Recently I've noted quite a few new guys showing up on the forum, and I get the impression that they're "welcomed" quite by chance...
Would it help to give these "newbies" a proper welcome by having a dedicated thread to let us know who's joined, what their "handle" is, and a little blurb as to what aspect/scale they are interested in..?? Or maybe have them write a little introduction message, and make it a part of the subscription process.
This way we can drop them a line and give them a "real" welcome....
What d' you all think..??
We have a few.....
All about our members. Gather around the hobo campfire, tell us about yourself or just post your photo
Get To Know Us
<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=10">viewforum.php?f=10</a><!-- l -->
Mugshot Spot
<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=39">viewforum.php?f=39</a><!-- l -->
Hobo's Camp Fire
<!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=3807">viewtopic.php?f=41&t=3807</a><!-- l -->
Granted - The last is more of a conversation, but the first 2 are basically "Hello I'm new here" forums
ngauger Wrote:........... Also, some of the "new guys" are turning out to be spammers 
The Moderators and Admins of Big Blue are systematically putting the "Big Blue Sledgehammer" to them! 
Yup, that's what I was about to say. For everyone that registers and posts, we have maybe five or six that are lurkers, and one or two that are spammers. Sometimes spammers are gone withing minutes of posting. It's great to have moderators in a wide range of time zones and sleep schedules. Seems as if we have one logged on just about 24/7 and so you rarely know when we've been spammed.
Just as an exercise, click on "members" in the upper right of a screen, and sort the membership here by posts by clicking on the "posts" header. You can see, we have close to 900 registered members, and there's a good many of them that have not posted anything. Some are lurkers, some just log on once or twice and move on for who knows what reasons, some are spammers who likely forgot to come back and do their thing. We've made it difficult for bots to register, as have a lot of forums, so spammers actually pay humans to register on forums and other sites, then turn over those passwords so that the spammers can concentrate on getting their word out to the unsuspecting public. We are aware of the tricks they pull to get their message out. Right now, the current method is to post some benign and generic message which usually has nothing to do with the subject of the thread, then have a link to their site in their signature. Someday soon, they'll abandon that and try something new, but we'll be ready when they do. :geek:
The other way of welcoming new members is to simply keep an eye open to their arrival on site, and post a welcome.
the "View new post" option, usually catches the first timers posts, so a welcome can be sent.
To any new members that we might have missed, ------- Congratulations, you have successfully gotten past the guards, and
:oops: apologies, you have successfully gotten past the guards.
"and there's a good many of them that have not posted anything. "
I've registered for a few forums in which I have no desire to participate. I simply need to log in in order to view certain content (photos, mostly) posted by members. I suspect that is the case here. They are referred by someone in another forum to check out a thread over here, and they create a login so they can view the photos. It's no disrespect that they don't participate; most of us only have time to participate in 1-2 forums.
nachoman Wrote:"and there's a good many of them that have not posted anything. "
I've registered for a few forums in which I have no desire to participate. I simply need to log in in order to view certain content (photos, mostly) posted by members. I suspect that is the case here. They are referred by someone in another forum to check out a thread over here, and they create a login so they can view the photos. It's no disrespect that they don't participate; most of us only have time to participate in 1-2 forums.
I have been a member of Trainboard for quite awhile, but I quit posting there about 2 years ago after I joined this forum,
Big Blue is the only forum for me!
Perhaps we can add something to the registration processes that will help get rid of spammers, Maybe we could add a question to the registration page such as "What are two model-railroad scales" This is easy enough for every model railroader, but it would stop most spammers.
nachoman Wrote:"and there's a good many of them that have not posted anything. "
I've registered for a few forums in which I have no desire to participate. I simply need to log in in order to view certain content (photos, mostly) posted by members. I suspect that is the case here. They are referred by someone in another forum to check out a thread over here, and they create a login so they can view the photos. It's no disrespect that they don't participate; most of us only have time to participate in 1-2 forums.
I'm registered on probably 10 different railroad forums, I seldom visit, never mind post on most of them. I don't particularly like a forum that restricts content for guests and that shouldn't be the case here. Guest should be able to view all content including photos, they just can't post. You're right though, they may think they need to register in order to see a particular thread, and that's OK, we don't mind. Maybe they'll come back and eventually join in.
Justinmiller171 Wrote:...Perhaps we can add something to the registration processes that will help get rid of spammers, Maybe we could add a question to the registration page such as "What are two model-railroad scales" This is easy enough for every model railroader, but it would stop most spammers.
Haa, but we do. We not only have a captcha that most bots can't solve, but we do have a simple railroad question that most humans would know the answer to. That's why smammers now employ humans to register for them, they have no idea what kind of a site they're on, just another place to deposit their spam, that's all..
ezdays Wrote:.... I don't particularly like a forum that restricts content for guests and that shouldn't be the case here. Guest should be able to view all content including photos, they just can't post. You're right though, they may think they need to register in order to see a particular thread, and that's OK, we don't mind. Maybe they'll come back and eventually join in.
You're right, Don: if a thread's photos are stored here in our Gallery, non-Members cannot view them. Photos stored on photobucket and similar sites
are readily viewable.
Wayne
doctorwayne Wrote:ezdays Wrote:.... I don't particularly like a forum that restricts content for guests and that shouldn't be the case here. Guest should be able to view all content including photos, they just can't post. You're right though, they may think they need to register in order to see a particular thread, and that's OK, we don't mind. Maybe they'll come back and eventually join in.
You're right, Don: if a thread's photos are stored here in our Gallery, non-Members cannot view them. Photos stored on photobucket and similar sites are readily viewable.
Wayne
Yeah, thanks, you're right about the Gallery Wayne, since the Gallery is one place that guests can't access so they can't see any Gallery links either. However, if the photos are attached to the post, a guest can see the photos without logging on. Just to be sure, I logged off and I could see photos that were "attached" to a post and those linked to Photobuckets, but I couldn't see anything in the Gallery. I alway attach my photos, (that's why I only have the one in the Gallery that I initially tested it with way back when
). I'm not advocating this way, I just never think to use the Gallery, it's a good way to keep track of your photos and you can link them in more than one thread. I just never remember...
Makes me feel kind of embarassed since I am mostly a lurker. I open up and read new posts 5-6 times a day. I like to read and keep up wth Tom and his kids (volleyball and Boy Scout), enjoy reading RB and his do-nothing nephew, etc.
I could go on and on about so many of you, but I am VERY slow typing. So, I am a lurker, as I have very little to say, but I feel as if each of you are a part of my family. Keep up your newsy letters.
Lynn
yellowlynn Wrote:Makes me feel kind of embarassed since I am mostly a lurker. I open up and read new posts 5-6 times a day. I like to read and keep up wth Tom and his kids (volleyball and Boy Scout), enjoy reading RB and his do-nothing nephew, etc.
I could go on and on about so many of you, but I am VERY slow typing. So, I am a lurker, as I have very little to say, but I feel as if each of you are a part of my family. Keep up your newsy letters.
Lynn
Lynn - No need to feel embarrassed
You are welcome to lurk any time you want to.
I have said many times here that we build on the camaraderie of threads like the Hobo's camp (Where most of Tom's, Running Bear's & my posts are concentrated). One of the things I enjoy bragging about is that we have a "Town Mayor" here (Chief Eagle)..
Also, one of the things that drove us away from the old forum is that if you were not logged in, you would see all types of ads.
We know that there are members who just "Check-in" from time to time and may not, if ever, sign in and we don't mind that at all.... but we could not tolerate them being subjected to all those ads - only because they didn't want to sign in every time they visited the forum.
We do seem to welcome new members only when they speak up -- I don't go through the lists to see who's new!
But there are probably a few members who want to learn abour model railroading but are a too shy to actually post a question; they just read what's here already. After all, we've probably posted enough information for someone to build a pretty good layout.
So welcome any lurkers who are not spammers.
Just had another spam attack, I think we need to make the registration question harder.