This is where you can leave a message on someones profile page instead of sending them a private message. It's OK as long as they can delete them off their page - just in case a random nutter takes a shit on their page.

As in:

____________

Profile
______________

Guestbook
------------

Person:

Blah Blah

Person2:

Blah Blah

Whatcha think?

people might want an option to not have a guest-book at all, just in case they don't regularly check their profile.

I've seen sites where people who have met the person are allowed to leave their opinions on the user?

Maybe only the user who's profile it is, can authorise people to leave comments?

Unfortunately, this could lead to people creating accounts just to leave comments on others'

Agh. I've argued myself into a corner.

I see where you're coming from, but the problems could be stopped by the admin. The guy who runs this site knows our IP address and our email. One account per email is how i think it is run at the moment, and just by looking at the IP address you could see whos been setting multiple accounts - and then the admin could just block their IP.

You have little faith in people, yeah you'll get a few dickheads who'll post shit on your page, but 90% of people who'll post will be genuine guys and girls. *shrugs* What else can i say.

If it were to be implemented i'd have a feature that would show your new messages on the top of site everytime you log in. But hey, it's not my site.

As for the policing: You'd give that power to the moderators, people can complain to them in a message, they will discuss, and act occordingly.

You see this as just a dating site, but i can see it as a community. We are all united by the same thing...

Yeah man, if don't want a guestbook then that should be your choice. I'm on a site at the moment that has the guestbook thing, and it's pretty good. They do have people who create profiles to bash people and stuff, but it's not really that much of a problem - the community sorts it out .

The moderation matter was more a futuristic look on things. At the moment the forums are seperate from the rest of the site, and so would be the moderators, if the two were combined then they could moderate the entire site. Obviously they would be in a position of trust, so you'd have to earn the right to be a mod.

That's the problem i see with sites like this - trust. If you gain it, then you're on to a winner.

B-)

Well guestbooks will come, sooner or later.

But if they are introduced I make sure:

(a) that people can decide to switch them off
(b) or that they have to appove them manually before going online
(c) or that only certain members (activity, number of messages/postings, number of "friends" or only friends)
will be able to make guestbook comments that do not need any approval.

There's a goverment (FBI) scheme in the USA that lets a site implement a proof-of-ID system easily; it might be in the UK aswell, but i don't know.

There are always going to be problems with sites like these, one horror story would put everyone on the defensive. But that's why you should have a community - power to the people man.