thanks, arianmale1975, for your explanation of bots. i'm hoping CanuckGuy can join this discussion, both you guys know more about the subject than i do.
let us know when u plan to come to HK--you'll find bros are happy to meet newbies IF we have the time. Hong Kongers work a lot, add in family/life-chores and the pursuit of happiness, it can be difficult to meet. i don't get to meet some of the gents i've met on this board in person as often as i'd like, just because...it's HK. you'll see when u get here. but it's a compact place and if we can spare a couple of hours, happy to take you on a tour of some interesting districts.
on to the bots: curious why u used an IRCbot as an example. it's true this forum has little in the way of security as it's expected now. but here's the deal: it's built on the Discuz system which is double-byte and intended for Chinese-language use. the bulk of this board is the Chinese part, and the English forum is more like a "plug-in"...bilingual bros often say they prefer the English side as the content is higher quality and more impartial. but it's: one board, two systems (couldn't resist!).
Discuz for English hasn't been updated since 2006, and the spiderbots/spambots, i guess, are sliding on past hunting for Chinese character-sets. dunno how much spam the Chi-side gets, but there's very little here. the main problem is guys making multiple identities, and the inevitable trolls who seem to either be kids pretending, or guys desperate to see the RA30 fotos, and the usual trolls. the mods are good at finding these out, and ordinary members like myself do check for the "one-line wonders" and other guys who--innocently or not--are violating the rules of the forum. there have been disagreements here, and not all members have been pleased at the outcome, but in general gents are polite (there are very few, if any, female members AFAIK). there is a "Fight Club" section if members wanna go at it, because flame-wars are usually snuffed out quickly. this is BY FAR the politest and least insular monger-forum i've been on. there's extensive info on P4P in HK/Macau/China and even a "Rest of the World" section and searching for keywords will turn up some unique info.
in my, er, interviews with WGs in HK, none of them read the English site, but many know about it (their agents pay to have the included in the DB) and some have asked me write reports about them to increase their business. and frankly, it's worked. i dunno how this works on the Chinese side, perhaps someone can add their impressions.
my security tips (and feel free to add any):
- don't include any personal, including birthdate or email address, in your profile. members can ALWAYS reach each other thru the PM function.
- if someone else has access to yr computer, don't autosave passwords in the login prefs, don't click "permanent" on the cookie-selector, and be sure to logout when yr done.
- many browsers have preferences that will autofill URLs, if yr machine is accessible by someone else, turn OFF this feature and clear yr browser cache. if not, someone might idly type in "se" and before she gets to the "x" key, "sex141.com" fills the URL-bar. and u might have some splainin' to do...
all of the above apply to the mobile version of this site as well.
i think a lot of bros should take more care with the traditional stuff: text msgs or phone calls on yr mobile, images on camera cards or hard disks, mysterious condom "souvenirs," etc.
just my opinion, but we do need to take care to keep our private information PRIVATE. considering the big social-Net companies are moving in the opposite direction, it's more important than ever.
JtB | |
