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  1. User picture
    • Jazspeak on Thu 18 Mar 2010
    • 01:50:18 AM UTC

    Suspicious WOT Rating Activity

    It looks as though some websites might have been targeted in an effort to reduce the reputations of those websites. The suspicious rating activity came to my attention when it was noticed that the reputation for my own site http://jazspeak.co.uk was drastically reduced in recent days but there were no comments to indicate why the reputation should have taken such a sudden nose-dive. It is quite possible that other sites have received similar adverse attention without good cause.

    ~Music is not just for the Masses~

Comments:

  2. User picture
    • g7w on Thu 18 Mar 2010
    • 04:16:40 AM UTC

    re: jazspeak.co.uk

    I can barely view the page content. you're using images of a fixed dimension but the text doesn't stay within the containers. Also the text is extremely small in many places - around 4pt.

    You offer items to purchase, yet you have no privacy policy or a ToS. Your contact information is available via a whois search, but it is limited to a text only mobile number and an email address.

    You use PayPal to handle the financial transactions so nothing is entered on your site for the financial transaction, but you still obtain PII - name, address, etc. of anyone wishing to make a purchase; you are a third-party to PayPal's privacy policy, so you need one for yourself. There is no need for an SSL unless you move the shopping cart to your domain, which I doubt you would ever do.

    The aesthetics wouldn't - or shouldn't - be cause for poor ratings, but the lack of a ToS and a Privacy Policy may be a problem. Even in the UK personal identity protection is expected - especially if you do not maintain that information yourself.

    I have never rated your site and I would not until you can clean it up a bit and set up the same form of information many other website owners are advised to do within these forums.

    I checked your host out (heartinternet.co.uk). If you are using the low end hosting package then a CMS is not available (no MySQL database available), but if you have the medium / middle package you could set up Joomla or Drupal to build a decent site with, even using the default themes. JA-Purity ii for Joomla is out and it looks nice and "flashy" - just the thiing for a media site. ;-)

    If you want to stay with a static site (pre-built html files) get a decent template to work with - there are many around, to name a couple: www.styleshout.com www.freecsstemplates.org www.freewebtemplates.com

    Whether static html or a data-driven CMS, you should host your own media files, at least the MP3's and midi's but the YouTube videos should be viewed within your sites page even though they are stored on youtube.com.

    just a few thoughts...

    peace,
    -------
    WOT Services Ltd. - gives us safety through Web of Trust.
    WOT Community - gives us security through unity.
    Thank you all
    - G7W
    • User picture
      • Jazspeak on Thu 18 Mar 2010
      • 10:36:37 AM UTC

      Thanks

      Thanks for the advice. The site is due for a make-over in the next few weeks and I shall take your advice on board.
    • User picture
      • Jazspeak on Sat 20 Mar 2010
      • 02:17:24 PM UTC

      Privacy Policy

      Just to let you know that I have included a Privacy Policy on the website. The updated website will be improved in the next few weeks but in view of your comments I decided that the inclusion of a Privacy Policy was of more immediate importance.

      Thanks to everyone for your help.
  3. User picture
    • BobJam (not verified) on Thu 18 Mar 2010
    • 05:20:38 AM UTC

    What are these websites?

    "It looks as though some websites might have been targeted in an effort to reduce the reputations of those websites"
    When you say "some websites" and "those websites", are you speaking of just YOUR website or do you have knowledge of others?

    If you're speaking of others but don't know what they are, is this just a guess or do you have something concrete? If it's an "educated guess", "educate" us . . . IOW, why does it "look" that way to you? (i.e. the "targeting" of other websites).
    • User picture
      • Jazspeak on Thu 18 Mar 2010
      • 10:45:01 AM UTC

      Educated Guess

      I have noticed on this forum that there are quite a few good sites that have been given poor ratings without any sign of good cause for those poor ratings. Only a few days ago my own site had an excellent reputation which has been very much reduced but without any reasons being expressed in comments. In common with the other good sites on this forum that have apparently received unfair ratings, my own business does not have any dissatisfied customers or clients, so whilst it is an 'educated guess', it does seem as though there is some unfair rating going on.
      • User picture
        • Internetti on Thu 18 Mar 2010
        • 03:19:59 PM UTC

        I've also gotten some poor

        I've also gotten some poor ratings and comments recently, although we have privacy infomation on our website, provide everything for free, emphasize quality, never sent any kind of spam and have a very good e-mail help desk. See scorecard of www.beammachine.net

        "I rate you bad because you are unable" is briefly what one of the commentators says on my scorecard. So he just didn't care about rating the website at all. I'm sure it's a minority handling the rating system irresponsible like that and only websites with few ratings are affected. The only thing helping against this is make more people rate your site. I've just placed a rating for you... hope it helps.
        • User picture
          • Jazspeak on Thu 18 Mar 2010
          • 08:48:52 PM UTC

          just placed a rating

          Thanks Internetti, I shall certainly do the same for you. I am sure that the majority of WOT users are completely fair in their rating of sites but it only takes a few determined bad apples to spoil things for everyone else. However, if the majority who rate sites fairly are able to co-operate then it might be possible to reduce or negate the effect of the sad minority who seem to unfairly rate sites. It is not beyond reason to assume that some (probably many) of the unfair ratings might come from scammers and spammers who have been exposed by WOT users.
          • User picture
            • Internetti on Fri 19 Mar 2010
            • 08:33:56 AM UTC

            I agree, most of them just

            I agree, most of them just try to sabotage WOT. Although there is still a bunch of platinum members abusing their power. I expect this comment to provoke more bad comments on my scorecard, but also I prefer free speech over a flawless scorecard, so I don't mind. :)

            Regarding your site: you just won a fan. ;) I like your electronic music. Thought you're a jazz artist... but I like both styles a lot. Tell us when you found the time to redesign the site.
            • User picture
              • Sami on Fri 19 Mar 2010
              • 08:57:46 AM UTC

              Re: I agree, most of them just

              User level has nothing to do with "power." If you suspect someone is abusing the system, please send us a note.
              • User picture
                • Internetti on Fri 19 Mar 2010
                • 09:47:47 AM UTC

                Thanks Sami, I've sent a

                Thanks Sami, I've sent a report. The form reported a "validation error" after pressing the submit button, hopefully the report has really been submitted and didn't submit multiple times. Did you receive it?
                • User picture
                  • Timo on Fri 19 Mar 2010
                  • 02:13:21 PM UTC

                  re: problem report

                  If you receive a "validation error", then the form is not sent to us and you need to reload the page and try again. You receive the error because the form data is invalid e.g. some fields are missing on our end. Sorry for the inconvenience.
  4. User picture
    • lesheasman on Thu 18 Mar 2010
    • 03:32:00 PM UTC

    poor reputation warning

    I've just been to a web forum that I've been a member of for some time and it has a bad rep warning. Why is this? considering that it discusses religion and is free from the sort of ridiculous abuse you usually get on such forums i'm puzzled about the 'bad rep' tag. For the record i don't own or admin the site in question.