Spam and Similar Problems on This Forum

[NinjaPuppy]

[NinjaPuppy]

I would like to thank those who have privately given me a heads up on potential problems. Your insight has been very much appreciated. I do personally respond via PM to every report or question. I do know that there have been occasional glitches with the PM system where I have responded and the PM poofs without any warning. I will then just throw a quick response back without any details due to time limitations.

DISCLAIMER - The following commentary is NOT directed at any one person on this forum:
As far as addressing a newbie with skeptical or cynical commentary as to their reason for posting something.... that's not really a warm and friendly attitude. It derails any possible 'on topic' chatter right out of the gate and makes newbies feel unwelcomed. Please hold off on any public interrogation of the 'smurfs' (blue members) who may have something of value to add to this forum. If your Spidey Senses are tingling with reckless abandon in regard to something or someone, send me a PM.

Smurfs who are lurking before making a first post might be run off by seeing others questioned. Even if the questioning is spot on and fully warranted, a newbie would not know this unless they have spent hours reading thousands of back posts and even then since I delete the spam crap, understanding the whole spammer situation can be sketchy.

[Arouet]

It's not like this forum is overrun with posts right now. Worth it to give people a chance.

[NinjaPuppy]

[JO 753]

I suppoze you are trying to make a living with this forum?

I'm used to forumz not having much or any advertizing, so to me, this whole thing seemz like spam!

Not az bad az most commercial sites, but still, having an ad at the top, then a picture ad in posts and text that I've ritten turned into links.... Well, it makes me less inclined to spend time here.

[NinjaPuppy]

[JO 753]

Who ownz the site?

[Arouet]

Scepcop (Winston Wu) is the site owner.

I don't think there's anything wrong with having ads on a forum. Server space is hardly free and posters get enourmous entertainment value for free.

But it's the site owner's prerogative to try and make some money with it. Spammers hurt a site and site owners are not being hypocritical in getting rid of them.

I agree the google ads are a bit distracting, but unless he can get sponsors that are less intrusive for a small site that's a fair way to go.

[JO 753]

I'm certainly not against blocking spammerz & trollz. I'm not against advertizing either.

The thing iz, wherez the limit?

I went to a woodworkerz forum a guy at Skeptics Forum linked to and it wuz so heavily festooned with adz that the page woud not scroll! I jiveth ye not, it took several minutes to load up & then I still could not see wut he wanted me to look at.

I think turning thingz we rite into links iz a bad idea. A casual vizitor woud likely believe that I am endorsing suppozitory weiner enlargement pillz or wutever. Its doubly bogus if we cant put links in ourselvez. Can I now?

[Arouet]

With all due respect, if I recall correctly your primary purpose here at first was not to talk about skepticism but to promote this brand of phonetics you push. So this is a bit strange coming from you...

[JO 753]

Hey! I can link now!

My primary purpose everywhere iz to find and expoze nonsense, especially institutionalized nonsense. Regular english spelling iz the big cahuna; the mother uv all nonsense.

The thing I like about this forum iz its suppozed mission. I hav found that the scientific/skeptic community haz quite a bit uv hipocracy going on. The obvious UFO cover up, blacklisting anybody who even hints at creationizm - putting anything that soundz weird into the woo catagory unless it came frum a certified authority.

You can see the reactionz I get with the Opinions on Nooalf topic at Skeptics Forum. I have all the lojik on my side, yet most uv theze otherwize sensible and scientificly minded people are incapable uv even starting to consider the facts.

How duz that happen?

Same az any religious cult! Indoctrination at an early age! And I believe this cauzez people to accept nonsense in general. The credentialz uv the source outwiegh the lojik. Makes it eazy for The Man to get the massez to believe wut he wants.

[NinjaPuppy]

[NinjaPuppy]

That said, this is what is commonly called a Forum or what used to be called a Bulletin Board or Message Board. "PHPbb" means 'PHP bulletin board' and PHP is a computer language and it stands for "Hypertext Preprocessor". In my world it means "Sux Wind". It's free and it serves it's purpose for what we need. Are there better systems out there with more bells and whistles? You bet your buns, but they cost big bucks and I do mean BIG bucks.

To offset the cost of these big bucks, paid advertising is a necessary evil. Well... at least it does help pay the bills.

[NinjaPuppy]

If anyone should have any questions, please feel free to ask....I can bore y'all to death with this crap all day long.

[Arouet]