Community Ideas

[Mother]

That's the biggest question any site like this has - do you pay and attract only people who wish to be constructive, at the expense of excluding those unable to pay, or do you make it free to all, but then have to put up the rubbish that goes with it.

[DeathTöngue]

Actually. I had in mind a little of both free access and supporting member access - but I like Column A better.

But it might be sufficient to get member's real contact information before allowing them to post - I think this would cut down on the MPD crowd, as well as reducing trolling. Junior's less likely to troll if Daddy might get a hostile email about it.

[Mother]

I don't really think you need to - IP banning is a fantastic tool. I presume vBulletin has that feature. I know for a fact that it's possible with phpBB.

[DeathTöngue]

IP banning doesn't work with dialups or dynamics. That is, unless you want to ban entire subnets. Countries, even.

And even then... I can show you a $19.95 software package any moron can install that will let you pick any IP address you want.

[Mother]

Fair point about dial-ups, tis true I overlooked that... There is also the option on phpBB (so again I'm assuming vBulletin - I've never worked with it to know) which means all accounts being opened must be verified by both the user and an administrator. This, I'm sure would eliminate the problem of duplicate accounts, but we have a problem in so far as Paulo is the only admin here.

[DavidAV]

I went to a forum yesterday where I saw the same exact things people complain about here. Older members pointing out duplicate threads, and moderators locking threads. It was even more severe though, because if a certain thread does not get enough replies they will just delete it regardless of content. And they don't "lock" threads, they delete them completely.
So we are by no means unique. And perhaps our moderators are too lenient.
The only forums where these problems don't exist are new forums that don't have old members and new members.

[Mother]

I'm a member of plenty of forums where they just don't care. Which sucks too.