Andre Norton Forum

Re: Let's Talk About These Message Boards

: Is spam removal one of the more time-consuming administrative : tasks? I would certainly tolerate less frequent clean-up : rather than lose the board altogether.

Spam removal is a daily chore, but it's not the real headache. Updating the archives is the headache, since that all has to be done externally to the scripts.

: Have you considered distributing this burden? Like maybe : giving a couple, three regular members of the board access to : the WWWAdmin interface? Perhaps disabling the change pswd : function, limiting it to single-message deletes. I'll bet : there are several people here who are pretty : comfortable/knowledgeable around IT, either personally or : professionally, and who would be willing to put some time in.

We already have three administrators handling the abuse complaints. I'm not to the point where setting up individual board moderators would help much.

: Is your exposure to COPPA issues greater if the board requires : registration? That what it looked like to me. And if so, : wouldn't that be an argument for trying to stay with the : current board technology rather than UBBS?

Well, you have to comply with COPPA if you KNOW you are getting under 13 traffic. The UBBS registration doesn't require information on age. But there are other criteria Xenite.Org may fall under, such as advertising. I've been posting Disney affiliate links (they don't pay much) and have a Pokemon links directory. These may require me to comply with the law. I'm going to drop the Disney banners, but haven't decided to give up Pokemon. I don't think it's actually an under-13 type of site. It's just a directory, no graphics.

: All that said, where you go next is, of course, your call. And : I'll remain very grateful for the delightful service (and level : of service) you're providing here.

For now, based on the feedback we've gotten, I'm going to give the archives a lower priority. I will continue to prune the message boards, but if I don't have time to set up a new archive, then I'll leave that for later.

If I can find another message board solution which is more satisfying than UBBS, I'll consider that as well. But in the long run I may go for UBBS anyway.