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Nexopia
The logo of Nexopia
Screenshot
Type of businessJoint venture, corporation
Type of site
Social networking, online forums
Available inEnglish
FoundedFebruary 2003; 21 years ago (2003-02) Edmonton, Alberta
HeadquartersEdmonton, Alberta
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Area servedWestern Canada[1] Main (2003-2012)
Worldwide (2012-present)[2]
OwnerIdeon Media
Founder(s)Timo Ewalds
CEOKevin Bartus[3]
Key peopleDave Stevens, Boris Wertz
Employees10 as of 14 November 2008
ParentIdeon Media[2]
URLforums.nexopia.com (defunct)
RegistrationRequired
Users1.4 million users[5]
200,000 active as of 9 November 2012
LaunchedFebruary 2003; 21 years ago (2003-02)[2]
Current statusClosed

Nexopia was a Canadian social networking website created in 2003, by Timo Ewalds.[7] It was designed for ages 14 and up, but was later lowered to 13.[8] Users were able to create and design profiles, a friends list, blogs, galleries, and compose articles and forums. Interaction was accomplished through an internal personal messaging system, public user comments on profiles, blogs or through threads and posts on the forums. In November 2012, Nexopia was acquired by digital ad network Ideon Media.[9]

History

[edit]

Nexopia was founded in 2003, and became Canada's first online social network, albeit mostly serving Western Canada.[2] It evolved from the community site called Enternexus.com, another website built by Ewalds. The initial beta site was limited to 70 members and eventually led to Nexopia.com. When Enternexus.com relaunched as Nexopia.com, initial growth was said to be 100 users in four days, and 225,000 users within 22 months.[10][unreliable source?] For a brief period during that time, Nexopia.com maintained growth of 10% or 3500 average new members per day.[11][unreliable source?] In 2008, Nexopia announced 1.2 million active registered users and 1 billion page views per month as well as the investment of an undisclosed amount of the venture capital fund Burda Digital Ventures (now Acton Capital Partners).[12]

In October 2010, the site had just under 1.5 million users and nearly 35 billion hits. In January 2012, the site reported 1,636,990 users and 35,517,895,992 hits.

The website uses Interac Online, a service that allows account holders at participating banks to make payments through online banking.

Profile update

[edit]

In 2008 Nexopia updated its user profile pages, the largest revision since the site's launch in 2003. The redesign included a streamlined layout, Ajax controls for messages, galleries and profile editing, new profile skinning options and image resizing.[13] The update caused controversy among users due to issues such as slow load times, disappearing profile pictures, undelivered private messages, forms not working correctly, and people upset because the site design was different. Nexopia staff polled users, and found that the majority disliked the new profile picture slider the most. Nexopia staff then provided the option to switch between the classic and new profile picture viewers.[14]

Forums

[edit]

The forums were the main social aspect of the website. Nexopia 'Plus' subscribers could create their own forums, which could be open or available only to only invited members.[citation needed] In early 2016, the website changed to online forums.[15] The forum used software from XenForo,[16] replacing WordPress.[17]

Members

[edit]

Over 95% of users were Canadian, with over 1.4 million member accounts and a hit count of over 33 billion.[citation needed]

No content containing nudity, racism, violence, or gore was allowed on forums or profiles, although photos of a small amount of marijuana and the use of pipes and bongs was allowed; alcohol was also acceptable. All profile pictures were checked by photo moderators before appearing on a user page. Photos on a user's profile were not checked, but a "report abuse" button allowed another user to report abuses. Nexopia prohibited copyright infringement.

In March 2007, four students from the Elk Island school district in Sherwood Park, Alberta were expelled from school and twenty were given suspensions in a case of cyberbullying.[18] Students used Nexopia to create teacher profiles in which classmates posted defamatory, nonsensical, derogatory and libellous information on the teachers' pages.[18]

Criticism

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Nexopia was criticized[19] by parent groups, who blamed their children's problems on the website and tried to have it shut down. This forced the site to become more strict about user posts.

Nexopia became a target for online predators.[1][20][21] Since a user's profile could be completely open to the public, profile images and information were viewable. Users could post personal information such as their address, telephone number, family members, relationship status and school.

Online spam increased such as through "dummy" accounts that spam users, linking them to websites containing porn or malicious information.[citation needed] Users who did not follow the rules could get a simple ban from the website or have their account "frozen".[citation needed]

In March 2012, the website was found to be in violation of federal privacy laws by keeping personal information indefinitely.[22] As of November 2012, Nexopia was working with the Privacy Commissioner to ensure regulatory compliance.[9]

The site was used by convicted serial killer Cody Legebokoff, who met one victim, fifteen year old Loren Leslie, there.[23]

Membership

[edit]

Users with free accounts had access to standard features, such as forum posting, private messaging, user profiles with comments, photo uploading, a user blog and an image gallery. Monthly paid subscriptions were offered at $5 to fee gain access to extra features such as advanced user search, forum creation, increased media gallery capacity and online file storage, and the removal of ads.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Police track suspects using Nexopia website". Canada.com Postmedia Network Inc. Starphoenix (Saskatoon). 27 July 2007. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d "Canadian Social Networking Pioneer Nexopia Acquired by Digital Ad Network". Techvibes. Techvibes. 9 November 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  3. ^ Powell, Chris (19 March 2014). "Ideon Bets Big On Moms With New Acquisitions". Marketing. Rogers Media Inc. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  4. ^ "Anything goes on Nexopia". Edmonton Journal. Canada com. 14 November 2008. Retrieved 25 April 2016. It's late Tuesday night and two teenage boys are comparing bongs in Nexopia's drugs forum.
  5. ^ "About Nexopia". Nexopia. Archived from the original on 29 April 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  6. ^ Lewis, Rob (9 November 2012). "Canadian Social Networking Pioneer Nexopia Acquired by Digital Ad Network". Techvibes Business. Techvibes. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  7. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 23 April 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ "Nexopia Terms of Use". Archived from the original on 28 December 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  9. ^ a b Lewis, Rob. "Canadian Social Networking Pioneer Nexopia Acquired by Digital Ad Network". Techvibes. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  10. ^ "How long did the '1000 members' milestone take you?". The Admin Zone Fourms. Nexopia Enthusiast. 12 December 2004. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  11. ^ "Most new members on one day". The Admin Zone Fourms. Nexopia Enthusiast. 29 January 2005. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  12. ^ Nicole, Kristen (4 February 2008). "Nexopia Gets Funding, and Replaces 23 y.o. CEO". Mashable. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
  13. ^ "Nexopia Update". Techvibes.com. 8 September 2008. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  14. ^ Option to switch between picture viewers Archived February 2, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ "If you had an old account at the OLD OLD Nexopia, you can get that account back by resetting your password". Nexopia. 10 February 2016. Archived from the original on 10 February 2016. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  16. ^ "Current Forums of Nexopia". Nexopia. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  17. ^ "December 2015 Wayback machine". Web Archive. Nexopia. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  18. ^ a b "Four students expelled for cyberbullying (2:40 p.m.)". edmontonjournal.com. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  19. ^ National. "Net holds dark hints on slayings: Pair accused in deaths of Alberta family posted messages on notorious websites". The Globe and Mail, April 26, 2006.
  20. ^ "Nexopia predator does get light sentence". 15 February 2009. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  21. ^ "Montreal man who used Net to lure girls gets parole". Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  22. ^ "Nexopia social network found in breach of privacy law". CBC.ca. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  23. ^ Keller, James (2 June 2014). "Cody Legebokoff Trial Hears Victims' DNA Found On Suspect's Belongings". Huffington Post. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
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