The rating system in iSpQ VideoChat was created three years ago and introduced with the release of iSpQ VideoChat 6. Its goal: to promote good communication between users and a self governing community. This was a major change in the community that has had no modification since its introduction. Through an online forum and numerous emails, the iSpQ community has indicated to us that the rating system needed a change.

Of primary concern is the negative rating. The negative rating is designed to let a user know that you do not appreciate their message or videochat. It also lets other users in the community know that they have had a bad encounter with someone. The reality is that the negative rating primarily makes people upset and does not accomplish the goal that it was designed for. The Refuse/Block List offers a more effective way to ignore users that you wish to avoid.

It is for these reasons that the negative rating will be discontinued on Wednesday, August 3rd. All existing clients will still have a "negative" rating button. However, when the button is pressed, the rating will not be applied to the users account. The next version of iSpQ, a free upgrade for iSpQ VideoChat 7 users, will not have the negative rating button.

An additional change that will occur over the next 4-6 weeks is the introduction of a more secure rating system. This added security will ensure that all received ratings are genuine.

On August 16th, all users of iSpQ VideoChat 5 will have a change in service. The free service of Pal and Directory listings will include only other iSpQ 5 users. This change in service is necessary to improve the security of accounts and to introduce new capabilities to the iSpQ VideoChat community as a whole. iSpQ 5, released May of 2001, does not utilize a password-protected user account that would make it easier to change their ID or recover account information. Newer versions avoid these dilemmas by making use of secure accounts.

Finding someone in the iSpQ VideoChat community is a snap with the iSpQ Members site. The members area has three search features that make it easier for you to find someone online: Match, Search and Member Lookup. These ways of getting a list of community members make it simple to find someone you know or meet someone new.

Member Match uses a special matching formula to find 9 people that are online and have characteristics similar to you. The formula includes many parameters such as your home directory, how long you have been a user and more. Match & Message to make a new friend on iSpQ VideoChat. Match results are always displayed on the main page of the members site.

Use Search and Member Lookup to find people with specific search criteria. The search feature returns up to 45 people who fit criteria you specify including spoken language, operating system, age, general/adult and member since information. Results are displayed in an easy to use grid of 9 users. All search results place high priority on people who are online and have logged in recently.

If you know part or all of a persons display name (or email address), use the Member Lookup feature to find them. This powerful text search uses partial text matching to maximize results. For example searching on “bob” will return up to 45 results of people with “bob” in their name.