"Can you ID" and "What is the best car to buy" type Posts

Generally, I no longer participate in threads with the above titles, or variations thereof. 90 percent(and I’m being really lax there, should be 99!) , of such threads are bot-generated, and often from offshore sources.

Such is the situation over at Sushko’s “Automotive” forums, where, thanks to “social” media, user participation has decreased, and activity has reached a life-support level. As in, TANKED.

Now you have kooky questions being asked over there, including identifying a car make from a photo of half a headlight bezel, or part of a seat(!). One whopper of a post was someone asking “how much storage space is available under the seats?” I’m not kidding! And the join dates of these new ‘members’ is, hint-hint: the current date.

Oh and should I even bother to mention the situation on UseNet?? Since a few years ago, human activity on UseNet newsgroups has vastly decreased, and bot-generated ads for drugs and user manuals dominate the current activity lists.

Quite depressingly, this is what the proliferation of social media has unleashed. I cannot even refer to such sites by name, but I’m sure you’ll recognize Fakebook, Instascam, and $hitter(or whatever letter of the month that idealogue-owned dog’s breakfast goes by now). I would NEVER ask car- or professional audio(my other obsession!)- related questions there, as it would just lead to threads full of false info, conspiracies, name calling, and other vitriol for which I possess sub-zero tolerance.

Please be advised, and admins: vest all new members thoroughly. The very existence of private, or topic-specific, moderated forums is at stake.

That can be a very legit question, as some vehicles have under seat compartments… My brothers Tacoma has bins under his back fold up seats that he can store things under… Lot of trucks have room under the back seats… On top of that, you hide a lot of Amps under seats, figured you new that having a passion for audio equipment…

As someone that has owned and run a few hobby forums in the past, there is only so much you can filter out when it comes to new members, an IP address only gives you a location, it does not tell you that X new member is a catfish living in mommy’s basement in Ohio, only that the IP is from that location… Yes once you flag that IP address you can block/ban it but if they are bouncing the IP address around or sometimes going to a friends or Starbuck or Walmart or wherever, they will be under a different IP addy… I think at one point I had well over 20 IP addys showing up under my profile that I could see being the Admin… lol

That is why forums have Admin and Mods to watch over the forums, you can also flag anything you think is a Bot or whatever…

I 100% agree with you, if you don’t like something, don’t read about it, just ignore it and move on… lol

And yes I understand what you are saying… But the last I heard a forum normally can’t have the CIA, FBI and homeland securely etc etc do back ground checks on all new members… So they are a little limited to how much they can Vest all new members… lol

I really miss the pre-social media days, when if you wanted to hang out on the net all you had was Usenet, and moderated forums like this.

Less BS going around. Less vitriol, violence, etc.

1 Like