Better forum

[js.mdnq]

On Thursday, 6 December 2012 at 00:54:45 UTC, Vladimir Panteleev 
wrote:
> On Wednesday, 5 December 2012 at 22:40:39 UTC, js.mdnq wrote:
>> Hehe, it's cause no one uses it! if you check out most groups 
>> they are full of spam ;/ Only good spam filters can control it 
>> to any degree. With a BB, you require people to register which 
>> will stop 95% of spam. The other 5% could be fixed by asking 
>> more complex questions, stop posting of suspected spammers.
>
> Web bulletin boards, especially those using off-the-shelf 
> software and common anti-spam plugins, are very attractive to 
> spammers.
>
>> Do not allow new users to post more than 1 post an hour. Allow 
>> certain people(not necessarily moderators) to kill spammers. 
>> Block IP's from registering more than once a month or so, 
>> etc...
>
> All of these are draconian restrictions that WILL get into 
> honest people's way.
>
>> There are many potential ways to reduce spam to near zero. 
>> Most BB's I've used have near zero spam without any complex 
>> spam protection mechanisms(as far as I know).
>
> A certain popular forum I'm a moderator of sees almost zero 
> publicly-visible spam.
>
> Why?
>
> Because each user's first 5 posts must be manually approved by 
> a moderator before they are publicly visible.
>
> This is a gruesome, tiring, repetitive task that no one wants 
> to do every day.
>
> Even worse, the software (a popular commercial forum package) 
> doesn't even show these posts to the user who posted them. This 
> creates more confusion and duplicate posts.
>
> Anti-spam plugins are not a panacea. All of them have false 
> positives, and - worse - false negatives. Furthermore, like any 
> plugins/modifications, they complicate software maintenance and 
> may break on software upgrades, thus possibly locking you into 
> a potentially-vulnerable old version of the software.
>
>> IMO, the only downside is supporting legacy users who refuse 
>> to make the transition. I think they are just being hard 
>> headed though...
>
> I think that's a rather close-minded viewpoint.

Possibly but as you see, those that hate web based browsing 
simply hate it. I like both, hence I would think I have a better 
perspective. I think those that simply "hate" BB's because of 
some insignificant thing over all the benefit are the ones that 
are closed minded.

If spam is an issue then I'm sure there are way around it besides 
man-hours. Most spam is pretty predictable. I have a nntp filter 
that gets rid of 99% of the spam on newsgroups by simply using 
keywords(about 1000).

I believe I'm an honest user and I wouldn't mind waiting a week 
to make a post for my initial post. If one could limit 
registrations by spammers(block ip's) then this along would 
severely cut down the spam.

The fact remains though, nntp is dead(or dying), and it is also 
limiting in many ways. nntp is not the panacea that so many here 
are claiming. The only thing most seem to like about it is its 
interface. But that has nothing to do with the nntp protocol but 
the software. The nntp is decrepit. I'm not saying BB's are the 
best but they definitely have many many advantages over nntp.

Also, it's obvious that many users have been using nntp for a 
long time. This is another reason why many do not want to switch. 
Many younger users are used to the modern forum interfaces and 
will expect it. If you want to attract those users then maybe it 
is best to bite the bullet and switch. (It's not like you need 
one hand free to use a forum, or do you?)

IMO, all the complains about web based forums are superficial 
while my complains about nntp are not.

... but I guess no one said change would be easy(or even 
possible) ;/