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News Subject: Facebook Verses Connecticut Attorney General Verses ChristianBlog.Com
News Posted: 05/12/08 7:07am

Last Comment By: nikki
Facebook Verses Connecticut Attorney General Verses ChristianBlog.Com

The Situation:

On May 8, 2008 Connecticut Attorney General Announced a Nationwide Agreement With Facebook to make their website safer for underage members.

Naturally this caused us (and probably every other major social community website) to investigate what Facebook was faced with, in dealing with their involvement's with the CT Attorney General.

According to the press release "Facebook has agreed to make changes to better protect children from predators and inappropriate content and to participate in a task force on implementation of age and identity verification software."

Back in January MySpace was faced with a similar situation in which they made 60 changes to their website. In this situation with Facebook, there are over 40 changes that they must make.


The Big List:

Below are many (but not all) of the rules that Facebook is being forced to put into place:


  1. Review and scrutinize requests by a user to change his or her age. Requests to change profile ages will be logged, and Facebook will grant only a single request to change an age above or below 18.

  2. Maintain a list of adult (pornographic) Web sites on an ongoing basis and sever all active links to those sites from the site.

  3. Increase efforts to remove groups for incest, pedophilia, cyberbullying and other violations of the site's terms of services and expel from the site individual violators of those terms,

  4. Aggressively remove inappropriate images and content;

  5. Restricting searches by over-18 users so they cannot seek under-18 users, along with other significant limits on searches;

  6. Limiting adult users' ability to contact subscribers under 18

  7. Acknowledge reports or complaints within 24 hours of receiving such reports, and report back to the reporter within 72 hours the steps taken to address the complaint.

  8. Establish a 24-hour hotline to respond to law enforcement inquiries.

  9. Users under 18 can block all users over 18 from contacting them.

  10. Users over 18 may restrict access to their profile by those under the age of 18.

  11. Limit search engine ability to crawl all private profiles.

  12. Set restrictions on the display of offline contact information (e.g. telephone number, address) in profiles and rapidly remove postings of such information in public forums upon report.

  13. All posting of images shall be linked to a user account.

  14. Search terms that are commonly used to locate minors (search specific words) shall be identified and monitored.

  15. Profiles of registered sex offenders identified using appropriate technology are reviewed and, once confirmed, are removed from the site. The associated data are preserved for law enforcement.

  16. Policy for hosted images shall employ technology to rapidly block and remove image uploads that violate the Terms of Use and block accounts of those who attempt to upload such images.

  17. Ensure report functionality that allows user to select from specific categories of abuse. These categories include fake profile, underage user, inappropriate content, spam/scam/phishing, nudity or pornography, suicide threat, harassment, violence, attacks individual or groups, etc.

  18. Tobacco and alcohol advertisements, if accepted, are targeted only to those of legal age to purchase these products.

  19. The site will notify users whose profiles are deleted for Terms of Service violations.

  20. Users can control who has access to their images using privacy settings.

  21. The site includes "Report" links in relevant places throughout the website.

  22. Safety Tips for Parents should provide suggestions on the use of computer-based blocking software.

  23. Parents are able to remove underage child's profile thorough an easily available process.

  24. Users under 18 must affirmatively consent that they have reviewed the Safety Tips prior to registration.



My Initial Thoughts About These Rules:

As I was initially reading through this list I was amazed at a few things:

(1) How many of these issues ChristianBlog.Com already has in place.

(2) The fact that a few of them we've never even thought about putting into place (and are going to sit down and see about putting into place)

(3) How many of these issues are not even really an "issue" here at ChristianBlog.Com, because of the very nature of how we have controlled published content from the very beginning.

(4) The overall focus of what the Connecticut Attorney General was wanting from Facebook -- what we would consider "elementary security features".


How ChristianBlog.Com Presently Compares Against These Rules:

I suppose the whole purpose of this post is to share with our members and visitors how ChristianBlog.Com is presently doing in regards to comparative security features. As explained above, I was rather surprised at the amount of features Facebook is being forced to put into place, that ChristianBlog.Com already has in place.

What I will now do is go through each of the items listed above and share a bit on how ChristianBlog.Com compares:

Quote:
Review and scrutinize requests by a user to change his or her age. Requests to change profile ages will be logged, and Facebook will grant only a single request to change an age above or below 18.


ChristianBlog.Com actually handles this slightly different then Facebook, so we are not presented with the many issues that Facebook is.

At issue here is that both ChristianBlog.Com and Facebook have "age specific" sections of our websites. Typically areas that only adults can access, or only areas that minors can access. This is done in order to protect both groups. Adults have the ability to post content that minors cannot access, which thereby allows them to talk about "adults issues", all the while protecting minors. Likewise, there are sections of the website that minors can access but not adults.

How we are different is that we decide from the very beginning that allowing members to change their date of birth would make it very easy to allow people to continually change their age, and thus be able to easily gain access to sections of the website that are "age specific". To counter this from happening, we simply do not allow members the ability to automatically change their date of birth. In order to do so they must submit a request to our Technical Support with their updated date of birth. We allow members to do this because we do realize that at the time of registration, some members may incorrectly input their date of birth. We further place restrictions on this in that we only allow a date of birth to be updated once, for the history of the accounts activity.

One of the issues we have been trying to solve is the "how do we allow parents to access 'minor only' content" in order to check-up on what their children are doing. ChristianBlog.Com have been working on a number of possible solutions to this, but as of this point in time, none of these are yet available to the general membership of ChristianBlog.Com

Quote:
Maintain a list of adult (pornographic) Web sites on an ongoing basis and sever all active links to those sites from the site.


This was something that surprised me that the Connecticut Attorney General imposed! What they are suggesting is that Facebook must start keeping a massive list (truly massive when you think about the millions of adult websites out there) of adult websites and that if anybody posts anything that contains a link to any of those adult websites, whatever got posted is (to quote them) "severed" - or in other words, removed.

What is not clear in this requirement is whether or not the entire published content is removed or if just the link to the adult website is removed. The way I read it, only the links themselves are removed.

What amazed me about this rule is that the Attorney General is not requiring a Public Company to monitor and automatically adjust/edit content published by members. I remember back a few years ago when Google "Gmail" became a hit and the whole world went crazy over the fact that Google had a "non-human-scanner" to read all email and serve advertisements based on content within the email. When this came into the public light, it got so crazy that Google got taken to court and if I remember correctly, it went all the way to Congress to see if there was some kind of "Breach of Privacy Right" that Google was violating. So, what I would like know is that what an Attorney General is now say a website MUST do, is the very thing that Google caught all kinds of hell for just a few years ago. What is the difference between an automated system scanning email and an automated system scanning private messages, shoutouts, and such? As I see it, there is none, so I just have to ask... why is the Attorney General getting away with forcing a Private Company to do something that another company (google) was nearly forced to stop doing? Hmmm.

As to how ChristianBlog.Com compares to this enforced rule by the Attorney General...

ChristianBlog.Com does maintain a list of websites that have a tendency to spam our website. After a specific website URL has gotten flagged as a possible spamming website link, our software indicates to our administrators that the given website url has been flagged and to "check it out". Should the Administrators determine the website url is infact a spamming issue, we can tell our software to "blacklist" the Website URL from being posted.

Unlike the approach that Facebook is being forced to take - that is to "sever them" - ChristianBlog.Com goes one step further and simply does not allow the *entire content* from being published. We feel is somebody is posting content with some "blacklisted content" that the chances are pretty good that the rest of the content is also going to be spamming related, and the best thing to do is just keep every bit of it from being published.

Quote:
Increase efforts to remove groups for incest, pedophilia, cyberbullying and other violations of the site's terms of services and expel from the site individual violators of those terms


At this time ChristianBlog.Com does not have "groups" - though they are in the works - but what I would like to highlight about this rule is that ChristianBlog.Com already has a system in place to do exactly what is being required of Facebook.

Any publication of "incest, pedophilia, cyberbullying and other violations of the site's terms of services" results in a complete termination of the account of the publisher of said content. Likewise, if required by law, we pass along all necessary information to local/federal/international law enforcement agencies to help prosecute said publisher.


Quote:
Aggressively remove inappropriate images and content;


ChristianBlog.Com is very aggressive in removing content (images, text, videos, etc). We have dedicated Moderators who scan/review all submitted/published content and if any inappropriate content is found, the said content is removed and the account of the member suspended.

Quote:
More prominently display safety tips;


This is one of those things that every website could do better, including ChristianBlog.Com

One of the things in-the-works here at ChristianBlog.Com is working with a panel of adult safety coalitions to device a set of Standards that we should publish for safety and security.

Quote:
Restricting searches by over-18 users so they cannot seek under-18 users, along with other significant limits on searches;


ChristianBlog.Com does not presently do this, however, it is on our Development Roadmap.

Quote:
Limiting adult users' ability to contact subscribers under 18


This is an interesting requirement -- with some rather interesting issues on how to solve it.

The idea behind not allowing adults to contact minors is a good idea. However, if there is a "blanket rule" that no adults can contact minors, then we have to ask "how does one control the ability to have parents contact their children?" Or, what if a whole family is apart of the website, and an uncle wants to contact the minor?

No social network website that I've ever seen keeps track of families to the extend beyond children/parents. So again, I've got to ask, if there is a blanket rule, how do family members contact other family members when they are minor/adults?

It is for this very issue that ChristianBlog.Com has never put in a "blanket rule" that prohibits adults from contact minors.

What we also must keep in mind is that in order to even contact other members, both members have to "agree/confirm" that they know each other and are willing to allow direct contact with each other. This is done via our "My.Friends" system.

Quote:
Acknowledge reports or complaints within 24 hours of receiving such reports, and report back to the reporter within 72 hours the steps taken to address the complaint.


This is a great requirement. However, it could be MUST better! What I have to wonder is why a company that is as HUGE as Facebook is, are given 24-hours to "Acknowledge" content.

Let's be clear about this -- "Acknowledge" does not mean "review" and it surly does not mean "take action against" -- Acknowledge simply means that Facebook must send a message to the person reporting said content that Facebook received their "report". Does it really take 24-hours to process a simple private message or an email? Hmmm.

Furthermore, to allow possible inappropriate content to remain public for "72 hours" is just flabbergasting!

So, what this rule is saying is that if somebody posts some child pornography at the Facebook website, and then somebody reports said content, Facebook must send a message within 24 hours, but they do not have to DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT for up to 72-hours! Say what!! Wow!

Here at ChristianBlog.Com we have a much better track record! 95% of published content gets reviewed by our moderators within 2 hours of it being posted. The other 5% of the published content typically gets reviewed by our Moderators within a 5 hour period.

And unlike the requirements being placed on Facebook, our Moderators are instructed to IMMEDIATELY terminated said content... not wait "up to 72-hours". Again, all I can say is "wow!"


Quote:
Establish a 24-hour hotline to respond to law enforcement inquiries.


Wow, I LOVE this rule!

As somebody who has a large amount of friends that are law enforcement officials (I'd say probably 30% of my friends are involved in law enforcement of one type or another), I can say that this kind of a requirement ROCKS big time!

Sadly, ChristianBlog.Com is far from being big enough to staff a "24-hour hotline" for this kind of a feature.

To be honest, I had not even thought about having one until I read this... and then I just sort of slapped myself on the forehead for not thinking of it - because it really is a great idea! Rest assured that my "to do list" now has a new item on it!

Quote:
Users under 18 can block all users over 18 from contacting them.


This is already 80% possible here at ChristianBlog.Com by simply removing anybody over the age of 18 from your friends list - Simple as that.

The other 20% of contact that is possible is via our "Shoutouts". In this way, it is possible for an adult to contact a minor. However, this is something that is on our Development Roadmap (item #5) and we hope to have finished by the end of Q2 2008.

Quote:
Users over 18 may restrict access to their profile by those under the age of 18.


Ditto to the response for the above issue.

Quote:
Limit search engine ability to crawl all private profiles.


To a degree ChristianBlog.Com already does this, but we could take a much more aggressive approach. At some point we have to ask ourselves "how much information is too much information?"

One of the constant problems with "the internet" is the ability for search engines to "harvest" information. Of course, some would argue that this is not a "problem"... that this is the very purpose of the internet.

Where the line is, nobody knows exactly. At this point ChristianBlog.Com has chosen to take the path that says "personal information is private", and everything else should be public. Is what a person shares via a Shoutout or a gallery comment really that "private" in the first place? We would think if it is sooo that much private that it shouldn't be harvested by search engines, then it probably shouldn't be posted in the first place.


Quote:
Set restrictions on the display of offline contact information (e.g. telephone number, address) in profiles and rapidly remove postings of such information in public forums upon report.


This is a completely mute-point for us here at ChristianBlog.Com as we have documented in great detail. Simply put, posting of "personal contact information" is a violation of our Global Policies. If you share such information your account WILL be terminated. We have a lot of former members who can attest to this fact. Beyond anything else, we take the sharing of personal contact information very very seriously!

ChristianBlog.Com has some of the strictest policies of any major Social Community website -- if not the strongest!

Between our Moderators, and our brilliantly developed intelligent software that auto-scans all content hunting down personal identification... we have a 99% success rate in terminating all member accounts who have violated these policies, within a 30-second time-frame!

The software we have developed (which we happen to believe is pretty brilliant) can automatically - and instantly - detect if people have shared personal contact information - such as email addresses, phone numbers etc - and it will automatically and instantly suspend the account of the member who has violated these policies. What few things happen to sneak through, are typically caught by our Moderators within minutes, who then initiate a suspension of account!

This alone makes ChristianBlog.Com one of the safest websites on the internet!


Quote:
All posting of images shall be linked to a user account.


Ok, I will have to admit I re-read that requirement 4-times... each time going "Ummmmm, Duh!"

I find it really hard to imagine that any website would allow it's members to upload images and NOT keep track of who uploaded the image.

Here at ChristianBlog.Com EVERY image/photograph that is uploaded includes the usersname of the member who uploaded it.

For example:



Notice the "abelajohnb" near the end of this photograph link. Every member who uploads a photograph/image also has THEIR usersname within the photograph. That's just standard policy here at ChristianBlog.Com!


Quote:
Search terms that are commonly used to locate minors (search specific words) shall be identified and monitored.


I actually LOVE this requirement!

While it will mean more work for Facebook employees, this is a great way to help "weed out" those individuals who are attempting to pray on others!

Here at ChristianBlog.Com we keep a record of every single thing that people search for, when they utilize our search feature. While it is not directly linked into our software to automatically suspend members accounts, it does keep track of all searched content, and provide for us a report that can be viewed. Additionally we keep track of the usersname of whoever performed each search - thereby allowing us to easily track exactly what is being searched, and by whom. Should a member begin to search for key words that would have a tendency to raise a red-flag, this is something we can presently do.

However, the more I think about this whole requirement being forced upon Facebook, the more I realize we need to strengthen the way we do things. Perhaps if we can enhance some of our existing software, we can being to build an automated system that would red-flag members accounts who are searching for very specific key-words that are considered "predator key words". Developing such a system is going to take a lot of thought, so while it is not going to be placed on the "immediate to-do-list"... it is going to make it onto my "long term to-do-list"... because I really do love this idea!


Quote:
Profiles of registered sex offenders identified using appropriate technology are reviewed and, once confirmed, are removed from the site. The associated data are preserved for law enforcement.


ChristianBlog.Com already does this, and has done this many times in the past.

We have worked with law enforcement agencies around the United States, and even Scotland Yard a time or two, to help law enforcement officials have the necessary information they need to prosecute those that need it.

Quote:
Policy for hosted images shall employ technology to rapidly block and remove image uploads that violate the Terms of Use and block accounts of those who attempt to upload such images.


Ok, I'll have to admit it again... I have read this about a dozen times.... and I still have no idea what they are talking about!

They talk about a "policy" and "technology" as if they are one-and-the-same. Hmmm.

A "policy" is a rule, "technology" is a piece of software... they aren't the same thing! I think whoever wrote that rule was having a bad day!

Anyway, beyond that fact, I find this whole concept interesting. What the Attorney General seems to be saying is that Facebook has to develop some mystical piece of software (that to the best of my knowledge, doesn't even exist yet) that will "sniff out" images with bad content. How the expect that to work, is totally beyond me.

Quote:
Ensure report functionality that allows user to select from specific categories of abuse. These categories include fake profile, underage user, inappropriate content, spam/scam/phishing, nudity or pornography, suicide threat, harassment, violence, attacks individual or groups, etc.


ChristianBlog.Com has for a very long time had a "report content" feature - and just recently we have added the "category" style system talked about above. We have found actually provides a much better reporting system, and have increased the amount of reports we have received.

So, obviously, we already have this feature and will continue to expand on it as new ideas come around!

Quote:
Tobacco and alcohol advertisements, if accepted, are targeted only to those of legal age to purchase these products.


Here at ChristianBlog.Com, this is an easy one to solve!

We simply have NO PLANS to EVERY allow that type of advertisement at our website!

Furthermore, ChristianBlog.Com has no plans to every put into place a "age specific" type of advertisement!

Quote:
The site will notify users whose profiles are deleted for Terms of Service violations.


This is yet another one that made me scratch my head. Obviously if a persons account has been deleted, said member is going to know it LOL.

Anyway, here at ChristianBlog.Com we have a lovely little message that notifies people attempting to view the profile of a suspended/terminated member that the account has been suspended.

We also have another lovely message that says the same thing when people attempt to log into the website after their account has been terminated.

What I would be very curious to know is what "means of notification" is the Connecticut Attorney General requiring Facebook to do? Is simply displaying a message sufficient? Is displaying a message and sending an email sufficient? Does Facebook now have to send a written and certified letter to the member? I read the entire legal clause and it just doesn't seem to say. (sigh)

Quote:
Users can control who has access to their images using privacy settings.


At this point ChristianBlog.Com has two levels of "image privacy". The first is "complete public access" and the second is "only personal access". We suppose we could add a third level of access called "Friends Only", but that is never even been thought of being put on our "To Do List" at this point in time.

Again, I would be interested in knowing more specifics about this requirement, because as I read it, it is rather lacking in explanation.

Quote:
The site includes "Report" links in relevant places throughout the website.


Been there, done that, no plans to change it!


Quote:
Safety Tips for Parents should provide suggestions on the use of computer-based blocking software.


At this time ChristianBlog.Com does not have this.

We have been working (for a rather long time, actually) on a section here at ChristianBlog.Com that is just to help parents learn how to protect their computers and their family from the internet and all that comes with it.

Sadly, the "rather long time" is still going to take awhile (unless some ambitions volunteers step up and help out), because of the huge amount of existing things on our Road Map.

Quote:
Parents are able to remove underage child's profile thorough an easily available process.


This is one of those things that ChristianBlog.Com really needs to have, because right now we do not have a GOOD system in place.

Of course, there is always the questions of "how exactly does a parent validate they are the parent?" It would seem to me that a good friend might know enough about their friend to "spoof" being their friends parent, and thus get their friends account close. How exactly does one prevent that from happening? The lack of knowing an answer has kept us from instituting such a system. We've spent a lot of time trying to resolve the fact around this one, and each time we come up with more questions and problems then answers and solutions. If Facebook is able to find a way to do it, congratz to them!

Thanks for reading, and I welcome any feedback, suggestions, or thoughts you might have.

For Christ's Ministry,
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com

» add your comments/thoughts/suggestions



News Subject: Website Statistics, May 2008
News Posted: 06/07/08 12:53am

Last Comment By: bimonics
Website Statistics, May 2008

Website Statistics, May 2008:

A quick update for those of you who like statistics and follow the growth (or lack thereof) of ChristianBlog.Com

The following statistics apply for May 1, 2008 - May 31, 2008


We had 23,784 visits to the website.

This constitutes both new visitors and people return multiple times.
This is a daily average of 767.23 visits per day.
The two highest days were: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 (926 visits) and Thursday, May 29, 2008 (1,054 visits).

We had a total of 137,382 pageviews to the website.

This constitutes the total number of website pages that were displayed by both new visitors and people return multiple times.
This is a daily average of 4,431 pageviews per day.
The highest days were:
Thursday, May 15, 2008 (6,004)
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 (5,909)
Thursday, May 29, 2008 (5,636)
Friday, May 9, 2008 (5,624)


We had a total of 5.78 pageviews for all visitors.

This constitutes the total number of pageviews that each person visiting the website viewed. So, in essence, each person who visited ChristianBlog.Com during the month of May viewed almost 6 pages before they left the website.
Friday, May 9, 2008 and Saturday, May 10, 2008 were the two highest days for people visiting more pages then normal.


The average time spent on the website for each visitor was 07:02 minutes.

This constitutes the total number of minutes that each person (be it visitors and/or members) spent at ChristianBlog.Com

Friday, May 9, 2008 was the highest with an average time of 10:45 minutes.
Saturday, May 10, 2008 comes in next with 08:54 minutes.
Saturday, May 31, 2008 marks the third highest with 08:23 minutes.


69.16% of the visitors to ChristianBlog.Com had never visited the website before.

In essence this is tracked two ways, "returning visitors" and "new visitors".
16,465 of the visits (or 69.23% ) were visits by people who have never visited ChristianBlog.Com before.
Leaving 7,319 (or 30.77% ) of the activity at the website by people who are members of ChristianBlog.Com or regularly visit it.


In regards to where people are coming from:

16,552 ( 69.59% ) are coming to ChristianBlog.com from Search Engines.
4,117 ( 17.31% ) are coming to ChristianBlog.com from saved bookmarks.
3,115 ( 13.10% ) are coming to ChristianBlog.com from other websites.


Overview:

ChristianBlog.Com is grow - and growing fast!

ChristianBlog.Com had 468 new members signup in May, along with 577 new blog entries and 1,475 new blog comments!

Thank you!

For Christ's Ministry,
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com

» add your comments/thoughts/suggestions



News Subject: New Feature: Shoutout Privacy Settings
News Posted: 05/18/08 3:55pm

Last Comment By: abelajohnb
New Feature: Shoutout Privacy Settings

ChristianBlog.Com is proud to announce another layer of security has been added to all of our members security options!

This newly added feature will allow all members the ability to completely disable the ability for other members to send you Shoutout messages!

In order to enable/disable this feature, members will need to be logged into ChristianBlog.Com.

Once logged into ChristianBlog.Com navigate to the "Manage Privacy Settings" (located under the 'Manage Your Account' section on the right-side of the website).

Once within your "Manage Privacy Settings" you should see a section entitled "Enable/Disable My Shoutouts".



As it says, "If you do NOT want people to be able to send you Shoutouts Messages set this feature to Disabled."

If you do disable Shoutouts, your profile page will look something like this: (with your own usersname/gender, obviously).



We do realize this feature will not be something most people will want to use, but we also realize that some of our members would like to turn off the ability for other members to send them shoutouts, and we should provide them that ability/option! - and, now we do!

For Christ's Ministry,
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com

» add your comments/thoughts/suggestions



News Subject: CB Home Page - Updated To Be Faster, Cleaner & Less Cluttered!
News Posted: 05/14/08 11:46am

Last Comment By: abelajohnb
CB Home Page - Updated To Be Faster, Cleaner & Less Cluttered!

For the better part of two years the ChristianBlog.Com has pretty much been the same, with a few new features added here-and-there as we add them to the website.

Over this time, however, the home page has gotten more and more "stuff" on it, causing it to take longer and longer to load - which makes it harder for visitors and members with slower internet connections.

We have also continued to encounter resistance by search engines like google.com, yahoo.com, live.com, and others, because of how much data there was on the home page to process. Most search engines do not like a single website page to be loaded down with a bunch of stuff, and thus websites that are loaded down with a bunch of stuff get a negative ranking, rather then a positive ranking. So part of the goal in our newest design is to see if we can begin to go from being in that "negative factor" into a more positive one... because the higher we can get in the search engines the better it is for us to to have a chance to grow more!

There are obviously a number of drastic changes that people are either going to really love, or really hate...


  1. Less Graphics. By removing all of the fancy "border graphics" we have been able to make the home page load 3x faster then with the graphics!

  2. Less clutter. By refining how and what is presented, we have made it a lot easier to find specific features of the website. Less stuff scattered all over the place makes it must faster to scan the website for new content!

  3. Preview-less Blog Text. By removing the first few sentences of blog entries we have been able to greatly reduce "scrolling" up-and-down the home page! As most people rarely view more then one or two screen-depths, this allows us to present more content within the prime real estate that displays in visitors browsers, without forcing them to scroll down so much. We realize this may not make a lot of people happy, and if we were to add anything to our new home page, it would probably be this. But for now, we'd like to see how it works without a preview of the blog text. Voice your opinions and let us know.

  4. Home-page redirects (for logged in members). One of the constant questions we receive is "how to do get to the page with all of the recent activity?" We have now solved that issue. Once you are logged into the website, and you click on the "home" link at the top (or the logo at the top) you will be taken to the "Activity since your last visit" page automatically. No more searching or hunting down where all that information is at!

  5. Live Tech Support. While this does not directly relate to the changed home-page, we figured we would release our new "live technical support" at the same time as our new home page! Throughout the website, and on our new home page, the login page, and elsewhere, you should now see a "Need help? Click here for live help" button! When it says "Chat online" that means somebody is available to help you... yes, a real life person! It will ask you for your name and a question about what you are having problems with. From there you will be able to "talk" (not voice, but text-chat) with one of our support team members! Very cool. Try it out if you'd like to see how it works!


I would welcome any feedback, thoughts, suggestions, and even criticism of any of the above issues about the changes to our home page!

For now, the "old version" has been relocated to: http://www.christianblog.com/index_full.php

Thanks,
John B. Abela
Founder/Owner, ChristianBlog.Com

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News Subject: ChristianBlog.Com Offers A Secure Connection!
News Posted: 05/10/08 11:39am

Last Comment By: abelajohnb
ChristianBlog.Com Offers A Secure Connection!

After a much too long of time (at least we feel so) ChristianBlog.Com is now offering a "Secure Connection" for anybody who would like to use it!

In technical terms it is called a "SSL" - Secure Sockets Layer - and you can find more information about SSL Certifications at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Sockets_Layer (for anybody interested in the technical side of things.)

For those who are not technical at heart, what our "Secure Connection" does is provide an encrypted/secure connection between your browser/computer and our server/computer. This means that any information sent between your computer and ours (say, for instance, your usersname/password), that information will be encrypted and highly unlikely to be hacked.

Obviously it is more complicated then that... but that is a general explanation that I figured most everybody would understand.

This is a feature available to all members -- free, premier, and gold -- because we believe in providing the best of security for ALL of our members!

This is a feature you will not find at myspace.com, facebook.com, christianforums.com, hisholyspace.com, dittytalk, xianz, mypraize, or any of the other large Christian Social Community websites -- once again proving that ChristianBlog.Com is taking a forefront lead in providing, and taking seriously, security for our members!

To access the "Secure Connection" simply click on the "Want a secure login?" link on our Members Login page.



We are using the HIGHEST level of security presently available!

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