To make this a better board (securitywise)

[CoolAmadeus]

Hello Fred,

I don't know if others will agree, and if you are willing to do something like this (I hope!), but given the sillyness of some posters giving away what appears like personal info of SPs and/or other individuals related to this business these days, I have a few ideas for you...

1) Provide a phone number (pager would be OK), where someone could leave you an emergency message when something as bad as an asshole posting a personal adress has to be taken care off and the offending post be removed QUICKLY.

2) Nominate a few senior posters that you can trust, who can handle emergency administrative tasks in the event you are not around (I don't mind to be one of those if need be).

3) Institute a rule by which any new member has to have his/her post approved before apearing on the board, at least until this member has posted enough to be trusted (ex: 10 or 25 posts). Obviously, someone would have to approve the posts quick enough so that this board doesn't become another Canbest (ooops!). If ther are multiple admins (say 5), it a task that can easily be achieved.

4) Restrict the creation of new member handles to only the ones who can provide a validated email adress. I know it's weak, but at least it would be just a bit more difficult to create new handles endlessly when one has been banished off the board. ONE handle per addy.

5) Do some log analysis to identify users who logoff of one handle to log back in using another one in the next few seconds on the same IP, to identify spoofers. With the right tools, it's an easy task.

If anyone of you guys has other more clever ideas, please speak out!

Again, I'd be happy to give a little bit of my time if that would ultimately mean a safer environment for ladies.

CA

 

[Lawless]

I personally don't believe there should be such restrictions, but the adm. should always be available to react quickly.
For security reason I had no choice but to proceed with the deletion already discussed.
I still wonder if one can be traced back to its real identity through this board. In the affirmative, membership might have to be reassessed.

 

[CoolAmadeus]

If no restriction, at least a quicker reaction time...

Well... To tell you the truth, restrictions should be the LAST thing to put in place, but sometimes one has no choice... "Aux grands maux les grand moyens!" (Sorry, I don't know how this expression translates in English! )

I still believe my suggestions no 1, 2, 4 and 5 would still be VERY useful in cases like that, and easy to accomplish while not putting down too much the freedom to post.

CA

 

[MG_mtl]

Lawless, you did the right thing ! I just hope the info will not be used in a bad way by someone who might have copied it from the post...

Cool, I agree with you. It's last resort, but I believe it has come to that. As much as I thought TBD board was over moderated, this one seems under moderated.

 

[optimus]

I dont think number 4 is a good sugestion. If by provide a valid e-mail you mean free e-mail like hotmail shoud not be accept, and only "real" e-mail should be valid. I think we will have a probleme of anonyma here. If your sugestion include free e-mail like hotmail, well that will block nothing.

I have a sugestion, maybe just integrate a system that if 10 person vote to block a post, the post go blind and will be examinate by the admin before it can be view again what do you think??

 

[CoolAmadeus]

You're right... email addresses are too easy to create on hotmail, and posting a regular/work email is not necessarily an option.

The idea of blocking a post is good, but we have to keep in mind this board is handled by a software and database engine that has its strength and weaknesses (www.vbulletin.com) and may not be customizable to that extent... Fred can probably tell us more... (or even people at vbulletin).

CA

 

[CoolAmadeus]

Please translate "volchers". This word is not in my Roberts & Collins English French dictionary! (I am not kidding, it's not!)

a) The moderators don't need to have any face. They could remain anonymous. In fact, I think they SHOULD remain anonymous.

b) It's easy to do some kind of moderation without falling in the trap of subjectivity. Simple rules can easily be enforced by anyone with a head on his/her shoulders. Posting an address, real name or phone number is one of the most obvious NO-NO rule to enforce!

c) Yes, it's the Internet, but that doesn't mean it has to be all disorganized and lawless (ooops! Sorry lawless, no pun intended! ).

Anyway, these were only suggestions, good or bad, I won't be the one settling all this anyway.

CA

 

[ManAboutTown]

Vultures.

Until they get the basic functions of the board to work properly, I wouldn't worry about the rest.

Also, IP trapping isn't a very good way to do things, considering sympatico, videotron, and AOL all use gateways that group people together to appear on a single IP from the outside. No way to seperate people like that.

 

[Mister Evil=)]

---------(snippen)------------
4) Restrict the creation of new member handles to only the ones who can provide a validated email adress. I know it's weak, but at least it would be just a bit more difficult to create new handles endlessly when one has been banished off the board. ONE handle per addy.
----------(snippen)-----------

I work for an ISP and i can tell you that changing addresses, or simply to have an alias ( addy2@isp sending mail to same mailbox as addy1@isp ) is massively easy. And anybody with admin rights to any kind of email server can create mailboxes left right and center.

In fact, the only reason i don't have a mailserver on my personal ( non-work) server is because i just don't want the hassle of dealing with the spam bandwith.


As for the voucher idea, this could also lead to "karma whoring" like it happened on other boards like i've seen happen wayy too many times.

 

[CoolAmadeus]

MATt, I beg to disagree with you. If for example you were a married man and someone posts your name, address and phone number on the board for anyone to identify you, YOU WOULD CARE, regardless other functions of the board work fine or not!

Don't take me wrong, I still agree that the fact those functions are not working is very annoying (at least I never set the "send email" to yes!), but other issues should also be dealt with.

Regarding IP trapping, even if some IP addresses may be grouped, if I was to see your handle logoff of one IP, log back in under a different handle a few seconds later from the same IP, and this occurs at different occasions, I would know FOR SURE that you and the other handle are one and the same, nevermind the IP grouping.

MisterEvil, You are 100% right about how easy it can be to create email adresses if you have admin rights, but the key is not to get to ALL wrongdoing posters, but some pourcentage of them. People with admin rights on servers are not the norm but the exception. Regardless, as optimus mentioned above, it's way too easy to create an hotmail address for anyone, so this idea is ruled out anyway!

Regarding vultures and "karma whoring", I don't see a problem if it's faceless. For all we know, probably FredZed is a regular poster under a separate handle and no-one knows about it! Maybe he even posted to this specific thread!

Anyway, the idea is to make this board a safer board for us, and ultimately for the ladies as well. No more posting of personal info. No more unnecessary flaming wars. etc...

I have rambled enough..

CA

 

[MG_mtl]

I tried it yesterday when it was REALLY needed... and it didn't work ! How usefull !

MG (mtl)

 

[Lawless]

Yesterday, I also tried to get a response from FZ, but no action whatsoever.

lawless

 

[CoolAmadeus]

EGB, I'd be curious to see what you have in mind when you're talking about a charter... What about showing up a quick draft?

I wonder how that kind of thing is going to change the board when people don't even read the sticky posts!

I agree that some posting rules to be bound to would be a good starting point, both for us hobbyists and the moderators, who would then have something to base their actions on. Altough restrictives, the rules on the other (now almost dead) board were clear. Well maybe there are such rules somewhere here too, and I didn't read them either!

CA