I'm writing to Fodors editors here (as well as at [email protected] ) because I think we'd all be interested in the answer. <BR> <BR>The question: can you identify and filter or barr a poster who has become a true threat to the forum? Obviously, the Problem Child here is "Topper" -- someone who is churning up the posts by repeatedly sending whole blocks of threads to the top. This buries some legit posts and clogs up access to the forum during busy periods on the 'net. <BR> <BR>It's one thing to resurrect a thread with information someone may need or have requested. It's quite another to bring huge numbers of them up, sometimes twice in a 24- hour period. We can live with a degree of attention-getting, silliness, squabbling, etc. But this verges on chaos. <BR> <BR>So, dear editors, is there anything that can be done?

I have to agree. I have limited time to scroll each day and my method USED to be to read everything with today's date on it. Now, most of the posts with todays date are old but have been "topped" so have a current date. I am just about outtahere as it has almost become a waste of time. <BR> <BR>In addition, I found several very recent posts with NO answers because they have been shoved down 4-5 pages and only the most persevering are going to go down that far to look for new posts! So, if Fodor doesn't do something to stop this, I for one, am going to have to look for a new place to find information. What a shame to have such a valuable site ruined!!!!

I to also wrote to Fodors. Complaining on this board does nothing, you must write to them directly. Topper is obviously a very bored person and his childish antics kill the chance of many legit questions being answered. If you write to them they will do something. You might notice we see lots less of "Margo" since people complained to them about her tactics.

Do you really think that Topper is one person? I just assumed that people used that name to encourage more replies to their questions.

Curious, <BR>There appears to be more than one "topper". There is at least one individual who has an uncanny ability to resurrect relevant posts from way back when and repost them in proximity to a current, related query. That individual has served an extremely useful purpose for many, many Fodor's posters. The most recent episodes are highly aggravating and do a huge disservice both to Fodor's and to its correspondents. Interesting to note that these recent instances of nuisance "topping" have occured on occasion in the past and almost invariably either at the beginning or the end of the school year.

Wes, <BR> <BR>That makes sense. I guess I have not been coming to this site long enough to notice a pattern. Thanks for the info.

Curious, <BR>Topper can be used to try and garner more responses to one's posting. <BR>But I occasionally act as a topper, if I find a post that I personally can't answer, but I think the asker really needs answers, and maybe has slipped to the back pages. <BR>This recent topper has been a real pain. <BR>I also wrote to Fodors to ask if they can do anything. <BR>I hope something works, but maybe thia one person will get bored of what they are doing!It sure is a waste of time. <BR>Nancy

. . <BR>Agreed that 'Topper' is a twit - and very likely we have copycats. Fail to understand why he/she/they would spend so much time manipulating the forum and not add any value. If the mysterious Topper has so much time, then why don't they do some on-line research to answer the questions and provide a help rather than hindrance.

What Fodors has done is eliminate the posts that were "topped". Note that there is a large number of posts missing between 2 AM and 8 AM on 9/2, on the US site, where Topper had posted. I think that they are trying. <BR> <BR>nancy - It might be better to make a comment instead of "topping" if you really think it should be seen again.

I sit corrected. <BR> <BR>The ones on the US site were removed, but not the ones on the Europe site.

The day when Dr Fordor (or anybody else) can determine who can/can't post is the day the forum dies. <BR>How can you only have "approved" posters?Which topper are you going to censor? <BR>What about the fat people, lets get them too! <BR>Over topping is a slight annoyance - it is not causing "chaos" and the only "true theat to this forum" I see are the self-appointed police. <BR>If you knew then net you'd know you can't keep people out of an open site.Forget it.

Take a breath, Frank. I was only asking what was possible, to begin with, not appointing myself or anyone else as "police." Your paranoia about this supposed "slippery slope" is just that, and if you don't think a "topping" campaign causes chaos, you weren't trying to access or post or retrieve an answer during the morning when he was on a rampage. <BR> <BR>In the case of the "real" Topper, if Fodor (not Dr. "Fordor") can track posters with posting times, it should be absolutely obvious who is just sitting at their computer "topping" things every 15 seconds for an hour or so. There's no way, by contrast, for Fodor to ban fat posters or anyone else except according to what they do. It isn't a matter of filtering people, it's a matter of filtering behavior that affects the forum. I assume you'd expect Fodor's to do something if a poster figured out a way to flood a forum with posts in gibberish. <BR> <BR>And for the record, this forum is a private enterprise, not journalistic in nature; and even if it were, any editor has the choice of printing a letter-to-the-editor or not. It's that editor's right if not responsibility. This is a service provided by Fodor's, and it's a democratic endeavor only to the extent that Fodor's will probably be responsive to a flurry of complaints.

Wes, I'm afraid that the recent "topping attacks" (twice on Wednseday, Thursady and Saturday) have no connection with the school year. You can believe me ... the the net effect of the attacks was "burying" the threads relating to Artist David. This was apparent shortly after each attack and even now with these threads well down the line, one can observe that they "miraculously" escaped the topping procedure. In other words, our "attacker" is sending a message: "if you don't want to annoy yourselves with my attacks ... keep artis David posts quiet ..." <BR> <BR>As Frank says, there's no way to keep anybody out of an open site. Fodors could easily design the site in a way to identify poster IPs (and thus being able to identify the machine from where an abuse was started). Even if they decided to put a filter on this machine, it would be only a matter of posting from another machine. Finally, knowing from which machine the "attack" came from, it would be difficult to identify the person that did it but ... so what? There's nothing I could see in the Forum's rules forbidding this practice. <BR> <BR>Though IMO this practice is way more than "slightly annoying" as put by Frank, I totally agree with his conclusion: Forget it! <BR> <BR>Paulo <BR>

Oops ... above, read "it wouldn't be difficult to identify the person ..." <BR>Paulo <BR>

"- It might be better to make a comment instead of "topping" if you really think it should be seen again. " <BR> <BR>this is ridiculous---all you people are always complaning that others ask the same questions over and over again. now when there is someone doing something that you don't like, all of a sudden people should start asking the same questions over again, in order to avoid topper. make up you mind. not only that, there are valuable things in prior posts so bringing them back to the top sometimes is not a bad idea. <BR> <BR>BTW, the other day when the topper episode occurred in the morning (which wasn't for several hours, some people love exaggeration) i noticed that some of the post that were brought back up were responded to with information---so in that case it was helpful. <BR> <BR>also, i don't understand how this made retrieving and posting a problem. obviously it wasn't a problem for topper so why would it be a problem for anyone else. unless maybe the fodor editors are themselves topper--oh my!!! <BR> <BR> <BR>

Topper is back this morning (Monday) on the U.S. forum, which now has a line-up that bears no resemblance to where it stood an hour ago. Topper does seem to be active between 8 and 9 am, although that's US Eastern time. <BR> <BR>Yes, Fodors could bar that machine -- which they should do -- because at least it would slow this Topper down for a while and might be enough of an obstacle to make him go elsewhere.

lawrence, maybe you should pay attention before you LEAP to your conclusion. i just look at the US forum and it does seem to be more active this morning than usual. however, if you open up several of those postings you will see that they are people posting repsonses, etc., as this board is intended. wait a minute, now we have to look at how many postings there have been in the past fifteen minutes before we decide whether or not we can post. otherwise the self appointed fodor's post will have us banned from the forum period.

Of course Topper is at it again on the U.S. forum. It is a holiday, and the board is otherwise quiet. But there are many old threads that have been topped for no reason. <BR> <BR>Anyway, I like the idea of adding a comment when I top something. After all, if you're bringing it up for a reason, why not go ahead and say so? And yes, Fodors ought to ban this latest Topper the way they banned Maiu Heidi. Topping just to vex and annoy is an abuse, just like posting the same thread 50 times in a row would be. <BR> <BR>Happy Labor Day!

cindy, <BR> <BR>i guess you and lawrence must have access to a different US forum than I do because i saw ONE posting that had the name topper on it. And BTW, it also had verbage in the message area, as you have said you would like to see.

Dave, <BR>Sometimes I do make a comment such as, <BR>"I really can't comment on your thread because...." and then top the message hoping someone who can answer will. <BR>But I don't really see why that is necessary for me to do all the time? <BR>nancy <BR>