Maintenance

Hello,
As mentioned recently, Private Messages and Photo Uploads are at our top priority to release next. We are aiming to have these completed before this weekend is over.

However, many security features and algorithms need to be put in place before PM and Photo sharing are available.

We've spent most of yesterday and will continue into today, working on algorithms and formulas for improved safety of our members, especially the minors.
These improvements will be released soon in the coming days.

It may sometimes appear as though we are slowing down our working rate, but that's not really the case.
Now we at a point where we have to deal with very complex portions of this site.

At the moment, all content on this site is public; but in the transition into private conversation, many risks begin to open up.

For security alone, there are hundreds of factors that need to be taken into consideration, and many different scenarios that could take place here, which we must be aware of and make preparations for in advance.

We also want to give members the ability to better control who can contact them directly, visit their profile or even see their posts.

So, the bulk of the delay isn't solely due to the complexity of the private messaging system, but probably more to the need for advanced Security, Privacy and Control for members.

Thanks again for your patience.

Hello,

Nothing will change for the users. All we are saying is that you won't be able to access Similar Worlds during those 3 hours, because we will be upgrading our side.

After those 3 hours, everything will be back to normal.

Thank you,
Nuno

Hello,

Private Messages are coming next.

Notifications will expire as the time goes on.
Also, we will work in grouping them at some point, which will make the pagination redundant, so you will actually not notice you have plenty of them anymore :)

Nuno

Hello,

During this week, we are actively working on an automated and intelligent process/system that will evaluate the users/posts and decide if the contents and users are Adult or Non-Adult. This is actually a huge algorithm (process) that takes a lot of variables in consideration.

This is a requirement we have, in order to be able to release the Private Messages to the site. And this will be used to decide whether or not to show posts to teens, even if those posts are in non-adult areas.

Thank you,
Nuno

Hello @rowenabrana,

No, PMs (Private Messages) won't be monitored by SW staff or other parties, we didn't mention anything about human monitoring.

However, if a report has been made and it is deemed as being serious, then naturally, a staff will have to look into the relevant portions of the private conversation to determine what action must be taken.
This is the same procedure done on EP or any other social network.

Algorithm = Formulas which tell our computers/servers what should be done in various scenarios.

The point of our security systems are to Automatically protect users in advance from harm, before the need of human intervention.

Such as determining who is allowed to get in contact with another particular member, based on many different factors of engagement on this site.

Our algorithms must act almost human-like in their decisions, to be able to work effectively and reduce false-alarms.

Thus this is a very complex process that takes a lot of time and work to develop well.

Hi @VSonMe,

Messages can't be encrypted in our database for a number of reasons:

1) Users would need to have the key to decrypt them, and that would really work, unless everyone would be willing to keep them and agree that if they ever lose it, the messages won't be recoverable.
Also, most people don't know what this means and wouldn't understand how to use this.

2) There's not really an easy automated way to do this on a website.
The only easy way to do this would be if we stored the key ourselves, but I don't really see how that would protect users, because an attacker could easily get the keys anyway.

3) As Andrew explained below, in cases of serious reports, we (admins) need to be able to access relevant portions of private conversations, to take action where necessary.

Please also make sure you always use our "https" version of the site to ensure there is no "man in the middle" watching you on Similar Worlds.

Thank you,
Nuno

Hi @CandyL,

You had sent an email to us, and you are trying to use this announcement in order to get in the front of the queue.

We do not ignore anyone, so if we are not taking an action to your complaint, then that means there is no issue in our view.

Kind regards,
Nuno

Hi,

I don't think the pics are blank. What I believe is happening is that you are having intermittent issues with the network (DNS), because of the maintenance we had today morning.

Please allow for a few hours until everything is 100% ok.

Thank you and I apologize for any issues.
Nuno

@beckyromero - I didn't really spank anyone. If CandyL attacked us publicly (see quote below), then she risks getting a public response back. My reply was polite enough.


"CandyL
and like ifigured no reply back guess its like old e p lil pervy kids trolls old perverted groups and stories doing a greatjob yup just like e p might as well let billy on too"

Hi @VSonMe,

Indeed I read your question about photos and I wanted to reply, but completely forgot.

All the meta/exim is removed from the photos/images uploaded to our website, as we use compression to make all the images as minimal in size as possible.

I've actually just tested and I confirm that's what happens.

Kind regards,
Nuno

PMs = Private Messages

Thanks for the info.

At last! I can go outside for three hours and get some sunshine!! :D

@CandyL - I deleted the post as per your request.

@TattooArtGirl - I had replied to you before:

https://similarworlds.com/story?page=8&fid=4229681&tid=22678&name=I-Have-Something-to-Say

"@TattooGirl - rest assured that your posts will stay. It wouldn't make sense we would delete contents just because we introduced some new feature :)"

Hi @Saffie,

Are you still having that problem?

Has it worked well on your phone before?
Since when has this started happening?

And could you please take a screenshot and send to support@similarworlds.com, for me to see?

Thank you,
Nuno

You guys are doing an awesome job!!

@Paschar - when did you send your email?
Today, we indeed noticed that issue after the maintenance we did this week, but it should be fixed now.
Please let us know when did you send your email and please try again.
Thank you.

@Icanandwill - I'm not aware of problems and I've just tested it and worked. Could you please let me know what errors are you getting? Thank you.

@Paschar - Thank you. I confirm we received your email. We will have a read.

@winston - Thank you. We will have a look at that group.

Thank you! Your hard work to bring us the best quality of service is much appreciated! ;)

@Nuno, A brief note to thank you all for the work you've done and are doing.
Contrary to popular belief building a site isn't as easy as pushing 'on'.
Considering the list of what you've done and what remains to be done - and given the time you've had - the progress is nothing short of astounding.
Thank you.

@Winston... Hey man...these programmers are doing all they can to give us a FREE site so chill man. IF you are so unhappy i am sure you can go elsewhere but until then just know they are doing their best and i am sure positivity is much more appreciated then what they CAN NOT do.
I just know from being on the other side(missing deadlines) that situation happen and all you can do is the best you can to make it happen.

Thank you for the update Andrew. This level of communication is first-rate.

Thank you for all of your hard work...the site is very impressive so far!!

Thanks, Nuno, for prompt reply.
I do wonder if a better censorship system would be for the writer of a story to rate its content. I am happy to mark most of mine as "Strong Adult" if I could do so.
That would put the responsibility on the writer, not on you.
Maybe extend this to replies if possible also.
At the moment,the ratings of so many sites you downloaded from EP are rated non-adult or mildly adult when they clearly contain strongly Adult material. Although as I say I post strongly sexual things, I am embarrassed and concerned children and young teens can access them simply because the ratings are not strong enough.
I know you are busy with more important matters still, but this would enhance the site greatly.

Thanks for the update Andrew! :)

All looks to be going really well and bug-free... Even 'I' have nothing to moan about ;)

@Nuno

I know you guys are working hard and are no doubt bombarded with hundreds of emails. I think most of us members realize that.

Just saying I think publicly noting that you've emailed her or that emails are answered in the order received and she just will have to be more patient to receive a response would have sufficed.

I don't condone her comment, either. It was unfair for her to say that given the amount of work that you guys have done.

Also, I second islandalone's comment. I never would have expected SW to start a site to replace EP from scratch and come this far, this fast.

I'm impressed with the amount of work you guys have done in a short period of time.

As Winston said "Please enable us to change the rating of a site. I just posted an adult story and marked it "Adult content" in the box under the story. But then after a response from a teen, I realised the overall rating on the right hand side is non-Adult."

This is very confusing. If we properly mark a story as containing adult concepts, what difference should it make how the group is rated as? In other words, what's the point in asking us to rate something we post as having adult concepts if SW's intent is that we should only post it in a group marked as adult anyway?

Also, as for a rating system?

KISS

Keep It Short and Simple

When you start asking people to rate their own content as strongly adult, moderate adult, mildly adult WITHOUT detailed definitions of what SW means by those terms, then you are asking for more confusion than Obamacare legislation.

Dear Nuno. Private messages are coming next? SWEET!
You are my hero today. ;-)


P.S. If you migrate my "I adore Victoria Erickson poems and quotes" group from ep, you will be my hero for the week. Haha!

Rowenabrana: Your reprimand is well taken by me. Would have been better if what we have been wanting since the beginning, had not been promised specifically. I do know enough of my own computer to understand complicated things can go wrong at any time.
I just wish someone like Mr. Brownstone could not want me off the site simply because I wish to share our lives, albeit extreme, with friends who have asked sincere questions.
It is not SW censorship the problem - they are getting that right - but people like Mr. Brownstone.

@winston I can't think of anyone on earth who needs it! I don't want it or need it, I speak to you about my period... Boundaries are pushed enough without it!

Any idea of how long it will be until private messages are available?

I think I read somewhere that you will soon be enabling us to mark our stories as "general, or "friends only". I would support this rather than Private Messaging as I found it so frustrating on EP I needed to write the same thing to many people often. Very boring! However as you will have seen my stories are very Adult oriented. At the same time I do not wish to offend those who disagree with me and our lifestyle.
So please introduce self censoring of stories asap.

Hi Andrew,
Thank you for the prompt and clear response to my query. It's really great to have good communication from the admins :) ..

It sure sounds like a daunting task to enable such highly automated and human-like security, and for that, I really thank you guys for the very hard work !

I also hope the questions raised by me will not annoy the admins, as there will be many to come :D

Hi Nuno, they came back about half an hour ago when I turned of my wifi so I think it may have been a connection issue on my end, I have wifi turned on now and they are all still there.
It has happened once before when the site had not long started, if it happens again I will take a screen shot and send it, when it happens you know the blue line at the top of the page that is blank except for the SW icon on the left hand side and my profile photo on the right, if I get a notification or friend request the orange number still shows up as normal and I can still press on the icons where they normally would appear. On other people's stories down the bottom I can't see the heart, eye or speech bubble icon it will just show the numbers.

Thanks for getting back to me, fingers crossed it doesn't happen again but I will email the ss if it does.

@Andrew and @Nuno thank you for the updates.
From what I read from Andrew's most recent update here, are we to understand that PMs can be monitored by SW or other relevant parties?

This probably would be secret anyway but any clarification would be great :)

Thank you Nuno... :)

@Winston - regarding your last remark - I am sure you're intelligent enough to know, whatever "promises" they made were not made maliciously with intent to break it.
Do remember, this is a free site, so a little less complaining would be ideal.

Nuno. Really appreciate we can communicate with you.

Please enable us to change the rating of a site. I just posted an adult story and marked it "Adult content" in the box under the story.
But then after a response from a teen, I realised the overall rating on the right hand side is non-Adult.
The site is "I like taboo things".
Others have been very explicit in answers here also.
Please arrange so we can change the overall ratings on such sites.
This is by no means the first suchsite I have used.
Stricter ratings would help. If a young teen then accesses them it is their problem, not yours or mine.

Saffie: I appreciate what you are saying. But I have friends on here who want to discuss details of our extreme lives with me. I have tried doing so as it is , and been very much abused by others who are offended by what I say. They just happened top read it. They are adults and think it their right to peruse the sexual contents and try to condemn anyone who is not living fully old fashioned morality. The abuse has got too much for me and others several times. All seem to be in the USA!
I am just sick of being scared to be open and honest with those who ask honest questions of me because others do not like it.
Your friend, and once mine, PinkRainbow is quite like that too.
The problem I will have with PM's is that I will need to write the same things up to six times to different friends.

Nuno, I would politely suggest that a more diplomatic way to respond to whatever CandyL's issue is would be to say you're emailing her and then tell her what you wrote here privately instead of giving her a public spanking.

@Administration Thanks for creating this site! It's awesome so far! You guys rock!!

@Nuno Thanks for the reponse. yeah, I agree it would be difficult - and I agree with the need to snoop when necessary. You didn't answer the question about stripping potentially personally identifying info from photos though (e.g. location data). If you don't do this, at least let users know how to do it themselves - it is a definite privacy issue.

Thanks for the information, keep up the good work guys! =)

Yay it's back up =) Naw I can rely on somewhere for distractions :P

Private was promised 20 hours ago for today. Clearly you have run into a problem.
But so many of us feel disillusioned.
As you know, so many of us want to be able to share with friends here without others reporting us for being too Adult on General sites!
But promises that are not kept, and no news as to why, are worse than nothing at all!!

Nuno,please let me know if the questions we have already posted will remain intact after SW introduces the Q/A Section on here.I would be sad,indeed extremely dismayed and utterly shocked, if my questions disappear.I have record number of replies to some I have posted on Similar Worlds.
Thanks and Regards

which server should we be using then...?

@Sulusuwakis no we can't delete notifications