[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index][Index by Month]
Re: [GSAS-Member] A forum
Thanks Scott. This is exactly the input that I was looking for.
Ultimately it's up to the board to make the decision, but there seems
to be a lot of interest and support for the idea of a forum.
On Mar 7, 2008, at 11:07 AM, Scott Frayo wrote:
>
> Hey all, my name is Scott Frayo and I've been a member of this
> mailing list for several years now, but rarely post. I've been
> reading this thread with interest though because I'm also President
> of the Pacific Northwest Herpetological Society (PNWHS) and a couple
> of years ago we faced this very situation.
> We had an active mailing list, but for many of the reasons already
> discussed here, we thought about going to a forum. Sure our members
> liked the convenience of having messages directly in their personal
> inbox for ease of reading, but most preferred to not to have to
> read, or receive, messages about things that they were not that
> interested in. As a board, we decided on a forum. On the whole, I
> couldn't be happier with the results. 2 years later we have an
> active forum that draws interest from folks around the country.
> It's a great place to both socialize and get quality information to
> questions that are posted. Our forum is considerable more active
> than our mailing list ever was and has reached a different group of
> people interested in herps and increased membership in PNWHS. The
> ability to post pictures is really great and again, increases
> interest and participation. The old phrase "a picture is worth a
> thousand words" is very true.
> There were, of course, some of our members who were opposed to it
> and we lost a few of our regular posters who were flat-out opposed
> to a forum, but the gains have far outweighed the losses. Are there
> problems? Absolutely. Occasionally we get conversations that
> become a bit too heated, but that's what the moderators are for.
> And don't get me wrong, it's not like we have a moderator on 24/7.
> We only have 2 (myself and my webmaster) who read/skim most of the
> posts at some point in time. Our members basically fleece
> themselves and report to us via Private Messages (PMs) any concerns
> they might have. About the whole bot posting thing, we got around
> that by putting in a very simple "type ____" when you register.
> Perhaps there are ways of getting around that, but in 2 years we
> haven't had any significant problems.
> Overall, our forum has increased membership, encouraged more
> participation, and keeps the board more in touch with the needs and
> desires of our fellow herpers. I highly encourage it. If anyone
> wants to check ours out, it's at:
> http://forums.pnwhs.org
> You don't need to register to view or read it, just to post. Hope
> all of this helps. Good luck with whatever you decide.
>
> -----Scott
>
>
> R. Scott Frayo
> Insular Species Conservation Society (ISCS)
> Co-Managing Director
> www.iscsgroup.org
>
> Pacific Northwest Herpetological Society
> 2006 President, 2008 President
> www.pnwhs.org
>
> ----------------------------------------
>> Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 08:40:42 -0800
>> From: pwallace@u.washington.edu
>> To: gsas-member@thekrib.com
>> Subject: Re: [GSAS-Member] A forum
>>
>> Laurel:
>>
>> The board is considering options for updating the mailing list for
>> images and searching and a forum. There are enough cautionary
>> tales of failed forums, MIA moderators, lawsuits, etc to warrant
>> some caution on the part of the club. I will know more shortly. :)
>>
>> -Paul
>>
>> On Fri, 7 Mar 2008, Laurel Larsen wrote:
>>
>>> I'm sorry I'm not up on website security stuff, but your rookie
>>> comment came off a little condescending. There seems to be a forum
>>> for everything out there, including almost every other local
>>> aquarium
>>> club. I can't imagine that people who maintain sites with such
>>> little
>>> traffic are daily updating with the latest patches, and they don't
>>> seem to have problems with spamming, of course I'm also not a member
>>> of any of those boards, but I did have a friend who ran a few boards
>>> for years and never had problems like what you're describing. It
>>> seems like there's interest in a board, and if you don't want
>>> anything
>>> to do with it, then you don't have to. Bryan suggested a third
>>> party
>>> site that hosts boards and his wife has experience with them and
>>> said
>>> that she's happy with them. Perhaps we can give this a try and if
>>> it
>>> doesn't work out, we can drop it.
>>>
>>> On Mar 6, 2008, at 8:11 PM, macker wrote:
>>>
>>>> Oh boy, spoken like rookie. PHP is easy to exploit. NO one cares
>>>> what the
>>>> site does.... an exploit is used to gain backend access, which then
>>>> comes an
>>>> IRC server used to command botnets. Or a simple mail server set up
>>>> to send
>>>> out spam and spoff the mailing list name, so everyone complains to
>>>> the list.
>>>>
>>>> I can think of over 50 ideas which I see everyday with my clients
>>>> across the
>>>> west coast. I won't even go into details, but any IT person knows
>>>> the
>>>> importance of 'patching'.....
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 8:05 PM, Laurel Larsen >>>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> What abuse to computing resources would we be looking at? There
>>>>> are
>>>>> many forums that require an admin "okay" to let people register.
>>>>> It's
>>>>> not as though this would be a popular enough board for it to be a
>>>>> burden for someone to "okay" membership. I don't know if it's
>>>>> even
>>>>> possible, but if it were, we could have one's member number as an
>>>>> activation code or something to keep people from registering and
>>>>> spamming. I can't imagine what else would be a problem, the GSAS
>>>>> isn't exactly 4chan or another big board/group that would be "at
>>>>> risk"
>>>>> for a hack.
>>>>>
>>>>> Laurel
>>>>> On Mar 6, 2008, at 7:58 PM, macker wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> As a security professional and Vice President of the Puget Sound
>>>>>> ISSA, are
>>>>>> you also going to install the almost daily patches for all
>>>>>> these PHP
>>>>>> bulletin boards to help prevent abuse of the computing resources?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I say screw it, its too much trouble. I don't mind email, and
>>>>>> gmail
>>>>>> threads
>>>>>> them anyways.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> - macker
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 3:33 PM, Laurel Larsen >>>>>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'd be willing to help out moderating if it's needed. I work
>>>>>>> as a
>>>>>>> receptionist in the afternoons and most of my time is spent
>>>>>>> writing
>>>>>>> papers for school and surfing the internet waiting for calls.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -Laurel
>>>>>>> On Mar 6, 2008, at 3:29 PM, Berg wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Well if we decide to go down the road of setting up a forum I
>>>>>>>> have a
>>>>>>>> lot of
>>>>>>>> experience setting up phpbb and Gallery so I can help out if
>>>>>>>> needed.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Later,
>>>>>>>> Berg
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 3:05 PM, Bryan Nichols
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I agree about the "feeling like I'm spamming" argument. A
>>>>>>>>> forum
>>>>>>>>> would
>>>>>>>>> eliminate that for me.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I really don't think that moderating a forum would be
>>>>>>>>> difficult. It
>>>>>>>>> only
>>>>>>>>> takes a few individuals to make sure everything stays family
>>>>>>>>> friendly. With
>>>>>>>>> a group like this, I don't think we'll get into flame wars
>>>>>>>>> anyway.
>>>>>>>>> My wife
>>>>>>>>> moderates a forum and I'd be willing to moderate a GSAS forum
>>>>>>>>> along
>>>>>>>>> with
>>>>>>>>> some help if one ever materialized.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Clifford Miller wrote:
>>>>>>>>> When I first joined up it seemed like it would be fun to
>>>>>>>>> have an
>>>>>>>>> easy
>>>>>>>>> place to permantently share photos. Two things I like about a
>>>>>>>>> forum
>>>>>>>>> (and/or gallery setup) are that:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> 1) Some members might post more often to a forum than a list
>>>>>>>>> so
>>>>>>>>> they don't
>>>>>>>>> feel like they're spamming everyone.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> 2) mailing lists (that lack attachment abilities) encourage
>>>>>>>>> text
>>>>>>>>> linking
>>>>>>>>> from free photo-sharing sites for sharing pictures or files.
>>>>>>>>> In my
>>>>>>>>> experience, most of the things linked in list archives have
>>>>>>>>> long
>>>>>>>>> since
>>>>>>>>> gone missing as accounts expire or things get deleted or
>>>>>>>>> moved.
>>>>>>>>> Even if
>>>>>>>>> you find what you're looking for in the archives, if it's
>>>>>>>>> not a
>>>>>>>>> part of
>>>>>>>>> the message text, it's probably gone.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> If anyone would be interested, it would be pretty trival (a
>>>>>>>>> couple of
>>>>>>>>> clicks) to add a forum or gallery setup to my existing web
>>>>>>>>> host,
>>>>>>>>> and since
>>>>>>>>> the account already has more storage and transfer than I'll
>>>>>>>>> ever
>>>>>>>>> use, it
>>>>>>>>> wouldn't cost the group anything.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I couldn't volunteer myself to police a forum or gallery full-
>>>>>>>>> time or
>>>>>>>>> anything, but as has been said, there isn't really any
>>>>>>>>> existing
>>>>>>>>> moderation
>>>>>>>>> going on now, so there probably wouldn't be all that much
>>>>>>>>> needed?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Just offering options...
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Cliff
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On Wed, 5 Mar 2008, Laurel Larsen wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> but I find forums to be a little more cohesive not only than
>>>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>>>> mailing list, but also the archive, it's easier to share
>>>>>>>>>>> photos
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> That is true about the photos. The same scheme that keeps
>>>>>>>>>> this
>>>>>>>>>> list
>>>>>>>>>> spam-free also is (for better or worse) what keeps us photo-
>>>>>>>>>> free.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> However, it does make me think... we could open it up to
>>>>>>>>>> allow
>>>>>>>>>> small
>>>>>>>>> photo
>>>>>>>>>> attachments (jpeg only, say 200k total per e-mail?). It
>>>>>>>>>> means
>>>>>>>>>> that
>>>>>>>>> those
>>>>>>>>>> e-mails would be larger when photos are attached. Those
>>>>>>>>>> subscribed to
>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>>> digest would not get the photos, but they would be
>>>>>>>>>> available in
>>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>>> archive. If anyone has an opinion one way or another, e-
>>>>>>>>>> mail me
>>>>>>>>>> privately... it would be easy to do this on a trial basis and
>>>>>>>>>> turn
>>>>>>>>>> it
>>>>>>>>> back
>>>>>>>>>> off if it got out of hand.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> registration could be filtered allowing only members to
>>>>>>>>>>> register(with
>>>>>>>>>>> their member number).
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> This is a bit more tricky, because it requires
>>>>>>>>>> synchronizing of
>>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>>>> database with the forum, or someone to moderate subscribe
>>>>>>>>>> requests, etc.
>>>>>>>>>> Much like public radio, we don't actually keep non-members
>>>>>>>>>> off
>>>>>>>>>> this
>>>>>>>>> list,
>>>>>>>>>> theory being that it may encourage them to come to a meeting
>>>>>>>>>> or an
>>>>>>>>>> auction, or even (gasp) join!
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> I understand that most forums require moderation, but
>>>>>>>>>>> there is
>>>>>>>>>>> none on
>>>>>>>>>>> the mailing list and I have yet to see crazy arguments,
>>>>>>>>>>> rants
>>>>>>>>>>> or
>>>>>>>>>>> death
>>>>>>>>>>> threats.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> It's not so much the discussions getting out of hand as the
>>>>>>>>> opportunistic
>>>>>>>>>> spam bots and other completely unrelated junk that shows up.
>>>>>>>>>> It's
>>>>>>>>> really
>>>>>>>>>> nice that this list has essentially had no spam on it for
>>>>>>>>>> going on
>>>>>>>>>> nine
>>>>>>>>>> years now. Over on the AGA forum, until we added a
>>>>>>>>>> customized
>>>>>>>>>> 'plant
>>>>>>>>>> quiz' to the registration (something I had to custom-code),
>>>>>>>>>> we
>>>>>>>>>> were
>>>>>>>>>> getting 2-5 messages a day posted for Cell phone accessories,
>>>>>>>>> prescription
>>>>>>>>>> drugs, and other inappropriate topics. And they're all
>>>>>>>>>> posted
>>>>>>>>>> by
>>>>>>>>> robots,
>>>>>>>>>> so they never stop.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> It's merely an idea that
>>>>>>>>>>> I thought I'd throw out there since many other regional
>>>>>>>>>>> clubs
>>>>>>>>>>> have
>>>>>>>>>>> forums. :)
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Definitely -- don't stop with the ideas!
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> - Erik
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>> Erik Olson
>>>>>>>>>> erik at thekrib dot com
>>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>>> GSAS-Member mailing list
>>>>>>>>>> GSAS-Member@thekrib.com
>>>>>>>>>> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>> GSAS-Member mailing list
>>>>>>>>> GSAS-Member@thekrib.com
>>>>>>>>> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> ---------------------------------
>>>>>>>>> Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.
>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>> GSAS-Member mailing list
>>>>>>>>> GSAS-Member@thekrib.com
>>>>>>>>> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> GSAS-Member mailing list
>>>>>>>> GSAS-Member@thekrib.com
>>>>>>>> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> GSAS-Member mailing list
>>>>>>> GSAS-Member@thekrib.com
>>>>>>> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> GSAS-Member mailing list
>>>>>> GSAS-Member@thekrib.com
>>>>>> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> GSAS-Member mailing list
>>>>> GSAS-Member@thekrib.com
>>>>> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
>>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> GSAS-Member mailing list
>>>> GSAS-Member@thekrib.com
>>>> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> GSAS-Member mailing list
>>> GSAS-Member@thekrib.com
>>> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> GSAS-Member mailing list
>> GSAS-Member@thekrib.com
>> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Connect and share in new ways with Windows Live.
> http://www.windowslive.com/share.html?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_Wave2_sharelife_012008
> _______________________________________________
> GSAS-Member mailing list
> GSAS-Member@thekrib.com
> http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
_______________________________________________
GSAS-Member mailing list
GSAS-Member@thekrib.com
http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member