Cyberbabes, this site is getting spammed. These guys can ruin a site in no time. I think you are going to have to go back to requiring only registered members allowed to post.
See plugged radiator
What do you mean “Go back to requiring registered members to post”? Since they switched over, anyone and their dog could post anything. I guess those who said this would happen can say “I told you so.”
I checked it out, saw no problem. Was the offending post removed?
Keith is requesting this site incorporate the old sites’ method of doing things.
I’ve been trying to get the ‘registered users only posting’ set up but, like everything else on here, it’s taking forever or maybe we’ll never see it.
Same goes for logging in. I don’t want to see ‘anonymous’ all the time either…
I finally got my login to stick so all I have to do now is click on ‘login’.
The list of things needed on this forum is very long.
I have fixed the log-in part, that is for myself. To be honest I come here all the time for advice. There are a lot of vets in here that by their screen name I knew them and I took their advice very serious. Now some of them have become “anonymous”. Also I still can not know where the new posts start from the last time I left off. Before they would get highlighted. Now to me it feels that overall we have less traffic, I guess some have left the forum…
I’ve tried to stay logged in, to no avail. The second screen, the “keep me logged in” bit, etc.; none of it works.
Sometimes I’m logged in for several days and other times I can log in, pull up one post, and see in the shaded area that my log-in is gone already.
This site needs work - badly.
I’m small potatoes here, but …
I log in only when I want to post, then I log out again. I do not have the problems often mentioned by the heavy contibutors (bless their hearts!): spontaneous logout, and lack of an edit feature (the “Preview Reply” button works for me).
However, not being able to see the post(s) to which I am responding is, indeed, inconvenient. And knowing the ID of the poster is crucial to evaluatiing the worth of her/his advice, so I’d like to see annonymous posting eliminated and I’d like the system not to make problems for the heavy participants.
(Doen’t this thread belong somewhere else now?)
Count me as one of the posters that prefers the anonymous posting option. I post quite a bit, if you don’t want to consider my opinion, then don’t. Personally, I read all replies and can sort through those that might have merit from those that do not. Having a username attached to the reply gives it no more weight than one that is anonymous. Even the long time posters are wrong occassionally. If the poster wants to be identified by a consistent name, then add it to the reply as many have been doing to work around the log in issues.
It’s not that I/we don’t want to consider an anonymous opinion, it’s just that it’s very hard to know who is talking to whom. For example, one post a few weeks back posted a problem and apparently came back and responded to questions for more details, but it was hard to be sure who was responding because the original poster relied as “anonymous” to some other “anonymous” questioner.
The other problem with anonymous posting is the spam and inappropriate posting problem. This will force a change eventually. Apparently the management at Car Talk has forgotten how bad it got before they went to a fully moderated board. Now they’ve swung completely the other way allowing anonymous posts with no moderation. They can’t seem to find the middle ground.
You say I/we prefer registration for your reason but I was referring to this comment:
And knowing the ID of the poster is crucial to evaluatiing the worth of her/his advice,
This place survives on NEW people coming here with problems not on established posters bantering back and forth. A new person will not know the difference between a blowhard and someone who knows what they are talking about by looking at a username or post count. You figure that out by reading and EVALUATING what is written. Unless you plan to have the peanut gallery weigh in after every post by Tester (for example) to say- “listen to this guy, he knows what he is talking about”.
Granted, the new format can be frustrating in a number of ways. Your prediction may eventually come true but it is not a problem yet so why push so hard for registration? I liken it to gas prices going up because people fear what may happen rather than acting on real events.
Sure, it’s good to have new people, but I want them to establish a record of wisdom and competence before I use their advice to maintain or repair my car. If I do not know who is giving the advice, I do not know if it is reliable.
Yes, but how are the newbies to ever figure out the wheat from the chaff if you can’t tell who is saying what? I don’t mind anonymous questions, or even responses, but it sure makes it hard to follow and even harder to know who the good posters are. As a rule, I discount anonymous suggestions heavily because you have no track record to look at. Somebody who’s posted a lot and gotten good feedback gets more weight, and even a new person go back and see who those people are.
By the way, I wonder if the developers and people supposedly working on this software even bother to read threads in the car questions section, where this thread is?
With the exception of the one thread, I haven’t really seen a spam attack here. It also doesn’t seem like we are having a lot of anonymous sniping among the posts. I like knowing who is posting, but I also like to read the posts and evaluate each for its own benefit. I used to visit Clark Howard.com’s boards but they became dominated by a few whiners who turn everything into a diatribe of buying only old cars, paying cash, etc. no matter what the actual question was. This group at least provides some worthwhile information. I’m posting anonymously because it is too much trouble to keep logging in.
Tom
I agree, the software needs to be fixed to keep people from being logged out, then you can set it up to force people to register before they post (that’s how most forms are set up).
FWIW, I have never been logged out. I logged in once (the first day of the new forum) and have been automatically logged in every single time since then. I suspect it has something to do with which browser you are using (I’m using safari on a mac with OS 10.4.10).
The same way you figure it out in the rest of your life. You read/listen and then use some of your own judgement to determine if it makes sense. Rarely are problems solved instantly with an exact solution outlined. It takes communication, research and some common sense.
New people with questions are not going to wait around in the wings, checking postings to see who is going to be able to answer their question most reliably without any effort on their part. In fact, everyone has their strengths; some mechanical, some electrical etc. Just because someone has a lot of knowledge about engine problems does not mean they know anything about a PCM problem as one example. Are you going to start segregating people by their knowledge base too?
It takes effort on both sides to resolve problems. If either side isn’t willing to apply some effort, then there’s no sense bothering to reply.
I’m not talking about new people answering questions, I’m talking about new people who come here seeking advice. That is what keeps it going. If that dried up we’d have a bunch of bench racing and testosterone posturing going on with a small group of “regulars” and that would get old fast.
The above was in reply to Ranck- it got put into the wrong slot…
Then, all you have to do is figure out which anonymous poster is the one you thought had good advice. One “anonymous” looks like all the others. You don’t know if you are talking to the same person or a different one.
Again, a new poster doesn’t have to “wait around in the wings” to see who the reliable posters are. There is a bunch of posting history. At least on the old board it was easy to see what sort of advice a poster gave in the past and judge from that, and yes, you have to go by what the person is saying and how it fits the current situation and if it makes sense.
I’ve had nothing but trouble trying to get registered. It won’t seem to accept a password or allow me to make a new one. I’ve given up and post as Anonymous. A number of other old members seem to have had the same problem.
If you allow registered members only to post, I’m history. Please don’t do this.
Spamming allows us to debunk snake oil. Anybody who wants to see their product trashed need only post here.
- mountainbike