Easier to Post and Participate in Discussions

[Chuong Nguyen]

Brandon has implemented new features to pocketnow.com that will make it easier for our users and readers to participate in the community. This means that you don't have to be a registered user to participate in discussions on news articles and reviews on this site! Give it a try and post your thoughts on any one of our pieces! Get involved and help make this community truly a user-supported community!

For the time being, however, you do have to enter a "unique" username to post. You don't have to register your username, although that is still highly encouraged. It just can't be something that is used. For instance, since my username is "chuongvision," someone else can't use that to post for obvious reasons.

[Not Mike Benton]

This should prove useful for those of us that forgot our passwords from time to time

[Pony99CA]

Was the site not getting enough spam already? :eek:

Seriously, I turned off unregistered posting a while back to cut down on spam. If somebody really wants to post, I don't think registering is a big deal. Most sites that I'm aware of don't allow unconfirmed posting.

The only way I'm in favor of this is if bot detection was also implemented to reject registrations and posts by bots.

Steve

[Brandon Miniman]

Was the site not getting enough spam already? :eek:

Seriously, I turned off unregistered posting a while back to cut down on spam. If somebody really wants to post, I don't think registering is a big deal. Most sites that I'm aware of don't allow unconfirmed posting.

The only way I'm in favor of this is if bot detection was also implemented to reject registrations and posts by bots.

Steve

We'll see what happens. Chuong will be monitoring the front page during the day and deleting spam. Most other blogs don't require user registration, which really gets people to comment more.

[Pony99CA]

We'll see what happens. Chuong will be monitoring the front page during the day and deleting spam. Most other blogs don't require user registration, which really gets people to comment more.
Spam certainly won't go down. :D While blogs may not require registration, they do have anti-spam mechanisms in place. Engadget requires a password or a confirmation for every post; Gizmodo seems to moderate posts. And all Windows Mobile sites that I visit require registration to post (except in certain limited forums, like Announcements).

One reason I disappeared for three months was getting burned out deleting spammers and spam threads. I was preemptively deleting a lot of spammers (checking their birthdates, time zones, IP addresses and E-mail domains for "spamminess").

It's better to delete the spammers before they post (and ban their E-mail addresses) than to have to do it afterward -- and have to delete their spam thread(s), too.

Just do a search on Samsung Bluetooth, for example, and see how many spam threads there are (9 still visible, 5 deleted but their users not banned -- and I deleted a few already).

Steve

[Brandon Miniman]

I share your frustration, Steve. We'll come up with a solution that's a good medium.