Vetting of e-mail addresses for posting
Many news organizations have a registration to post on their pages. After one registers they then send an e-mail to the registered address and require a reply before the registrant can post. I suggest that Logos do the same. I suspect that some of the troll posts would go back to a common address. In this manner those who are attempting to flood the forum from what are supposedly different addresses could be discovered.
george
gfsomsel
יְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
Comments
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George Somsel said:
After one registers they then send an e-mail to the registered address and require a reply before the registrant can post.
[Y] But I thought that only those who have an account could use this forum, or is that only in my dreams? [:D]
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George Somsel said:
Many news organizations have a registration to post on their pages. After one registers they then send an e-mail to the registered address and require a reply before the registrant can post. I suggest that Logos do the same. I suspect that some of the troll posts would go back to a common address. In this manner those who are attempting to flood the forum from what are supposedly different addresses could be discovered.
I agree that it would be great to do something.
But this probably wouldn't solve all the problems. I personally have 5 email addresses that I monitor regularly, e.g. If I ran out of those and wanted to come under another name I could still get a free email address at a dozen places on the internet and continue to post as much as I want.
Most ways of keeping out those that are unwelcome only make it a bit harder for them to come back (not impossible), and also make it harder for good folks to join in a discussion, or ask their first question.
Help links: WIKI; Logos 6 FAQ. (Phil. 2:14, NIV)
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George Somsel said:
Many news organizations have a registration to post on their pages. After one registers they then send an e-mail to the registered address and require a reply before the registrant can post. I suggest that Logos do the same. I suspect that some of the troll posts would go back to a common address. In this manner those who are attempting to flood the forum from what are supposedly different addresses could be discovered.
I agree with this. Some of the posts (particularly in the past week or so) have been toxic.
I noted elsewhere that Bob P. questioned whether these forums could be successfully moderated. Presumably banning users by IP address would be effective in some measure.
I know this will be less popular, but, given the nature of this forum (i.e. primarily users from a Christian tradition), I wonder if we should be required to register a brief biography with an approximate location.
There is such a thing as 'internet tough' which, in my experience, thrives on anonymity.
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Ralph Mauch said:George Somsel said:
After one registers they then send an e-mail to the registered address and require a reply before the registrant can post.
But I thought that only those who have an account could use this forum, or is that only in my dreams? 
Yes, but under the current program one user address could have several user names. All that would be necessary is to sign out from one account and back in under another. Just for a test I did this myself once. Registrants should be allowed only one registered user per e-mail address (I realize this may be a problem when a husband and wife use the same e-mail -- sorry, but I think it necessary). If they attempt to post under multiple screen names from one address they are likely up to no good.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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Richard DeRuiter said:
But this probably wouldn't solve all the problems. I personally have 5 email addresses that I monitor regularly, e.g. If I ran out of those and wanted to come under another name I could still get a free email address at a dozen places on the internet and continue to post as much as I want.
Most ways of keeping out those that are unwelcome only make it a bit harder for them to come back (not impossible), and also make it harder for good folks to join in a discussion, or ask their first question.
True, but I want to make it as difficult as possible for those who would disrupt the forum. Let them be required to register a dozen new e-mail addresses -- and ban every one of them. If it were regular e-mail, each post would have a header which could be examined. I believe it is possible to trace it back to the actual machine through the header. The machine itself could be banned.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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Not to disagree with your intent, George, but machine-tracking relative to emails hasn't been do-able for quite some time. But Logos does have the Logos installation that is machine specific (similar to MS and Apple).
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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George Somsel said:
True, but I want to make it as difficult as possible for those who would disrupt the forum. Let them be required to register a dozen new e-mail addresses -- and ban every one of them. If it were regular e-mail, each post would have a header which could be examined. I believe it is possible to trace it back to the actual machine through the header. The machine itself could be banned.
You're talking about looking at the IP address in the email headers, what would be even better would be to check the MAC address of the sending computer (each computer has a unique MAC address). While are ways around this (post from different public computers, like in a library, would be the easiest), it does require much more effort on the part of the disrupter.
The downside is that it's not likely this forum software has the capability to do either of those things, though of the two the IP address of the email header would be the easiest to look at. If the forum software can't flag or filter IP addresses, these would have to be checked manually by someone - that means less money going into resource and software development. But it may need to be done for a while to keep out the current wave of trolls.
I'm quite sure there are folks at Logos contemplating their options about this. They stand to loose big time if the forums loose out to trolls, or if a portion of their customers walk away from the forums and start calling tech support instead.
Help links: WIKI; Logos 6 FAQ. (Phil. 2:14, NIV)
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Richard DeRuiter said:
But it may need to be done for a while to keep out the current wave of trolls.
I suspect that what we have is ONE troll who thinks he is too cute by half.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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George ... if you Google the phrase 'Two Dixie Cups, A String, A Wing, And A Prayer' and then select the entries going back to late 2010, you'll quickly see the problem. Compare the name of the Chris entries to where someone quoted Abi Gail. Kind of illustrates how the forum software database is structured.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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Denise Barnhart said:
George ... if you Google the phrase 'Two Dixie Cups, A String, A Wing, And A Prayer' and then select the entries going back to late 2010, you'll quickly see the problem. Compare the name of the Chris entries to where someone quoted Abi Gail. Kind of illustrates how the forum software database is structured.
Apparently you know more about this than I. I miss the point.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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That phrase is in the current Chris Thompson entries. If you look at the 2010 Google-search entries, you'll find that the screen name 'Chris Thompson' has overlayed Abi Gail's entries (best seen where someone quotes Abi Gail ... the screen name doesn't match the actual post).
My guess is that Logos is going to quickly have a legal problem, if I'm not mistaken. If not that, they're certainly going to have a customer problem since Google will have already have stored your false entry (and your reputation).
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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Denise Barnhart said:
My guess is that Logos is going to quickly have a legal problem, if I'm not mistaken. If not that, they're certainly going to have a customer problem since Google will have already have stored your false entry (and your reputation).
<Sarcasm>Joy to the world. </sarcasm>
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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Hi George, I did not see your thread until after I posted mine. Because emails accounts can be set up in a matter of seconds, I suggested that Logos use their MAC address(es). There is a limit on how many computers, ipads, smart phones, etc... a person has access to.
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tom collinge said:
Hi George, I did not see your thread until after I posted mine. Because emails accounts can be set up in a matter of seconds, I suggested that Logos use their MAC address(es). There is a limit on how many computers, ipads, smart phones, etc... a person has access to.
I think yours is an excellent suggestion. Even if they go to the library to post, they will be put to more trouble than if they can sit in their parents' basement in their underwear to post.
EDIT: One thing I would change in your suggestion -- there are some posts that are so egregious as to be summarily banned with no warning.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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Denise Barnhart said:
That phrase is in the current Chris Thompson entries. If you look at the 2010 Google-search entries, you'll find that the screen name 'Chris Thompson' has overlayed Abi Gail's entries (best seen where someone quotes Abi Gail ... the screen name doesn't match the actual post).
My guess is that Logos is going to quickly have a legal problem, if I'm not mistaken. If not that, they're certainly going to have a customer problem since Google will have already have stored your false entry (and your reputation).
Yes, now I see what you mean. Have all of Abi Gail's posts been highjacked?
EDIT: I've noticed her absence of late.
2nd EDIT: Or was Abi Gail a troll as well? I noted a certain tone to much posted under that name.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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You'll also notice the spoofed post counts don't change from spoof to spoof. I'd be curious how the database software operates. If anything, today has been an interesting test-case for Bob (and demo'ing my own incorrect judgment about forums).
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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Um, DMB...aren't you Abi Gail? I recall Abi Gail having the christiansedona link at the bottom of her (his?) posts.
ASUS ProArt x570s Creator, AMD R9 5950x, HyperX 64gb 3600 RAM, ASUS Strix RTX 2080 ti
"The Unbelievable Work...believe it or not." Little children...Biblical prophecy is not Christianity's friend.
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David Paul said:
Um, DMB...aren't you Abi Gail? I recall Abi Gail having the christiansedona link at the bottom of her (his?) posts.
No, that's not Abi Gail. It is Denise Barnhardt.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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DMB said:
You'll also notice the spoofed post counts don't change from spoof to spoof. I'd be curious how the database software operates. If anything, today has been an interesting test-case for Bob (and demo'ing my own incorrect judgment about forums).
The only way I can think that this would happen would be if the poster created a new account for each post, but then it would simply begin at 0 and not contain any previous posts.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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tom collinge said:
Hi George, I did not see your thread until after I posted mine. Because emails accounts can be set up in a matter of seconds, I suggested that Logos use their MAC address(es). There is a limit on how many computers, ipads, smart phones, etc... a person has access to.
But how would you obtain the MAC address? It's usually not passed along very far (I think I saw someone say something about the MAC address being passed in email headers? Not any headers that I've seen... And at any rate, no email comes from a user when creating an account on any site I've ever been to.) Plus, the MAC address is pretty easy to spoof - far easier than, say, an IP address (though with proxies and such that wouldn't be hard to vary), so trying to filter out by MAC address wouldn't work.
Blocking by IP address also wouldn't work. Proxies provide too many alternatives. And even without proxies, most ISP's do not automatically provide static IP's. My IP is semi-static, but I never know when it will change next. So say Logos does block a particular IP address but it turns out to be a dynamic IP and someone else just happens to try to access community.logos.com, having been randomly assigned the blocked IP by their ISP. Unlikely, yes, but let's remember what Murphy had to say in his law on such things. If someone is a chronic abuser and appears to have an ip address that doesn't fluctuate, it would be worth blocking, but that couldn't be counted on all the time.
So requiring email for registration is about all that can be done. It's not perfect, but it does make things more annoying for the person trying to troll.
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Chris Roberts said:tom collinge said:
Hi George, I did not see your thread until after I posted mine. Because emails accounts can be set up in a matter of seconds, I suggested that Logos use their MAC address(es). There is a limit on how many computers, ipads, smart phones, etc... a person has access to.
But how would you obtain the MAC address? It's usually not passed along very far (I think I saw someone say something about the MAC address being passed in email headers? Not any headers that I've seen... And at any rate, no email comes from a user when creating an account on any site I've ever been to.) Plus, the MAC address is pretty easy to spoof - far easier than, say, an IP address (though with proxies and such that wouldn't be hard to vary), so trying to filter out by MAC address wouldn't work.
Blocking by IP address also wouldn't work. Proxies provide too many alternatives. And even without proxies, most ISP's do not automatically provide static IP's. My IP is semi-static, but I never know when it will change next. So say Logos does block a particular IP address but it turns out to be a dynamic IP and someone else just happens to try to access community.logos.com, having been randomly assigned the blocked IP by their ISP. Unlikely, yes, but let's remember what Murphy had to say in his law on such things. If someone is a chronic abuser and appears to have an ip address that doesn't fluctuate, it would be worth blocking, but that couldn't be counted on all the time.
So requiring email for registration is about all that can be done. It's not perfect, but it does make things more annoying for the person trying to troll.
Let's examine that. Here is the header from your post.
From Logos Bible Software Forums - Automated Email Sun Jul 3 14:07:13 2011
X-Apparently-To: XXXXXXXXXXXX via 98.136.164.163; Sun, 03 Jul 2011 14:07:15 -0700
Return-Path: <forums@logos.com>
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X-YMailISG: LNqMsWMWLDs4agfdIYXo0oZzB3w5XAVNpayIh9rrZ3PecIxw
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X-Originating-IP: [216.57.209.252]
Authentication-Results: mta1265.mail.mud.yahoo.com from=logos.com; domainkeys=neutral (no sig); from=logos.com; dkim=neutral (no sig)
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From: "Logos Bible Software Forums - Automated Email" <forums@logos.com>
To: XXXXXXXXXXXX
Date: 3 Jul 2011 14:07:13 -0700
Subject: =?utf-8?B?UmU6IFZldHRpbmcgb2YgZS1tYWlsIGFkZHJlc3NlcyBmb3IgcG9zdGluZw==?=
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Content-Length: 4102I don't know which of those is significant, but I imagine the folks at Logos can figure it out. If there had to be an e-mail reply somewhere in the process this would be available to examine so I think it is do-able.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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Yep ... I removed my name, since at least for the time being 'anyone can be anyone' and there's no telling what 'I'll' say. And I don't want to have to constantly scan the Logos forums to see what meanness has transpired this time. And these pages stick around for a long time and are happily indexed every which way. Best to err on the sort-of safe side.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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George ... don't know if you want your email address showing that's buried in the header (or maybe you edited it already).
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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DMB said:
George ... don't know if you want your email address showing that's buried in the header (or maybe you edited it already).
Oops ! I didn't think about the actual address showing. I'll take care of it NOW ! Thanks for warning me.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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George Somsel said:
Let's examine that. Here is the header from your post.
First, that's not headers from my post, that's headers from the email Logos sent you notifying you of my post. The info in the headers has nothing to do with the message I posted. The IP address points to servers in Bellingham (other than the 192.168.x.x address, which points to a private network), rather far from any IP's I'd be assigned here in Panama City.
Second, the IP address is not the MAC address. Most of the items you highlighted are IP addresses. The last one is something different, I'm not sure what SMTPSVC is, but it's neither an IP address nor a MAC address, so those headers are no help when it comes to finding the MAC address.
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Seems like having a requirement to have purchased a Logos resource to post in all but a "purchasing questions" forum would be reasonable. This would keep Trolls from posting...but may scare away new customers.
Jacob Hantla
Pastor/Elder, Grace Bible Church
gbcaz.org0 -
Chris Roberts said:George Somsel said:
Let's examine that. Here is the header from your post.
First, that's not headers from my post, that's headers from the email Logos sent you notifying you of my post. The info in the headers has nothing to do with the message I posted. The IP address points to servers in Bellingham (other than the 192.168.x.x address, which points to a private network), rather far from any IP's I'd be assigned here in Panama City.
Second, the IP address is not the MAC address. Most of the items you highlighted are IP addresses. The last one is something different, I'm not sure what SMTPSVC is, but it's neither an IP address nor a MAC address, so those headers are no help when it comes to finding the MAC address.
First, it is from your post. Second, it is the header. Third, I didn't say that it reflected your MAC address, but the principle is the same. If there is an e-mail component to registering to post on the forum, Logos would have access to the person's MAC address and could preserve it in case the need arose to block the poster.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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George Somsel said:
First, it is from your post. Second, it is the header. Third, I didn't say that it reflected your MAC address, but the principle is the same. If there is an e-mail component to registering to post on the forum, Logos would have access to the person's MAC address and could preserve it in case the need arose to block the poster.
Not trying to be feisty here (I've avoided the theology debates only to jump into one on tech!?), but the email header you posted is from Logos and the header itself contains no info about me or my post. The content of the message is notifying you that a new post was submitted to the thread, that's the only thing the message has to do with me. All info in the mail header relates only to Logos and their mail server. And the most it gives is IP info. A MAC address looks something like 01-23-45-67-89-ab.
As for the email component to register, the most any site ever does is has a user input their email address and they receive a confirmation email with a link to click. No site these days require users to send an email to complete registration, so Logos will never receive email headers from a user. Even if headers included a MAC address (which they don't) Logos does not get an email during registration, so they will not have mail headers from users that register. Even if they do require a response email, they are not guaranteed to get any info on the user. Just tested this with gmail - sent myself an email from gmail and it did not have my IP address anywhere in the header. It had gmail's, but not mine. So anyone using web-based email (which is most people) may not have their IP info in the header. I think web mail sites used to include a user's IP addy in the header, but evidently not anymore, at least not Google.
As noted, there isn't a simple way for Logos to obtain MAC address info from users, and even if they could, MAC addresses are one of the easiest things to spoof. An IP address is much more reliable, but has its own limitations which make blocking by IP problematic.
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Chris Roberts said:
Not trying to be feisty here (I've avoided the theology debates only to jump into one on tech!?), but the email header you posted is from Logos and the header itself contains no info about me or my post. The content of the message is notifying you that a new post was submitted to the thread, that's the only thing the message has to do with me. All info in the mail header relates only to Logos and their mail server. And the most it gives is IP info. A MAC address looks something like 01-23-45-67-89-ab.
I've already told you that I am aware of that fact so why are you attempting to be difficult? [li]
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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Obviously more spoofing.
george
gfsomselיְמֵי־שְׁנוֹתֵינוּ בָהֶם שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה וְאִם בִּגְבוּרֹת שְׁמוֹנִים שָׁנָה וְרָהְבָּם עָמָל וָאָוֶן
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Well, as a minimum, you DO have to wonder about whoever wrote the software that would allow duplicate 'handles'. Not to be too obnoxious, but that's pretty basic. My guess is they turned the flag off for whatever reason. And it remaining off normally indicates there's a bigger problem that had to be solved.
So, they apparently knew it was a pre-existing problem. I now understand why Stephen was using a over-lengthy explanation for what appears to be a rather egregious oddity. And It kind of bothers me that they let Stephen 'swing in the wind' without really owning up to it. I do have to give Stephen credit though. Kind of like the newsman assigned to do the hurricane piece.
I guess I'm a bit disappointed, pretty much having 'egg all over my face'. I assigned the issue to Christian behavior difficulties, but instead the root issue was poor programming. They then launched a denomination-specific marketing program, knowing they couldn't manage their forum. What did they expect?
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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Logos has a genuine difficulty: they need to keep the forums open so that potential Logos users can ask questions to know if Logos will meet their needs. Therefore, requiring that one have a Logos base package would not work.
Logos appeals to many who are not computer savvy, so adding adding an extra step to registration or posting would dilute the "open to everyone" atmosphere.
Auto-screening for inflammatory posts would be difficult in that there are many innocent foot-in-mouth posts that sound inflammatory but if given a gentle reply will not escalate.
We are talking about a handful of users. If Logos were to close the flaw that allowed duplicating other peoples' handles etc. and were to return to closing off threads that go ballistic, I think things could return to "normal". I would trust Stephen to distinguish between reports of abuse that show a thread should be watched carefully vs. those that need killed or dropped.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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MJ ... I don't doubt what you're saying. It's just that the entry just above yours isn't George. I now watch the counts with assumption a low count may not be for real (which means all the new people). I've even checked some of the low count people to see how in the world their question could be asked.
Then, if you click on Michael's counts, you get all the Michael's in the system (not just 'Michael'). Clearly the programming is pretty naive.
I suppose this is all just water under the bridge for Logos. I'm kind of surprised.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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MJ. Smith said:
Logos has a genuine difficulty: they need to keep the forums open so that potential Logos users can ask questions to know if Logos will meet their needs. Therefore, requiring that one have a Logos base package would not work.
One possibility would be to have a "Guest" forum for those who have not made a purchase from Logos. Those who have not yet made a Logos purchase would be free to read any of the regular forums, but would only be able to post in the "Guest" forum.
The down side of this, is that it wouldn't address the issue of someone who has made a lot of purchases and still coming only to stir up trouble (as some have done recently). But once identified, such users could be reassigned to the "guest" category (if not permanently, then temporarily) at the level of their official Logos user ID.
All of that assumes, of course, that the current forum software can handle guest accounts and can filter them as Logos wants.
Help links: WIKI; Logos 6 FAQ. (Phil. 2:14, NIV)
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Richard DeRuiter said:
The down side of this, is that it wouldn't address the issue of someone who has made a lot of purchases and still coming only to stir up trouble (as some have done recently).
But at least that would be easier to moderate. Blocking one user with purchases is easier than keep trying to block multiple random new accounts.
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DMB said:
It's just that the entry just above yours isn't George.
Yes, that is very disturbing and does need to be fixed.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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You make valid points. However, I see little mention of an equally important issue: The ones who get together to talk about how to solve the problem, in these times of calm, are often the bravest warriors when a battle erupts. More times than not, neck deep in the turmoil, and throwing gas on the fire.MJ. Smith said:We are talking about a handful of users. If Logos were to close the flaw that allowed duplicating other peoples' handles etc. and were to return to closing off threads that go ballistic, I think things could return to "normal". I would trust Stephen to distinguish between reports of abuse that show a thread should be watched carefully vs. those that need killed or dropped.
Obviously there are some who rebel without a cause. But the ones who become passionate about making a point will not be stayed off by a gate. They are small p protestants. Millions have died to profess their beliefs. I assure you, that attacking them when they protest, then scheming when they are gone, will not solve the problem. The ones who claim to possess higher angels, must demonstrate them, and not try to drown out the voices of the protesters, with their own.
God Bless.
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My main concern is the spoofing. I can understand 'real people' getting wound up about their concerns.
I'd assume since the name-ID is derived from Logos.com, that the Wiki can be spoofed as well. Does someone propose to insure changes are made by 'real people'? How would you do that? That wiki involves a considerable amount of work.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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As others have said, its hard to block by MAC or IP address, as those are hard for the web server to access (MAC), or are not fixed anyway (IP). Better if the forum software can be updated to not permit a new display name to match one already in use. Internally the wiki already uses the "true" login ID or email address, I expect.
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'I expect'? If you log onto the forum and then go to the wiki, it automatically uses the forum cookie to pull from the Logos.com account. I tried it.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
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