Should users have to be registered to Posts on our board?

[Sid]

I am thinking about setting the board to require registration for posting. I did not want to do that originally, as it was to be used for product questions and such, but I am open to your opinions because it really is your board to use. Please let me know what you think.

I will run this poll thru october and make a decision after that.

Thanks,

[audiopro]

I voted no, simply from a business stand point. If this board were not provided by a business, at least partially for the reason of support for it's customers, I would have voted yes. However being it is first for support of it's customers, and second a free forum for us, I dont think it should be required. Not at this point anyway. One rogue poster here and there is hopefully not enough to drain resources. And being that you can post without registering, it makes it a lot easier and appealing for those who need to ask a simple support question.

If the board were to start becoming over run with trolls, then yes I would require registration. I dont think we are at that point quite yet, and I would hate to see Seyberts suffer in the ease of support provided by this forum, by requiring registration..

Hope this makes sense..

[DEATHTRON]

No, i dont think its fair for the people that only want one question answered.

Zach

[StB]

I voted no also. If you had to be registered to post originally, I wouldn't have posted here to begin with. Luckily it lead to a great new cue, some new friends, and daily entertainment.

[maughanm]

I vote "No"...I have friends that buy from Seyberts that have never registered because they are not into posting. Like STB, I have bought pretty much all my equipment here mainly from having the board to depend on for answers. Ignore the unregistered posting comments.....they only post to get under your skin. I have to deal with those people daily on my job...but I am paid to do that....The board should be for information, friends, and pleasure.....mike

[DZ314]

I voted yes because it is a simple 5 minute task to register, no big inconvenience there. Another question, can guests vote on this poll?

[Tanar]

I voted yes for the same reasons as 314. When I started on this board, I read A LOT of posts before signing. Although truthfully, I am just here to gain and share knowledge. However, Seyberts did do a great job on my custom wrap...... :D

I have been one of the anti-Bush posters, thought not the one engaging in name calling. My posts have be factually oriented.

I find it amusing that despite the fact that there have been many, many pro-Bush / pro-conservative posts, Seyberts decides that this is a big deal when someone with a different viewpoint (ie, that everything is not hunky-dory in Iraq and with the economy) decides to post.

I and many others who don't approve of Bush buy products from Seyberts, and we don't appreciate this type of attitude from Seyberts.

What difference does it make whether it's a "guest" post or someone gets a bogus email from Yahoo and makes a post.

The key issue here is the fact that some "registered" posters (and perhaps Seyberts) can't deal with opposing viewpoints.

[audiopro]

I don't quite honestly see an attitude from Seyberts?? Simply a question asking if it's regulars feel registration should be required, that maybe anonymous posts make it easier for things to get out of hand. While I voted against needing to register to post, I do think it makes it easier to bash anonymously. However it also makes it easier to post a legit question.

I dont think it is the intention of Seyberts to make guests feel unwelcomed, rather an attempt to keep things a bit more under control. I rarely see a politically related opinion posted by anyone of Seyberts anyway, they wisely tend to stay out of such topics.

Please explain what the attitude problem is that you see, and what you would suggest to make it right for you...

[Sid]

That is funny.

I don't like the name calling and derrogatory statements made to one another.

I did not change the "no registration" policy. I simply asked the users of the forum their opinion. period.

Please don't think that we have any public political opinions. we do not. I as well as all the others that work here will go and vote for who we would like to be our president and that is that. I only care who I will place my vote for, I do not care who you vote for. I can only place one vote.

Sorry for any misunderstanding or any unintended hidden meanings to my poll. If you would like, I will start a poll to see if I should take down the original poll :wink:

Getting back to my original question, why take the poll now...is it b/c opposing (ie, anti-Bush) viewpoints have been posted?

Why didn't you take this poll before these most recent posts?

If you look at many of the older "politaical" posts, most are shrill, childish rants that do engage in name calling and derogatory comments, but as long as they're aimed towards "liberals", I guess it's OK.

[DZ314]

At least the users have somewhat of an identity, to come on and stir up trouble and not have the decency to register is quite childish, since you're on that subject. I don't know which guest you are, what you've posted in the past and you have no way of proving it one way or the other.

[audiopro]

Getting back to my original question, why take the poll now...is it b/c opposing (ie, anti-Bush) viewpoints have been posted?


No I would venture to say it is not because of the anti-bush posts, rather the derogitory bashing that it started towards some of our established members here.

[Sid]

I do not like the bashing of people on our board.

I don't mind opinions, any opinions, no matter how strong.

I do not like insults aimed at someone because of their opinions and will do my best to stop them.

I will never really voice my opinion on political things here because, as you stated, it would alienate me from half of our customers regardless of the opinion. It has taken 6 or 7 years to gain these customers and we go way out of our way here at Seybert's to take care of them, not to make them mad at us.

This is a business first and formost. I have several families that our employees support depending on our business thriving and surviving and I take that responsibility very seriously.

The only really strong opinion that I have that will be voiced in this forum is that everyone shoul play with a predator shaft. (and audio, if you give me crap for that here in this thread, I swear I will delete the whole thread :D )

I am way more proud to be an American compared to being a Dem or Rep. We are on the same team here remember.

Do me a favor and let this one slide, whatever it was that set you off guest, I garantee it was purley unintentional and apoligize for any inconveinance.

[audiopro]

Oh well fine!! I give in!! I'll call Nitti today and have him order a 314 Partial and fit me one for my cue... ;)

[Sid]

My job here is done :mrgreen:

[Tanar]

To the guest:
This topic of needing registered users has come up in the past. It basically comes up with the name calling and bashing that unregistered users sometimes do on message boards. I don't personally believe it has anything to do with the whole political debate. It is also true that someone could put in a ficticious e-mail address and personal information. As far as I know, most of the regular users on here have been honest about their sign-in identification. Even so, people would be less likely to spend the time to fill in the necessary forms to throw out meaningless slander. As I have posted before, opinions are what make message boards interesting, be they political or not.

[audiopro]

3 Topics that are always sure to bring heated debates. Politics, Religion, and whether or not to use a Predator shaft!! ;)

[Bubba_the_Liberal]

Ok, I've registered.

[audiopro]

Excellent.. Welcome to the forum Bubba!! :)

I think we have a good handle on everyones political positions.. How about pool? How long ya been playing? What kind of cues do ya like?

Seriously, any interest in some pool discussion!? :)

Again, welcome...

[skor]

3 Topics that are always sure to bring heated debates. Politics, Religion, and whether or not to use a Predator shaft!! ;)

.... and guns :wink:

[Bubba_the_Liberal]

Re: discussion

I bought my table a couple of years ago. Since, early this year, I've used the discussion board extensively to decide which cues to buy, which balls to upgrade to, etc.

I find that this is the best source of unbiased (excluding the slant towards Predator cues) info on the game. Also, b/c of this, I try and buy all of my stuff from Syberts.

I wish there was more equipment to discuss and buy, besides cues. Unfortunately, the only way to improve is by practice, as opposed to buying ever more expensive cues.

[audiopro]

Yeah, I have definitely learned a lot since joining this board. One of the things I especially like is that we don't have a bazillion useless posts. The majority of posts here are pretty useful...

[audiopro]

Well Sid, it was a close poll but it looks like having to register has won out, at least according to the members.

I still dont think people should have to register though. Especially since, as of late, we have not had to many off topic or obscene posts..

[DEATHTRON]

Wait until the next election..

Zach

[dags_lax]

Wait until the next election..

What next election? If King George has his way the freedom and democracy he wants to spread to the Middle East will be a thing of the past in the good ole US of A. :lol:

Seriously, if someone wants to post let them. The more opinions the merrier!

[LWW]

It would stop some trolling and I would have thought it would have stopped the preceding post...but I guess not.

LWW

[audiopro]

Preceding post killed!

Besides, the current rash of spamming, is being done through registered accounts. They have bots that recognize the forum type, and automatically register to spam. There are ways to combat this, but as little as the problem currently is, probably not worth it..

[LWW]

Well I'll admit I'm pretty illiterate as to how the web actually works behind the screen.

Perhaps we need a bot to beotchslap the perp upside the head?

LWW

[One_4_Nine]

As a newbie to the site and board I would like to toss in a sidebar comment. I noticed when registering that the most recent members have weblinks to spam addresses ... mostly online pharmacy related since that seems to be the latest spam craze. I hope and assume that the admins squelch those types of inappropriate posts, but I still have concerns about these member's abilities to obtain other member's email account information that is openly posted (by choice of course). I suppose I am just rambling on about the obvious perils of the web ... my bad ... :?

[audiopro]

I suggest always masking your email address on any public medium. using something like greg at domainname dot com, makes it close to impossible for greps to harvest your address.

[audiopro]

With the influx of spam on the board lately, I thought I would resurrect this old thread and see what the current consensus is.

I put my vote in for requiring users to register, but I am kinda on the fence because I would hate to make it difficult for a non-regular to have to go through so many steps just to ask a simple support question...

:?

[nathar]

While I agree with your first post in this thread Greg, I also have to admit that the spam as of the last couple of months is unbelievable. Unfortunately, a lot of the spammers are going through those extra steps to register as it is. All you have to do is look through the memberlist and look at the members that have web sites(yourself excluded) and nearly all of them have a porn site listed as their website, and online casinos as their hobbies or professions. I just did, and out of the 50 most recent registered users 25 of them are definetly spammers. Being that I am normally on here between 8:00 pm to 8:00 am I can almost watch the jackasses register. I've even tried to pm them while they're online. They don't respond. Who would have thought.

I don't think causing people to regster would deter that many spammers. I would bet that alot of the registered spammers are the same person registering over and over again. Is there someway for someone to check the IP address of these users and ban them? I think that along with requiring registration would be the only effective solution if any.

But for the record, I still don't like it even though I voted for requiring registration. It seems like the only deterrant available, effective or not. :evil: :x :? :(

[audiopro]

About a month ago a new measure was put in place by Sid to deter spammers. It required that the registration process, and guest posting, undergo an extra step that would deter most spammers... Unfortunately, a lot of spammers had already registered.

I am thinking that a good cleaning of the user database could help a bit... But, I have seen a good bit of spam posted manually via guest posts in which the spammer actually performed the extra steps needed meant to deter them.

Honestly, phpBB has become one of the biggest targets for spammers, because phpBB has a huge lack of dev support... I am almost thinking Seyberts might prosper by switching to a new BB system....

[nathar]

Unfortunately I am looking over my head in complete ignorance of phpBB and BB. I am assuming that it has to do with some type of forum software format, but other than that I'm clueless.