

Japanese women like protected sites - greut
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/technology/chi-japan-sites-wn-0917-xsep17,0,4027833.story

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streety
"Prospective members of Women's Park confirm their identity by sending a
postcard to the company, and all messages sent to the site are checked before
being posted."

I don't get it. How does sending a postcard to a site confirm your identity? I
can understand the site sending out a postcard with a verification code on it
but for the user to send in a postcard doesn't seem to make sense.

Besides that it looks like an interesting phenomenon. Simply increasing the
latency of posts would probably improve the quality. With no instant
gratification many trolls simply wouldn't bother posting.

This seemed flawed to me, "To post opinions in the Tsukurepo section, advance
approval from those who introduced the recipes is necessary." I bet all the
reviews are raving. Seems like a nice way to stifle differing opinions.

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eru
Perhaps just the higher cost of joining, i.e. sending a postcard vs filling
out an online form, makes people value the site more psychologically.

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msie
Other people like protected sites as well!

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denglish
It makes sense to me - traditional media is highly controlled and edited,
whilst most interactive forums are completely open. Nice to see people
developing middle ground alternatives. There must be a better way than snail
mail to confirm identity though!

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tomjen
The best way to confirm the identity would properly be to check peoples
passports/drivers license. That would prevent trolls.

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urlwolf
I think the postcard makes sense to check identities because in Japan each
family has a seal (Not trivial to replicate) and they 'sign' correspondence
that way.

Never been to Japan, I must have read it somewhere, so reader beware.

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whacked_new
The postcard, like using a .edu email, is just a barrier to entry. The seal
functions as a signature, and asking for it in a postcard would be very
suspect.

