Members only forum?

[towy71]

As a follow on to the idiot posting thread, should these forums be member only posting?

[sjeapes]

It seems a little unfair to make people have to register to ask a question. It kind of goes against a friendly and helpful community people always tout as an advantage of Linux doesn't it.

Maybe guest posts could have to authenticate themselves as human using the various anti-spam things around (like typing in the code from an image).

--
Steve

[nelz]

It seems a little unfair to make people have to register to ask a question. It kind of goes against a friendly and helpful community people always tout as an advantage of Linux doesn't it.

It does, but so does making people wade through a bunch of spam. So does reducing the likelihood of your question being answered because it appeared between two spam posts so the person with the answer didn't see it.

Unfortunately, life is not fair, so it is a question of picking the least unfair approach.

[sirrondach]

I have voted in favour of member-only posting. Steve's comment is a perfectly fair one, but I must say that, as a relative newcomer to LXF forums, I have been amazed at the number of brain-dead people out there.
My initial assumption when I first came across the LXF site was that "guests would only be able to read postings but members would be able to read and write" - an incorrect assumption I now know, but nonetheless it was the natural one at the time.
Registration to the LXF site is not such an onerous one that, in the case of a Linux user needing some assistance, it is likely to put them off I wouldn't have thought - it certainly didn't feel like a barrier to me.
Much though we might like to think of the Linux Community as being friendly and helpful, and thus very easy to access, we must take Nelz' comments on board I think, and realise that an excess of brain-dead postings may in time make the Community more difficult to access, less effective and therefore less useful.

[linuxgirlie]

I voted yes, I know that certain people will not want to register, but it really isn't that differcult, and it might be to much hassle for spammers.

[nelz]

What if you are having email problems and need to ask for help? you can't register without email and you can't get help on email without registering.

Or it could be that your computer doesn't even boot, so you are using someone else's, with no email access and you can't remember your password.

The idiot posting seem to all come from China, so I'd prefer to see something that blocks anonymous posts from their IP blocks rather than inconvenience everyone.

[M-Saunders]

Weeellllllll... Yesterday and today I've been going through all the recent spam, plucking out the IPs and narrowing it down. Most junk posts of late have come from the same IP block; this is now banned, along with a few others. Hopefully it'll keep the level down for now, and I'll be keeping on top of it from here onwards.

Anonymous posting is tremendously useful for newcomers and emergencies, so hopefully we can keep it and make sure the forums remain clutter-free at the same time!

Mike (Site Ed)

[Flea]

So... I take it that these spam posts are being generated by a program somewhere and are not actual people copying and pasting a few standard messages? How do you know that blocking anonymous access will stop them? like a lot of you have said, registration is real easy, what's to stop them registering a few accounts and then posting them on bugmenot for all the other spammers? Once the spammer accounts get deleted repeat the whole process.

No. Blocking guest posting isn't even guaranteed to work and it would half the usefulness of the forums.

Dave.

[M0PHP]

User registration with those human-checking images where you have to type in what's displayed in the graphic will prevent automated sign-ups.

[youlikeicecream]

I have always relied on being able to search in google or similiar for help to a problem ... I always get that bloody Experts exchange site, which only shows you the problem and then makes you pay a premium for a solution. Although those weirdos keep putting annoying chinese links on the forum.

Maybe only registered members should be allowed to post, but guests can read?

Mike

[Nigel]

I keep getting frustrated by the Experts Exchange site as well

I certainly wouldn't want to exclude guests from reading the forum, but posting... I can see where Nelz, Mike, Flea et al are coming from, and if the idiots can be kept off by other means then that's great.

Perhaps if the problem persists, guest posting could be disabled temporarily, say for a month, and hopefully the idiots will have moved on elsewhere by the time it's re-enabled.

[M-Saunders]

Well, we've only had one spam since yesterday evening -- could just be a quiet day in JunkMailVille, or the plan is working. Let's see!

M

[youlikeicecream]

The day my email account at work was created, before I had a chance to tell anyone what it was ... i had spam from Africa : 'Someone died with the same name as you, we want to recover the funds..." was the general message !! Can't we just round 'em up and blow their 'brains' out

Mike

[nelz]

User registration with those human-checking images where you have to type in what's displayed in the graphic will prevent automated sign-ups.

As well as effectively blocking anyone with a text-only browser.

[Marrea]

It seems a little unfair to make people have to register to ask a question.

It does, but so does making people wade through a bunch of spam. So does reducing the likelihood of your question being answered because it appeared between two spam posts so the person with the answer didn't see it.

Unfortunately, life is not fair, so it is a question of picking the least unfair approach.

Unfortunately it is a fact of modern life that so often the law-abiding majority have to suffer because of the actions of the idiot minority. Very, very sad. And it really upsets me that a fantastic resource like the Internet is open to so much abuse by weirdos or those all too willing to take advantage of the more trusting members of society. Let's face it, they only need one or two people to click on a link to a bogus bank site ...