i am confussed...my name is james rudland and my username is monkeyboy....am i doing something wrong!!!!!!!!!..... i think this site is amazing and such a mass of helpful information.....it is where i found john who is helping build my car.... i say keep up the good work???? my only worry was the amount of slagging of between companies, that was using the site as a soap box??????
Hi James - don't take it to heart as I think Ron was just picking a random name on the membership to explain his point about user verification and not aiming anything specifically at you..
His point being that it is not practical to check every user that registers to the forum. If they are spammers - it is pretty much obvious and as soon as I spot spam, I delete it, + all any other posts from that user, and ban the user/ip for life.. To those that report it via the admin message system, keep up the good work as I get these emails through to my iPhone and can act on them very quickly, even if not near a PC.
When a user registers, us (admins) confirming that the email address is valid means nothing as spammers can set up an email address that would test valid and still get through. We can't email all of them and calling them would be daft too, so for me the current system works. Also, username and realname may or may not be correct either. I AM Paul Thompson and I appear on here as p thompson. On numerous other forums my name is paul thompson but my username is Thommohawk, a throwback to me being nicknamed 'Thommo' as an apprentice and on a bike forum I frequent and everyone knows me as Thommo too. Of course, I don't particularly see the point of being for example BigBlock Chevy with a username of Chebby, but to an extent, does it really matter?? - I could have registered with the name of Richard Clark, username of Rich-C and it still wouldn't be my REAL name - see my point???
On another note, I'm posting this whilst being invisible, I set myself invisible a while back becuase, as like Ron, I noticed that I started getting more emails/pms when I was visibly online. As I regularly frequent this board, it's easier for me to keep an eye on things and delete spam etc without feeling I have to respond within a short time-frame, esp as I am often working elsewhere when I have this open in another window...
I also log in as a separate window as Administrator so I can check on other posts whilst having the facility to delete spam, check the odd dubious user id etc... This may make me appear on the listing at the bottom of the screen invisibly twice - I don't know for sure but as I could also log on as 'guest' and view all the same I'm not sure it really matters.
Re the advertising Vendors, Forums cost money to run, Ron adds upgrades and options where deemed appropriate but all things cost money. I still think the 'free user' option is a good idea, although it would be nice to think that
anyone frequenting the forum regularly would consider it a service worth subscribing to to help cover those costs.
Vendors bring welcome revenue to the ongoing hosting / development costs I'm sure and in the main are very much a good idea in my opinion. It would be good to think that they consider it worthwhile to help promote their wares/services and Ron takes careful consideration in accepting their adverts, making sure that they would offer some worthwhile / appropriate services to the forum. I'm sure no-one wants to have 'Fred Bloggs Insurance' or 'Jimmy Jones Car Rentals' Banners across the top as whilst they would no doubt welcome the internet exposure, they would likely add little else to the forum.
Sponsored forum sections, not sure about that one as most of the issues recently have been associated with specific marques of one sort or another. On the positive side I think they are good in that they focus/collate posts about each sponsors product in that area so that someone interested in that marque can easily view related posts, without trawling through lots of others that are likely less relevant to them at that time. On the negative side it seems that there ends up a them and us attitude which then seems to promote rant's/raves/digs/sarcasm and general ill feeling between the various mfrs/vendors. For my part, sponsors get no different treatment than a general user, as a non-owner that has been blessed to have driven many I offer no favour to any specific marque, although much of my technical knowledge/experience has been primarily with GTDs.
Reputation points - yep, I too think this is probably less than helpful. You might think that it would work but again, inter-marque in-fighting / ganging up on persons does it no justice.. As an admin I can view the reputation system where users rate others, together with their comments when entered and sometimes it looks like its working and other times it doesnt. You can also spot the odd occasion where a particular user is having a general dig at multiple users. It is NOT something that I would ever consider moderating as there is already enough for the mods/admins to keep on top off so if it does not seem to be working - ignore it.
Post count I think is a useful inclusion and can work in poitive ways. People will guage a users 'forum experience' from it and treat them accordingly, so for example, give a warm welcome to new users and hopefully guide/help them in their quest for information. I would like to think that people don't post just to increase their post count - why bother?
I too think the notion of getting people to
'THINK BEFORE THEY HIT THE SUBMIT REPLY BUTTON' is the key to keeping a good s/n ratio. I have on occasion started a post or reply and then had second thought, hitting the delete key before ever submitting. Easy rule there, if you're not sure your post/reply will ADD to the thread or make sensible reading, then DON'T press that button.... If everyone did this, the forum would be a much better place!
Well that's all, I'm sure that Ron will consider all avenues in ensuring that the forum remains a friendly, fun and interesting place to be. Long may that continue..
EDIT: after typing the above, received another pm re spam - user store22 Nokia post..
Spam deleted and user/ip banned - thanks for the PM Johann...