Old Topics are being Bumped Up

Linda3032 · Post by **Linda3032** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 4:48 pm

Is there any way to keep these old topics from being bumped up by "unknown" sources?

Another reason to have legitimate accounts in order to post on this forum - IMO.

hecate · Post by **hecate** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:22 pm

The spam is not made by real people , but little bots automatically posting random comments, promoting commercial services. There are ways to overcome this problem. The first is to require a valid account. The second and better way is to use a turing test that requires human intervention. These are the images of letters and numbers that need to be entered before an entry is accepted. The problems with these are they are difficult for the visually impaired and are damn annoying. I would personally prefer to do the turing test than have the spam

Liz

rested gal · Post by **rested gal** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 5:49 pm

The spam is annoying, sure, but I really think requiring people to register would knock out many newly diagnosed people who are not accustomed to using message boards and are working up their courage to ask a question. Some simply might feel more comfortable posting as a Guest for awhile.

I just ignore the spam posts. Perhaps it's not so bad that they happen to bump old topics up. There are enough new people coming aboard all the time that the old topics are new to them. Heck, I'd forgotten some of the good info in old topics and found myself re-reading them with fresh interest.

I think I'd lose interest in any apnea board that did not allow Guest posts. I was sorry to see the TAS forums switch recently to requiring registration.

Linda3032 · Post by **Linda3032** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 6:43 pm

Point valid and taken.

However, we seldom get newbies who post new topic questions as guests.

Also, valid first-time posters can easily get lost in the barrage of old resurrected topics.

Goofproof · Post by **Goofproof** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 7:04 pm

Linda3032 wrote:Point valid and taken.

However, we seldom get newbies who post new topic questions as guests.

Also, valid first-time posters can easily get lost in the barrage of old resurrected topics.

The point of the forum isn't only to help ourselves to answer new questions, we need to answer the old questions to give newbies the benefit of what we have learned.

I wish the forum had better software, so we could stay logged in. We also have many posts but the only way we can read them is in sequence, we need to be able to access the pages by inputting a page number directly, it is impossible to view the forum posts at one setting.

Swordz · Post by **Swordz** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 7:23 pm

TAS just required thier users to become registered. Seems to be working so far, but I'm afraid thier posting volume will be much less now.

Linda3032 · Post by **Linda3032** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:37 pm

Well, I don't think our "page 1" tonight would inspire much confidence to a newbie coming in to find up to date info. Half the posts are a year old, and several are spam and contain viruses. I would run like hell.

I come in to try to help others with current questions or problems - not to sift thru Hurricane Hosehead.

GarthsWorld · Post by **GarthsWorld** » Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:55 pm

Hello all.

I'm new to the forum, although I was diagnosed about a year ago and started using a CPAP in April of 2005. I was looking for new filters for my machine (which the insurance doesn't cover) and ended up finding the forum (and the filters!).

I found the making a profile process to be fairly quick, and don't think (obviously my own opinion) that someone truly interested in finding out more information on this topic would be inhibited by being required to sign up to post. The most time consuming part for me was choosing a picture and resising it so that the upload would accept it.

I think requiring folks to register/create a profile to post is very reasonable. With the proliferation of free email services (yahoo, gmail, etc.) folks can always use a secondary mail if their concerned about their email being given out (which the forum protects from view). The "required" information other than email is pretty benign, and folks can put almost whatever they want. For folks who don't want to create a profile to post, if its possible to let them still view the forum that would solve a lot of the spam issue. With the issue of "old" posts being pulled to the top, is it possible to have strings "locked" after a certain amount of time, such as 60 days?

I'm thrilled to have found you all, I've already learned several new things!

Cheers, Garth

Barb (Seattle) · Post by **Barb (Seattle)** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:41 am

rested gal wrote:The spam is annoying, sure, but I really think requiring people to register would knock out many newly diagnosed people who are not accustomed to using message boards and are working up their courage to ask a question. Some simply might feel more comfortable posting as a Guest for awhile.

I just ignore the spam posts. Perhaps it's not so bad that they happen to bump old topics up. There are enough new people coming aboard all the time that the old topics are new to them. Heck, I'd forgotten some of the good info in old topics and found myself re-reading them with fresh interest.

I think I'd lose interest in any apnea board that did not allow Guest posts. I was sorry to see the TAS forums switch recently to requiring registration.

Ditto...

Barb (Seattle) · Post by **Barb (Seattle)** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:45 am

Could one or more persons be given the means to delete the spam other than the person(s) running this message board? Other boards do that all the time. Several people who are on at different times can delete. Seems reasonable to me...

Darth Vader Look · Post by **Darth Vader Look** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:50 am

I am a regular visitor/poster (not guest poster) on TAS. It was the first board I posted in. The amount of posting has actually gone down some so I guess the removal of guest posts has affected it.

Barb (Seattle) · Post by **Barb (Seattle)** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 1:59 am

anyone else notice the "report spam" button next to the "quote" area?

Alerts them of the post being spam. Cool

Darth Vader Look · Post by **Darth Vader Look** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 2:32 am

Wow I did the normal once over and all the spam. Some of those posts are not by bots. I have hit the report spam button each time I see those posts. Maybe all registered users should be allowed to remove spam when they see it Just wondering if in case a mistake happens and a post is removed whether or not the moderators could put the post back into its original position within the thread where it first appeared Another thought would be if a registered user abused the right to remove spam they could have this privilege revoked by the administrators and/or moderators. What do you think about that

GarthsWorld · Post by **GarthsWorld** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 3:06 am

That might be a great idea if the software allows it, or to remove it once a certain number of registered users (3? 5?) mark it as spam.

Can someone let me know what the TAS forum is? Thanks much!

Garth

Janelle · Post by **Janelle** » Sun Mar 05, 2006 6:03 am

In the last weeks, I have reported a lot of spam on this forum. Please, feel free to use the Report Spam link if you see obvious Spam. Do not just ignore it.