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Dmoz part 2

Hi guys

I have decided to follow up my shame on Dmoz post with an update, I didn’t realise what kind of a response I would get from such a post.

I really didn’t expect the kind of negative views and abuse that I have received, although Alucard on Digital point was helpful so I would like to thank him for his time.

Why Single Out Dmoz

The object of my exercise wasn’t to single out Dmoz, Dmoz are the biggest directory on the net, that is why i targeted them for chat room safety and i wanted to make a point that some of the sites they have listed are not safe.  They have a lot of influance on the net, much more than I could ever hope to have.

If Dmoz were to remove these sites I had hoped it might set some kind of precedence to webmasters who don’t care about chat room safety.

This is certainly a problem for lots of directories and not just Dmoz, so my intention wasnt to take pot shots at Dmoz, but since I had targetted them first, I had to approach it from a strong position.

Did It Work

NOPE, seems Dmoz just list sites, they dont actually care about the content of the sites at all, never mind safety, so my safety campaign didnt work at all, if your site meets their criteria you might well get listed or not lol !

I also got a lot of negative comments which I was quite shocked about, after all chat room safety is a good thing is it not ?

Seemingly not, the problem with somthing like this, is its only important when it happens to someone you are close to or who you know.  This is a problem that will begin to grow slowly as more people get online.

As Admin at World of Chat, we have often talked about this issue, the conclusion we reached is that nothing will be done about this, until somthing bad actually happens, in the same way that if somone gets knocked down on a certain street, then they put a speed camera there to try to make sure it doesnt happen again.

So the sites i suggested that shouldnt be listed are still there and will continue to be listed and World of Chat will not be listed simple as that !

Woc

DMOZ - Shame on You !

Hi Guys

I’m sure some of you don’t know what Dmoz is, Dmoz is a massive directory on the net, that is owned by AOL.

Dmoz is unique as its run by volunteers, you would think that would be a good thing, unfortunately it isn’t, I have various issues with Dmoz its really hard to know where to start.

My main issues with Dmoz is chat room categories on there which are out of date and the sites are in my opinion unsafe, you would think with World of Chat being one of the safest rooms on the net, this would automatically get us in there, you would be WRONG to think this.

Why would I be upset about this so much, the problem with the chat room section on Dmoz is that most of the chat room sites have no safety information, moderation or any security at all, which is frankly asking for trouble !

Dmoz by listing these sites is promoting these sites and sending visitors to these sites, yet decent sites like World of Chat cant even get listed !

I emailed Dmoz with my concerns which was of course ignored, and I’m pretty sure i will never get a reply, as the problem with something being moderated by volunteers, is there is a hidden agenda, which is that people are promoting their own sites via there and their friends sites.

Whats even more amazing is Dmoz answer to no one, you can email them but you wont get a reply, you cant query or challenge a decision, even if its legitimate how can this still be happening in this day and age ?

Why is Safety Such an Issue

The incidents of sexual exploitation via chat rooms has grown, the last official line was 2 a day, which is frightening !

Admittedly you cant stop anyone under age from getting into a chat room people can lie about their age, the only thing you can do is try to deter people and have all the safety information available on your site, some sites don’t have this, this should be a minimum on all sites, especially so if your site is for people under the age of 16.

This undermines everything we are trying to do on World of Chat, we put a good deal of time into moderating the rooms, it also gives webmasters the free run to just create a chat room just to make money and gives them no incentive to make their chat rooms safe, this is surely wrong !

I did an unofficial review of most of the chat rooms within one of the categories and emailed this information to Dmoz, i even applied to tidy up their chat section, with no reply !

Ridiculous

Here is my list of sites that are in dmoz and in my opinion shouldnt be there !

Aol chat – No Safety information, Doesn’t even work !Big bobs chat - No safety information, out of date hasn’t been updated since 2005Blackboard - No safety information and doesn’t work !Buzz chat - - Again doesn’t even work and terrible site with very poor navigation.800 chat - No safety information Irc channel that doesn’t work!

Chat Valley - Is more of a games are than a chat room, as the chat room isnt even listed on the links !

Chat Web - Advertised as a teen chat room with no safety advice and doesn’t even have a chat room, just links to another website with chat rooms !

 

Chat Attic - Awful site with no quality, and a clear attempt to get people to donate money to their chat room.

 

Chatglobe - Not in English and no safety information, cant use it properly as there are so many pop ups on the site, plus the chat room doesn’t work !

 

ChatWeb - Decent site, but the chat room isn’t even a chat room, its just a script that runs like a chat room, outdated probably about 10 years old.

 

English Chat - No safety information, doesn’t have a chat room, and has keyword stuffing at the bottom of the page. No safety information and again doesn’t work, and just generally of poor content and quality

 

Fire-house58 - No safety information, outdated script must be 10 years old, not even a proper chat room, poor quality content.

 

Hip Planet Chat room - No safety information and site is corrupted as all the image files are missing.

 

Joe Hollywoods Bang  - No safety information, outdated script that simulates chat room activity, but isnt a chat room !

 

Leahims Java Chat - No safety information doesn’t have a chat room !

 

Mikes2000chat – Hasn’t been updated since the year 2000, outdated !

 

Shophub - No safety information, another outdated chat room, not been updated since 2000

 

SHAME ON YOU DMOZ !

Woc

Chat Room Goings On

Hi Guys

Its nice to have my own say on the goings on in and around the room over the last few weeks, the room had been picking up and was getting busier, but now that’s changed.

The goings on of the last few weeks are frankly embarrassing, after linking up with Time 2 Dance Radio over the last few weeks, I had hoped things would pick up even more, but no people had to spoil it, and I have to apologize to the people of Time 2 Dance Radio for other peoples behavior.  Fortunately they have been understanding.

It never fails to surprise me how selfish people can be, as World of Chat brought most of you people together, but when things go wrong the room is the main thing that suffers, because some of you can set your differences aside and that is to everyone involved in the problems, I don’t care about who started it or who said what, your supposed to be adults and a community.

That means supporting your community and helping resolve issues, not by saying oh im not coming in now until it gets better!

What’s even more frustrating is that no one even mentioned what was going on, to any admin and then when asked, the common response was “I aint mentioning any names” well if you cant mention any names, don’t mention it at all.

What is even more amazing, is after all my warnings yesterday about people hiding banned users in the room and not mentioning them to Admin, someone still managed to do this yesterday, as a old quote once said, “ if you not part of the solution your part of the problem” and there wont be a room to chat in if this continues.

Woc

Chat Room Music - Time 2 dance radio

Hi guys

As some of you might have noticed, world of chat has linked up with Time 2 dance radio, to bring you music while you are in the chat rooms.

The djs will mainly be working from the Woc lounge for the time being, and taking live requests on certain nights of the week, so please do your best to support them.

 They will take requests for birthdays and things like that as well !

Woc