Name and shame?

[cleanupyoursite]

I'm seeking some advice.

I've found quite a few South African website that have become havens for
link spam. Porn mostly. The spammers find forums that are mostly dormant and then flood them with posts. They create posts that are just links to their own sites and obviously most of these sites contain
spy/malware.

In the past I've notified the owners of these sites anonymously and informed them of the problem and suggested that they fix the problem. Most of these forums are dormant so the easiest thing to do is just delete the software.

Some owners are grateful and some are just rude. Such is life.

It really bothers me though when they ignore the advice. The forums stay on-line and fill with more porn and more people get infected with spy/malware. The ones that really bother me are the government sites that are being abused. All email are just ignored to the people responsible for the sites.

So. Should I name and shame these sites, public and government sites, in an effort to get the site owners to fix the problem or should I just leave it and let the spammers fill the internet with their cr@p?

 

[|tera|]

Just leave it, spend your time on doing constructive things and leave other people to clean up their own mess

 

[GTi]

Name and shame them, to save our souls.

 

[stoke]

cleanupyoursite, you'll just be advertising them if you do that.

 

[cleanupyoursite]

teraside: I hear what you're saying. I should just leave leave it alone. BUT, there has been a massive change in the IT industry in the last few years. People are able to do a lot more because tools/software have become more accessible. Anyone can start a blog which is really just a CMS. Someone with just bit of savvy can open a hosting account, press a button and have a forum created for them automatically. Knowing how to secure the software is a little more difficult. Unless someone explains to them that it's a good idea to implement a CAPTCHA or to have users confirm registration from valid email addresses, how will they know?

For example, I found a well known girls school that had a forum, which had probably been set up by the students, that had been overrun with porn. The principle was actually quite thankful for pointing it out to him. If that forum was found by a student or a parent, would that principal still have a job? If that principal did nothing after someone had informed him of the problem, would we still want him to have his job?

stoke: Yes, I would be 'advertising' the problem. But only in the hope that these websites would find someone to help them or hold the people responsible for the website accountable. These aren't all private commercial websites. There are a few government websites, which we are paying for, that are hosting hardcore porn. That doesn't sit right with me.

I feel that this is an ethical question. There are strong arguments for both sides of this issue. I'm just interested in hearing what others feel about this dilemma.

 

[Telkomisaloser]

www.cellhell.co.za ?

 

[cleanupyoursite]

Ninja: yup. But that's mild. From my brief visit to the site, I didn't see any actual photos.

Some sites have very, very graphic porn photos. Even with our liberal laws I'd be willing to bet that some of the stuff is illegal.

 

[Lino]

Ninja: yup. But that's mild. From my brief visit to the site, I didn't see any actual photos.

Some sites have very, very graphic porn photos. Even with our liberal laws I'd be willing to bet that some of the stuff is illegal.

Just my thinking but maybe if you don't like those sites you shouldn't visit them

 

[cleanupyoursite]

Linoman: This isn't about the morality of porn. I never said that it was. These are not porn sites, these are sites with no affiliation to porn that are being abused by porn spammers.

For example:
Look at the results of this search

ihrn.gov.za is a site that falls under the South African Department of Housing. I've emailed the listed contacts of the site a few times. No response and no action.

When I initially contacted them in October, the forums had not been hacked yet. It is only in the last few months or so that some hacker got a hold of the site and put their image at the top of the page.

So, should the people responsible not be held accountable?

 

[Lino]

Linoman: This isn't about the morality of porn. I never said that it was. These are not porn sites, these are sites with no affiliation to porn that are being abused by porn spammers.

For example:
Look at the results of this search

ihrn.gov.za is a site that falls under the South African Department of Housing. I've emailed the listed contacts of the site a few times. No response and no action.

When I initially contacted them in October, the forums had not been hacked yet. It is only in the last few months or so that some hacker got a hold of the site and put their image at the top of the page.

So, should the people responsible not be held accountable?

If the admins of those sites can't be bothered to cleanup their sites (or rather ensure this doesn't happen) then they are responsible for the mess they are in.

 

[PeterCH]

Ninja: yup. But that's mild. From my brief visit to the site, I didn't see any actual photos.

Some sites have very, very graphic porn photos. Even with our liberal laws I'd be willing to bet that some of the stuff is illegal.

Unless it's porn containing minors, it's not illegal. So it may be distatestful
for you but its not illegal and should never be. Just ignore the sites in question, there are countless spamsites on the web like these.