Forums

This is getting out of hand

• Crazyman2 731 Posts

  Tue, Jan 12 2010 12:10 PM

  Faterson:

  Give that team the option to instantly block any user account from contributing to the forums for a period of time specified by the moderator, as well as block that user's IP address or address range for a period of time specified by the moderator.

  So you would prevent potential newcomers by banning a range of IP addresses? Although ANYONE on a dynamic IP address  (those on AOL for instance) would still be able to access registration on a daily basis.

  Innocent bystanders (within that range of IP addresses) would be persecuted by your means of combatting the situation.   now THAT IS  crazy. 

   

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Tue, Jan 12 2010 12:15 PM

  Crazyman2:

  Innocent bystanders (within that range of IP addresses) would be persecuted by your means of combatting the situation.   now THAT IS  crazy.

  Not really-he indicated forum only ban and it makes sense. This idea expounds on an earlier thought about delayed moderation and I think it would work. I know squat about running a forum but any kind of control, delayed or otherwise, would be a good thing.

• Crazyman2 731 Posts

  Tue, Jan 12 2010 12:31 PM

  hi Jim

  It makes sense to ban newcomers?  It makes sense to allow any old email address to register?  It makes sense to ban a range of IP addresses?  NO it certainly doesn't make any sense.  I have many clients that run forums with their website packages and not one would contemplate banning a whole range of IP addresses.

  If you read my earlier post Jim you would have seen that I explained about READ ONLY access for those that joined until certain criteria was reached.

  It is a simple process to prevent posts from newcomers WITHOUT the need for any moderators -  just look at Wordpress/Joomla/ Mambo/ Blogger/phpBB3and almost every other application out there. Adjust the permission settings and Voila its done.

  An email verification for registering is what is needed. At the moment ANYONE can register with a bogus email address and still get access to the site and its forum

  There is no need for complicated programming (qwhich some people think is a matter as simple as turning on a tap/fawcet)

  Happy Golfin'

• Faterson 2,902 Posts

  Tue, Jan 12 2010 2:11 PM

  Crazyman2:

  So you would prevent potential newcomers by banning a range of IP addresses?

  Of course not. That is Adam Turner's line of reasoning; have you been visiting his forums?  

  Only forum offenders (or their IP addresses / address ranges) would get temporarily banned by a moderator. On sites I manage, I use short-term bans, and they are highly effective. Often it's enough to "ban" someone for 6 hours, until the arguing parties' heads cool off a bit, and then peace reigns again.

  Crazyman2:

  Although ANYONE on a dynamic IP address  (those on AOL for instance) would still be able to access registration on a daily basis.

  Not really, because as has been said, you can ban an IP address range. The IP address for the typical user with a dynamic address usually only changes in the last 3 digits, or there's another minimal change to it. There'd be little risk in banning the wrong person; and, as I said, I very much favour short-term bans (bans of a few hours or days are often enough to discourage abusers), and as a phpBB, MediaWiki, etc., admin I use the whole available range of bans: from a few hours to a few days/weeks/months or even one year (which is the maximum length ban I use; there are no permanent bans on my sites).

  Crazyman2:

  It makes sense to ban newcomers?

  This is only your own misinterpretation, Crazyman2. The suggestion was to put newcomers automatically on the Moderated flag, a standard procedure on most well-run email discussion mailing-lists. The Moderated flag is not a ban; it simply delays the appearance of a forum post online, until a forum moderator approves the post. That would remove all spamming and trolling from these WGT forums with 100% efficiency.

  Crazyman2:

  An email verification for registering is what is needed.

  This is a common fallacy (and another misguided idea promoted by Adam Turner).

  Email verification does not prevent forum abuse at all. It only marginally delays it. Any forum abuser can set up 5 Hotmail/Yahoo/Gmail accounts in 5 minutes, and happily spam away.

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Tue, Jan 12 2010 2:24 PM

  Hi C-I did read your earlier post-it came after I put up the delayed moderating bit and you expressed what you thought would work. There are obviously different ways to do it and I just thought you looked at the banning of IP's as way more than was intended. The gist of any halting of posts, whether by your way or other ways, is to keep them from disrupting whatever. As F explained above this ban was qualified and just represents another way to get the job done.

• Crazyman2 731 Posts

  Wed, Jan 13 2010 1:00 AM

  Faterson:

  Of course not. That is Adam Turner's line of reasoning; have you been visiting his forums?

  Is that supposed to be funny? Or just some sort of sarcastic remark, that many have come to realise and expect from you?

  Faterson:

  Not really, because as has been said, you can ban an IP address range. The IP address for the typical user with a dynamic address usually only changes in the last 3 digits, or there's another minimal change to it.

  Wrong

  Ever heard of a proxy server? You can Hide your IP address in seconds Multiple rotating IP addresses are common place.such as switchproxy (firefox)

  AOL use proxy servers SEE IP RANGES BELOW

  64.12.96.0/19	64.12.96.0 –	64.12.127.255
  149.174.160.0/20	149.174.160.0 –	149.174.175.255
  152.163.0.0/16	152.163.0.0 –	152.163.255.255
  195.93.0.0/17	195.93.0.0 –	195.93.127.255
  198.81.0.0/19	198.81.0.0 –	198.81.31.255
  202.67.64.128/25	202.67.64.128 –	202.67.64.255
  205.188.0.0/16	205.188.0.0 –	205.188.255.255
  207.200.112.0/21	207.200.112.0 –	207.200.119.255

  AOL users cannot be uniquely identified as their IP addresses are shared with hundreds / thousands of other AOL users in their area .All appear to stem from the same proxy server. AOL  also configure their proxy servers so that a single user would go through a range of proxy servers each time they try to post/edit a page.

  AOL users on dial-up connections are also allocated a different IP address each time they connect.

  It is simple to remain anonymous. You obviously know very little about the subject

  I have just used AOL as a typical example. There are many, many other ways

  For those that dont rely upon proxy servers.Take a look at  the USA ranges of IP addresses.

  Granted there are many that only contain the last 3 digits but there are also thousands that don't just change the last three digits (some are up to 9 digits)

  Faterson:

  and as a phpBB, MediaWiki, etc., admin I use the whole available range of bans

  Faterson:

  it simply delays the appearance of a forum post online, until a forum moderator approves the post

  More uneccessary work for WGT

  Ahhh I see where this is going. You, yourself are vying for the moderator position to enhance your already massive post total of over 2200 posts in less than 8 months! And with your conflicting opinions on nearly every subject matter in hand, would lead me to believe that it would be a grave error on WGT's part to contemplate such a ludicrous notion.

• cobra4 359 Posts

  Wed, Jan 13 2010 1:19 AM

  From what i have read, the moderators job has been given to a well known player !

• EllisSpice 871 Posts

  Wed, Jan 13 2010 6:04 AM

  cobra4:

  From what i have read, the moderators job has been given to a well known player !

  Please explain.

• cobra4 359 Posts

  Wed, Jan 13 2010 7:10 AM

  Sorry can't give names out, you know that Ellis.

• Snaike 3,678 Posts

  Wed, Jan 13 2010 10:58 AM

  Crazyman2:

  Ahhh I see where this is going. You, yourself are vying for the moderator position to enhance your already massive post total of over 2200 posts in less than 8 months! And with your conflicting opinions on nearly every subject matter in hand, would lead me to believe that it would be a grave error on WGT's part to contemplate such a ludicrous notion.

  CM2...  No fear there.  WGT would not offer a moderator position to someone who has been banned from the forums multiple times for multiple breaches of the T&C, unless they have completely lost all grip on reality.  (Would be akin to giving the pub keys to a known alchoholic.)

  Again, I believe you all are over-analyzing the problem.  A simple two-tiered system is all that is needed.  For the forums, READ ONLY unless some form of membership (via number of rounds played, registered credit card, "Pro" rank, etc etc) is established.

  No need for fancy moderation, banning IP addresses, dealing with proxies, getting references from your grandmother's librarian, whatever....  There is enough information in the previous posts for the next new person to be able to search for whatever answer they need.

  Easily done.  Ciao!!