There is a new hack floating around targeting a security vulnerability in Wordpress versions up to 2.8.3 so unless you’ve upgraded Wordpress in the last few weeks I recommend you upgrade to the newest version pronto.

The hack seems to exploit a vulnerability in the way Wordpress handles it’s users and allows the first user’s password to be reset. The first user is generally an Admin.

Here’s some detail from Wordpress:

WordPress 2.8.4: Security Release
Posted August 12, 2009 by Matt. Filed under Releases, Security.

Yesterday a vulnerability was discovered: a specially crafted URL could be requested that would allow an attacker to bypass a security check to verify a user requested a password reset. As a result, the first account without a key in the database (usually the admin account) would have its password reset and a new password would be emailed to the account owner. This doesn’t allow remote access, but it is very annoying.

Tired of surfing the Craigslist gauntlet scrapping for gigs? Leverage online communities to land a real job. ..slacker!

Job board sites such as Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com have become commercial cesspools for recruiting agencies and auto-posting bots that repeatedly spatter worthless listings, in mass, in an attempt to poach job seekers and grow their own market worth.

The amount of seekers scouring a job board directly impacts the net worth and revenue of a job listing site, so the race is clear; get new seekers to sign up through lead gateways. What’s unclear is whether the greater percentage of junk listings come from infiltrating outside parties, or are the result of job boards themselves whoring virtual real estate. The effect is the same; missed opportunity, disconnected peers, and high user attrition.

The conversion of listing sites to signup gateways not only provides poor user experience, it strips the value from the recruiting intermediary who gets paid when positions are filled, the company who is looking to fill a position, and the seeker who is searching for a job. Lack of cohesion equates to diminished community and frustrated users.

So what’s a seeker to do? The last thing that you care about when seeking a career move is the business model of the tools you are trying to leverage to get the job! You simply have zero interest in filling out 62 required fields and submitting a new signup/membership application every time you click a job listing. The process makes an already arduous task even more labor intensive and discourages seekers from applying to multiple positions.

What if there was a better way? A way to utilize your connections, demonstrate merit and showcase your capabilities? By leveraging your social communities and increasing your personal visibility you can stand out from the drones and push your way into the spotlight of key decision makers. Here’s how:

Pimp your Profile, for Search

The top two ways your profile is going to be found are:

1. Major search (e.g. Google, Yahoo!, Bing)
2. Hosted search, or rather, the search on the site your profile/online resume is located on.

Calibrate terminology in your profile to where industry trends and your personal experience intersect. Seek out and incorporate buzz terms in your self-description, in previous roles you preformed, and most importantly, in the titles and descriptions of those positions.

Not sure what’s being talked about? Try pecking potential buzz terms into Tweet Volume.

Update your ‘Brick and Mortar’ Resume

I’m not talking about a profile resume or job board resume. I’m talking about the one that you would print and hand to someone in person. It can be hard to talk about yourself so, if you get stuck, don’t. Pull out all the stops, drop $150 and have somebody write it for you.

Make sure the formatting is tight and lock it down in .PDF so you know it will look the same when it is viewed on that crappy loaner laptop they let the temporary, in-house recruiter borrow.

Build Connections and Join Groups on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a fantastic professional web community, use it. Connections are collected on a transactional basis making them easy to accumulate.

While you’re at it, look me up: Nicholas Ramirez. You’ll be surprised how many people you already know that may be able to provide you with that key lead. Ask relevant colleagues for referrals and if need be, don’t be afraid to ask for a revision.

Applicant on LinkedIn groups:

Besides the community itself and other rich features that LinkedIn provides, there is one feature that stands out among all other – groups. LinkedIn has many groups, some started by individuals and some by companies. These groups are a community of people that are like minded, in similar situation or who share common problems and discuss within that group to seek solutions. As you can imagine, there are plenty of groups for job seekers online. After all, a platform that is considered to be one of the best job search tool has to have some amazing groups for job seekers.

Start a Professional Blog on Wordpress or Blogger

Start a free, professional blog and search optimize it for your name. Post a minimum of two times per week for freshness and pings.

Number one rule of blogging: Blogs are NOT Twitter! Nobody cares what you ate for breakfast, nobody wants to hear your pithy quips.

Number two rule of blogging: Keep it focused and on topic, that parts harder than it sounds. Blogs about everything are really about nothing.

It takes a little while to get into a pattern, but I will tell you this much. If there are two guys with the same credentials and experience, the guy with an industry relevant community voice will get the job.

Consider your Online Footprint

That’s awesome that you snagged your own name for a Facebook URL! Now it ranks in your personal namespace. Did you know your buddy Brent tagged you in a photo from Shawn’s bachelor party? You were passed out butt naked on the Foosball table and the guys painted a clown face on your ass cheeks with white chocolate and margarita salt, you could totally tell it’s you though. Get the point?

Going back to search, everyone, and I mean everyone, from the CIA to recruiters, to CEO’s of Fortune 100 companies uses major search engines to satisfy the basic question of “who is this person?” We naturally, along with our friends, tend to optimize for our own names whether we mean to or not. Localized data servers add proximity relevance.

With the anonymity of the web fading, make sure you know what ranks in your personal namespace before someone tells you.

Now go get a job…and cut your hair!

Pool community affiliation refers to a grouping of members who generally congregate under a shared goal or common interest but tend to have looser peer to peer associations. The common focus, goal, agenda, or theme of the group is their strongest bond as a whole.

Where is pool community affiliation useful?

For business application, persons interested in a common goal generally respond well to merchandise or services that further promote the cause, VIVA LA REVOLUTION!! (e.g. stickers, shirts, gear etc. )

In the name of the cause, members can also be asked to endorse specific outside services, revenue channels, or the effect in reverse, to avoid others.

Pool communities assembled under the interest of a common objective or ’subject of learning’ may be interested in obtaining an official rule book, field guide or product sponsored by the community itself. (e.g. The bird watching community’s official field manual and bird call.)

Additionally, the community can generate capital by forming clubs, conventions, factions or chapters and charging membership fees, dues, event admissions or holding fund raisers.

What is an example of a typical pool community affiliation?

The Democratic party, Nascar enthusiasts, hobbyists, eco-activists and vegans are examples of pool communities. Colonies form out of a desire to change something, meet like minded people, or learn something about a subject.

URL

http://www.zombiehunters.org/

Type of Community

Pool community

Community Platform

• Website (php)
• Forum (phpBB)
• Wiki (MediaWiki)

How they make Money

• Merchandise sales
• Membership dues
• Scheduled events (Zombie con, zombie film festivals)
• Classes and seminars
• Zombie elimination services

Who are they?

Zombie Squad is a community of can-storing survivalists, disaster preparedness advocates and zombie junkies. The group aims to thwart relief organization dependance while making disaster preparedness and emergency education actually, fun. They use humor, wit, and of course preparation for the inevitable “Zompocalypse” as an entertaining kick-in-the-ass for the common man to get out and purchase that first aid kit he’s been putting off. You’ll find everything from recommended fictional reading to weapons training and 72 hour kit item selection.

Don’t let the gruesome fanfare put you off. Zombie Squad is an active participant and supporter of community relief organizations such as the Red Cross and Feed the Children, to name a few. Kind of like the movie Twister, they are a fringe group looking to improve relief organizations by empowering citizens and reducing strain on the system.

From their site:

When the zombie removal business is slow we focus our efforts towards educating ourselves and our community about the importance of disaster preparation.

To satisfy this goal we host disaster relief charity fundraisers, disaster preparation seminars and volunteer our time towards emergency response agencies.

Their work is legitimate and they have the donation “thank you” letters to prove it.

http://www.zombiehunters.org/gallery/v/DonationLetter/

Social Engagement

This is where Zombie Squad really separates the men from the boys. The community actively engages audiences and support by making (damn funny) viral videos, creating downloadable promotional flyers and selling well designed undead-themed merchandise.

Beyond social media, the group has setup chapter divisions throughout the United States, Canada and Western Europe. Zombie Squad not only encourages would-be members to form groups and evangelize the central message, they require as a criteria of chapter membership, to coordinate and organize a minimum of 2 charity events a year thereby attracting additional outside interest and raising money for relief organizations.

Well played, you charitable tinhats!

Official Zombie Squad chapter criteria:

* Members: Three active Zombie Squad members to act as the responsible coordinators or officers of the chapters. These will be the folks who sign the relevant paperwork, and who we at ZS-HQ will look upon as the official leaders of the chapter.

* Events: At least 2 charity events hosted a year (blood drive, food drive, clothing drive, local charity fund raiser, highway clean up, etc).

* Regular meetings: Meetings at least every other month for the officers/members to plan events. Meetings at least once a quarter open to the public for recruiting and publicizing.

There is a new email scam floating around trying to trick domain owners into purchasing domain appraisals through a service called flyrating.com. The sender claims to be interested in a domain that you own and says he will pay 80% of its appraised value then casually drops the name of the scam company (flyrating.com) and a well known legitimate domain company (sedo.com). In their mind they have a 50% chance of getting a domain owner to purchase their domain appraisal.

The fraudulent emails are circulated by fabricated aliases using primarily Gmail accounts and IPs tracing back to Malaysia. The emails seem to be coming in batches grouped alphabetically, probably working from a list or auto generator.

This is a copy of the message that was sent to me:

We are interested to buy your domain name BLADESHARE.COM and offer to buy it from you for 80% of the appraised market value.

As of now we accept appraisals from either one of the following leading appraisal companies:

- flyrating.com
- sedo.com

If you already have an appraisal please forward it to us.

As soon as we have received your appraisal we will send you our payment (we use Paypal for amounts less than $2,000 and escrow.com for amounts above $2,000) as well as further instructions on how to complete the transfer of the domain name.

We appreciate your business,
Yours truly,
David Williams

A response from a Sedo employee:

Dear Nicholas,

In the last few days, many domain owners have been contacted by a third party who has expressed an interest in purchasing domains.  The email is virtually identical each time and requests that the domain owner has a domain appraised by one of a few companies (including Sedo) before an offer is made.  We believe the email is an attempt to get people to order an appraisal from flyrating.com.  After purchasing an appraisal, the domain holder will not receive a response from the person again.

Sedo has no affiliation with the organization that made this offer, and we do not endorse them.  We encourage domain owners to instruct interested parties to place bids through an online market place such as Sedo.com.  Genuinely motivated buyers will be willing to negotiate through a secure platform.

An appraisal is a valuable tool for domain owners to take advantage of when they are looking to sell, but we do not wish to have someone misled into ordering one.  If you would like, I can cancel your order and refund your payment.

Best regards,
(employee)

She went on to say:

We figured you got that email because its being used in a wide-spread scam.  Today alone we got nearly 50 appraisal orders started by this scam.  Sedo has taken many steps to protect customers from fraudulent e-mails including phone calls, e-mails, and drafting an article on the scam.

In this instance, domains beginning with the letter “b” or containing keywords like biz, blog, or blade suggested that someone had likely been victimized.

We hope you will consider using Sedo in the future!

Flyrating.com may or may not be a legitimate domain appraisal company but tricking domain owners into using your service is an outright scam. Shame on you flyrating.com!

Where is hub community affiliation useful?

What is an example of a typical hub community affiliation?

What is it?

Ning is a web-based interface that bundles a number of separately available technologies in a single unified, hosted, people management platform.

Specifically, Ning integrates a blog, wiki, forum, photo/video gallery, “latest activity” micro feed, events calendar and member manager.

Extended functionality includes the ability to add widgets, form sub groups and organize projects.

Basic usage and functionality

The first thing that you’ll want to do as a new community owner is to modify the theme. Like Wordpress, the initial theme is bare bones.

Network creators can select from roughly 30 cookie cutter themes to add a layer of basic styling to their site.

There are a few built in values you can alter to further personalize look and feel such as entering hex color codes (e.g. FF0000) and swapping masthead imagery with your own.

More advanced users have the ability to actually modify the CSS of their social network, which I appreciate

Search friendliness

The network I evaluated had roughly 13,600 indexed pages in Google, ranked highly for seemingly uncompetitive terms and carried a page rank of 5/10, if you believe in that sort of thing.

I see no reason why a Ning network could not be ranked for competitive terms except for the ridged hierarchal/site structure and limited control over meta variable granularity.

Something interesting of note; most of the cached pages seem to be group and user profiles belonging to the members rather than targeted, landing and information specific pages. Again, because the user demographic is not typically trying to sell something or channel traffic to a conversion, the above characteristics may be acceptable.

The best of Ning

1. Ease of use

What makes Ning unique is the ease and speed that you can deploy a new “social network.” Literally 5 fields and you are up and running.

2. You are part of a greater network

In other words, you are on Ning’s grid right out the gate which means that your network has a better chance of attracting new members and interest. When you create a new network profile on Ning you are in essence building a node on a greater network and making yourself accessible through Ning’s global search function.

It will be interesting to conduct some testing on how Ning weights its listings; it doesn’t appear to be driven solely by the number of members a network contains.

3. You can choose to be a node or a stand alone

Your addition to the Ning network is listed as a sub-domain of ning.com (e.g. yournetwork.ning.com). You have the option of paying monthly for the ability to domain map your social network to your personal domain (e.g. yournetwork.com). Both options have their benefits mainly centered on intended longevity of the network and brand-ability of the network.

Later I envision Ning’s homepage to evolve into something of a wordpress.com and ebay.com hybrid that informs both users and passersby of new networks, biggest buzz networks, RSS updates and featured networks.

The worst of Ning

1. Ownership

I foresee a power user exodus as early network builders attribute peers to worth. Say for instance a community of 10,000 members generates 6,000 hits a day to a glass blowing social network. At a certain point a network creator may find that he/she is spending too much time maintaining the community and decide to sell the user base to a stakeholder in the glass blowing industry. Because ownership originates and stays with Ning, there is no technical transfer of asset, rendering it a non-saleable commodity.

Somewhere in the 11,114 word count ‘Terms of Services,’ not to be confused with the 4,143 word count ‘Privacy Policy,’ I found the ownership rights.

Ning Ownership Rights

You agree that, as between you and Ning, Ning owns all right, title and interest, including, all intellectual property rights, in and to the Ning Technology. Additionally, there are two types of data provided by or collected from Network Members – Network Member Data and Ning Member Data. If you are a Network Creator or an administrator designated by a Network Creator (”Administrator”), you agree that, as between Ning and you, Ning owns all right, title and interest, including, all intellectual property rights, in and to the Ning Member Data. You shall not acquire any right, title or interest therein, except for the limited rights expressly set forth in this Agreement. Any rights not expressly granted herein, are reserved to Ning. You agree to abide by all copyright notices, information, or restrictions contained in any part of the Ning Platform. You must not alter, delete, or conceal any copyright, trademark, patent, or other notices contained on the Ning Platform, including notices on any Ning Technology you download, transmit, display, print or reproduce from or using the Ning Platform.

This is interesting because technically you have to be a Ning member before you can join a social network built on Ning. Therefore, one may interpret the aggregation of all implied interest by affinity to a given subject as built and compiled by Ning members, technically owned by Ning. Or in ten words or less; you do not own your network once it’s built.

2. Monetization

Out of the box Ning advertises on your network, which is how they can offer you a seemingly free service. If you begin to attract enough interest on a given subject it may be beneficial to lease the rights to advertise with Google Adwords. However, keep in mind that ads are worthless without a pointed demographic and either search traffic or a large member base.

The ownership clause implies the only way to monetize a social network built with Ning is either to lease the ability to place third party ads, send qualified traffic to an offsite conversion channel, or leverage your network to rally interest in an existing business model or product, which you may also advertise on your network.

3. What’s built on Ning, stays on Ning

The fact that Ning is a hosted solution is both a blessing and a curse. On the upside it is essentially free to maintain, on the other, one may find it difficult, if not impossible, to migrate to another platform. There are no migration, API bridging, export or transition aid tools of any kind to allow a network creator to transfer users or content to more common, creator hosted, technologies such as phpBB, vBulletin, Dolphin or Drupal.

Final thoughts

Ning is geared for groups and hobbyists without the resources or intention to develop a salable asset. I can see it being used for some grassroots organizations, fan sites, clubs, band groupies, hub affiliations and assemblies with a finite interest, like followers of a TV series or trendy phenomenon like Twilight where the population emulates the expo effect (e.g. large swell or congregation of participants followed by an inevitable scattering).

Stakeholders, entrepreneurs and small businesses should invest the time in a platform with a higher return on their investment of community strategy and user engagement.

Base Cost: Ning advertises on your network

Ease of Use: *********~ (9/10)

Extensibility: **~~~~~~~~ (2/10)

Search Friendliness: ****~~~~~~ (4/10)

Business Value: **~~~~~~~~ (2/10)

Overall score: ****½~~~~~ (4.5/10)

There is an exciting phenomenon happening before our eyes. Natural human affinity is grouping large bodies of like users and enthusiasts to form communities and colonies across the web. The strength of these online communities comes from their free-will contributors and the community’s ability to self-govern without the trifling hand of commercial interests. 

Subject matter ranges the gamut from thrill seekers and art buyers to binge dieters and taggers. With time, these niche communities attract more and more experts and advice seekers. Successful online communities can become both wide-scale congregations of like-minded individuals and the definitive “go-to” on a given topic or industry. 

The principle is simple. A room full of mechanics is probably the best place to ask about your transmission problem. Likewise a room full of mechanics is also the best place to vet a new automotive product, fish for insight on industry needs, or for Craftsman to get advice on a tool recycling program prior to public introduction.

What if there was a way to nourish and grow a community model around a business model? Or leverage an existing community into something that is equally beneficial for a business and community members?

This blog is about exploring the possibilities stemming from the online community age. We will evaluate trends and failures, human intuitive online communities, community platforms, community design & development, tested search methodologies and most important of all, the end user, without whom there is no community. 

So punch the RSS. I relying on you to tell me what sucks, what doesn’t, and what you need to know.

Nicholas Ramirez