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.
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And this is where the spam 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
