to help ease the problem.

1. Moderators for Online Forums.

Moderators help eradicate spammy posts and users. They have the power to edit and/or delete posts and to deactivate or suspend members. It can be a demanding and stressful task, especially for busy discussion sites. If you're struggling to moderate, you can either employ moderators or seek some voluntary help.

You will need specific forum rules and perhaps even training guides for your moderators. Make sure they know exactly what's expected of them. Set up procedures for dealing with spammers. For example, some users may spam unintentionally, without even realizing they're in breach. You want to weed out the real spammers without alienating unsuspecting members.

Unless the comments or members are clearly and unequivocally spam (you know which ones these include), then your moderators should give the member a chance to remedy their actions. Allowing users to edit or remove their own posts will make them feel more valuable than just deleting them without giving any reason. This will reduce your spam whilst maintaining good relationships with your members.

2. Block Open Proxy Registrants

Open proxies are publicly available proxy servers, accessible by any internet user. The proxy server is a computer system or application program which acts as an intermediary between the user making the request and the other server. An internet user connects to the proxy server to request some service from another server. This may be a file, connection, a web page or another resource. The purpose of doing this is usually to stay anonymous or for security purposes.

Unfortunately, spammers use open servers to make registration requests on forums. When you receive a registration attempt from proxy servers, they are generally detrimental and malicious. You need to be able to detect open proxy registrations and prevent them. If your forum software doesn't have this feature, you should download or purchase a mod which blocks open proxy registrants.

3. Configure Member Profile Required Fields

Requiring registrants to manually enter information is another way to help prevent spam on online forums. Don't ask for too much information which personally identifies your members, such as their birth date and full name. Remember, Forum members like the anonymity offered by online discussions.

Rather, you may look at including a field for as to why the member wishes to join your forum. If you're not satisfied their answer is legitimate, you can always deny their request.

4. Image Verification for online forums

More commonly known as captcha, image verification is one of the best ways to stop many of the the spam bots attempting automated registration. The captcha tool produces a test in the form of a distorted image, words, digits, an equation or a simple question for the user to retype or answer. Anyone entering the correct solution is presumed by the server to be human. It filters out automated spammers because other computers or servers cannot read or solve the captcha.

Online forum software should already have this feature incorporated. If not, find one of the many free CAPTCHA image verification tools for download.

5. Email Confirmation

Many online forums already incorporate this verification feature. Upon registration, the software automatically sends an email to the address provided by the applicant. Most spammers never actually click the link to verify their email, which eliminates the spammy posts.

You may also disable website signatures. However, this method is not favored by website owners. Link signatures provide contributing members with recognition; an incentive to write meaningful posts.

Other ideas for helping reduce forum spam include IP blocking, swear filters, filtering URLs and site names, enabling flood control to limit the number of posts per user, using mass pruning, reporting spammers' details to a blacklist websites and ISPs and allowing members to report spam via a link in each post and thread.

Spam detection and prevention is crucial to a thriving online community. Luckily there are ways to combat majority of the spam through mods and other tools available for online forums. Your legitimate members will appreciate your efforts to combat spam.

Moderating Online Forums: How to Moderate Discussion Sites

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 01:41:38 -0500

Online forums have become a vast discussion tool for internet users all over the world. Their scale of growth also brought problems such as derailing, irrelevant comments, trolls, flame wars, disturbances and spam. Moderators are an important aspect of keeping online discussion communities clean, relevant and enjoyable.

The role of an online moderator involves policing and enforcing forum rules and policies. Depending on the message board, moderators are given certain powers to modify or delete posts and to suspend or ban non-complying members. It's an intricate juggling act involving many facets from lending a helping hand to members in need to maintaining order within the community.

How to moderate Online Forums without conflict?

It's a moderator's duty to remove non-complying posts or comments and to delete or suspend members involved in spamming. Whilst it's important to weed out spammers, there can be instances of unintentional breach. Pedantic or obsessive moderation can be worse than no moderation whatsoever.

A member may feel alienated or picked on when they see their post or account deleted without any conceivable reason. You may not have the opportunity to explain your reasoning if the member decides not to take up the issue and simply leaves the message board. Don't forget it's the members who make a quality forum.

When should you take action and how?

If you find an inappropriate comment, contact the member direct (don't embarrass them in front of their peers), explain or point them to the relevant rule and allow the member to remove the comment themselves. They will appreciate being treated as a valued user.

If the comment needs immediate deleting, go ahead and delete it yourself. Advise the member of your actions and the reasoning behind them. Even issue a warning if the breach is serious. Before deleting the member's account, it would be wise to provide them with some form of forewarning and reasoning. The member may alert you to some form of explanation for their behavior or even apologize. If they continue to disregard your warning, then it’s morally acceptable to delete them. You've done all you can to caution the user albeit their indiscretion to keep breaking rules.

Prior notification and communicating with these members is a way to keep things civil. It will also save you a lot of unnecessary vile comments being placed on blogs and other online discussion sites. It's all about good communication.

Being impartial when moderating online forums:

It's not a sufficient reason to delete posts or comments simply because you disagree with the poster's opinion. Forums are all about free expression of opinion. Members will soon start ostracizing the forum if they can't legitimately express their view albeit different from yours.

If it's the site owner's policy to delete opinions which differ from the majority, then its members will realize the forum is not objective and not worth contributing to. Differences in opinion are what spark the controversy and conversation essential to content rich, entertaining, relevant and informative posts.

Site owners must be specific in their policies and training manuals. Moderators should know exactly what's expected of them and how to enforce rules. Disallowing different opinions is certainly not a good policy to have. Moderators should also be given the power to edit posts as well as delete them.

Know the rules of your online forum

For a moderator, there's nothing worse than being corrected by members. Before starting your role, read the forum rules over and over. Memorize them. The first few times you need to enforce a rule, refer back to them and even quote by copying and pasting the relevant rule if you have to. Misinterpreting or misquoting a rule can be disastrous and will make members lose respect for you.

Stay part of the online forum community

Members like to become friendly with the moderators, especially when they're approachable and get involved beyond their duties. You can be pleasant and firm at the same time. Make sure to check in regularly. You don't need to stay for hours to keep up your presence. Make an impact on the members, get to know them and have fun being there. Try to find a forum site that interests you. It will be all the more interesting and fulfilling, making your job easier.

Moderating can be stressful at times, but being involved in an online community can also be rewarding if done properly. Follow these guidelines and you will be respected. Don't let the bad apples deter you.

Online Forums: How to Use an Online Forum

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 01:37:31 -0500

Online forums (also known as online discussion sites, message boards, newsgroups and internet forums) are powerful tools for sharing information. Their use has become omnipresent and wide reaching. Many people use discussion sites on a daily basis, whether it's to gain knowledge, share ideas or simply to feel as part of a community.

Why use Online Forums?

* communicate with other like-minded people who have the same or similar interests
* exchange intellectual ideas and thoughts
* offer your opinion or advice
* submit materials for others to consider and provide feedback on such as your website, business ideas or questions
* find out new opinions and ideas
* be up to date with latest news and trends
* meet new friends and leads

Participating in online forums is another way to stay in contact with persons belonging to the same community and to keep abreast of recent events. It's a place to voice your opinions, be heard and discover other's thoughts.

This social media outlet can become addictive. For some, Online Forums provide a haven; a place to escape the daily grind and indulge in the community aura. Forum usage is certainly a concern for employers, due to reduced productivity and procrastination on behalf of the users involved. However, most of us are thankful for their existence.

How to Use Online Forums:

The appearance of an online forum may seem daunting at first. There's information, posts and threads flowing all over the home page in what appears to be an ad hoc manner. Occasionally, the initial reaction of first time users is to put discussion sites in the too hard basket. Here's an easy step by step guide to using online forums:

* Registration. Most discussion boards require you to become a member by registering or signing up in order to post. Invariably, you will need to provide a Username (your alias), password and an email address. The forum will also require your agreement to its terms and conditions.

* Validation. After registering to an internet forum, you will need to validate your email by following the validation link emailed to you by the site.

* Rules. Familiarize yourself with the rules and netiquette required by the forum. Generally, spamming, double posting and registering multiple user accounts is prohibited. Try to adhere in order to avoid being called a troll for unintentionally breaking the rules.

* Posting. A forum has predefined topics (called threads). Members may submit messages or comments (called posts) within these topics. The message will be enclosed in a box with the username, time and date notified either on the left hand side or appearing at the top of the post. Usually members are allowed to edit or delete their own posts. Many online forums limit posts to a certain number of characters.

* Threads. A thread (topic) is started by a post. Other members may then follow in the conversation started by the original post (sometimes called the thread starter). At times the responses and comments can become derailed. The tread generally displays posts in opposite chronological order (from first to current). The abbreviation OP often refers to the original poster. Some message boards enable you to customize the view to commence with the starting post. They may also have a thread view which shows the branching of replies in priority to chronological order.

* Moderating. Moderators monitor and enforce the message board rules. They may have access to all posts and threads or just those within their area of responsibility. Mods have the power to delete a post and to ban and suspend members who violate the discussion site's policy. The moderator is usually the site owner's friend. Among other responsibilities, they also help members in need and respond to complaints.

If you're a first timer to online forums, try some smaller message boards to start with. Smaller sites still have that community feel and are more than happy to accommodate beginners. Once you become accustomed to the way discussion websites work, you can then join some larger expert message boards if you wish. Above all, don't be shy to voice your opinion; that's what forums are for.