Bodysurf - Slashdot User

Submission + - Tackling The Astroturfing Problem

Submitted by Dalton Georgia on Saturday April 28, 2007 @03:58PM

Dalton Georgia writes: After a reporter at Forbes.com wrote a negative review of Iolo System Mechanic 7, someone pretending to be a random user posted numerous comments on the blog post. They said they had just tried the software, loved it, and accused the reporter of being paid off by Iolo's competitors. But a little digging revealed that the comments actually came from an IP address at Iolo headquarters. This practice of faking grassroots support has its own term, astroturfing, and is increasingly common in the tech business. Can we ever trust user reviews again?

Submission + - WoW Gold paid for real sex

Submitted by

Shohat

on Saturday April 28, 2007 @03:58PM

Shohat writes: "A woman posted an ad on Craigslist, offering a certain something for some quick cash in her game of choice, WoW.The offer was very specific, and And she got what she wanted — enough money an epic flying mount - Screenshots of the postings prior to removal .
First of all, is this prostitution? Sure seems like it, although MMO money isn't entirely established as legally worth real money yet, even if people buy and sell it all the time on multiple online and offline markets."

Is There Any Reason to Report Spammers to ISP's?

Posted by Cliff on Saturday April 28, 2007 @02:25PM from the does-it-do-any-good dept.

marko_ramius asks: "For years I've been a good netizen and reported spam that I get to the appropriate contacts at varois ISPs. In the entire time that I've done this I've gotten (maybe) 5 or 6 responses from those ISPs informing me that they have taken action against the spammer. In recent years however, I haven't gotten any responses. Are the ISP's so overwhelmed with abuse reports that they aren't able to respond to the spam reports? Do they even bother acting on said reports? Is there any real reason to report spammers?"

Submission + - Explaining the Dangers of Privacy Intrusion

Submitted by thehorse on Friday April 27, 2007 @02:35PM

thehorse writes: I'm the typical /. nut, and get angry whenever there is a news story about governments reducing their citizens' privacy rights. My wife, however, doesn't understand why it's such a big deal that the government could read our emails or bank accounts, track our movements in our cars, capture us on public video cameras, etc. I've tried to explain to her the slippery slope involved, and try to illustrate how losing our personal privacy can turn us into the societies like ones depicted in 1984, or a slew of other sci-fi literature/movies, but she still doesn't get it. And probably because I'm not the best story-teller.

Since my wife isn't a /. geek, and doesn't like sci-fi, can anyone help me explain to her why she should be concerned about government intrusion into her private life?

Submission + - Blocking Cyber Squattors

Submitted by Noishe on Friday April 27, 2007 @01:30PM

Noishe writes: What do people on slashdot do to block cyber squattors? I've noticed that almost every cybersquatted page I've ever had any interest in is registered with godaddy, and its dns is always hosted at parkN.secureserver.net, where N is some number. Shouldn't it be really easy to block any dns entries hosted by this site? This type of blocking should be built into firefox by default.

Submission + - Did her MySpace photo derail teacher's career?

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Friday April 27, 2007 @09:20AM

coondoggie writes: "This is one of those disturbing stories because really, it could happen to way too many people. According to the Smoking Gun site a woman in Pennsylvania is suing Millersville University claiming that her teaching career has been derailed by college administrators who unfairly disciplined her over a MySpace photo that shows her wearing a pirate hat and drinking from a plastic cup. The Photo was captioned: Drunken Pirate. Frankly the picture's description is worse than the picture if you ask me. http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1458 4"

Submission + - Justice Department Says FBI Misused Patriot Act

Submitted by on Friday March 09, 2007 @12:13PM

An anonymous reader writes: In a report just released by the Justice Department, as predicted by many including those on Slashdot, the FBI has misused and abused the PATRIOT Act to illegally gain access to information about people living in the United States.

From the article:
FBI agents sometimes demanded the data without proper authorization, according to a 126-page audit by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. At other times, the audit found, the FBI improperly obtained telephone records in non-emergency circumstances.

..."we believe the improper or illegal uses we found involve serious misuses of national security letter authorities," the audit concludes.

Wikipedia May Require Proof of Credentials 317

Posted by CmdrTaco on Friday March 09, 2007 @11:41AM from the yeah-good-luck-with-that dept.

narramissic writes "According to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, a new policy is currently under discussion by the community of users who regularly write and maintain Wikipedia that would require contributors to the site who claim certain credentials to prove they really have them. The new policy comes after one of Wikipedia's most prolific and respected editors, who went by the pseudonym 'Essjay,' was found not to be the 'tenured professor of theology' he claimed to be but a run-of-the-mill 24 year-old from Kentucky. Said Wales, 'To discover that someone had been deceiving the community for a long time really was a bit of a blow to our trust. Wikipedia is built on the idea of trusting other people and people being honest and we find that in the most part everyone is, so it was a real disappointment.'"

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