Open Forums.... Why ?

[#1]

Why allow an open forum, which seems to have a pre-ponderous of "Newbie" / non subscribers moaning / trolling, or the recent Spam Messages / Postings.

Just what are the benefits ?

None that I can see.

Anyone can view the forums, if they want an insight into Plusnet, why allow them to post ?

Eventually some people are banned, but not before many subscribers appear to have been spammed.

When do the malicious postings & emails start ?

Usually 1am-ish, when the mods are all safely tucked up in bed !

IMHO the Forums should go back to being Plusnet Subscribers only

Let's have a Poll or other Consensus on this shall we ....

[#2]

@Anonymous - I kind of agree that making these forums 'open' risks spam/trolling, but I personally haven't seen or been affected by it (yet).

I think, based on what I've seen in the TalkTalk (also an open) forum, that it shouldn't be a major problem, and as Mav has said, as soon as these individuals are identified, they are banned.

Have we really seen a mass influx of trolls?

[#3]

the trolls were already here long before the forum was made public.

[#4]

@Anonymous

Whilst I agree with you I doubt PN would be willing to take action on the small number of users asking to go back to the forum allowing posts from members only.

Perhaps PN should have charged  those who were non customers a £10 joining fee if they wished to post on the forum that would have got rid of most of them. (Just kidding)

[#5]

That is fundamentally impossible as there is no link between the present forums and the Plusnet backend systems

Going back to the original premise - I have seen very few spammers on this forum once you exclude first time posters with a problem

[#6 · Accepted solution]

These were just the first six of sixteen I received within one hour a week ago, early in the morning....

Plus some others from brucie !!

Reading several posts on this matter, I have decided to block all messages.

(Until and if the forums become "non open")

[#7]

Count me in as being in favour of plusnet subscribers only can post. Should be simple enough.

[#8]

Plus 1 for me   agree subscibers only

[#9]

Plus one for me as well.

[#10]

I like some of you were really against the idea of it being open to everyone, but with the exception of those messages from a week ago, for which protections have been enabled in the next roll-out, I really can't see what harm if any has been done, and add to the fact those wanting the forum to be 'locked' down you're wasting your time as I found out when I originally moaned about the forum being open prior to it's move. Apparently it can't (maybe read won't) be changed.

[#11]

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@Anonymous wrote:

... for which protections have been enabled in the next roll-out

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Those protections are already in place on the live community. Community veterans are not affected by the word challenge as they are established members so they do not get the Captcha. Normal community members will get the Captcha if they send more than 2 private messages within a minute (indicating they are spamming).

I am currently coming up with a plan to restrict what a user can do until ranking up a bit as suggested by Jim.

All this will require a lot of testing on the test community site we have set up and I am currently going through the fine details about that with the members there. With the Captcha word challenge in place and restrictions placed upon brand new users, it should make it a lot harder for a spammer to come along and wreak havoc right after registering.

[#12]

Like many i'm also in support of subscribers only being allowed on the forum.

It's been asked why non subscribers were allowed to join, I noticed an answer has not been given will this point be answered?

[#13]

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@jaread83 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

... for which protections have been enabled in the next roll-out

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Those protections are already in place on the live community. ...

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Even better.

[#14]

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@jaread83 wrote:

I am currently coming up with a plan to restrict what a user can do until ranking up a bit as suggested by Jim.

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A fairly common restriction that I have seen on a few sites is new users being able to only post in a few specific sections. Which would usually be the help sections.

[#15]

I think this may be possible, you can stop specific roles from posting in specific boards (I think, will need to experiment). I have made a note of this on the staging site discussion. If I am going to restrict new users, may as well extend that to other areas as well while we are at it.

We just need to figure out what boards should not be posted in for brand new users. Some users might want to register to chat and may not have a 'problem' to solve at first but would like to participate in discussion elsewhere. Something to think about.