thereyougoagain

There you go again, whatsyourproblem. You mean you haven't seen mean-spiritidness creep in? It's been happening with great regularity.

lisa

I am opposed to registration, primarily for the reasons Cindy mentioned. I have noticed on boards that instituted registration that they experienced decreased overall participation, which suggests to me that registration discourages not only the undesirables but also legitimate participation because some people just don't like jumping through the hoops of registering. Plus, I just don't perceive the flames on this board to be such a major problem that they diminish the enjoyment to be had here that much. Yes, there is an occasional post that is offensive, but they are pretty easily either avoided or gotten over. Even with the occasional bad apple, Fodors is still head and shoulders above other travel boards! Don't change a thing.

Parrot Mom

I for one am for registration..it would make people responsible for "slamming" and the culprits could be banished. CruiseBoard2 requires registration and very, very rarely has a problem. One cruise board has just been taken down because of vulgar language.. If you don't want to use your e-mail address a sign in code would be fine..

chuck

They can register my Fodor's when they pry my mouse out of my cold, dead hand.

Pat

Some of the snide, anonymous postings on this very thread are a pretty good example of the kind of thing that we're talking about. And check the Europe forum, too -- someone just resurrected that horrific fat-people-shouldn't-travel nastiness. If it has to do with children traveling, fat people, the election, travel agents, or most anywhere in Hawaii, there's a very good chance there will be a lot of c.r.a.p. posted. I'm for registration, thanks.

nospam

Go back and read Jesse's post. A&E 's system sounds great! To quote travelbug: "real travelers..would register without a second thought, they have nothing to hide and no hidden agenda, only a desire to help others without trying to profit from it."

Status Quo

One small question, and don't get all worked up about it, please. If there are already travel sites that require registration, how come the people who like registration don't just go there instead of trying to change this one? Just curious.

xxx

Don't worry, we are already checking them out... But we're here because we care. Some of us have been posting here for years, and were Fodorites from way back.
Don't understand the "clubby" argument. At times this forum seems pretty "clubby" itself. Recent Europe thread on this.

X

The "clubby" argument is that many feel the board is clubby enough. Anything that discourages new people reduces the size of the club, making the situation worse. That's all.

As for me, this is the only internet board on which I participate. With registration, I might have to reconsider my involvement.

kam

I agree entirely with the above post. I think there will come a time soon that I will choose not to participate in the Fodor's forum. If I've had any informative information to pass on, I'm happy for that , but the hassle just isn't worth it for me in the future.

no

I would be happy to spend 2 - 3 minutes registering to eliminate some of the problems I've seen on the board. IMO, it's not a big deal if you don't have to divulge your e-mail and would clean things up.

yes

I vote yes!

marlena

If you think registration is going to prevent rudeness or "thinly vieled" endorsements, think again. You can simply register with bogus info and a throwaway email address and be a jerk or a salesperson! I don't see how it will really help.

lyle

The above poster is right about just registering under multitudes of fake e-mails in order to come here and continue obnoxious posts or advertising.
But it's like having some anti-theft devices on your car, or a security fence around your apartment complex. Sure, there isn't anything out there that a criminal can't get around. But if your car has an alarm and a club on the wheel, and the one next to it doesn't, which one are the thieves going to steal? Probably the one that's fastest and easiest to steal. If criminals break into an apartment to steal a T.V., will they choose the complex that allows them to walk right up to someone's door, or the one which has a fence that they'll have to cut or climb over?

Registration just makes it more of a pain to continue the types of ads and slams that appear here, because you have to keep signing up with all these new e-mails to continue doing it, once you're busted. Are you going to keep doing that ad infinitum, or find another site that's a easier to spam and get you jollies there instead?

E.S.

O.K., I made the mistake of taking some non-drowsy cold medicine today, and now I'm on the net when I should be sleeping instead. And this topic has me WIDE awake now!

I've been a member of A&E's discussion boards for quite a while. I also experienced the old drop-in and post anonymously if you like format, and the newer format requiring registration, which they implemented about a year ago.

There's no comparison. Registration took care of all the problems that the board had. No more pornographic language, racial slurs, spams which repeated the language and the slurs hundreds of times on a board, and no more fake messages from one person pretending to be another. People used to spend a lot of time responding to the fake threads, denying that they were the ones who posted something, expressing outrage at the horrible posts that appeared, telling everyone else to ignore it, etc.

Those horrible posts disappeared the minute we were asked to register. Now participants spend time discussing not only the films and books we love, but all kinds of topics, anything that comes up. No more anonymous nastiness, and no more advertisers posting trying to sell you books and videos; registration scared them away. New people drop in all the time, it's never cliquish or clubby, because the boards are friendly and welcoming. I sound like the PR person for A&E or something,(honest, I'm not) but the topic originator here mentioned it, so I thought I'd chime in with my experience too.

Oh, you can use a free e-mail address to sign up too. (I never give out my IP e-mail except to friends and family, no way.) And the boards themselves are not monitored - no referee stepping in to break up any fights, just occassional announcements from A&E about new features. But then again, there's been no need for any monitoring, since the problematic posters are now gone.

I've been coming to Fodor's here for about a year and a half, and I think the A&E system might work here. My understanding is that Fodor's only steps in here if it receives enough e-mails from people complaining about a certain person or issue. Registration wouldn't change that. One person's complaint about something on their boards will not spur them to step in, just as it doesn't now. It would still take a group effort. And once you have a registered name, you're accountable for what you post, so do so at your own risk.

But if you receive a private message with something like obscene material or spam, you could e-mail Fodor's privately and complain, and if they are like A&E, they would do something about it. No one else need know, unless you care to broadcast it on the board.

Yes, I really do think it a similar system could work here, sounds like a good idea to me too.

Larry

Anyone who thinks this board needs registration should read the above posts in this thread from "Al Gore" and "Chuck Heston". Didn't you guys find those at least vaguely amusing? I don't mind putting up up with some obnoxious anon. posts as long as we get some of these chucklers once in a while. And I don't get it, I have seen NO pornagraphic posts, VERY FEW racial slurs, and get almost NO spam despite always using my real email address. Another non-problem. I'll say it AGAIN. IF you want to avoid "attack" responses, post wisely. For example, any posts that can be closely related to ettiquette, morality, values, religion, or polotics (ex. screaming babies, gay resorts, American parenting, best hotel to stay at when going to the Republican Nat. Convention) will be SURE to draw cranks and crackpots. We all know it, so why even start these threads? Lost in all this is the fact that a considerable number of people, every day, post REAL travel questions (i.e. "What is there to do in Key Largo?"), get 4-5 informed replies, and the thread ends. This is the board working like it is supposed to, and I think the pro-registration folks are ignoring how many people get good travel help here, every day.

Mack

Larry, you've been lucky or selective. It's all been here, but the editors did pull the most obnoxious/obscene stuff when requested. The point is, they had to be requested to do that. Spammers and "graffitists" have learned to post on Fri. or Sat. because it's usually Mon. or Tues. before editors respond.

And no, I don't think the posts you mention are funny, particularly, but they were gratuitously political. For funny, you shoulda been here for the "my mother was drunk the day I got out of jail" thread.

But funny or not isn't the problem, nor is it creativity or not. It's jamming up the e-time and e-space with stuff that is, at the least, off-putting and at most that sabotages the reason for the forum's being: to provide a comfortable and informative site for people who have legitimate questions to ask and information to share. Registration wouldn't interfere with that.

Mack

PS: A perfect example of Thread Trash is the "Big Fat People" thread on the Europe forum.

Cindy

I hope you'll all forgive me for posting again, but I just love a good analogy, and there are two interesting ones in this thread.

Urban Nightmare likens the board to a deteriorating neighborhood that just needs a good police station. To me, registration is more like suburban covenants limiting the colors the residents can paint their homes. Yes, it makes the neighborhood more orderly and pleasant in a sterile, planned kind of way. But it makes living there a lot more boring, too. Personally, I like a little excitement in my life, and a board filled with the same old people discussing the same old things would really turn me off.

Lyle points out that registration is like a security system on your home or car in that it makes it more difficult for the mischief makers. But as anyone with these devices knows, they aren't perfect and they can backfire on you.

I think registration would backfire, because it would take a lot of the humor and spirit out of the site. (I like opening a thread and finding a little silliness and a few quips now and then.) I'm still not convinced that the only people registration would deter would be the nuts. Really, the offensive threads and comments aren't all that difficult to avoid, are they?

Mom

How about this? Let's have Fodor's split the board into two different ones. They could create a new section with all of the old categories (Europe, U.S., etc), but the new section would require registration to post, although anyone could view it. The current board would continue as it is now, with no registration required. We could then see whether lots of people are willing to register, and whether the character of the board would change with registration.