A Way To Stop The Trolls

[Max Impact]

I tried to join a totally unrelated forum last night and it wouldn't let me register with a free (hotmail, google, yahoo etc) email address.

It got me thinking that it might save us all some grief if the same applied here. Trolls like Violent Martin would find it very hard to constantly reregister.

What do you think?

[CunningLinguist]

I think this video shows what a troll is like, from the 1:40 mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y

BTW I'm pretty sure memberships new would cease if you couldn't use a free email account.

[uglyphil]

Max, that is a brilliant idea but it (unfortunately) only works on forums where an exclusive membership is what is wanted (i.e. not many members).

Unfortunately, this forum's goal is to have as many members as possible, in order to help get the word out to as many punters as possible. It is clear from many aspects that this forum is for the shops' benefit, not the posters... which is fine, that is what the forum is designed for, but don't think otherwise :)

So your idea, for this forum, won't work :(

[gggi]

Max, you're a happy go lucky dude, but you do know that by its nature, this forum has a sort of illicit in nature, right? Just the kind of activity that might require a disposable email account?

[rooter]

It may stop the trolls but it will stop every one else joining too ;)

[khuntong]

I kind of enjoying the troll's action every now and then.. Better than I enjoy the ad spam to be honest..

[Max Impact]

Oh I'll shut up then. Bring on the next troll!

By the way, the other forum does have lots of members.

[wilisno]

I kind of enjoying the troll's action every now and then.. Better than I enjoy the ad spam to be honest..
True ! It's fun kicking the arses of the trolls sometimes, like tapdat's etc ! ;) ;) ;)

[TMC (free cage girl)]

Oh I'll shut up then. Bring on the next troll!

By the way, the other forum does have lots of members.

which forum? i will make thread and bump up the thread every day:cool2:

[wilisno]

which forum? i will make thread and bump up the thread every day:cool2:
Maybe a forum for church goers ? ;) ;) ;)

[TMC (free cage girl)]

Maybe a forum for church goers ? ;) ;) ;)

hahaha:cool2:

[Max Impact]

It wasn't my thought though. It's a fact!

[duksta]

The other problem with the idea is the sheer number of places you can get a free email account. Trying to build a domain-level blacklist like that is a fruitless exercise.

The one thing this forum does do well is stop the (completely irrelevant) Spam.... whatever their forum spam solution is, it works very well!

[wilisno]

If only you could kick arse in real life, away from your keyboard :D:D:D
If a troll makes trouble on the keyboard, that's where his arse should be kicked. if he makes trouble in real life, no doubt his arse will be kicked in real life ! Hope you don't belong to either description ! :miao:

[Fock Sake]

I'm a super moderator on another vBulletin forum and we have a number of tools at our disposal for weeding out trolls. One of them is AE Detector. AE Detector automagically bans trolls when they re-register under a different user name. It is able to correlate the new login with the old/previous logins. All admin needs to do is implement this piece of software.

[Max Impact]

That sounds good. By the way, the other forum has 80,000 registered users and it wouldn't be hard to ban free accounts as the list is obviously already there.

[hikhik]

Max Idea from Max Impact.
There are quite a few easily applied and readily available methods that the admin of this forum could use to block trolls. If you look down at the footer of every forum page, the vendor of the forum software is shown as vBulletin. Here is a link from vBulletin themselves about how to stop spammers and trolls:
How to prevent spammers and trolls from registering on your forum (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum/general/managing-your-community/320745-how-to-prevent-spammers-and-trolls-from-registering-on-your-forum)
Ragtek Botscout Register Check (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=208088)
Enhanced Image CAPTCHA (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=132482)
NoSpam (http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=183329)
All that in a few minutes of research.

So with all these, and many more methods available, I don't question the ability. I question the desire. Why would admin want to block them if we spend so much time talking about and responding to the trolls. From admins point of view, it is just more use of the forum. And as use = page views, admin can make more dollars off the adverts displayed on each page.

[uglyphil]

I don't question the ability. I question the desire.

That's exactly the point I was making earlier hikchik, this forum is for the shops (advertisers), not us. Like FS I have moderated several forums in my time, ranging from small to very, very, VERY large (in terms of member numbers), they are correct in stating that there are several tools at one's disposal. However, none are foolproof and none will work effectively on their own. The best defense is to know the "enemy", no one can hide their true personality for long, and report them. An effective moderating team will deal with them quickly enough.

But we need to remember we are not the customers here, we are the product. While that is the case, little will be done about trolls or other issues such as shops spamming the forum.

Aside from all that, Max's post was a good one.

[TMC (free cage girl)]

How about we having massage and having Yum Cha then, we talk about this? :cool2:

[CunningLinguist]

How about we having massage and having Yum Cha then, we talk about this? :cool2:

Quite ironic given the thread title ... :)