A dollar to join?

Just been reading a thread at gearslutz about folk trying to sign up here and having difficulty or it taking a long time. One of the reasons given is the high incidence of spam. Despite that we have over 400 new members this year according to the same thread. So I just wondered, if it cost people a dollar to join, do you think that would wee out the spammers?

Cheers

Ian

It looks to me like a deliberate attempt to try and prevent people from signing up here ,
I remember when I signed up to Group Diy ,not long after  I got an unsolicited email asking me to join the other place , that strongly suggested to me deliberate hacking and targeting was going on . I'll have to dig around to resurect the email.

Charging a dollar at the door might keep out some low level spammers ,but it certainly wont thwart determined hackers . A charge might also  preclude less fortunate people who have something to contribute from signing up , also the moment your charging money your entering into a legally binding contract with possible consequences, things can easily snowball into a gigantic self serving white elephant which can  kill all the good in it very fast .

Tubetec said:

It looks to me like a deliberate attempt to try and prevent people from signing up here ,

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seriously?

I remember when I signed up to Group Diy ,not long after  I got an unsolicited email asking me to join the other place , that strongly suggested to me deliberate hacking and targeting was going on . I'll have to dig around to resurect the email.

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yes do that

Charging a dollar at the door might keep out some low level spammers ,but it certainly wont thwart determined hackers . A charge might also  preclude less fortunate people who have something to contribute from signing up , also the moment your charging money your entering into a legally binding contract with possible consequences, things can easily snowball into a gigantic self serving white elephant which can  kill all the good in it very fast .

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I can not speak for Ethan but can not imagine a paid site ever working.

When registration was open we were flooded with spam postings... there are probably a few dormant member sign ups that will wake up later to spam us, but it has been quiet since the gates have been closed and you have to know somebody already in fight club to join fight club.

The spam was an all consuming nightmare.

JR

PS: I do not doubt that Ethan will improve the sign up strategy, just maybe not today.

JohnRoberts said:

but it has been quiet since the gates have been closed and you have to know somebody already in fight club to join fight club.

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I was not aware of this change. I do not remember it being  publicised.

Cheers

Ian

ruffrecords said:

I was not aware of this change. I do not remember it being  publicised.

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Publicising it would break the first rule of 'fight club' 

Winston O'Boogie said:

Publicising it would break the first rule of 'fight club' 

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yup that is the first rule...  8)

AFAIK the current personal vetting by Ethan on an exceptional basis is only temporary (and he is busy right now).

I hope the group will continue to be patient and drop the conspiracy theories. 

This will get better just not immediately. 

JR

What conspiracy theories!?

Are captchas not effective to combat automated sign-ups?

Winston O'Boogie said:

Publicising it would break the first rule of 'fight club' 

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Sorry, too obscure for me. I have no idea what is really meant by a 'fight club'.  Seems a bit silly if nobody knows about it.

Cheers

Ian

I guess its a reference to the movie of the same name ,  I think I might have tried to watch it once but I didnt  get the point it was trying to make at all  :-\    its 20 years old now,  it probably is a cult classic movie ,just the subtleties are lost on me 

ruffrecords said:

Sorry, too obscure for me. I have no idea what is really meant by a 'fight club'.  Seems a bit silly if nobody knows about it.

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Sorry Ian, I was just referencing a line in turn from John's earlier reference to the movie 'Fight Club',  but if you haven't seen the movie, it made zero sense. 

I do agree with your reasoning and I'm sure Ethan will figure it out in time. 

I will try to tone down my obscure cultural references, it was funny in my head.

If I have to explain the joke, I missed the mark. My apology.

JR

JohnRoberts said:

I will try to tone down my obscure cultural references, it was funny in my head.

If I have to explain the joke, I missed the mark. My apology.

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Nah, I got the reference.  It was my inability to leave it as was without comment that caused the confusion, you're fine.

I got all the references and still haven’t seen the movie... I probably won’t, unless it pops-up on Netflix or Prime.

I also didn’t know there was an issue until the gearslutz thread.

My short  impression of 'gearsultz' was that of a totally unmoderated space ,  the sheer number of needless personal attacks by people on others just grasping for a feel in electronics switched me off .

I wasnt aware here  was registration by invite only now :-[ ,  but how would anyone know that unless they tried to sign up as another identity or recomended someone to come only to find the gates closed  8) 

Tubetec said:

I wasnt aware here  was registration by invite only now :-[ ,  but how would anyone know that unless they tried to sign up as another identity or recomended someone to come only to find the gates closed  8)

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I recommended Wall should join here and a few days later he was here. So there was no evidence from personal experience of folk having problems joining. Maybe Wall mentioned my name when he applied, I don't know, so the 'fight club' thingy worked without my knowing it.

Are we turning into Masons? Is this the internet equivalent of a secret handshake?

Cheers

Ian

ruffrecords said:

I recommended Wall should join here and a few days later he was here. So there was no evidence from personal experience of folk having problems joining.

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I saw several examples of people complaining in the Pro Audio DIY Group on FB. Many had waited months. When I mentioned it to the admins here and provided them with info about login names and such the admins were able to get them going right away, but it was a problem, at least a few months ago.

Tubetec said:

My short  impression of 'gearsultz' was that of a totally unmoderated space ,  the sheer number of needless personal attacks by people on others just grasping for a feel in electronics switched me off .

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Gearslutz is moderated.

They do not have the same behavior rules we do, and are clearly a different group of people.

I wasnt aware here  was registration by invite only now :-[ ,

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It isn't... I was joking (or trying to) about the fight club reference.

Open registrations has been closed for a while now because every time Ethan leaves the gate open, it doesn't take long for the flood of spammers, that places a burden on us mods to clean out the trash. 

but how would anyone know that unless they tried to sign up as another identity or recomended someone to come only to find the gates closed  8)

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I don't pretend to speak for Ethan, and won't bother him about this thread. He is already looking into better long term solutions but is clearly busy right now (I believe I have already said that).

For now at least sign ups are being handled by personal referrals. "Should" not be a problem for people who are already members. I guess if this is the biggest complaint you guys can come up with life must be good.  :

JR

@Ian,  no we are not doing this on purpose, you should understand the difficulty running a forum.  Does anybody miss the flood of spam posts? I don't. 

JohnRoberts said:

@Ian,  no we are not doing this on purpose, you should understand the difficulty running a forum.  Does anybody miss the flood of spam posts? I don't.

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Yes, I understand very well the difficulties in running a forum! As you may know, yahoo has effectively closed down its forums so I recently had to move 5000 members, their data and posts,  from yahoo.groups to groups.io. Fortunately I had help and funding to achieve this but I have several other groups to move unassisted.

My thinking with the dollar to join was that this would be achieved via Paypal and be non-refundable.  Any spammer joining would therefore be traceable, which in itself is a deterrent, as well as having to pay a buck for every registration attempt. Just making this known at the point of registration would I am sure deter most spammers.

Cheers

Ian

ruffrecords said:

Yes, I understand very well the difficulties in running a forum! As you may know, yahoo has effectively closed down its forums so I recently had to move 5000 members, their data and posts,  from yahoo.groups to groups.io. Fortunately I had help and funding to achieve this but I have several other groups to move unassisted.

My thinking with the dollar to join was that this would be achieved via Paypal and be non-refundable.  Any spammer joining would therefore be traceable, which in itself is a deterrent, as well as having to pay a buck for every registration attempt. Just making this known at the point of registration would I am sure deter most spammers.

Cheers

Ian

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yes,  I get mail from yahoo about the forum changes. I was a member of one forum.

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I like that... kind of like charging postage and requiring a return address for spam....

A one time $1 registration fee does not seem that onerous.

I will run it up the flagpole.

JR