Cpvr

I also couldn't image f we were still stuck with dial up internet instead of having high speed internet now. I like that smartphones are like mini computers now as well. The flip phones era was cool and all, but having a smartphone makes things so much easier.

I think users that don't prefer text based content are apart of the new generation(17-26), however if we implement more video format content in our regular topics, it's possible to attract them as well. Video content is the answer to attracting the newer generation. Especially once its implemented in our text based content. The newer generation loves Tiktok and Youtube, so one way that could attract them to forums is by launching videos that cater to them. Videos can also help each a wider audience and more visibility as well, especially since Tiktok is basically its own search engine. Users use it to find information and discuss various topics. The same applies for Youtube and videos enabling us to rank higher on the search engines too. Google indexes and ranks videos on their search. They also have a seperate tab just for videos, so this market is one avenue that we all could explore. If we go where the users are at, it's very possible to drive them to forums. A lot of people discuss forums on social media, but yet, there isn't a lot of activity discussing forums or where to find them. It's easy to find them on social media as well, as long as you search "Forums" on any particular social media site. Which, discussing them with those users can enable us to grow at the same time. Especially since social media posts also rank on the search engines, so it's quite a valuable way to attract new members on the global scale. You'll never know who you may come across one of your posts and decide to join.

i’ll take the first spot

I’ll take the first spot.

It's like Eminem is telling them "screw you, pay me", which I totally agree with. I'd go right after Meta's pockets for this as well. It'll also open the door to other artists more than likely telling them not to play their songs as well. I do remember when he told Vivek Ramaswamy to stop rapping his songs https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66643306 The letter says the company "received a communication from" Eminem objecting to the Republican's use of his "musical compositions". "BMI will consider any performance of the Eminem works by the Vivek 2024 campaign from this date forward to be a material breach" of its licence, it adds.

What are some of your favorite tech brands when it pertains to computers, phones or tv's? Do you have a particular tech brand that you stick to in regards to computers or phones? Personally, I'm team apple when it pertains to smartphones. I also love hp and dell computers. I've basically used them all my life for my laptops and computers. What about you?

Those are some good ideas. I’d also recommend “sticky topics” or “ad slots” for users that create the most quality posts. Sticky topics could help depending on if the users want more exposure for their roleplays. A banner in certain areas of the forums could be quite beneficial if users would like to promote on of their projects. Depending on how many credits they earn, a book or two could also be an interesting reward or even a roleplaying game. However, this would be like 10k-30k credits or so. It wouldn’t be easy to obtain those rewards.

Meta has removed a number of ads promoting "nudify" apps — AI tools used to create sexually explicit deepfakes using images of real people — after a CBS News investigation found hundreds of such advertisements on its platforms. "We have strict rules against non-consensual intimate imagery; we removed these ads, deleted the Pages responsible for running them and permanently blocked the URLs associated with these apps," a Meta spokesperson told CBS News in an emailed statement. CBS News uncovered dozens of those ads on Meta's Instagram platform, in its "Stories" feature, promoting AI tools that, in many cases, advertised the ability to "upload a photo" and "see anyone naked." Other ads in Instagram's Stories promoted the ability to upload and manipulate videos of real people. One promotional ad even read "how is this filter even allowed?" as text underneath an example of a nude deepfake. One ad promoted its AI product by using highly sexualized, underwear-clad deepfake images of actors Scarlett Johansson and Anne Hathaway. Some of the ads' URL links redirect to websites that promote the ability to animate real people's images and get them to perform sex acts. And some of the applications charged users between $20 and $80 to access these "exclusive" and "advance" features. In other cases, an ad's URL redirected users to Apple's app store, where "nudify" apps were available to download. An analysis of the advertisements in Meta's ad library found that there were, at a minimum, hundreds of these ads available across the company's social media platforms, including on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, the Facebook Messenger application and Meta Audience Network — a platform that allows Meta advertisers to reach users on mobile apps and websites that partner with the company. According to Meta's own Ad Library data, many of these ads were specifically targeted at men between the ages of 18 and 65, and were active in the United States, European Union and United Kingdom. A Meta spokesperson told CBS News the spread of this sort of AI-generated content is an ongoing problem and they are facing increasingly sophisticated challenges in trying to combat it. "The people behind these exploitative apps constantly evolve their tactics to evade detection, so we're continuously working to strengthen our enforcement," a Meta spokesperson said. CBS News found that ads for "nudify" deepfake tools were still available on the company's Instagram platform even after Meta had removed those initially flagged. Deepfakes are manipulated images, audio recordings, or videos of real people that have been altered with artificial intelligence to misrepresent someone as saying or doing something that the person did not actually say or do. Last month, President Trump signed into law the bipartisan "Take It Down Act," which, among other things, requires websites and social media companies to remove deepfake content within 48 hours of notice from a victim. Although the law makes it illegal to "knowingly publish" or threaten to publish intimate images without a person's consent, including AI-created deepfakes, it does not target the tools used to create such AI-generated content. Those tools do violate platform safety and moderation rules implemented by both Apple and Meta on their respective platforms. Meta's advertising standards policy says, "ads must not contain adult nudity and sexual activity. This includes nudity, depictions of people in explicit or sexually suggestive positions, or activities that are sexually suggestive." Under Meta's "bullying and harassment" policy, the company also prohibits "derogatory sexualized photoshop or drawings" on its platforms. The company says its regulations are intended to block users from sharing or threatening to share nonconsensual intimate imagery. Apple's guidelines for its app store explicitly state that "content that is offensive, insensitive, upsetting, intended to disgust, in exceptionally poor taste, or just plain creepy" is banned. Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell University's tech research center, has been studying the surge in AI deepfake networks marketing on social platforms for more than a year. He told CBS News in a phone interview on Tuesday that he'd seen thousands more of these ads across Meta platforms, as well as on platforms such as X and Telegram, during that period. Although Telegram and X have what he described as a structural "lawlessness" that allows for this sort of content, he believes Meta's leadership lacks the will to address the issue, despite having content moderators in place. "I do think that trust and safety teams at these companies care. I don't think, frankly, that they care at the very top of the company in Meta's case," he said. "They're clearly under-resourcing the teams that have to fight this stuff, because as sophisticated as these [deepfake] networks are … they don't have Meta money to throw at it." Mantzarlis also said that he found in his research that "nudify" deepfake generators are available to download on both Apple's app store and Google's Play store, expressing frustration with these massive platforms' inability to enforce such content. "The problem with apps is that they have this dual-use front where they present on the app store as a fun way to face swap, but then they are marketing on Meta as their primary purpose being nudification. So when these apps come up for review on the Apple or Google store, they don't necessarily have the wherewithal to ban them," he said. "There needs to be cross-industry cooperation where if the app or the website markets itself as a tool for nudification on any place on the web, then everyone else can be like, 'All right, I don't care what you present yourself as on my platform, you're gone,'" Mantzarlis added. CBS News has reached out to both Apple and Google for comment as to how they moderate their respective platforms. Neither company had responded by the time of writing. Major tech companies' promotion of such apps raises serious questions about both user consent and about online safety for minors. A CBS News analysis of one "nudify" website promoted on Instagram showed that the site did not prompt any form of age verification prior to a user uploading a photo to generate a deepfake image. Such issues are widespread. In December, CBS News' 60 Minutes reported on the lack of age verification on one of the most popular sites using artificial intelligence to generate fake nude photos of real people. Despite visitors being told that they must be 18 or older to use the site, and that "processing of minors is impossible," 60 Minutes was able to immediately gain access to uploading photos once the user clicked "accept" on the age warning prompt, with no other age verification necessary. Data also shows that a high percentage of underage teenagers have interacted with deepfake content. A March 2025 study conducted by the children's protection nonprofit Thorn showed that among teens, 41% said they had heard of the term "deepfake nudes," while 10% reported personally knowing someone who had had deepfake nude imagery created of them. Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meta-instagram-facebook-ads-nudify-deepfake-ai-tools-cbs-news-investigation/

Perplexity served 780 million search queries in May, which are rising by 20% month-over-month, CEO Aravind Srinivas said at the Bloomberg Tech conference in San Francisco. He’s now eyeing 1 billion queries per week by the end of the year. The surge in queries reflects Perplexity’s effort to muscle its way into the AI search race, where Google still dominates, though its grip appears to be loosening while OpenAI is circling the runway. Last August, Perplexity was processing north of 230 million queries globallyeach month, ADWEEK previously reported. Srinivas positioned Perplexity as a search engine built for accuracy, an antidote to the hallucination-prone answers plaguing many AI rivals. Meanwhile, Google’s AI Overviews can’t seem to remember what year it is. Srinivas said a “good product” has helped draw in deep-pocketed backers. The company is reportedly in talks to raise funding at a valuation of $18 billion, according to Reuters. Perplexity’s growth comes as it begins layering in revenue plays. The company launched its AI-powered ecommerce shopping experience last year and partnered with brands like Whole Foods and TurboTax to run ads on the platform. It’s also gearing up to launch Comet, its own browser, leaning into how results are ranked and monetized. Perplexity is also betting big on becoming a native assistant for Android devices. In January, it began developing its own Android assistant, said Srinivas, which led to a partnership with Motorola. Srinivas hinted more deals could follow as conversations with other hardware makers continue. “Google Assistant is a terrible experience, and they know it themselves,” he said, adding that Google has given Perplexity an “extremely hard time” when it comes to striking distribution deals with OEMs. Perplexity was also among the companies that testified in Google’s landmark antitrust search trial earlier this year. At the time, its chief business officer said that Google’s exclusive distribution deals with phone makers and carriers had effectively boxed Perplexity out of similar partnerships Google did not respond to media request. Source: https://www.adweek.com/media/perplexity-monthly-growth-search-queries-20-percent/

I'm glad to hear it. Keep up the good work. :D How many staff members do you have? I recently promoted one of my users to my staff team on VPL, so we're a three person team now. My buddy and I have been a two person team for the past year, so it's nice to have another hand.

Chinese cloud service provider Xunlei has completed its acquisition of Hupu, one of China’s most prominent male-oriented online communities, for RMB 500 million ($69 million). The deal was finalized through the purchase of Shanghai Kuanghui Network Technology, the operator of Hupu. According to the agreement, Xunlei paid RMB 400 million ($55.7 million) in cash before the deal’s closing, with the remaining RMB 100 million ($13.9 million) to be delivered in two equal payments over the next 24 months. Founded in 2004, Hupu began as a basketball-focused news site and gradually evolved into a broader platform covering football, esports, fitness gear and pop culture. The site has built a loyal user base among young men and is known for its candid — sometimes controversial — online discourse. The acquisition follows two failed IPO attempts. In 2016, Hupu’s first listing application was rejected due to financial irregularities, including high accounts receivable and inconsistent cash flow. A second attempt began in 2019 with the help of CICC and East Money Securities, but it was canceled in 2021 when CICC terminated the advisory agreement. Xunlei, established in 2003 and listed on Nasdaq since 2014, was once best known for its file-downloading software. In recent years, it has pivoted toward cloud acceleration, distributed computing and digital entertainment. Its core products include Xunlei Download Manager and Xunlei Cloud Disk, with a reported user base exceeding 400 million. [Jiemian, in Chinese] Source: https://technode.com/2025/06/05/xunlei-acquires-male-focused-sports-community-hupu-for-rmb-500-million/ More context regarding Hupu: https://daxueconsulting.com/hupu/ Hupu (虎扑) is a popular sports forum in China that keeps attracting more users. It started as a website covering basketball news, has since expanded to become a broader sports forum and later a sports news website. The platform offers its audience access to event news, live broadcasts, videos, and other data, both connected to sports and e-sports. Moreover, it provides a platform for sports enthusiasts to discuss and exchange opinions. Hupu (Shanghai) Media Co., LTD, the parent company of the platform, is also involved in other business sectors in media, e-commerce, self-owned sports events and investment, and is a prominent company in China’s sports industry. With 70 million registered users and 6 million daily visitors in 2020, the platform has been gaining more relevance in the market. During the pandemic, it pursued more online opportunities by promoting sports events, organizing sports leagues and competitions, and focusing on e-commerce. This approach has paid off, with the company attracting giants such as Nike and Adidas. Additionally, Bytedance invested 1.26 billion yuan in the platform. [HEADING=1]The evolution of the platform from sports forum to thriving community[/HEADING] Hupu is not simply an online news website and forum: it has become a thriving community. It is widely known as the “straight men” platform in China: more than 90% of its users are male, unlike most other websites where the gender balance is more equal or even female-dominated. Some netizens call it the male version of Xiaohongshu. The high number of like-minded men on the Chinese platform leads to specific user behaviors, allowing for a more pronounced expression of traditional masculinity. According to a 2021 scientific research, the “straight men” stereotype on Hupu is not only characterized by heterosexuality, but also by lower emotional intelligence and communication skills, as well as a tendency to be intolerant of non-traditional identities. Indeed, users tend to criticize posts that do not convey enough masculinity. Because the platform initially started as a sports-focused media, users were mainly drawn by that topic. They were united by their interest in basketball, football, and other sports: these fields of interest defined the main conversation topics on the forum. However, after engagement grew stronger, users started touching on a wider range of topics. The posts unrelated to sports grew so much that the company had to create a separate space for them. Users seemed to become more interested in discussing emotions and personal issues than just sports. [HEADING=2]Love is the most discussed non-sports topic on Hupu[/HEADING] A good illustration of the community created by Hupu is its “Pedestrian Street” section (虎扑步行街), which is dedicated to non-sports discussions. It contains a range of different topics, including the “love area”, “hot topics area”, and “historical area”. Among the different topics, the love area stands out as the most popular, with each post garnering an average of 324,000 views – nearly 60% more than the “hot topics” section. Netizens enjoy reading and discussing relationships and love stories: there are an average of 149 replies per post in the love area, which is 22.1% higher than the “rational discussion area”, which comes second by number of comments per post. Among the major themes in Hupu’s love area, the posts related to “blind date”, “ex-girlfriend” and “girlfriend” ranked in the top three. Although the content of the posts is varied, the main problem worrying users in these discussions was “proving personal value”. These topics also pushed for high interactions, having an average of 477.8 replies per post. Other prominent examples of discussions is the ranking of celebrities, where users create competitions to determine the most beautiful actresses. The platform also hosts discussions where users compare themselves with celebrities, which creates a sense of rivalry; it also shows that most users have a high opinion of themselves. [HEADING=2]How Hupu developed its own e-commerce[/HEADING] The community created by Hupu gives it a commercial advantage: users are united by similar interests, values and hobbies, and the platform’s niche adds a high-entry threshold for users. Not only do the users share the same values, but their common identity is very strong. This creates a strong audience with high loyalty which is attractive for commercial purposes. The forum adds value to the app because it increases user stickiness and the audience’s loyalty. Because of this, more users are willing to pay for Hupu’s derivative businesses, such as e-commerce. This is why the platform has been pursuing development in this direction in the past ten years. Among its initiatives is the Dewu app, also known as Poizon, a platform that was born out of a forum on Hupu and is now an affiliated app mainly focused on selling sneakers. The app’s strong community allowed to turn the forum into an independent C2C and B2C platform: it was easy to attract the targeted users with similar interests, and build the marketplace according to their habits. Additionally, Dewu is not just an e-commerce platform, but it also hosts its own social media feed, where customers can discuss their purchases. This feature has proven to be successful in engaging Hupu’s audience, with the platform boasting around 40 million monthly active users by 2020. [HEADING=3]Tapping into male beauty[/HEADING] The Chinese sports platform has always been proactive in responding to the evolving interests of its user base. As their interests expanded beyond just sports and into areas such as the beauty industry, specifically male skincare and makeup, Hupu was quick to adapt. In 2020, Later, they began selling these products on their platform and even invested into a beauty brand and helped it grow. Dewu/Poizon Hupu is strongly dominated by Chinese men sharing similar values and interests. From a news media and forum, the app has evolved into a sports competitions and e-commerce platform. Itss loyal and consistent user base makes it an attractive platform for brands looking to reach young male consumers in China. It is becoming more than a sports platform, giving a space for men to share emotions and interact. The company is expanding in different industries, having even started selling male beauty products.

Cyrus Shepard posted abouthow FTX, you know, the company Sam Bankman-Fried ran, is now suing Neil Patel and his company, for $55 million. There are a ton of whoppers in this lawsuit, and I have no idea who is right or wrong here, but as Cyrus noted, Neil Patel went through lots of efforts to hide this in the Google search results. Update: See the comment below from Neil Patel who said, "We aren’t being sued for $55 million." Cyrus also posted an update that says FTX Debtors aren't seeking a specific dollar amount, but to “avoid or recover all such transfers.” These transfers, in total, amount to tens of millions. Cyrus Shepard wrote, "If you search for “Neil Patel sued”, there’s a good chance you’ll see a torrent of posts by Neil talking about a time he got sued in 2011." It got him thinking, why is he flooding Google for these types of results and he found out it, "A clever bit of reputation management, really," Cyrus explained. The full filing is over here and it was filed in November 2024. Here are some quotes from the filing - again, just quoting the filing and the court has not ruled on any of this yet: In October 2021, Bankman-Fried caused Blockfolio Inc. (“Blockfolio”) to hire Patel as Marketing Manager and agreed to compensate him $75,000 per month. FTX Insiders caused the FTX Group to engage Defendants Big Deal and NP Digital—entities Patel owns or co-founded and has a substantial financial interest in—ultimately paying them at least $30.8 million. FTX Trading paid $14.8 million for Big Deal to spend four months merely attempting to find another consultant, which it never actually did. Defendants also billed the FTX Group for duplicative and exaggerated services for which Defendants received excessive and unreasonable fees untethered to any fair market value. Indeed, FTX Group employees described Defendants’ work as “sooo sloppy” and “terrible performance,” and many of Defendants’ promised services were never provided at all. On October 18, 2021, Patel accepted a position as Marketing Manager for Blockfolio with a “$75k per month salary” and 100,000 shares of FTX Trading Class A common stock. Plaintiffs paid Defendants over $30.8 million for duplicative, sub-par, and often non-existent services. According to invoices NP Digital submitted in connection with opening an FTX.US account in Fall 2022, NP Digital charged other businesses $200,000 to $500,000 annually for similar services—12 times less than it was charging FTX Trading. I'll stop there, you can read it yourself, read what Cyrus posted and then do your own research. mean, this reads like a movie... Forum discussion at X. Neil Patel commented belowsaying: Source: https://www.seroundtable.com/ftx-sues-neil-patel-for-55-million-39539.html

Several individuals have inquired whether Google has been indexing fewer pages on websites since late May. I've seen a number of complaints, and while nothing is verified on Google's end, I wanted to share these reports with you. The question is, how widespread is this issue, is it an issue, is it a reporting change, it is a change to Google's indexing algorithms or is it nothing? John Mueller from Google replied to these concerns on Bluesky asking for specific examples, he wrote, "Which millions of pages? Happy to hear specifics." Update: John Mueller added on Bluesky, "But from looking at other examples, I don't see an issue. We don't index all content, and what we index can change over time." Jason Kilgore first pinged me about this and then posted on LinkedIn saying, "I'm seeing confirmation of this with TaxServiceNearYou.com; it has 0 backlinks, and is experiencing an outsized level of removal from the index which began on May 26th." For him, the "Crawled - currently not indexed" error saw a spike. He shared this screenshot with me of that indexing report: Adam Gent also posted on LinkedIn and wrote, "At Indexing Insight we're tracking millions of pages and over the last few weeks our 'Crawled -previously indexed' report has been blowing up." Here is his screenshot: Gagan Ghorta posted on X: 24Cryptoverse also posted on X: Here are more examples: Plus, there are a number of complaints about this in the comments area on this site: I went through some random sites I have access to in Google Search Console and I am seeing a bit of a pattern here - maybe: I am not sure if something is going on or note - as Glenn Gabe noted on X it might not be something to worry about if it falls under 'indexed, though blocked by robots.txt. This can be that or it can be a change to how Google processes this report or it can be one of the recent Google unconfirmed updates that ran that now resulted in Google not valuing the pages as much and thus indexing less. For more on that, see this article and this one - although, I've written about that a ton. Are you noticing the same pattern? Check your page indexing report and dig in and let us know. Forum discussion at LinkedIn. Update: John Mueller added on Bluesky, "But from looking at other examples, I don't see an issue. We don't index all content, and what we index can change over time." Source: https://www.seroundtable.com/google-indexing-less-may-39538.html Have you noticed a drop in your indexed pages on Google as of lately? If yes, how many indexed pages have you lost? If not, are you seeing more indexed pages?

AI-generated content gets de-ranked and loses value in the search engines. It’s not something that’s killing forums like you’ve stated. If that were the case, Reddit would be dead, Quora would be dead, and many other forums would be complete graveyards. Look at Reddit, they’re doing just fine, and AI bots run rampant over there. The same applies for social media. They have various AI-generated bots that act like humans, blend in, and communicate with others like they’re actual people. Why isn’t social media dying? Why is it still steady on the rise? AI-generated content is not the problem here. The main problem is when companies like VerticalScope buy out their competition and then leave those forums to rot. If anything, they caused the decline of forums. They took apart what made those communities great, their owners and staff members. When you remove the people who built the forum and replace them with those who don’t care, it drains the life right out of the place. That’s what caused the decline of forums. Not AI-generated content. AI is here to stay whether we like it or not. Some users use it to fix grammar, clean up thoughts, or come up with new ideas. That’s not a bad thing, that’s actually a good thing. Forums need fresh ideas, new energy, and people who are willing to think outside the box. Also, there are people from different countries who naturally write in a way that’s similar to how AI responds. Why? Because AI is trained on human writing. It mimics patterns that exist in real content. Just because someone’s post sounds like AI doesn’t automatically mean they’re using it to write everything. Making that assumption and ignoring people because of it? That’s part of what’s causing forums to decline, people choosing not to engage. No replies, no conversations, just plain ol' ghost towns. The key is engagement. If a post feels low-effort, push back and challenge it. Help raise the bar, not lower it. That’s how you get better replies. That’s how forums stay alive. That’s how you win. But hey, if you’d rather not do that, that’s on you.

While on company time, that’s golden!🤣