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Gold/Mining/Energy : Tri-Vision & The V-Chip -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: trenzich who wrote (5175)	4/28/1999 1:08:00 PM
From: Rampant	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5743

BID.COM Death Threats Force New Enforcement Policy onto Internet's First Syndicated Message Boards; StockHouse.com Launches Rapid Response Censorship to Injurious Messages SARASOTA, Fla., April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- StockHouse.com (U.S.A.) President Christos Livadas announced today a new sweeping enforcement policy that could affect the message content left on Internet message boards. Said Livadas, "The explosive growth of Internet message boards, over the past three years, has flung the online doors wide open: first to hype and stock fraud, and now toward threats of life and limb." In order to prevent potential murders or lesser, but still serious scenarios, the StockHouse.com Syndicated Message Boards, also known as BullBoards.com(TM), will be more heavily patrolled to identify and root-out highly volatile and "grave danger" statements posted on their chat forum sites. Existing BullBoards policies warn that statements with profanity, danger to life and limb, and libel are not welcome or tolerated on their message boards. Until now, posters were only held accountable when courts of law ruled against them. The new proactive policy is designed to quickly locate and delete such messages to minimize or eliminate viewership of "grave danger" content. Livadas outlined the new enforcement policy, which will include: proactive surveillance and immediate enforcement of BullBoards policy against such commentary, the launch of the BullBoards Rapid Response Team that will commence random spot checks to issue citations and instantly delete egregious postings, and the opening of a Posters Complaint Hotline, called "Hotline Online." Livadas said of the new policy, "We intend to drive away the Internet outlaws and online hooligans from the BullBoards community and force them to post their unjust rubbish in lower class message boards, which lack community decency standards." This past week, Internet message boards were saturated with death threats against executives and employees of BID.COM and one analyst who issued a downgrade in the company's shares. One such message posted on StockHouse- BullBoards stated, that this particular analyst was found dead under mysterious circumstances and was filled with sexual overtones. This is but one example of the types of postings that were discovered on the boards. Livadas stated, "Such hate messages have nothing to do with stock research or due diligence." He added, "We will not tolerate such malevolent activities within the StockHouse BullBoards community. Postings or satire from disgruntled shareholders are one thing, but insane and savage postings are over the top." StockHouse efforts are expected to help return Internet standards back to the level of 1994 and early 1995, when posters did not tolerate online anti- social behavior among one another. "Because criminal activity has heightened, StockHouse.com has been forced to take on the unwanted, but necessary role of guardian," said Livadas. "We promise to maintain a laissez faire policy, except when circumstances warrant otherwise." StockHouse.com is currently developing a message board filtering technology to automatically screen and delete pre-determined key words and phrases that are deemed abhorrent and offensive by society in general. Livadas acknowledged previous filtering programs were inadequate and dropped last summer. "The new technology will make our work easier and allow our staff to be diverted to more useful functions than 'playing policeman' on a minority -- at the expense of the majority of posters who are upstanding netizens. Our strategy is to enforce netiquette, not become Censors." BullBoards.com(TM) is the first financial online syndicated message board platform. The BullBoards network currently includes affiliates Zacks- BullBoards and InvestorLinks-BullBoards. Five other network affiliates are to be announced. StockHouse Media Corporation is an Internet financial media information service company providing breaking news about North American stocks via their Internet publication, StockHouse.com. With over one million visitors per month, StockHouse has emerged as a leading, online, global financial content provider. StockHouse Canada is the #1 Canadian financial website, where an estimated 21% of Canadian online investors conduct investment research. StockHouse maintains offices in the United States of America, Canada, Australia.