: What kinds of postings in particular are you concerned about?
: Flames? Commercial posts? Let me know and maybe I can come up
: with a workable solution.

I'll send you details by email. I don't want to discuss the particulars on the message boards, since that could tip off the people I'm actively working against. They'll get a clue about what I'm filtering when they see the filter response to their messages.

I only posted these advisories because I can't be sure someone who is posting real content won't be caught accidentally. I may eventually have to refine the filters.

: : I appreciate the suggestion, but it wouldn't work. I've seen
: : what happens on other forums with required registration. The
: : admins end up having to revoke posting rights as well as
: : deleting messages all too often. Filters are not a perfect
: : solution, but they may make the point with most of the people
: : I most want to get the point.

: It's been my experience, mainly through PBeM gaming, that
: restricted message boards can be quite handy. Revoking posting
: (or even lurking) rights goes a long way toward eliminating
: unwanted nuisance posters. If you require the applicant to
: register, and verify his e-mail address through a return
: authorization procedure (such as sending the password to the
: e-mail address supplied by the applicant), at least you have a
: way of tracking the bastards and reporting them to their
: providers.

The kinds of people I'm filtering are not deterred by registration and banned posting rights. Trust me. I've seen them hit boards with very stringent standards. I would be imposing restrictions on innocent people for nothing.

The best solution, in my opinion, is to prevent people from posting certain kinds of messages in the first place. The only way to do that is to filter content.

The new forums will have an optional registration system which will work with the email verification you propose. But the new forums will also filter on content. It's too soon to determine how effective these filters will be, but last month we must have deleted between 50 and 100 abusive messages from Xenite.Org's message boards. That's not what I want the administrators to be doing. They are volunteers who donate a little of their personal time to helping ensure we have a nice community here. They shouldn't have to play bar room bouncer on a daily basis (and I'm definitely sick and tired of doing that).

I track down many of the abusive people and complain to their ISPs. I don't like having to dig through the Web server logs, and I'm sure the admins at the ISPs would rather be doing other things than responding to my complaints. If I have time, I will try to add a feature to the new forums which make it easier for me to complain to ISPs -- basically through the push of a button. It's sad that I should be forced to consider implementing such an option.
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