In an effort to curb spam on this message board, we will be making the following changes over the next few weeks:

(1) Any guest or registered user posting messages considered offensive will be banned from using the message board. Offensive material includes inappropriate language, excessive "flaming" or insulting of others, and advertising of non dance-related products or services ("spam").

(2) Registered users may be given a warning upon first offense, depending on the severity. A simple insult during the course of a heated debate is an example of something that might be cause for a warning. Avertising websites for herbal viagra would result in immediate blacklisting. Between these extremes is a large gray area, and registered users will be given more consideration than guests in this regard.

(3) Guests' messages will not be posted immediately after they are submitted. They will instead be held in a queue for review by an admin or moderator before posting. This only applies to guests. Registered users will continue to post immediately. So now is a good time to create a user account if you haven't done so already.

Regards,
Jonathan Atkinson
www.ballroomdancers.com

Thank you! I've been posting semi-regularly as a guest, but I just registered.

Is there anything you can do about the folks who hijack a simple question from a beginner with their own private debates over (often semantic) differences in technique? Frankly, IMO, they have rendered the discussion forum much less useful and certainly less friendly to newcomers than it used to be.

The changes were not meant specifically to target these guys, however, they will have the convenient side effect of slowing them down. One of them is very decidedly opposed to registering, and if he maintains his position, he will be forced to wait 1-2 days per reply, rather than posting multiple messages on a daily basis. It won't eliminate the annoying conversations, but it will prevent them from dominating the message board.

If both of these guys do register, then I can turn a conversation private when it starts to go bad, allowing them to talk about whatever they like without bothering everyone else around them.

Most importantly, the spam will be almost completely eliminated. Most spam is generated by programs, not by people. It would be very difficult for a spam bot to register a user account with a valid email address, then post a message under that account. Very few live humans would go to the trouble. Most of our spam is generated from bots posting as guests, and while it will continue to happen, you will never see it under the new system because it will be deleted before ever going public.

Regards,
Jonathan

Thank you! I will go ahead and register now.

Amen on that. The core posts frequently get lost in these semantic debates.

Hi Dennis,

Well, you'll be happy to know that in addition to some of these other changes, I have also created a "surpress topic" function that allows me to bury some of these annoying topics with a click of the mouse. Before this, I had to log on to the server and do it all by hand, which is why it didn't happen very often.

You should notice the disappearance of some of the most offensive topics from the first few pages of the message board. They haven't been deleted, but they've been buried in the back. Now if these guys try to dig them up, I have a quick way to push them back down in an instant, so they don't bother the rest of us. They can continue have their conversations, but nobody else will be subjected to them.

I've also added a blacklist feature, but it's intended primarily for spammers. I wouldn't consider using it on them unless things get way out of control.

Regards,
Jonathan

"Well, you'll be happy to know that in addition to some of these other changes, I have also created a "surpress topic" function that allows me to bury some of these annoying topics with a click of the mouse. Before this, I had to log on to the server and do it all by hand, which is why it didn't happen very often."

The problem is that you can't supress a wrong idea with a click of a mouse.

To actually put a topic to bed - to cure the technical misunderstanding that is at its source - requires joining in the debate and helping to correct the actual mistaken comments, and then leaving the result up there long enough for the message to finally sink it.

We've got one, maybe two closely relatted people attempting again and again to instruct us all in their mistakes. You can hide their comments and the replies correcting them all you want, but it will only result in new threads.

To actually put an end to the problem requries working to together to show this individual (or couple, if it's not actually one person), that they really are wrong. Otherwise things will just keep going around in circles, month after month, year after year.