Archive for May, 2010
May 31st, 2010 | 
Author: Myspace Lacks Security Against Cybervandalism
MySpace is one of the popular social networking sites in the web is faced with constant security problems that pressures to spoil several of its innovative features which makes the website useful.
Many of the group sites in MySpace were turned into a cybergraffiti wall that is filled with offensive photographs and comments. MySpace group sites are dedicated to different interest like beer brewing home movies gay right issues and animal rights. This was done by spammers Internet malcontents and hackers.
The people responsible for the act are called the trolls who are fond of creating a mess and trying to oneup one another using vicious vandalism. Aside from that they upload insulting videos on YouTube daring one another on creating realworld threats.
MySpace users are having a hard time to maintain order in the site. They claim that MySpace is not doing anything or are lax regarding the repeated attacks that persist repeatedly in spite constant efforts to communicate with MySpace administrators. MySpace said that they added security and they are doing their best to control the situation they would not want to be interviewed for this story.
A MySpace user running a group for craftbeer enthusiasts Corey ScottWalton for the last to years he notified MySpace regarding the problems existing on the site and has also suggested solutions but he was only sent a thank you mail and nothing was done about it. He just one of the many MySpace users who was fedup and decided to create tools to fendoff the abuse caused by trolls.
It was said that there was a bug which allows vandals to place a comment on group sites even though they are not a member of the group. A moderator should first approve a member to join a group before he can post comments on a group site.
The bug results to another problem referred to as bombing where a numerous number of blank comments are inserted in forums or group discussions and this is done by using an automated tool. What happens is that the blank comments push the other comments down creating empty comments on the forum. Pinning is another problem where a certain topic from discussion thread can be pinned anywhere or on other forums.
Even though the vandals account has been deleted which results to the deletion of almost half of the offending comments there are still no comments to be seen rather just pages of blank spaces. Scott was able to code a program in Visual Basic named Thread Cleaning for moderators to delete offensive comments.
The terms of service by MySpace indicates that users are not allowed to use automated scripts and tools but they have no choice but to take action on their own.
Another MySpace user a web developer based in Connecticut also developed a tool that checks his group after every 20 seconds for any spam and removes it. He did not want to be identified to avoid harassment but he stated that he made use of the report abuse feature many times. He also stated that the more users report an abusive account the faster MySpace gets rid it of it.
Even if the accounts used by trolls are deleted they simply create another account and continue harassing other users.
Another moderator in charge of a group that has to do with religion also came up with a tool to unpin unpleasant topics. He said that he had periodic contact with administrators of MySpace but all was empty promises. And he felt like they were not taking any actions to solve the problem. The hackers were also able to delete his other accounts. He decided not to include family members and friends on his site for the fear of harassment outside MySpace.
About the writer: Ace Smith is a prolific writer touching base on topics like Technology Travel Health and others. For more information you can drop by his web sites that deals with: Credit Finance Teen Pregnancy and Money with Blog.
More Best Of From Marketers On RSS
What is the top advice savvy marketers can give you on RSS? We continue with “the best of” on RSS marketing from US marketing leaders.
1. WHY SHOULD MARKETERS AND PUBLISHERS START CONSIDERING USING RSS ANYWAY? Answered by Bill Flitter Pheedo
I’ll give you 7 reasons:
1. Sender ID 2. CAN SPAM ACT 3. Blacklists 4. Known Sender 5. Email Filters 6. Bonded Sender Program 7. Cost of Sending Email
These seven items are a result of SPAM. The items represent an effort being put forth to stop SPAM but it is still a huge problem. I do believe RSS will be around no matter if SPAM was eradicated. RSS has some distinct advantages over email marketing which include:
1. 100 optin no worries of legal threats by consumers.
2. Oneclick unsubscribe RSS raises the bar. Marketers will need to think about what their sending before they hit the enter button. I think this is a good thing. There is no free ride with RSS. Consumers are demanding control donotcall list CAN SPAM Act Privacy Bills etc. and RSS delivers that control.
3. 100 deliver rate If I publish a feed or advertise in a feed it reaches the intended recipient. This is minus any technological hiccups. Point being I don’t have to worry about SPAM filters Blacklists Sender ID etc. My biggest worry now is whether or not I am publishing relevant content when my customers want it.
2. WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ARE THE BEST WAYS COMPANIES CAN USE RSS TODAY? Answered by Bill Flitter Pheedo
1. External Communication: Create an RSS feed on your site. If you publish a newsletter already creating a feed from that information is easy. It takes little effort. I strongly encourage this practice if you are in the tech sector.
2. Internal Communication: Using RSS with a blog to collaborate on a project within the enterprise is more efficient then email. The blog archives the project while RSS keeps everyone informed.
3. Advertising: If the problem of SPAM doesn’t get solved soon marketers will turn to RSS as a means to reach new customers. RSS has two distinct absolutes over email oneclick unsubscribe and 100 optin. Email cannot emphatically say that. RSS puts the control in the hands of the publisher and consumer. It will become a more effective marketing channel because the market will demand that publishers be more conscience of the amount and relevance of the ads in feeds. Consumers will act as the filter. If the noisetovalue ration is out of whack the consumer will simply vote with their mice.
3. HOW CAN RSS BE USED BY MARKETERS PROVIDING AFFILIATE PROGRAMS? Answered by Shawn Collins Shawn Collins Consulting
My vision for the usefulness of RSS is to be a oneway form of communication sharing updates news and tools with affiliates in an uncensored environment since email has become too difficult with all of the Spam and other assorted hassles.
4. ONE OF THE QUESTIONS WE SHOULD START ASKING OURSELVES IS HOW TO FULLY INTEGRATE RSS IN TO OUR MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONAL MIX. HOW DO YOU SEE RSS IN RELATION TO OTHER COMMUNICATIONAL TOOLS AND APPROACHES? Answered by Jim Gray Quikonnex
You’ve hit the nail on the head with this question. It is ALL about integrating new technologies into the marketing mix.
RSS/Blogs/Email/Instant Messaging are all just tools to those businesses can use to communicate with their customer base. People on the Internet jump on new technologies abandoning older system … this is wrong.
If you’ve noticed you may have recently receive postcards and information packages from some well know online marketers such as Armand Morin and Corey Rudl. They look at traditional ‘snail mail’ as a part of their marketing mix. RSS should be viewed the same.
Right now blogs and RSS feeds are hot with the search engines so a website owner should have one… period. However to use it exclusively would be a mistake. The perfect mix is to use an RSS feed for the one to many communications and to use email for one on one customer correspondence.
About the author: Joel Walsh writes prolifically on SEO tips and tools: http://www.UpMarketSEO.com
Making Money With RSS Feeds
First it was banner ads then Google AdSense and now the latest way to make money on your web site could very well be RSS feeds. Say what? I said: RSS is hot and you should be using it to drive eyeballs to your site. Here’s how it works:
Depending upon who you ask RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” or “Rich Site Summary”. Regardless of what you call it RSS is a way to automatically publish syndicate someone else’s content on your web site. Now don’t worry that’s not the same as stealing someone else’s content. There is nothing illegal about using RSS feeds. In fact the publisher of the content wants you to have it show up on your site and that’s why he or she makes it available as an RSS feed to begin with.
So what’s in it for all parties concerned?
Using RSS is a winwin for both the publisher of the content who gets their name out to potentially millions of sites and you the web site owner who is pulling the content onto your site.
Content by the way means anything that a publisher decides it means. Typical content includes news headlines new product update notices blog summaries and lots of other stuff. It’s the “content” portion of the equation that’s good news for you.
Show me the money
One of the best features of hosting RSS feeds is that it gives your site an endless source of freshly updated and relevant content. This content acts as natural search engine spider bait which they will fill their little tummies on and come back for more every day. Their appetite for fresh content keep your rankings up.
Sticky Loyalty isn’t a new Ben Jerry’s flavor but it should be the goal of any serious webmaster who wants to create a web site that visitors return to over and over again. The use of carefully selected RSS feeds can make that happen by offering unique content which can’t be found anywhere else.
Now please don’t make the mistake of thinking “But they can get that same content at the publisher’s site why should they come to mine?”. Just build it and they will come! Sorry I couldn’t resist saying that but it’s true. In addition to the RSS content which they surely can get somewhere else you are going to add your own sticky loyalty stuff that’s all about whatever your site is all about to begin with. That combination of your own content and the RSS feed makes visiting you a purely unique experience that can’t be found anywhere else.
You don’t have to be a member of the Geek Squad to start showing RSS feeds on your site. Just visit any of the links below and get busy using RSS to make mo’ money.
About the writer: For More Free Resources visit www.freeearningtips.com
