The internet: How can a medium so conceptually full of potential win attract so many people full of utter lose and fail?

Wired reports that "griefers" (which is a polite euphemism, I suppose, for a term Weblogs Inc really wouldn't want me to use) lodged an attack on the non-profit Epilepsy Foundation last weekend.

Epilepsy is one of those really fun conditions that can vary wildly in seizure type and severity. About 3% of people with epilepsy have visual triggers. Griefers first put up a few GIFs that flashed, and then begin using links (with legitimate sounding names) to entire pages with flashing lights and color patterns.

There were seizures of various types and migraines reported from the event. Ever had a true migraine? Not a bad headache, but a true migraine? It's something you wouldn't wish even on a griefer.

Sorry, but why would anyone find this particularly amusing? And before anyone (again) ventures the comment spotted on Wired ("Why didn't the EF disable GIFs?"), really, let's think about this. How freaking low do you have to be to do this sort of thing? Hello? Maybe they should have disabled GIFs. And maybe we should all have some personal freaking responsibility to each other as, you know, people.

Full disclosure. As a person with a neurological condition (not epilepsy) I've found the internet is a lifeline in meeting other people with the same condition. I learn things from them I can not learn from my doctors. Doctors are very good, but they don't have the experiences I have. When these sites have issues, real live people do suffer. Sometimes not medically, but definitely in terms of support.

I don't believe any Download Squad readers are, or aspire to be, griefers. Our readers are way too cool for that. But restore my faith in the citizens of the interwebs. Do something nice to someone, anyone, online today.

[via Wired by way of Slashdot]

Twing is a new search engine that indexes almost 5,000 online forums, on subjects ranging from the very general (arts and entertainment) to the extremely specific (Scottish Snooker). On top of its search features, it also has a 1990's-Yahoo!-style directory organized by topic, and a collection of trends and toplists called the Community Buzz Directory. Does Twing actually have a finger on the pulse of online trends? We noticed that the video most linked from forums is Rick Astley's infamous "Rickroll," which is good enough for us.

If you follow any forum regularly, Twing could be useful to you. You can narrow your search down to one message board, which might make a good substitute if the built-in search is faulty in your community of choice. Another promising feature is the ability to sign up for an account to keep tabs on the threads you're following.

Even if you're not active on a forum, Twing has some interesting tools for tracking the hottest links and conversations. Most popular links, threads, and forums are all ranked, and RSS feeds are available for each. Twing says that the most popular thread on the Internet right now is called "longest ever thread." While we don't doubt this is accurate, we'll leave it up to you to decide how practical you find it.

One aspect of the Yahoo! experience that always left me shaking my head is the News Message Boards. Easily accessible from a "Discuss" link at the bottom of news stories, it was the stomping grounds of trolls and other hate mongers with little to no social value, unless of course you are a troll.

But now I say, "Hallelujah!" Break out the bubbly and do a little jig on the table because the powers that be at Yahoo! News have shut down the News Message Boards. The "Discuss" link has been replaced with a link labeled, "What happened to the "Discuss" option?" The message at the other end of that link takes you to a short explanation of how the boards were dominated by a few, links were difficult to embed and something bigger and better is soon to replace the old board system: "Over the next few months, we plan to offer new discussion forums based on topics in the news and incorporating the latest features to foster a better discussion for all of our readers."

Will it be an implementation of the new Yahoo! Message Board system or something digg/Netscape-like? Will it combine Yahoo! 360 blogging platform to be more like Newsvine? We'll have to wait and see.

As more and more computer users are adding microphones and webcams to their PCs for making phone calls, podcasts, or embarrassing videos to post online, the way we think about web content is changing.

Cranky old man voice: Back in my day, I dialed up a BBS with a 2400-baud modem, and if I wanted to "talk" to someone, I'd post a message and wait for a response. Flash forward to 2006 and you've party-line style Skypecasts and teens leaving video responses for one another's YouTube posts.

Australian-based Chinswing is hoping to bridge the gap between the traditional user forum/message board and the modern podcaster. Instead of writing and responding to posted threads in text form, Chinswing lets you have a conversation in non-real time. You create a message headline, then record your entry on the web site (after downloading and installing the free Chinswing Studio software -- sorry, Windows only right now). Then other users can post audio responses to your message.

If you're interested in following a thread but don't have time to listen to it while at the computer, you can download it as a podcast through an RSS feed.

I have to say, the system seems to work very smoothly. It's a nice interface, and easy to use. But I'm not sure it's the best way to organize information. While the company's press release points out that the average person types 50 words per minute, but speaks 160 word per minute, we can read even faster than that. And while I listened through a couple of discussion threads, I found myself hitting the skip button repeatedly after I got tired of waiting for the speaker to make his point. If this were a text-based message board I'd be able to skip ahead easily without missing anything, but once you stop listening to someone, you've pretty much given up on the thread.

I think Chinswing is on to something here. I'm a firm believer that the human voice can carry all sorts of meaning that is hard to express in written words. How often have you tried to write something sarcastic in an email or instant message only to have it taken the wrong way? I'm just not sure that Chinswing will have a wide appeal outside of amateur podcasters. Of course, I'll probably be proven wrong when millions of teenagers grab a microphone and start leaving messages for one another.

Yahoo! announced in a press release that many long-awaited upgrades were soon to appear on Yahoo! Finance, albeit some only in beta form.

Stock Charts - Google showed us that they could beat Yahoo! to the punch with their Ajaxy charting tools. Unfortunately for Google, the financial users are a pragmatic bunch and need more than the "kewl" factor to make them switch as indicated by Yahoo! continuing to hold the financial users' interest. According to this recent announcement, Y! Finance users will soon be enjoying new kewl dynamic charting tools which take advantage of Flash and DHTML . It pays to be patient, eh?

Message boards - Yahoo! has been upgrading its message boards throughout its many sites for many months now. Yahoo! Finance has seen some of these changes already. Easier search, threaded views and now a rating system to quickly locate quality contributors to the conversation.

Y! Finance Badge - Y! Finance badges for your website have been out in beta for a while now but according to this announcement are out of beta and available for general consumption.

Y! Finance Videos - Y! has made huge advances recently in its ability to serve video regardless of where it is hosted. This is spreading to various Y! sites including Y! Finance. Today's announcement points out that video from several news sources are being made available via the Y! Finance site.

The new stock charts are being evasive. Hopefully we will see them in action soon even if only on a beta version of the Y! Finance site.

UPDATE: The new chart tools are being rolled out to small percentage of users for now. This is much as the ! home page revision was revealed to only a few users for their feedback before opening it up to all Y! home page visitors. More Y! Finance users can expect to see the new chart tools as time goes by.