BS: Profile Sites Good thing or Bad thing ?

Subject: BS: Profile Sites Good thing or Bad thing ?
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 07:10 PM

There are many sites on the net now for making friends, exchanging interests and the like. I went to one, bebo. Are these a good thing ? Saw a lot of teenagers displaying pictures on their profiles which appeared a bit suggestive and erotic. This sites could attract the wrong sort, you could say you are anybody. Views please

Subject: RE: BS: Profile Sites Good thing or Bad thing ?
From: GUEST,Scoville at Dad's
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 07:34 PM

Of course, I haven't been a teenager in awhile, either, nor do I post suggestive things on my page. I've found a bunch of old college friends and a bunch of great musicians through MySpace.

I think they're like anything else--the profile sites themselves are neither good nor bad, but people have to either be sensible or be monitored by a parent (and I think parents should know what their kids do online, whether it be profile sites or anything else). As far as pedophiles--you don't HAVE to post your age, and if you don't post "inviting" content, you don't get creepy people friending you. I get a little spam but the stuff I have on mine doesn't attract attention from weirdos.

Subject: RE: BS: Profile Sites Good thing or Bad thing ?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 07:35 PM

It doesn't matter what site you look at, which forum you visit or how strictly you police a chat room, if there is a bad person out there, they will find what they are looking for. What they look for varies so widely that you could post a picture of a horse's ass in a gimp suit and someone would want to talk to it.

A child/teenager just wants to play/chat with people, they don't care about such things as safety, protection, security or common sense precautions. Displaying pictures that are provocative or deliberately suggesting the subject is older than they are, is downright silly, but hey, what person hasn't dressed up to appear older than they are? At least with webcams you see the person warts and all - and you can pull the plug if it gets naughty.

It's so easy to get to a porn site by accident by Googleing some innocent sounding phrase that it's a nightmare to police. We bought a new computer and plugged it in. Within 4 minutes of setting up our email account, we had 2 Emails asking us if we wanted to play with Russian girls... Even with Spam blockers, firewalls and parental controls on highest, I still find explicit and unsolicited adverts for viagra, soft drugs and "personal services" in my inbox.

80 years ago it was saucy postcards from France and ankles showing - 60 years ago it was dirty postcards from Algeria and knees showing - 40 years ago it was naughty polaroids and mini-skirts - 20 years ago it was the porno video and bare breasts. This decade, it's webcams and profile sites. It's no wonder that the 'perverts' are more numerous - it's easier for them to find their target audience/victims.   

I have to say that I would discourage Limpit from signing up to any profile site, but I can't keep her wrapped up in cotton wool for ever. Sooner or later, she is going to have to learn common sense ~ a commodity that seems in very short supply these days.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Profile Sites Good thing or Bad thing ?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 07:38 PM

Scoville - take a good look around you here... are you SURE you aren't surrounded by people who are a little .... off? I mean, here you are, in a forum that seems populated by dirty old men and women who talk about their tits for weeks on end!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Profile Sites Good thing or Bad thing ?
From: GUEST,Scoville
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 07:52 PM

Well, I'm associating with this bunch voluntarily. And frankly, y'all are no weirder than my family . . .

Subject: RE: BS: Profile Sites Good thing or Bad thing ?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 09:21 PM

I hate profile sites! Give me full-frontal sites or nothing at all. For that matter, give me full-frontal sites with nothing at all!

Subject: RE: BS: Profile Sites Good thing or Bad thing ?
From: Cluin
Date: 17 Jan 07 - 09:31 PM

Maybe some of those "suggestive and erotic" pictures are posted by the wrong sort in an attempt to attract prey? No guarantee the pictures are genuine profiles.

Subject: RE: BS: Profile Sites Good thing or Bad thing ?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 02:27 AM

A young relative invited us to look his MySpace page, and out of curiosity I've "browsed" a bit there. I'm definitely not impressed with most of what I've seen, although most of it is relatively "harmless" ... I think.

It appears that several "helper" sites offer canned "biographies" and/or "personalities" that are widely used and/or just copied/emulated by those unable to come up with something. Childishly trite descriptions, all virtually identical, are abundant.

On the surface, the main purpose is to see how many "friends" one can recruit, which is a boringly useless pursuit when others are doing the same, since it results in everybody having the same "friends," none of whom appear to have any interest in actually speaking to each other. (One quite visible "person" appears as a "friend" on close to 20% of others' pages that I've looked at, but has no "friends" on his own page.(?))

MySpace, as the supposedly "most popular" example, is heavily infested with spammers similar to those who have been hitting mudcat. If you browse for "within 50 miles" of a specific ZIP code (in the US) and include ages down to at least 30, fully 5 to 10 percent of the "profiles" returned will be pages showing nothing but links to porn. (Clue - Florida is not within 50 miles of Kansas: 100% of "out of range specified" hits, or those who do not show a "city" ident, are porn spammers.) Thus far I've seen no actual "porn" on MySpace, - - - only "links to porn."

Less popular sites may offer a little more, but the "concept" seems really thin, and unlikely to lead to anyone with "ideas" (or personalities) of much interest.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Profile Sites Good thing or Bad thing ?
From: danensis
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 03:33 PM

I've been trying to persuade my bank to tighten up its identity rules for ages. They use mother's maiden name, first school attended and date of birth as "unioque identifiers". I pointed out to them that anyone who knows its my birthday, and how old I am, will know my date of birth. My family tree is on line, and you could find my mother's maiden name from one of the on-line genealogy sites anyway, and first school attended would be on Friend's Reunited, if I'd been honest about it.

The internet must be a gift for identity fraudsters. Lcukily, in my case, my bank will realise any contact is a scam if its not a complaint.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Profile Sites Good thing or Bad thing ?
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 03:55 PM

"Profile" sites, or "blogs" as they are commonly referred to, can be very entertaining and informative. As many of you might know, I created my own blog that deals with folk music news (www.ronolesko.blogspot.com )

There are many blogs available that are offering good information and entertaining reading. Many musicians in this country are seeing the potential to offer samples and information - and make some money. Fans are realizing it is a good way to hear new sounds. The social blogs and the porn blogs are just one aspect and should not be considered the "norm".

Besides, in "our day" we might have kept diaries or journals to blow off steam. Teenagers are doing it a little more openly these days, but the thoughts are the same!

Subject: RE: BS: Profile Sites Good thing or Bad thing ?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 05:31 PM

dianensis -

When you enter your "personal data" it is not strictly necessary to tell the truth. The only requirement is that when you re-enter it to gain access you must tell the same lie as you used when you gave them the information.

My mother's name might well have been: ^$%#@!-sie (that's what her little brother always called her.)

My first school attended was perhaps: Sch001oFHardKn00ckers

How old I am might well be: N1nety1FiL1veThatL0nG

You can provide any answer you choose, without regard to whether it's "actual truth," as long as you use the same answer the next time you're asked the same question. It is in fact preferable that you NOT SPELL EVERYTHING RIGHT, and NOT GIVE CORRECT ANSWERS, as long as you can provide the same answer each time.

The only reason for using the same "questions" for everybody is that using the same for all gives no clues about what the answer should be, and perhaps encourages phonies to guess wrong. (And helps those who can't think up good passwords.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Profile Sites Good thing or Bad thing ?
From: Cluin
Date: 18 Jan 07 - 11:29 PM

Use YouTube and Myspace to funnel traffic to your site. At your site, you sell your recordings.