A post on Brad Beren's blog reminded me of something I came across while researching online TV shows. I was checking out an episodic web TV show with about 17 episodes, done by Vuguru, which is the new media studio owned by Michael Eisner's The Tornante Company. The show seems to have recently wrapped up, but the website is active, and there's a big "Community" link at the top. So I click on Community and I get a phpBB-driven, generic looking forum page with exactly one topic. OK, so that's pretty cheesy right there, but I click through because it shows that there's a very recent post. Inside there's nothing but spam postings, most for erectile dysfunction medications and porn, and a few for incest porn sites. Incest. From Michael Eisner?
Now none of this should surprise any of you from a technical standpoint--if you don't really know what you're doing, your forums are going to be loaded with spam. But for goodness sake, this is a real production from a major player (albeit a few steps removed) in Hollywood! Did someone have a checklist that said "Create Community around Show" on it? BB launched, check!
Moral of the story: pay attention to your own stuff, and if you don't have the bandwidth, take it down! Hmmm, better check the comments on this blog now....
You'd think a company's own website would be the first place they'd want to police - particularly for a former Disney guy!
I think Dominos drew a good deal of attention to the dangers of not actively scouring the internet for potential PR issues. Maybe it'll take a few more high-publicity stunts before the majority of companies catch on, though - we'll see.
Posted by: Brian Doyle | May 26, 2009 at 12:02 PM