Foreign Perspectives

One of the things that I do with the various websites is to try out new features out of curiosity or to see if they can be used elsewhere in my growing little empire of domains.

Earlier in the year, I thought it was time that I had a forum for myself. This looked like it would be quite difficult to do initially but on looking into it, it’s actually very simple as there’s loads of free software around these days to implement such things. In the end I plumped for phpBB which took something like 30 mins from clicking on the download button ’til it was operational.

It was originally attached to my bed & breakfast / self-catering listing site but now lives on this site at forum. No real hassles for months but now I find that I’m inundated with new user accounts called “dripping pussy movie tuta” and the like with similar websites being quoted. I’ve actually locked those down but the snag is that deleting them is a growing pain as there doesn’t seem to be any easy way to automatically separate those out from the real registrations.

Then came this very blog site. Much less of a hassle but not a day goes by without someone trying to put a comment on containing dozens of website links to porn and gambling sites. None of them get through as all comments are moderated which means that I need to approve them before they appear.

And in the last throes of 2006, the brand new Foreign Perspectives Directory which will eventually evolve into a full-scale directory of travel sites. No doubt I’ll get loads of porno sites coming through the “suggest a link” button.

I could understand if all the above were via automated submissions but every single one requires you to enter those weird graphic characters so real people are submitting the lot. I’d have thought that it couldn’t possibly be worthwhile to do that for an entry that’s pretty much sure to be deleted before it appears. At a guess 90% or more of such entries must be deleted so even if it only takes a few mins of time for each that’s probably getting on for an hour down the pan before you get one link actually listed.

Perhaps I should move into the porn industry if it’s as profitable as this?