I’ve been threatening to do this for some time , but now that I have incentive (a pass/fail situation) , I thought I’d get off my butt and actually start a personal website. On it I’ll be telling ya’ll some useless information that you can read and comment on just to burn time.
In case you thought I was lying in the header , my name is Lloyd. I’m still at varsity in PMB and really need to finish so I can go and do all the other stuff that’s cool in life (like sitting on the beach)
Seriously though – the a web based course is a great idea , and since internet is becoming cheap ( Seacom ) , we all will be sitting longer each day squatting in front of 1024×768 brightly coloured pixels.
As with everything varsity related , I will be cheating. Get a load of my time saving speed methods :
Hi Lloyd, i just read your blog on chat rooms here :-
http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Chat-Rooms—The-Reason-They-Are-Not-Safe-Is-You-/95176
I agree with you to a degree, but totally disagree with you on other points!
I have been using a very famous chat room for four years :-
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/chatlive
It is a notorious place to frequent and the most violent abuse is allowed on a daily basis, no profanity filters, no moderators, and complaints ignored!
They have what they consider to be a chat registration process that is just laughable. You are requested to choose an id and supply an email address. I informed the owners and admin of the site of this joke registration process, but they fail to act. So, by refusing to make their room secure to enter, they have admitted foreknowledge of the abuse that occurs and I believe i have found an ancient law that applies, which makes them fully responsible for any abuse that is carried over into the real world. I will give you a link to more information on this at the end of my comment.
It is a fact that in the above chat room, you can register limitless numbers of ids and provide a false email address for each one. There is not email verification and you obtain instant access after providing a false email address. Try it yourself. Also, I have also informed them of yet a more sinister abuse. It is very difficult to find a free proxy server that will give you access to any chatroom. The fact is that the mozilla firefox browser has a program you can download known as the Vidalia Tor button. Once installed into the firefox browser, you have at your command your very own proxy surfer and through a network around the planet can change you ip address six times a minute if you wish. This very stable proxy server facility will also allow you to get into the saatchi chatroom. This is used there by many to mask who they really are, use several ids, often on two browsers, one to attack, one to befriend. It happens all the time there, and has ruined many peoples lives. It is supposed to be a international professional and amateur artists networking chat room, but is abused every day. Death threats have been issued via their facility, threats of violence, disgusting sexual and racial abuse too. The owner, the very famous Charles Saatchi is fully aware of the situation but allows it to continue.
Using such a networking chatroom it is quite understandable that chatters will share their artwork and own websites, and this is where the dangers occur. Apart from someone watching anonymously who intends to abuse by using links that are given, and coming in when the genuine chatter is not there in a slight variation of the genuine chatters id (For example, i use the room as C_J_H and regularly i have entered the room to find the variations _C_J_H_ _C_J_H
C_J_H_ or even my full name, and the impostor will give a link to my artprofiles elsewhere on the net, and convince people they are me, then attack them, and then i get the blame).
Also, many people, as i used to, have their own websites and not profiles on art networking websites, and usually most of them are totally unaware that when they register their websites, they usually provide their webhosts with their full name, address and telephone number and email. Many abusers use a Whois database site, put in the web links posted by artists, and can obtain all those personal details, and then the serious abusers can abuse outside of cyberspace. I now let people know that they should withold their personal details from the whois database, it is dangerous.
I have started my own blogs and discussions on the matter of internet chat room, forum and magazine blog abuse, to which i invite you to contribute.
You can start on the following link I have published comments on, and via that you can click on other links to other of my publications.
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1903009
Hi Sandalphon
You are the very first person to respond to this article – thank you for the carefully thought out response. You are welcome to post the article and any comments on your own site.
The following is not an attempt to trash your views. Every single point you have made is entirely correct. Most of them are , however , practically questionable.
Lets start with something obvious. You state :
“It is a notorious place to frequent and the most violent abuse is allowed on a daily basis, no profanity filters, no moderators, and complaints ignored!”
This sounds like a dodgy nightclub. If you know what happens there – why the heck do you use it?
You say :
“So, by refusing to make their room secure to enter, they have admitted foreknowledge of the abuse that occurs and I believe i have found an ancient law that applies, which makes them fully responsible for any abuse that is carried over into the real world.”
I can’t find it , but I’m sure they have legal terms and conditions that exempt them from any liability regardless of the law you found. I stand corrected on this – but it would be one reason the owner doesn’t care about his chatrooms safety.
In any case , making a chat room secure via technological means is impossible. Moreover , the owners are not obliged to make the chat room secure , much like a club owner is not obliged to make his club secure. They may do it for several reasons , but they don’t have to.
Your next couple of points revolve around technical issues , and again the poor points of users in the chatroom. If I want violence and abuse , there are plenty of places offline I can go to get them. (and they’re pretty close to where I live). But I don’t go there. If this chatroom contains these people – don’t go there.
Here’s a line I like :
“quite understandable that chatters will share their artwork and own websites”
This is not understandable at all. Dodgy people like this are hanging around this chatroom and people are distributing their personal info? Ok ok – so they may not know. If they don’t know , then they have no business taking the risk. There should be a rule that is taped to every new internet enabled device saying “If you don’t know – don’t do it”
Impersonators occur everywhere – and its dead easy to do it without a chatroom. You could impersonate me easily , but its unlikely you would get away with it for many reasons – one of which is that I don’t hold arms length virtual relationships. Another is that I produce so much content that any naysayers or impersonators would be lost in a sea of articles that say otherwise.
Your forum presents a number of cases where people have had bad experiences with chat rooms. None of these people blame themselves. This internet thing is the wild west people – if you can’t manage it so it doesn’t bite you then don’t go on it at all!
Hello Lloyd!
Fancy finding you on the net. I do enjoy your banter, so please keep it up to keep me entertained. Trust me; the varsity life is better than working in the corporate world!