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Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge

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laureanna
Post subject: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Thu 12 Mar , 2009 3:52 am
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In the thread, A Request for all the info necessary to steal your identity, the question of lurking non-posters in the Member's Lounge was brought up.
MariaHobbit wrote:
I can't believe you guys put this stuff up in here. There are over 50 members of this messageboard who've never even posted once. You don't know a thing about them and here you are giving them your personal info. :nono:


To which Estel replied:
Estel wrote:
Well, if they've never posted, I'd say the Rangers - with their new powers - have the right to take away their ability to see this particular forum.
And Marco responded:
Marco wrote:
Actually, that's a good idea - we could institute a rule that they can't access the Members' Lounge until they've made one post.

What say ye?
And several posters agreed with them.

The new Charter says, in part:
Charter wrote:
The primary duty of the Rangers is to perform normal administrative tasks like setting the permissions for new members, moving or splitting threads where necessary, and administrating the Ranger pool (and facillitating the smooth flow of replacements). However, the Rangers are also charged with ensuring that the culture of respect is maintained, in those rare instances where simple member-moderation is not sufficient. Rangers have broad discretion to take whatever actions they deem necessary to accomplish that goal, including but not limited to editing posts, moving posts or threads to the "Bike Racks" forum where disputes are to take place, or, if necessary, restricting members' rights to post in one or more forums.

Any member who is restricted from posting in one or more forum for longer than two weeks time can request that the action be ratified or rejected by a vote of the whole membership, with a simple majority prevailing. Any other action can be similarly reviewed if called for by the member affected, and is seconded by at least two other members.
Note that we currently have 52 members who have activated but never posted, and 12 who have posted only once (including estellie's_b00bfies, some RP characters, and others who haven't posted since 2005). Some of these are names we've seen on TORC, but others we really don't know the identity of.

I'd like to interpret the Charter as allowing the Rangers to make this change - that is, to deny access to the Members' Lounge to anyone who has not posted at all, or not posted more than once (or 5 times, or whatever you think is a good number of posts to get to know someone). To achieve this, we would first have to notify all the non-posters and one-time posters we already have, then we'd need to notify any new posters of our policy upon sign up. Here's how I propose to do it:

CULLING NON-POSTERS NOW:
1. A ranger immediately sets up a new group, the "tempnopost" group, and puts all members with fewer than two posts into it. The ranger also sets up a "validnopost" group, but doesn't put anyone in it yet.

2. A ranger then emails each person in the tempnopost group with the following message:
Quote:
This message has been sent to you because you have signed up to be a member of Board77. Because we have not heard from you, and don't know if you are a real person or a bot, we have partially restricted your access. You will no longer be able to read the Members Lounge Forum, until you have posted at least twice on this board. You may want to start out by introducing yourself in the thread "Welcome to Board77! Come in and introduce yourself. :)" in the Welcome/Info Forum. If you would rather not post, but want to continue to have access to the rest of the forums, please reply to this email and tell us to keep you as a member. Next month, we will be culling all members from our rosters who have never posted, and who have not responded to email inquiries. We look forward to hearing from you.

The Rangers of Board77
3. If there is no reply within two weeks, the poster is assumed to be a bot or a dud email, and it is banned or deactivated. If the person replies but wants to remain non-posting, the person taken out of the "tempnopost" group and is put into the "validnopost" group. If the person posts at least twice, then that person is taken out of the "tempnopost" group and put into the "all_members" group.

This would require some work on our part, but would be a one time action, and I suspect most of the 50 non-posters will not be heard from in two weeks, and can all be deactivated.

FOR ALL FUTURE SIGNUPS:

We give them a notice as follows:
Quote:
This message has been sent to you because you have signed up to be a member of Board77. We require that you post at least twice in the forums open to everyone, before you are granted access to read and post in the Members Lounge Forum. You may want to start out by introducing yourself in the thread "Welcome to Board77! Come in and introduce yourself. :)" in the Welcome/Info Forum. If you would rather not post at all, but want to continue to have access to the rest of the forums, please send a private message (PM) to anyone listed in the signature box below, and ask to stay on as a silent member. If you do not respond to this email by posting in the forums or sending a PM within two weeks, we will have to assume you are a bot, and deactivate you. We look forward to hearing from you.

The Rangers of Board77
I'm sure one of you can make this sound a little more warm and fuzzy than I have.

So... anybody else want to chime in on this?

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Voronwë_the_Faithful
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Thu 12 Mar , 2009 4:05 am
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You and the rest of the Rangers certainly have the authority to do that under the new charter, without having to hold any kind of vote or anything.


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laureanna
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Thu 12 Mar , 2009 4:24 am
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I agree I could just do it now, without a vote, but I'd like the appearance of a democratic effort. :D

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vison
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Thu 12 Mar , 2009 4:33 am
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Good with me.

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Impenitent
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Thu 12 Mar , 2009 6:05 am
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I applaud the amount of effort you've already put into this laurie.

I agree that if a new registration doesn't post even once within the first two weeks, then we deregister. I think having ghosts around the place is pointless.

I suggest that a new registration should be required to post more than just twice to access the more sensitive members only areas - not a burdensome number of posts, but maybe five times?

Can I ask, though, how would this be tagged? Would it be easy and straightforward for the rangers to check that the posting limit has been met, to ensure that a new member is not locked out for an unreasonable amount of time after having met the limit?

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Riverthalos
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Thu 12 Mar , 2009 6:22 am
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This board is small enough that it shouldn't be too difficult. The Rangers have access to a shocking amount of information regarding posting and lurking habits and since they have to watch all the frakkin' time, it's not hard to figure out who's who and who's doing what.

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Estel
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Thu 12 Mar , 2009 11:07 am
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Sounds good to me :)


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Rebecca
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Thu 12 Mar , 2009 11:26 am
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Thank you for organizing this and writing up what to send people. :D

I think it's a great idea. I like how you wrote it, too. :cheers:

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Nienor SharkAttack
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Thu 12 Mar , 2009 12:28 pm
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:thumbsup

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laureanna
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Fri 13 Mar , 2009 7:21 pm
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OK, I set up "tempnopost" and put about 60 people in it - everyone with zero or one post who was not a RP character.

I was surprised to find that Exar Kun, who had only one post, had TOE access! :Q

I have to go now. Someone else can set up the "validnopost" group, and check our gmail account to see who bounced (they get deleted). And check our welcome thread (if they post, they get added). Or you can just wait two weeks and I go thru them all again and weed out the non-responders.

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Areanor
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Sat 14 Mar , 2009 4:44 am
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If I remember correctly, we didn't restrict the original members, who came over from TORC to found B77, from access to anywhere (except the age rule). Exar Kun is one of them. The restriction of TOE access to number of posts and age was put up later.

How about making some time regulation as in TOE? More than 10 posts in two months' time?

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Rebecca
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Tue 17 Mar , 2009 1:43 am
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Also, we should probably change the description of the Member's Lounge on the index. Right now it says "All members welcome!" which is no longer quite true. :blackeye: Perhaps something like "A restricted forum for members to talk in a slightly more private atmosphere." or whatever.

And on that note, the sticky thread in there says
Quote:
The Members' Lounge provides a place for threads that members wish to keep slightly more private, and to protect from Google archiving. It can be read by all registered members, but not by non-members.

Everyone is welcome to post here—all members, new or old.

1. Please remember that what you say here is not guaranteed to be 100% private. This is the Internet, after all. It may not be accessible by Google or other honest searchers, but it could easily be copied by someone who became a member 5 minutes ago. Always post with that in mind.

2. If your topic is one that may draw in curious new members, please consider placing it in one of the forums that non-members might see on initial browsing, rather than this private forum.
( viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1787" target="_blank )

And the
"It can be read by all registered members, but not by non-members.
Everyone is welcome to post here—all members, new or old."

should be replaced as well.

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tinwe
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Tue 17 Mar , 2009 2:51 am
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I'm not really comfortable with the idea of drawing attention to the hidden nature of the forum, either by changing the description or by sending out emails to non-participating members. Noting that it is a restricted forum with a private atmosphere seems a bit like advertising that, hey!, people giving out personal info in here <----! And sending out emails is kind of like saying "we know you've never looked around here much, but did you realize there is a private forum with all sorts of juicy info?"

Personally, I'd either leave the forum description alone, or else change it to something that is non-descriptive enough not to draw attention to it. And as for the non-posting members, especially those who joined early on but never participated (many of whom have never even logged in after they registered, if I recall), I'd say just delete them and be done with it. Harsh, perhaps, but as someone pointed out, it's not that hard to re-register.

My two pennies.

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laureanna
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Tue 17 Mar , 2009 5:17 am
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Well, too late for that, at least with the existing non-posters, because I already sent them all an email to post or be removed.

Here's what I sent them:
Quote:
This message has been sent to you because you have signed up to be a member of Board77. Because we have not heard from you, and don't know if you are a real person or a bot, we have partially restricted your access. You will no longer be able to read the Members Lounge Forum, until you have posted at least twice on this board. You may want to start out by introducing yourself in the thread "Welcome to Board77! Come in and introduce yourself. :)" in the Welcome/Info Forum. If you would rather not post, but want to continue to have access to the rest of the forums, please reply to this email and tell us to keep you as a member. Next month, we will be culling all members from our rosters who have never posted, and who have not responded to email inquiries. We look forward to hearing from you.

The Rangers of Board77
So far only three people have responded - one to say that the account was a fake account used by former rangers for practice (to torment, no doubt) and the other two said "please keep me on as a lurker".

But we can refine what we are going to do about future non-posters.

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Rebecca
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Tue 17 Mar , 2009 11:12 am
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tinwe has a good point. :) But I do think we should get rid of mention to "all members" being welcome to post, since that's not true. :P Maybe a description more like "A relaxed atmosphere for members to talk amongst themselves" and just take out the "It can be read by all registered members, but not by non-members.
Everyone is welcome to post here—all members, new or old." in the sticky. I agree that pointing it out isn't necessary, but I don't think we should outright lie about it. :P

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Jude
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Thu 16 Apr , 2009 2:51 pm
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*bump!*

So did you hear back from any of the tempnopost members?

Also, there are a few new members since this group was formed. I'm sure at least a couple of them are bots that managed to activate themselves.

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Rebecca
Post subject: Re: Restricting non-posters from the Members' Lounge
Posted: Thu 16 Apr , 2009 4:06 pm
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Any more thoughts on changing the wording either (like I mentioned above)? The way it reads right now isn't true any more.

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