Guest Posting Preferences

I am trying to follow the logic of SWS posting as well as others.
Anonymity is often given as a reason, but this does not seem to be a problem.

For fun, I checked SWS profile and found NOTHING to give a hint as to who s/he is or. His/her location is LOCATION LOCATION,
I did not see an e-mail, so I am convinced his/her privacy is intact as well as anyone who was required to register.

Using his logic, I guess I may be missing some very important communications by automatically deleting the hundred or so e-mails that come to my bulk folder at yahoo without even looking..
I could be wrong.

thought:
Why do those who believe they will die when their time comes and not before bother to look both ways before crossing the street?

Wulfman wrote:I STILL support your ability to post as an anonymous Jerk.

Well said, Wulfman.

Without a doubt, the worst "Guest" posts are the ones made by registered members who want to hide their identity so they can be a jerk. On the positive side, these are the easiest posts to recognize because they are personal, repetitive and easily traced back to a prior incident between the two individuals. I'm sure everybody who has been around here for any length of time knows who these particular "Guests" are anyway.

Who might post as a Guest?

--DMEs

--Sleep doctors

--Sleep techs

--Manufacturers

--Competitors

--People who are upset with cpaptalk for freely disseminating information they don't want disseminated --at least not 'freely'

--People who are new to the forum

--People who've been here the entire 2 years

--People who are registered members but don't care to log in

--People who are registered members but forget to log in and don't care if their name is on the post so they don't go back and say, "That was me."

--People who want to share inside information without getting into trouble for sharing it

--People who are registered members and must correct something a fellow registered member has said, but know they won't take it well.

The list goes on, but in all of these circumstances (other than the "jerk" Guest posts) we learn something. Some of the most valuable information I've ever read has been from "Guest" posts. Even the less-than-friendly ones. We eliminate their ability to post and we eliminate great information. Newcomers often don't register. We eliminate their ability to post and we eliminate their ability to ask questions and get help. Compliance is already low enough. We don't need to compound the problem.

Why not register? Who knows. What business is it of ours and why do we care?

At the risk of getting stones thrown at me, figuratively, of course, I think the bottom line here is, this thread was started by someone not with the purpose of changing the rules of guest posting, but to see what the opinions were of those who use this forum on the subject. We all know with whom the decisions on policy making of this site lie and we are ALL welcome to our opinions on the subject, whether it is one that everyone, no one or just some agree with.

I feel sorry for this overly beaten dead horse at this point. It seems to me, we've gotten so far off the trail of what the intended question was and have delved so deeply into the why's (myself included) that it's become somewhat of a debate. Don't you just love this site? I do!

Sleepless on LI wrote:We all know with whom the decisions on policy making of this site lie and we are ALL welcome to our opinions on the subject, whether it is one that everyone, no one or just some agree with.

Absolutely right, Lori. Some excellent reasons for "Guest" postings were stated by the last guest, and I suspect that Johnny had at least some of these in mind when he fashioned the "Guest" posting policy for this forum.

As one fascinated by human nature, I do find it paradoxical though that the freedom allowed and encouraged on this forum comes not from the popular opinion of the "members" here, but from the strong-willed determination of a single individual merely attempting to do the right thing as best he can. Of course, doing the right thing is often quite different from the popular thing, so perhaps it's not really so paradoxical after all.

Regards,
Bill

Well I have learned a couple of things.

1. No one will give me a straight answer to my question, which is an answer in itself.

2. We not only have amateur sleep doctors on this board, we also have amatuer psychologists and amatuer philosphers. Great...

Enjoy, MandoJohnny. Life is good (as many of us have rediscovered post-xPAP).

Regards,
Bill

MandoJohnny wrote:Well I have learned a couple of things.

1. No one will give me a straight answer to my question, which is an answer in itself.

2. We not only have amateur sleep doctors on this board, we also have amatuer psychologists and amatuer philosphers. Great...

Why so bitter?

Thank Goodness, Someone has the training. Jim

Thank goodness Resmed thinking isn't contagious. This would be a bad place to come down with a case. Maybe the members could pool their resources and save a few of us. Jim

NightHawkeye wrote: As one fascinated by human nature, I do find it paradoxical though that the freedom allowed and encouraged on this forum comes not from the popular opinion of the "members" here, but from the strong-willed determination of a single individual merely attempting to do the right thing as best he can. Of course, doing the right thing is often quite different from the popular thing, so perhaps it's not really so paradoxical after all.

Not sure who this refers to, Bill. The freedom is allowed by Johnny, so I think you refer to him. However, others in this thread on both sides of the issue have expressed what they think the "right thing" is and why.

I agree, history is filled with examples of the popular thing not always being the right thing. So please put us down as amateur historians too!

JohhnyMando, when you read my explanation of how social aversions are irrationally built, I was not speaking as an amateur psychologist. I was speaking as someone with four sleep disorders who has personally built irrational social aversions. And I can tell you first hand, those aversions had absolutely nothing to do with any one else's logic or criteria.

This is my last post on this topic.

Sleepless on LI wrote:I used to be very anti-guest posting until this site taught me how to just ignore or weed through the "nuissance" posts, guests or otherwise, and go for the ones that mean something to me. Hey, one man's ceiling is another man's floor. What I find interesting or "worthwhile" someone else may find a total waste of their time.

This is a great point. What someone else views as an important post, I may view as a nuisance post. What someone else views as a nuisance post, I may view as an important post. It doesn’t matter if it is written by a registered member or a guest.

There are registered members who make a lot of pointless nuisance posts. I don't begrudge them their right to post, I simply skip over them. When it comes to "Guest" posts, I don’t begrudge them their right to post either. I always read them and throw in an answer if I have one, or a comment if I feel compelled to make one, or ignore them if they're nuisance posts. That is my choice. Those who are against Guest posting can assume all Guest posts are nuisance posts and skip over them. That is their choice. Just as we all – registered or not-- have the freedom to post, we all – registered or not-- have the freedom to decide whether to read and respond to what has been posted. No one's hand is being forced.

Sleepless on LI wrote:We all know with whom the decisions on policy making of this site lie and we are ALL welcome to our opinions on the subject, whether it is one that everyone, no one or just some agree with.

That is another great point. I view this policy as an awesome privilege to be fought for and preserved. I don’t understand those who view it as a terrible problem that must be eliminated. Fortunately, with Johnny at the helm of cpaptalk, I don’t have to worry about that happening.

MandoJohnny wrote:Well I have learned a couple of things.

1. No one will give me a straight answer to my question, which is an answer in itself.

2. We not only have amateur sleep doctors on this board, we also have amatuer psychologists and amatuer philosphers. Great...

Well, I'll give it a try, Johnny. I thought I'd already expressed my answer to that back on page 1 of this thread, but that was before you asked your question on page 2: "Could someone just please explain to me why everyone can't register and log in? What is the aversion to that? Is it that hard to do? Really, I just want to know."

You may have missed my premature answer...so, here it is again:

"Registering may seem like a simple thing to do for those of us who are accustomed to using the internet and participating in message boards. However, I can see where a person who might not be very comfortable with "internet stuff" - perhaps all they ever do is email and look at a couple of favorite websites - could be very reluctant to "register" for ANYthing on the internet.

If they've found this message board in a desperate search for help before dropping out of treatment completely, I believe the easier it is for them to make their first post, the better."

Johnny, yes and no...registration is not hard to do for you, me, or most people who are used to using computers. But I can think of any number of immediate friends and relatives who use their computers only to send email and who had to be repeatedly walked through how to do that.

I can also think of many of them who would be absolutely stymied at trying to figure out "how to register", if they DID Google for "sleep apnea" and happened to find their way to a message board about it.

I can think of many of them who, after finding their way to a message board, reading some posts, and getting up their nerve to type a question (after they finally discovered the "New Topic" or "Post Reply" buttons) would be stopped in their tracks if they had a window pop up telling them they had to register to post.

Even if the message clearly stated registration was FREE, I can understand how many would still be afraid to do it. They could be afraid that "registration" would mean they'd get a bill later. After all, they've heard repeatedly on CNN and read in newspapers that the internet is full of scams, viruses, and hackers. Remember, I'm talking about people who are not regular internet users -- first time they've ever heard of or seen a message board.

If telling them they have to be registered to ask a question caused anyone to just close the cpaptalk page and never come back to a place they could find real help and support, I think that would be a shame.

Johnny, I think I remember from your previous posts in other topics that you have a good relationship with your doctor and DME and have gotten good help from them. Also, through the reading you've done (and your interactions with your professional health care team) you're also very savvy about OSA and OSA treatment. I can understand why you say: I hope no one comes here "needing our help." If they need help, they should seek professional medical help, not a message board. We are being negative enablers if our misplaced help becomes a substitute for professional help.

All I can say to that is to echo Den's answer:

From MANY, MANY posts I've seen on this forum over the last year plus, that IS one of the main reasons that people ARE here......the "professional" medical community (or some other part of this process) has let them down in some way or other.....and they don't trust them! They (we) would rather hear from someone who's "been there, done that".

Hi MandoJohnny,

I can't believe it!!

Not only have the members of the forum ignored your simple question but those damn guests have refrained as well. Just what the hell is going on?

You would think you're asking the exact location of the Holy Grail, whose going to win the World Series, secret to peace in the middle east or if the egg really did come first. You have a right to complain! Someone should have blurted it out immediately. After all it's not rocket science or brain surgery, or even what is the best mask or even if all DME's are really evil.

The answer is actually quite simple. Most people know it! 2nd grade stuff.

All has to do with biology.

That's right, plain old biology!

Lemmings, as a matter of fact.

But not just any old run of the mill Lemmings. Special ones.

Yep. Albino Lemmings!

This in fact was proven by Betty Darwin, Charles older sister. Sure, she picked the wrong locale for her nature observations but she sure had polar bears, seals and lemmings down pat. Didn't get the same recognition as her sniviling younger brother Chuckie, but her observations are held in high esteem by the Eskimo and Inuit population to this day. In fact there was a grand memorial statue erected in her honor on the largest iceberg at the time. Unfortunately, some damn fool ran into it in the early nineteen hundreds and it was sunk.

Back to your question why everyone cannot register - such a simple thing.

Lemmings MandoJohnny, lemmings. Particularly the white ones.

Those goofy albinos seem to want to do their own thing. Always out of step, never following the crowd - why do they have this odd behavior?

Betty knew the answer! She explained it to Chuckie, and guess who got all the credit. Yeah the damn male chauvinist. Stole her idea, he did. Went and called it the preservation of species, survival of the fittest.

And that why, to this day, some guests choose not to register!

Hope this clears it up for you!

Bob F

Just cast my vote in favor of allowing guest postings to continue. I find it very interesting that, at this time, those against guest postings have 56% of the votes compared to 30% in favor, but if you read these 4 pages of posts, it would appear the consensus was the other way around! Why aren't more of you who are against guest postings weighing in on this discussion?

Another forum that stopped guest posting and then seemed to lose so much activity was also having a major spam problem and did not seem to have moderator attention. Eliminating guest posting was their way of trying to deal with that problem. I think Johnny's method of letting us delete spam on the spot is a much better solution to the problem.

I know the guest posts can get annoying sometimes, but they do tend to generate some much needed discussion on important topics (and not-so-important ones occasionally --"to use or not to use vaseline" comes to mind!!), but in the grand scheme of things I'd rather not take the chance of destroying the character of this forum. It is the best I've come across. I don't post very much, but I read almost everything every day as I continue to build my knowledge from those of you so much more experienced.

Observations

This topic as always, evokes some quite strong emotional opinions.

It seems to me that when threads evoke strong emotions we see more anonymous posts appearing.

***************

I can see why Johnny would want to keep guest posting facilities available. He is running a business and it is his business & his interests may vary from some of ours and that is to be expected.

In a humourous fashion it can be likened to a local playground. For many of us it may be our fav playground. As with every playground there are the playground politics and often the 'gangs' or allied groups but no matter the interests of the players in the playground - who controls the gates will always fall back to who owns the playground & what purpose it serves.

I am one who is very grateful to Johnny for this place as it sure is a fav of mine. It is very easy to use, is full of very interesting people, I have made some great friends here. The opportunity to learn is the best I have come across because this place generally attracts a high calibre of participant.

I am willing to concede that Johnny will allow guests to posts even though I have previously equated it to at times like debating with people who have hood over their heads. But when guests are merely seeking assistance of offering genuinely intended advice, who would want to block them

DSM

PS I voted no