Nexopia
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 Main page as seen by a logged in Plus user |
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| URL | http://www.nexopia.com |
|---|---|
| Type of site | Social Networking |
| Registration | required |
| Owner | Nexopia.com Inc |
| Created by | Timo Ewalds |
| Launched | August 2001 |
| Current status of site | Active |
Evolved from the small community site Enternexus.com, created by Timo Ewalds, Nexopia.com is a Canadian website, based in Edmonton and designed primarily for people aged 14 and up (accounts with users that are proven to be under age are deleted), that allows its users trade pictures, design their own profiles with pictures and interact with each other via private messages, comments and forums. The website used to contain a "Rate Your Picture" feature on users' profiles, but it was taken down from lack of use (less than 1% of users voted on it). The picture rating system also experienced many different ways of cheating. At first, the picture rating was on a users profile itself, but because of various problems with up-voting and down-voting, it was made random. Once it was made random, the amount of use the feature received dropped to well below 1% of the sites population.
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[edit] Coding
The whole site is utilizes custom code written since early 2002 by the CEO. Most has been rewritten or updated in the past four years. Only in October 2005 did the site begin to employ additional programmers to help maintain and improve the site.
[edit] Members
Though users from all around the world can now be found on the site, over 95% of its users are Canadian and the site has become quite popular in western Canada, over 912,479 member accounts and over 300,000 active users. During peak hours the site some times reaches over 30,000 users and several thousand guests online.
It is impossible however to know if each account corresponds to an individual person, and there is no standardized system for auditing claims of membership levels of different online communities. Occasionally, a person will create multiple accounts, usually to change usernames, but occasionally to take on different personas. Additionally, a web site can't tell if two accounts are of the same person, or two people sharing a computer.
There are many tools to help protect the users. No nudity, racism, violence or gore are allowed in any of the forums or profiles, and all profile pictures are checked by moderators for content before being allowed up on a users page. The rule of thumb used by picture and content moderators is that if it is not allowed in public, it is not allowed on the site. Nexopia has also changed its rules regarding official user pictures. If the picture can be in any way perceived as sexually explicit, or suggestive, it will not be allowed on a user's page. Of course though, moderators don't catch everything, and the site does contain sexually suggestive images. All moderators are above the age of 16 and are trained and regularly watched by higher ranked moderators and administration. Users can also block comments and messages from other users that are outside of their specified age range or who are on their ignore list.
[edit] Forums
The forum system, among other things, have been custom designed to fit the large number of users. The forums include many official Nexopia forums, some regarding the website's functionality, while others are themed towards topics such as music or transportation, and some, such as User Topics, Teens, and Attention Seekers are non-specific to topic.
Aside from official forums, Nexopia Plus users have the option of creating their own forums, which any user (if the owner of the forum chooses) can participate in.
[edit] Nexopia Plus
Nexopia also has an optional premium service, used to keep the site up and running. Nexopia Plus gives users extra features, such as an advanced user search, the ability to create a forum along with a custom forum rank, the ability to customize the colors of their profile, ability to choose whether or not to have iFrames in layouts and the elimination of ads. Also, with Nexopia Plus, users can see who has visited their profile,and can have up to 12 pictures on their profile, whereas members without Nexopia Plus can only have up to 8 pictures on their profile. Users can also opt be included as one of the randomly generated profiles that appear on the front page in the "Plus Spotlight" Section, where an image from the chosen users profile, and a link to the users profile profile is shown. Other features included with Plus include an advanced user gallery (regular users have galleries, but are limited to 20 pictures) and file storage (which eliminates the need for sites like Photobucket). Also, Plus users receive priority picture moderation, and customisation features for their profiles
The percentage of Nexopia users who have Plus is left to speculation, as the administration will not release this information.
[edit] Advertising
Advertisements are shown at the top of pages on the website by default. Users with Plus membership have the option of turning off such advertisements. While the administration does not allow users to advertise or use explicit images throughout the site, some advertisers have come under question for some of the racier content that has appeared on the front page, such as ads to personals sites utilising images of women in lingerie.
