Logos and others, I certainly don't know what the plans are to make WebRep useful instead of a decoration. I take it on experience (faith?) that Avast! has some plans, so I am beta testing it. I expect most users want to know whether a site is "safe"-which might be different answers depending on your security suite. Whether it is "porn" is in the eye of the beholder, as well as being legally (and morally) different in most US states and a whole slew of very liberal countries vs very conservative countries and everything in between. As former US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart is often quoted, "I can't define it but "I know it (hard core pornography) when I see it"". Alcohol and gambling are widely legal except under some strict religious constructs. Avast! was considering a company trip to Las Vegas earlier this year where some red things might have happened. Weapons are regulated differently based on locale. Several US states widely allow carrying of concealed weapons. I have two guns myself, but if I tried to take them to Mexico they would probably jail me. And is a violent anime site bad or not? Live kick boxing, mixed martial arts, legal cockfighting in some places, ... are violent and often bloody. Even Warez seems to run into different copyright laws depending on country of origin, and, frankly, "illegal" is just not a judgment very many users are qualified to make-even the lawyers in a single jurisdiction get a lot to argue about. California now allows small quantities of marijuana to be sold for medicinal purposes, as do many other locales. So, to quote WebRep, "How do you like this site" could be the color scheme, the animation, or a deep distaste for gun control advocates. I couldn't even figure this out in the US (California? San Diego?), let alone how to come up with a rational scheme that fits 150M diverse Avast! users.
We might take a stab at defining "safe" if we can agree that "safety" considerations include the use of AIS, for example. Or assume not. If a site installs things without permission, probably not safe. If it crashes your computer unrecoverably somehow, probably not safe. Then we get into arm wrestling pretty quickly in terms of "annoying" vs "dangerous". Adware? PUPs?
Even if the intent is to eventually use it as a Net Nanny, where parents restrict access to sites based on the results, that needs to reflect the tastes of the parents, not the worldwide internet community.
Maybe there are really only two decisions with the current scheme. If a site is green, with nothing below the line, it is (probably) safe. As I discussed in an earlier thread, everything else seems to require an understanding of the precautions one should take if one really wants to go to the site, depending on the "degree" of badness. Everything from just being very observant, sandboxing, making an image first, to using your old computer, to using a false IP and wearing a mask when you access it. There are users out there who have said they don't like the site, and that in their opinion it contains something they consider evil, Or very evil. Whether you do or not.
So I try not to get on a soapbox very often, and wait for Avast! to finish subduing this tar baby. If Avast! would like to discuss it further I would suggest another venue-this is a rather hard problem IMHO.
I am also ready to cease and desist even thinking about it, since I have no intent of using it based on my current knowledge. And mods, feel free to move this (or even delete it}-I will not be offended if you feel it is inappropriate to throw in my brand of System Engineering here.
