Introduction Types of Sites The issues Things You Can Do

Introduction

There can be many reasons why someone might want to have a blog, wiki or other type of web site.  Some people simply want a way to express their thoughts and views to the world, and social networking sites don't meet their needs. Maybe they don't like the format and paltform, they want more independence, or they don't like what most of these sites are like. Sometimes these sites are a way to keep in contact with a specific group of people (such as family), again, without the issue (real or perceived) related to social networking sites. Web sites can be an excellent tool for enabling collaboration of many times, from dealing with one time projects to ongoing work. And, sometimes, the site may be part of an attempt to start or improve a business.

In fact, for a business, one really needs to think about why to not have a web site. I would not go so far as to say that every business absolutely needs a web site, but, unlike personal sites, for most businesses, a site is important.However, I am not going to address the issues that businesses face here, as the purpose of this site is to help families deal with internet access in their homes (and their children's futures). I would also expect that anyone who is going to spend money on a business site will get some advice on how to go about it, including all of the relevant issues.

Types of Sites

There are many types of sites. However, generally speaking, most sites that individuals might work with would fall under one of the following categories:

• Blogs This a site much like a diary or journal. A blog can either be part of another web site, or be the whole site. Content is arranged in a series of "posts", much like journal entries, presented in reverse chronological order. The content can be personal, presenting news, or designed to present information or prompt discussions about a topic. (My work related blog -http://kayzasblog.nphd.org/ -is in the third category.)
• Wikis - A wiki is a web site that allows for easy entry and editing of content. While wikis are designed to allow for easy collaboration among people, and some large wikis can have as many as thousands of contributors the content on a wiki may all be the work of one individual (such as this one). Wikipedia is an example of a large well known wiki with many, many contributors.
• Bulletine Boards - A bulletin board is pretty much what it sounds like. People post messages to which others respond. A bulletin board can be fully open to the public, or require registration with various levels of confirmation.
• General - There are many other types of sites, but none are common enough for personal use to require their own discussion. The site could just have general information, files of all sorts, or even have features of the types of site mentioned above in any sort of combination.

The issues

There are specific issues that can come up if you have a site. They are essentially a subset of the issues that apply to the internet as a whole

• Cost:  If you have adequate internet access anyway, this won't be an issue.  But if, for instance, you are on a dial up line, you may find that you need to upgrade to something faster to maintain your site. Another potential cost is for the "host" of your site. Also, depending on what your site is for, you may have to pay someone to maintain or update your site.
• Time spent:  It is very easy to spend far too much time on working on your site. Sometimes it's just a matter of underestimating the amount of time needed. Other times, you can just get too sucked in and expand the scope of the project too much.
• Unwanted exposure: There is real potential to reveal information that is not really appropriate for public consumption. Posting information about children or their pictures have an especially high risk potential, but it is really true of anything you post. Unless your site is absolutely private and reasonably well protected, to keep it so, anything you post can be found by anyone. That means even someone who you may not want to see that information. And, you cannot guarantee that once you decide to take down the information it's gone private again, as you can't control what others have done with what you had posted. It's worth noting that you really need to be careful of what you post about others as well, since your posts can damage them.
• Inappropriate response: Web sites are often designed to allow for easy response. However, that easy response can be abused, or misused, even unwittingly. The problems can range from spam to your inbox, to responses that don't meet your standards, to the most pernicious posts to your site.

Things You Can Do

• Set a budget - and stick to it Figure out what you need, and what you can afford to spend. When looking at plans, make sure that you don't get sucked into paying for features that you may not really need, as these extra features can easily increase the costs to a range you don't want to spend. Also, make sure that you understand how much you will be charged, and exactly what you will be getting for your money. Check you bills (or credit card charges) carefully, to make sure that you don't pay for things you didn't agree to.
• Monitor your own usage There are many ways to do this. It can be as simple as noting when you get on and when you get off the computer. You can use time tracking software if you feel like you are not really tracking the different things you are doing properly, or need to figure our which activities you are spending time on and you want something that takes very little action on your part. Either way, if you (or your family) think that you are spending too much time on the computer, find a method of tracking how much time you actually spend that works for you and use it to get a handle on the situation.
• Enlist family or friends - Listen to the feedback you get from them, and if you suspect you may be heading for trouble, solicit it. See if someone can help you with specific issues (even if it's as simple as having someone calling you after you have spent more than an agreed upon amount of time working on the site).
• Mindfulness - Pay attention to what you are doing. If necessary look at the clock. Stop and look at what you are doing and try to consider it from other perspectives. Think about what information you might be giving a predator (or any sort) or to someone who is vetting you for a job, for instance.
• Take advantage of the seetings of your site's host - You may want to make your site private, or limit who has access to parts of the site. If the site is for wider distribution, you may want to limit who can post messages etc. Look at what your host offers and take advantage of all the features.
• Make it harder to automate problem responses - Some of the ugliest spam on sites comes from "spam bots" - automated programs that drop all sorts of spam on any site where they can. Most of these programs depend on being able to automaticcally repeat a few identical steps many times for the same site, or repeating very prdictable steps for many sites. If you make the steps a bit less predicatable, or in some way make it harder for the "bt" to just do its thing automatically, it can discourage automated spam.