Australia’s Next Top Model Banana Peel
Banana Peels
This month our Banana Peel is a little different to previous months but something we thought is worth sharing. If you are not aware each month we pick a site and break it down showing what we think could be done better and differently. This month it’s not so technical but will go to show you how important it is to stay on top of your sites content and keep spam under control.
Australia’s Next Top Model is a hit reality series that shows a group of models competing to win a modelling contract by completing a range of tasks and assignments. Although we here at Ziller are not big flash fans when it comes to websites, the website is fairly well built and designed, having a clear navigation and good load time. The problem here is the fact that they are allowing anyone to write what ever they feel on the homepage. I am guessing some of you are scratching your heads at this point so let me show you a screen-shot.
The Australia’s Next Top Model website have a forum plugged into their site allowing fans to register and communicate with each other by asking and answering questions. What they are doing wrong is they have inserted a script which pulls the latest posts and displays them right their on the homepage. Take a look again at the screen shot and take notice of the the latest forum content:
For a site of this calibre you would think this kind of thing would not happen, however it did and and goes to show just how careful you must be. The forum used is a phpbb forum and is well known for spam problems – if the forums are not managed properly spam bots will get in their and post content similar to what you see above. If you run a phpbb forum or any other open-source forum for that matter it’s critical to keep on top of spam.
Social media is becoming more and more popular and so the need to stay on top of content on your website is really important. Gone are the days when you had complete control over your website – it’s 2010 and this is where the web is headed. I suggest always applying the latest spam plugins that are available and generally keeping on top of what content is written to avoid embarrassing situations like Australia’s Next Top Model did.
