Humboldt Music Discussion Forums: Why Login?
The HumboldtMusic.com Forums used to be virtually unmoderated. Why do we now require logins?
Well, There are a few reasons, but the main one is: SPAMming weenieheads.
See, when anybody could post without creating an account with a valid email address, we would get quite a lot of advertising posts from gambling sites, porn sites, sites promising cheap prices on "Vi@gr@," and other similar wates of the planet's bandwidth.
For quite some time, I held the spammers at bay by blocking their posts by using various sneaky strategies. And it sort of worked: our "regulars" would post a batch of detritus and move on, thinking that their posts had made it in when they had actually bounced off.
Somewhat recently however, the Weenieheads began to hide their posts in replies to very old threads. The code would catch the "regulars," but every time a new weeniehead would rise from the anaerobic goo to post a reply, and in so doing, would bring that old thread back to life for no good reason. So I'd block them. But it seems that recently the anaerobic goo has begun to expel more and more of it's loathsome progeny into the world, and I'm tired of playing catch-up.
And so, we decided to go ahead and start requiring logins, so it would be a bit harder for the weenieheads to get in.
So, are there any benefits to this new setup?
Of Course! Here are a few perks for the Registered User:
- You can edit your posts.
- You can use a nifty WYSIWYG to upload images, make active links, etc.
- You can edit your Account Name & password
- You can edit your Avatar (graphic that shows up in your "Signature box")
- You can manage the links that appear under your image*
- There's a link to all of your previous posts
- Your email address is hidden from the public, but they can still contact you.
- Accounts can be suspended or deleted if they turn out to be Weenieheads in disguise
- More to come! Additional features will be easier to roll out now (particularly for folks in our directory).
*You can link to your gigs and your music If you're in the HM.com Directory.
Hopefully these benefits and those to come justify the switch for everybody. I appreciate your patience with any bugs that will show up. If you need help with anything, let me know!
Thanks!
-Mike Craghead |
