new jersey geographer » Internet http://njgeo.org GIS and planning in New Jersey Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:50:32 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Unmoderated communities aren’t communities. http://njgeo.org/2010/09/29/unmoderated-communities-arent-communities/ http://njgeo.org/2010/09/29/unmoderated-communities-arent-communities/#comments Wed, 29 Sep 2010 13:46:29 +0000 John Reiser http://njgeo.org/?p=415 Continue reading →]]> Without a fear of social repercussions for anti-social behavior, online communities without moderation often devolve into a cesspool. Take for instance InsiderPages, a hybrid yellow pages with reviews. There are countless sites like this out there, all suffering from the fact that bizarre and often inflammatory comments may include keywords that bump the site higher in search rankings. There’s no real incentive to police the comments, which gives us gems like this:

InsiderPages users’ thoughts on the Cowtown Rodeo Flea Market.

Despite the term “flea market” the Cowtown Rodeo’s market isn’t a low place. It’s an outdoor swap meet that caters to the agrarian marketplace of Salem County. However, the first few comments on the listing are an argument over our current president’s stance on immigration. Completely irrelevant discussion, yet it remains there. NJ.com is perhaps one of the biggest offenders; leaving downright profane comments on race at the bottom of many articles. Without moderation, the comments become something else entirely; anti-social outlets for the individuals and a bump in SEO rankings for the site. A losing situation for anyone looking for unbiased information.

I’m sure not all of the sites are gaming SEO through comments; some may be simply understaffed. On the other hand, when you consider the time individuals waste in the innumerable echo chambers like this one, the mind boggles. God bless America.

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]]> http://njgeo.org/2010/09/29/unmoderated-communities-arent-communities/feed/ 0 Equality in Data: Should personal addresses be redacted? http://njgeo.org/2010/02/19/equality-in-data-should-personal-addresses-be-redacted/ http://njgeo.org/2010/02/19/equality-in-data-should-personal-addresses-be-redacted/#comments Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:58:21 +0000 John Reiser http://njgeo.org/?p=242 Continue reading →]]> The property of a randomly chosen "John Smith"

The property of a randomly chosen "John Smith"

Mecklenburg County (Charlotte), North Carolina is currently facing an information-sharing predicament. POLARIS, their county-wide interactive web map, currently serves up property ownership information as part of the real property and tax records in the county databases. The county is looking to remove the ability to search by owner to locate land records, mainly because the police are concerned that criminals may use the system to target officers’ homes. I appreciate the concern for the safety of the police force, however theoretically anyone could target anyone else using public records. Just because you have a hammer doesn’t mean you’re going to start hitting people with it. Intentionally crippling a web service and reducing accessibility should always be seen as a major step backwards.(...)
Read the rest of Equality in Data: Should personal addresses be redacted? on my blog.

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