We all recognize a bad neighborhood when we are walking or driving. Trash and broken glass lay scattered on dirty, cracked concrete. Billboards adorn the buildings on every corner, presiding over liquor store & payday lender. Pan handlers, can collectors, scam artists, drug dealers and prostitutes lurk by the bus stops and most of us lock our doors while we try to find a safer neighborhood. Urban blight inevitable leads to plummeting property values and anyone who can afford to do so quickly flees in search of a better neighborhood.
Websites and virtual communities suffer from the digital equivalent. Spam, Sock Puppets, Bot Attack, Slogs and Advertorial mix with aggressive affiliate programs, ads for debt consolidation, pay day lenders, porn, casino’s and pharmaceuticals without a prescription – everything you encounter online that makes the web feel like a bad neighborhood have been given a name along with an interesting new site that wants to create a discussion about how to combat it- Virtual Blight .
Like it’s real world counterpart, blight left unchecked it will chase away the inhabitants of a community and destroy the value of the site and the brand.