Hi, I noticed a guest post a reply on a topic. Is that supposed to happen? I thought you had to register to use the forum. Just wanted to bring it up in case it is an oversight.

The registration process is so tedious that I think it is worth trying out the ability of nonregistered users to post a reply to an existing topic.

A nonregistered user does not have the ability to start a topic, however. Nor does he or she have the ability to edit his or her message once it is posted.

Let's see if this new reply feature is abused.

The motivation for the experiment is that I'd like to be able to add items in the BenefitsLink Retirement Plans Newsletter or the BenefitsLink Health & Welfare Plans Newsletter that would be links to particular topics of interest on the message boards. Many newsletter readers wouldn't be registered already but probably would want to be able to post a reply to the topic to which they'd been brought (in order to contribute to the discussion).

Getting those people involved should mean some valuable contributions to the board and I hope many of them will register in order to get the benefits of being a registered user.

(I need to make those benefits more clear, also. For example, the ability to "subscribe" to a particular message topic in order to be alerted to new posts in that topic, or to subscribe to entire message boards.)

What do you think?

Dave

Hi Dave

I think it's an interesting idea, I can definitely see the motivation behind doing it. I just hope you don't get overrun with spam replies. But it is always easy enough to turn off should that happen. Thanks for the explanation.

Thanks for asking, oriecat!

Any spam message can be deleted by any Sitewide Administrator ... we have 21 of them now. These are people who use the board a great deal: 500 or more posts!

Also, the moderator of any particular message board can delete spam messages in his or her message board.

I'm looking forward to seeing if this idea works. It'll be a success if nonregistered users post helpful, interesting reply messages.

500 posts??!!

And to think some of us thought the judgement was based upon the qualify of our comments!

(...but then I noticed Blinky was promoted and knew that couldn't be)



http://benefitslink.com/boards/index.php?s...st&p=147110

(see last post)

Terrific! Now I can anonymously post "interesting" replies that may not necessarily be helpful.

I did not realize that a new designation had been applied. Already I am running amok.

And thus the thought that power corrupts the individual is proven....

With all due respect to Dave's idea, I've had more reported posts since this has been activated than the previous couple of years combined. Granted the numbers don't point towards widespread abuse, but I think its only a matter of time before something or someone hits the boards with hundreds, if not thousands of guest posts. IMHO, allowing non-registered users to do anything other than read is asking for trouble.

Fredman,
What's a bounty hunter?

Fredman, cool title. What does it mean?

Perhaps it refers to:

Cape Gazettes Fredman the Great

or

Studio Fredman

or

Fredman.org

or

one of the other 663,000 google hits for "fredman"

That's his handle, not his title. His title is Bounty Hunter.

A bounty hunter is someone who pursues fugitives or criminals for whom a reward is offered. It made more sense when the avatars for the boards used to work as I had a pic of Jango Fett, a bounty hunter from Star Wars. Probably the most famous real life bounty hunter is Duane Chapman, aka Dog the Bounty Hunter.

Famous? How about our colleague quint the shark hunter?

so in the context of the board - do you track down the ED drug posters and break their fingers?