Quote Originally Posted by PaulCoonan View Post
Nice to have an intelligent conversation in this matter, for a change.

As a programmer, it is impossible to police all sites as a traffic exchange owner. There are so many ways to get around security checks that is makes it impossible. People are now finding ways to get hidden metal through the $100,000 body scanners at airports. As security increases, the vulnerabilities do as well. Those vulnerabilities get found.

As a programmer I could, if I wanted to, get any porn site approved in most all traffic exchanges. When the site is being approved, the script or actual person checking the site would not see the real site. It is totally impossible to police like some people wish it could be.

Sometimes I think people just wish they had an easy way to see only sites that were real business opportunities so they would never fall prey and they could actually get rich at the touch of button that was real. It is not the legal responsibility of the advertising mediums to protect people from products or services being advertised in their network. I can't sue a tv network over a product they advertised that did not work as expected.

Those who fall prey, more times than not, have just not learned what to look out for, or did not listen to those who know better, and have no business trying to make a living online. Education is the key and the only solution.

As a former and once well known internet scam reporter, good luck and choose you battles wisely.

Here is a very simple question regarding your "enabling theory." If a city cannot rid itself of all prostitution and drug dealers, does that city become an enabler?
Sorry Paul, the CANNOT control the content arguement doesn't wash for me. OK you can never get rid of the hard core scammers who are smart enough to change their splash pages, but you can get rid of 95% and you can keep a more watchful eye on what goes on. It may well be time consuming or difficult, but that does not make it impossible. Throwing one's hands in the air and saying "it's too difficult" is not an argument when TEs are for profit businesses.

And as for your comparison with cities and crime - the short answer is when a city does NOT make real attempts to clean up its streets, then it must take some of the responsibility for what goes on in them. It is untrue that good policing and clean ups do not work. Many cities have cleaned up whole areas of petty crime by trying. Noone is saying that that the hard core do not find other places, but it has certainly been effective on chasing out the indians. Policed areas have better safety records than those which are neglected and left to get on with it.

Once again - yes the hard core will always be around, but proper control can get rid of one heck of a lot of trouble. It's a question of resources and whether or not you are willing to use them.