[VOTE] Open up registration again?

Moderator: CmdrWilkens

Should we open up registration again?

Poll ended at 2009-10-26 10:55pm

Yes
30
86%
No
2
6%
Abstain
3
9%
 
Total votes: 35

User avatar
Darth Wong
Sith Lord
Sith Lord
Posts: 70028
Joined: 2002-07-03 12:25am
Location: Toronto, Canada
Contact:

[VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Darth Wong »

Many people have noted that with the lingering but inevitable death of the SWvST debate, much of the inter-forum hostility that once prompted invasions of our board is now gone. That does not eliminate the possibility of the occasional troll invasion of course, whether it be from ex-users who can't move on or trolls who have nothing better to do. However, it has been suggested that the benefits would outweigh the costs. Certainly, it would make life easier for the admins, who would no longer have to process registrations.

The downside is that we'll inevitably get certain people posting nasty material in an attempt to troll the board. Unfortunately, I do not have any mod installed to keep new users from posting images, and I'm not sure where I would get one. Therefore, the possibility of image trolling exists. However, the "Report" button should hopefully suffice to keep that under control if it happens. If someone posts unacceptable material like links to accident victims or explicit porn, report him and we'll take care of it.

Anyway, let's see what people decide.
Image
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing

"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC

"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness

"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Mike/RantMode/Blurbs.html
User avatar
Connor MacLeod
Sith Apprentice
Posts: 14065
Joined: 2002-08-01 05:03pm
Contact:

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Connor MacLeod »

Yes. We need fresh blood, and more importantly we need (legitimate) targets to vent aggression on by their stupidity (IE discussion and debate not spammy BS).

Besides if for some reason it backfires we can just close it, restrict it or whatever.,
User avatar
GrandMasterTerwynn
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 6787
Joined: 2002-07-29 06:14pm
Location: Somewhere on Earth.

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by GrandMasterTerwynn »

Indeed, let's re-open the registrations. If we get a troll invasion, or a massed invasion of spambots and representatives of African royalty, we can always lock it down again.
User avatar
Coyote
Rabid Monkey
Posts: 12464
Joined: 2002-08-23 01:20am
Location: The glorious Sun-Barge! Isis, Isis, Ra,Ra,Ra!
Contact:

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Coyote »

Yes, the one real invasion we had actually got handled very well, in retrospect, even if it caused a bit of a tizz at the time. We can open up the floodgates a bit but with vigilance, and be ready to close things again.
Something about Libertarianism always bothered me. Then one day, I realized what it was:
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."


In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around!

If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!!
Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
User avatar
Stuart
Sith Devotee
Posts: 2935
Joined: 2004-10-26 09:23am
Location: The military-industrial complex

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Stuart »

I would strongly advise against opening up the board to indiscriminate registration. The reason is that spamming has now reached ludicrous proportions and the captcha/filtering systems used to keep spammers out are becoming steadily less effective. On HPCA we are getting something like 40 - 60 spam attacks per day (90 percent plus coming from Russia and the Ukraine). Now, admittedly only one or two of those get past the security system but those that did were causing quite serious problems. As a result, we're instituting a double-layered filtering program.

There is also a trend now that spam attackers are actually having the nerve to email the administration, complaining that they weren't able to register. With a high-profile board like SDN, I am afraid it's quite likely that an unrestricted registration policy will result in you being swamped with spam.
Nations do not survive by setting examples for others
Nations survive by making examples of others
User avatar
fgalkin
Carvin' Marvin
Posts: 14557
Joined: 2002-07-03 11:51pm
Location: Land of the Mountain Fascists
Contact:

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by fgalkin »

EDIT: I think this is the post in question (thanks, RogueIce)
RedImperator wrote:Thanks to Xalev for those numbers.

Now, back to the debate: There's something interesting in those numbers. Mike implemented restricted registration around May of '03. '03/'04 sees posts drop by about 30,000 (that's misleadingly low, by the way: the board only opened in July of 2002, so between July and December of '02 we generated more posts than we did in the entire year 2003...more than any other year, in fact). There's a ~9000 post uptick the next year. Then the bottom falls out: down 120,000 in '05/'06, another 100,000 in '06/'07, 45,000 in '07/'08. Then another uptick in 2008. What else happened in '08? Mike upgraded the board and restored open registration. Then in January '09, we locked down registration again. Wanna take bets on where the number goes this year?

More fun with numbers. Ray, you might want to pay attention to this one:

As far as I can tell, Mike upgraded the board on 1 October 2008. There are no new registrations at all until the 10th; I'm not sure, but I faintly recall registrations being closed shortly after the upgrade while Mike worked the bugs out. Registrations are closed due to the invasion on 08 January; they reopen, restricted, on the 10th.

Between 10 October and 8 January, how many contributing members registered (going by the same criterion I used last time; that is, more than 1/2 of one post per day)? Fourteen; three less than have registered between 10 January and today. I previously counted Serafina with the '09 members, but she squeaked in the day before registrations closed, which leaves only 17 contributing members who have joined since registration was restricted again. And unlike my '09 count, I didn't spot any members who posted a lot and then went dark, nor are there any banned members, nor are there newbies on that list (obviously). Now, unless somebody wants to claim that conditions on the board, or conditions in sci-fi fandom in general have significantly changed for the worse in the last 10 months, there's very few factors which can account for the discrepancy, and restricted registrations has to be near the top of the list.
In light of this, I think we should definitely open registrations, provided we can avoid getting spammed

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin
User avatar
Darth Wong
Sith Lord
Sith Lord
Posts: 70028
Joined: 2002-07-03 12:25am
Location: Toronto, Canada
Contact:

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Darth Wong »

What kind of security do you use?
Image
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing

"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC

"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness

"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Mike/RantMode/Blurbs.html
User avatar
Mr Bean
Lord of Irony
Posts: 22431
Joined: 2002-07-04 08:36am

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Mr Bean »

I vote yes with the catch that I wish a trial period of some sort before having a second vote to close it. IE if registration is throw open for a week. If nothing bad happens that week, registration is open. However if we get X number of spammers, we stay with closed while looking for a better smart ID filter for registration.

"A cult is a religion with no political power." -Tom Wolfe
Pardon me for sounding like a dick, but I'm playing the tiniest violin in the world right now-Dalton
User avatar
Connor MacLeod
Sith Apprentice
Posts: 14065
Joined: 2002-08-01 05:03pm
Contact:

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Connor MacLeod »

I think Spacebattles has open registrayion (at least more open than ours) and they dont seem to be excessively burdened with spammers, and they are a far bigger/longer running obard than we are.
User avatar
Coyote
Rabid Monkey
Posts: 12464
Joined: 2002-08-23 01:20am
Location: The glorious Sun-Barge! Isis, Isis, Ra,Ra,Ra!
Contact:

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Coyote »

Could we have "seasonal" open registration, or would that be a pain in the ass? Like June-July-August or something?

Would such a thing even make sense?
Something about Libertarianism always bothered me. Then one day, I realized what it was:
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."


In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around!

If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!!
Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
User avatar
phongn
Rebel Leader
Posts: 18487
Joined: 2002-07-03 11:11pm

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by phongn »

We could try using reCAPTCHA - pretty much the gold-standard of CAPTCHA systems right now. I am not aware of any automated attack against it but spammers often manually register an account and then begin the flood afterwards.

Spacebattles' system requires that new users post to a "new users" forum first as a sort of CAPTCHA test. Again, this wouldn't stop a manual spammer from registering, posting to the new-user forum and then firing up the machine spamming but it should greatly reduce any incoming attacks.

EDIT1: StackOverflow has a number of threads on CAPTCHA techniques - some of them using some JavaScript trickery to try and make things transparent to the user.
User avatar
Master of Ossus
Darkest Knight
Posts: 18213
Joined: 2002-07-11 01:35am
Location: California

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Master of Ossus »

Voted.
"Sometimes I think you WANT us to fail." "Shut up, just shut up!" -Two Guys from Kabul

Latinum Star Recipient; Hacker's Cross Award Winner

"one soler flar can vapririze the planit or malt the nickl in lass than millasacit" -Bagara1000

"Happiness is just a Flaming Moe away."
User avatar
Sea Skimmer
Yankee Capitalist Air Pirate
Posts: 37389
Joined: 2002-07-03 11:49pm
Location: Passchendaele City, HAB

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Sea Skimmer »

Open it up, we had mods and if things get out of hand it can just be locked down again. The vs. debate is dead as it could be given the near utter absence of new evidence let alone the general decline in interest.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
User avatar
Kuja
The Dark Messenger
Posts: 19322
Joined: 2002-07-11 12:05am
Location: AZ

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Kuja »

Sea Skimmer wrote:Open it up, we had mods and if things get out of hand it can just be locked down again.
Pretty much this.
Image
JADAFETWA
User avatar
Steve
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 9762
Joined: 2002-07-03 01:09pm
Location: Florida USA
Contact:

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Steve »

Voted.
”A Radical is a man with both feet planted firmly in the air.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

"No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism." - Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, Princips Britannia

American Conservatism is about the exercise of personal responsibility without state interference in the lives of the citizenry..... unless, of course, it involves using the bludgeon of state power to suppress things Conservatives do not like.

DONALD J. TRUMP IS A SEDITIOUS TRAITOR AND MUST BE IMPEACHED
User avatar
Alyeska
Federation Ambassador
Posts: 17496
Joined: 2002-08-11 07:28pm
Location: Montana, USA

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Alyeska »

Voted. I say we open it up. Worse comes to worse, we can shut it back down. Lets try a trial period and see what happens. Different techniques can be applied to see how effective it is.
"If the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. If the law is on your side, pound on the law. If neither is on your side, pound on the table."

"The captain claimed our people violated a 4,000 year old treaty forbidding us to develop hyperspace technology. Extermination of our planet was the consequence. The subject did not survive interrogation."
User avatar
Edi
Dragonlord
Dragonlord
Posts: 12458
Joined: 2002-07-11 12:27am
Location: Helsinki, Finland

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Edi »

As far as I'm concerned, we could open it up. Given that registration from .ru domains is utterly impossible anyway, those spammers are not a problem. A few more domains added to the blocklist would eliminate spamming from those sources. No loss either, since there has never been anything other than spam registrations coming from there (e.g. yahoo.in).
Warwolf Urban Combat Specialist

Why is it so goddamned hard to get little assholes like you to admit it when you fuck up? Is it pride? What gives you the right to have any pride?
–Darth Wong to vivftp

GOP message? Why don't they just come out of the closet: FASCISTS R' US –Patrick Degan

The GOP has a problem with anyone coming out of the closet. –18-till-I-die
User avatar
Simplicius
Jedi Council Member
Posts: 2031
Joined: 2006-01-27 06:07pm

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Simplicius »

If people feel that any future troublemakers can be managed, then we might as well give it a go.
User avatar
Ghost Rider
Spirit of Vengeance
Posts: 27779
Joined: 2002-09-24 01:48pm
Location: DC...looking up from the gutters to the stars

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Ghost Rider »

I am a bit wary since the last time, but there are a few methods to tie down the most rampant, and if spammers get out of control, then back to the way things are.
MM /CF/WG/BOTM/JL/Original Warsie/ACPATHNTDWATGODW FOREVER!!

Sometimes we can choose the path we follow. Sometimes our choices are made for us. And sometimes we have no choice at all

Saying and doing are chocolate and concrete
User avatar
Bounty
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 10767
Joined: 2005-01-20 08:33am
Location: Belgium

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Bounty »

Abstain. I have no opinion on the rearrangement of Titanic's deckchairs.
User avatar
Thanas
Magister
Magister
Posts: 30779
Joined: 2004-06-26 07:49pm

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Thanas »

I am in favour of this.
Whoever says "education does not matter" can try ignorance
------------
A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient, to look the other way. Well, the answer to that is 'survival as what'? A country isn't a rock. It's not an extension of one's self. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult! - Chief Judge Haywood
------------
My LPs
User avatar
Lagmonster
Master Control Program
Master Control Program
Posts: 7719
Joined: 2002-07-04 09:53am
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Lagmonster »

This may be impossible given my limited knowledge of these things, but would it be possible to open up registrations generally, but prohibit registrations from specific addresses? We could, say, disallow spammers and anonymous twits using free throwaway email accounts but let everyone else through unmolested save the skill-testing question.
Note: I'm semi-retired from the board, so if you need something, please be patient.
User avatar
Dalton
For Those About to Rock We Salute You
For Those About to Rock We Salute You
Posts: 22631
Joined: 2002-07-03 06:16pm
Location: New York, the Fuck You State
Contact:

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Dalton »

Yes, despite my misgivings.
Image
Image
To Absent Friends
Dalton | Admin Smash | Knight of the Order of SDN

"y = mx + bro" - Surlethe
"You try THAT shit again, kid, and I will mod you. I will
mod you so hard, you'll wish I were Dalton." - Lagmonster

May the way of the Hero lead to the Triforce.
User avatar
The Yosemite Bear
Mostly Harmless Nutcase (Requiescat in Pace)
Posts: 35211
Joined: 2002-07-21 02:38am
Location: Dave's Not Here Man

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by The Yosemite Bear »

voted

besides the automated spammers are already here lurking....
Image

The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin
User avatar
Eleas
Jaina Dax
Posts: 4896
Joined: 2002-07-08 05:08am
Location: Malmö, Sweden
Contact:

Re: [VOTE] Open up registration again?

Post by Eleas »

There's been a slow shift in the board's purpose. It should be encouraged through new blood. Open it.
Björn Paulsen

"Travelers with closed minds can tell us little except about themselves."
--Chinua Achebe
Locked