Hi R@ngers#1,
WELCOME TO WEBSLEUTHS.
Before I point out a few things about the popularity of Websleuths ( we are a forum and not a chat room) I want to take a moment and discuss posting on the Internet.
No matter where you post information, even if you remove it later, it can be found and quite easily I might add.
Suppose you are right that only a handful of people have ever heard of Websleuths. It doesn't matter. It's the fact that someone posted something on Websleuths about a live person. That's the problem. Thanks to Google.
To prove my point here is a hypothetical situation : Let's say we let a post like this one stand, "I think the neighbor of Missy's named Smithy De Smithy looks like a creep. I'd stay away from him. I heard he is a child molester"
Now, let's assume only 3 people read it and move on. Doesn't matter. What matter's is Smithy De Smithy's potential boss Googles his name and guess what pops up? Yep. The child molester post.
We are a discussion forum. People are allowed to have their opinions. In fact you are responsible for what you post. You might have to defend your words someday in a court of law. It's rare but it does happen.
We do our best at Websleuths to minimize the damage done when ordinary people are thrown in the spotlight. Again, we can't protect everyone. We have to allow discussion but we feel we have a moral obligation to at least try to stop rumors or harmful posts made about people who have done nothing wrong. We do not always accomplish that goal but we try.
You see it has nothing to do with our size and everything to do with Google searches.
But about the size thing? Yes, we do have a good size number of people posting and reading. In fact, I think Wednesday we had close to 300,000 (three hundred thousand) individual page views.
Websleuths members have made differences in so many cases I've lost count.
Law enforcement is reading on our site constantly.
We are quoted in major news articles all over the world.
i can promise you many people involved in this case from Law Enforcement to people close to Missy read here. They may be participating for all I know.
One of my proudest moments on Websleuths is when Cindy Anthony, Casey Anthony's mother, personally told me she was going to shut down my site because she didn't like what we said about Casey. Then she told me no one reads Websleuths. Later, hundreds of pages of Websleuths posts were found in her garbage can.
We're not the Huffington Post or The Drudge Report. Not by any means but the people we do have posting make a difference in people's lives all the time.
To me, that's the coolest thing about Websleuths. We make a difference.
Sincerely,
Tricia Griffith
Owner/Websleuths.com
