Shopsmith Forums

dusty wrote:I guess that I just don't understand what social media is. I have always thought of the several forums that I visit as part of social media. If this is not social media, please tell me what it is.

Dusty, this is a form of social media, and actually this format predates Facebook, myspace, twitter and all the modern social media. I actually prefer it because it is topic specific. I don't need to wade through the often insane political rants of friends and relatives, or see endless photos or videos of "cute" thing animals do.

Oddly, social media insulates us from the reactions of the people we interact with and works to hobble our social skills. The relative anonymity of the internet emboldens people to say things the wouldn't say face to face for fear of being punched in said face.

twistsol wrote:

dusty wrote:I guess that I just don't understand what social media is. I have always thought of the several forums that I visit as part of social media. If this is not social media, please tell me what it is.

Dusty, this is a form of social media, and actually this format predates Facebook, myspace, twitter and all the modern social media. I actually prefer it because it is topic specific. I don't need to wade through the often insane political rants of friends and relatives, or see endless photos or videos of "cute" thing animals do.

Oddly, social media insulates us from the reactions of the people we interact with and works to hobble our social skills. The relative anonymity of the internet emboldens people to say things the wouldn't say face to face for fear of being punched in said face.

Thank you for that collaboration. Now I know. I do participate in "social media" even though I have no Facebook account. And yes,
there are those on even this forum that say things they would have no courage to say if face to face.

I've seen one system that worked against spammers.

Don't allow new users to post anything with links in it for a short time. A week or two.

If they do not post anything in that time period delete the account.

All this done by magic of course. It's all automated with appropriate warnings.

The second method requires some intervention by a human.

I was admin on a system where new users had to write a short message to the admins explaining why they wanted to join the group. There was a button that the admin could click to approve or disapprove. There were five admins that could do this. It worked great. When the system was implemented the spammers pretty much vanished. the few that did try to get in were very easy to spot.

We are sitting here with the door wide open and asking them to please not steal any thing.

rlkeeney wrote: . . .

Don't allow new users to post anything with links in it for a short time. A week or two.

If they do not post anything in that time period delete the account.
. . .

Gets rid of spammers all right. And every one else as well.

JPG wrote:

rlkeeney wrote: . . .

Don't allow new users to post anything with links in it for a short time. A week or two.

If they do not post anything in that time period delete the account.
. . .

Gets rid of spammers all right. And every one else as well.

It works, there are bbs systems using this method now. This isn't my first bbs/forum. I've been online since about 1981. I've been a BBS sysop forum admin and a moderator. I've had accounts on several hundred Forums and BBS systems. Spammer issues are relatively rare. Why is this? Because they have implemented systems that handle it. My phone company handles it with phone calls.

I simply do not understand why there is such a big hoopla over spam! Just ignore any post that appears to be SPAM and move on.
SPAM is not life threatening get over it, there is so much more to enjoy than to focus on an irritant like SPAM. The existence of SPAM does not signal the demise of ShopSmith so why even go there? It is NOTHING!

Ed in Tampa wrote:I simply do not understand why there is such a big hoopla over spam! Just ignore any post that appears to be SPAM and move on.
SPAM is not life threatening get over it, there is so much more to enjoy than to focus on an irritant like SPAM. The existence of SPAM does not signal the demise of ShopSmith so why even go there? It is NOTHING!

I agree! We, as a group can controll this space just by creating new threads or reviving old ones and forcing the junk to the bottom.

moggymatt wrote:

Ed in Tampa wrote:I simply do not understand why there is such a big hoopla over spam! Just ignore any post that appears to be SPAM and move on.
SPAM is not life threatening get over it, there is so much more to enjoy than to focus on an irritant like SPAM. The existence of SPAM does not signal the demise of ShopSmith so why even go there? It is NOTHING!

I agree! We, as a group can controll this space just by creating new threads or reviving old ones and forcing the junk to the bottom.

By ignoring proactive policing by admin it is a greater problem.

Having said that do notice the 'stuff' that precipitated all this consternation has been deleted by admin.