Straw Poll: Is It Time to Limit Guests on CR4?

I believe that guests don't come from the outside of us. I red many recent threads and noticed more presence of guests in those threads where we need to reply a specific logical, scientific and engineering question.

I observed guest free threads, where its a some sort of general discussion, I still think its is we are the guest, when ever we are scared of being wrong.

So lets be brave enough and guests will disappear automatically.

Regards

Leave it to Admin.

It's their gig.

I fully support the thread. I am always in favour of compusary registration and not allowing any guest for simple reasons:

1. The registration process is very simple. Why these guests do not register, when it is so simple and free of charge.

2. I agree that we can find hundreds of really good answers from guests. But this does not mean that because the poster is guest, he/she is giving good answer. Let him/her register and give same good answer.

3. Once we hide behind name GUEST, we are free to use ...

bad language,

posting two different posts with exactly opposite views (should I demonstrate? I am sure you understand, and I need not demonstrate),

argue with any other registered member in rude way.

4. Few have raised the pont of freedom of speech. This is not valid point (as already mentioned by many other posters). Even if you are registered, you have full freedom of speech. Under name of guest you getting freedom of speech with freedom of hiding yourself.

5. May I request all who are opposing the thread, to show the real advantages of keeping the forum open for guests, which otherwise are not available if you are registered? (other than saving few minutes of registration and saving you from remembering the password)

I fully vote for Compulsory registration.

very good answer, ghusas! a GA for you.

I mean, it's not a pain to register. for those who can't understand the steps to registering, that's an indicator enough that he might not also be able to post a question that's understandable either.

the nuisance posts are common to both guests and registered members. one can ask a serious question and one gets more off-thread replies than sensible ones, with some even making fun of the OP. *that* is up to Admin, of course. but, I've yet to see a member slapped on the wrist for an insulting comment. maybe, 1 of these days, I'll try the "report" button.

one other thing about Guests is that you can't send them a PM to personally thank or follow-up on a matter.

registering before posting will definitely be a good thing, IMHO.

A lot of this seems to revolve around Guests being a nuisance. How about having a "Troll"* button that appears on Guest posts ? After, say, 5 hits the post gets vaporized. It would save admin the bother. When registered members post anonymously, it would be better to have <whatever> posted as "Anon".

* that might seem a bit off-putting to 'nice' guests, so it could be hidden within the existing "rate" options.

A Troll button!
But surely mischievious woodland creatures could vapourise all and sundry threads..
Like this one...c'mon, you know you'd have pressed that sweet sweet Troll button by now wouldn't you?
Del

"rate" options

good, bad, vapourise works for me

The thread's fine, I just like the idea of machine-guning Guests It could be seen as a sort of public service. I'd even go further and suggest members get a little cross-hair icon for every 100 kills they've taken part in. Only the first 5 shooters would count, so I'd have to get up even earlier in the morning. 100 icons would be a bit of a squash, so I reckon 12 should enable promotion to "Ace-Guru".

Can we do the "machine-gunning" in 3D?

Lots of great answers here. Quite possibly CR4 is perfect as it is, in a not so perfect world.

Kris,

Shall we go and do a bit of "guest-hunting"?

Del having a "bad hair day?"

LOL ! There's thin pickin's here Guests are fine when they behave nice, but otherwise.........

Just in case anyone wants to stroll down memory lane

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/11603#newcomments

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/13240#newcomments

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/15824#newcomments

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/15825#newcomments

These are just the threads I'm subscribed to, there are probably more!

I Have probably two pallets of used bricks I pulled off of my house. the previous owners had stuck up as wainscoting, which I carefully pulled off & cleaned. no hole or identifying marks.......

OK,

Never mind.

Wow...

This bloody time lag... when I get the Daily Digest it has 100 answers...

Anyway, what's the problem? Have you heard about "freedom"

I know several simultaneous "guests" in the same thread can cause some confusion about who's who... and?

I'm not worried at all. I never posted as guest. I'm not ashamed of anything, I just try to do the best I can. And I don't matter if some posters want to keep their ID double hidden (most of us use a nick)

In a world in which everyday more and more restrictions are imposed by illiterate politicians I won't contribute to the least one.

This sort of discussion have been arisen from time to time with slight differences: Why allow "over unity" threads? or students questions?

No one of us is obliged to read nor to answer any thread!

I wholeheartedly agree with JohnDG!!!!

Kind regards

no, keep it an open forum to all

I do believe anyone and everyone should be able to utilize this great resource.

That said, I would like to point you to a good example of what this thread is talking about...

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/35171#newcomments

The guests add a certain je-ne-sais-quoi to CR4... it's almost as if the place was haunted.

why is guest status popular? it seems like there's a demand for it: without any huge amount of 'abuse'. Are some guests simply shy or lacking the knowhow we take for granted? Or for other reasons, more comfortable in the dark.

If anyone is stalked or harrassed by a pest guest, it should be possible to go to admin and ask them to approach that 'guest' and insist that they identify themselves and prepare to be banned for bad behavior..

just a straw for the poll...

I am guessing a bit, but I suspect that most "guests" are not identifiable......even for admin.

I'd bet against you on that, though I don't expect mgaulin will adjudicate for us ! The majority of non-members wouldn't go to the trouble of trying to hide their tracks. Figuring out who's got different accounts at work/home etc could be done, and as for "I want to post anonymously", well..... It's good that CR4 has that option, but it's a little deceptive. Maybe it should be phrased like newspapers do - "Name and address withheld".

Here's another idea. When Guests post, they should have to fill in a 'name' box when submitting a post. Any old reference they want. It would give us some hope of figuring out which Guest was which. Not perfect, but some Guests my be consistent and not imitate each others 'persona'.

Yeah, you and whose army?
You bushy tailed arboreal (I only kno that word 'cos some one used him earlier)...drat, forgot what I was sayin'.

(Name and actual address in Harlow witheld)

Delia's (if they can stand up straight)

.

.

.

_________________

IP Nightly, Etherville, UK.

Oh bugger, I forgot to check the 'anon' button !

Admin may save members who posts anon, but guests? why would they save the data anyway?

I must admit I know little in this area, but saving data uses disk space, at least at first!!

I must admit I know little in this area

Same here, but I like to speculate. Stashing all those addresses would be nothing compared to storing all my output ! All they have to do is link the IP or whatever to the post reference. It'd be nice if mgaulin told us, but I doubt he's going to compromise anything related to security and how he runs the show. For instance, if I was mgaulin I'd have any mention of the word "mgaulin" trigger a notification to myself. He could limit it if the volume was too much by adding filters for additional words. Wouldn't take long to scan flagged post for anything of interest. His lack of response so far proves my conjecture . I can think of a good way to test if he's reading this, but I value my membership here too much to do it !!

For instance, if I was mgaulin I'd have any mention of the word "mgaulin" trigger a notification to myself.

Yeah..but he'd also filter 'em back out if they were by certain individuals..or maybe not... oh dear I've confused myself.
Must..
...have
......nap.

For instance, if I was mgaulin I'd have any mention of the word "mgaulin" trigger a notification to myself.

It's strange - I went ahead and did it in that last post. Now it's misteriously diappeared Let me try again;

How on earth does he do it so fast ?!?

To heck with this, I'm gonna put an extra layer of tin foil on !

No, we do not need a rule limiting Guest posts. The rule cannot possibly be written fairly.

Rather I recommend that all registered users simply ignore postings by guests- They will then go away.

I said "They will then go away"

I intended that they would also come back as a registered poster.

Wow, I miss a few days and end up reading for hours just to catch up.

OK my 0.02 worth, at one time I posted on near 10 off road forums almost on a daily basis, and every single one required you to join. Quality of questions or the amount of childish trash talk was about the same across the selection of boards. One thing that tended to happen was the same people got banned from all the forums and ended up on just a couple where the owners didn't seem to care what was posted. That list I once posted on has dropped drastically since the general membership has almost disappeared, to the point that a small group tend to do all the posting and all one gets is political flaming or yet another trip report form one person.

Enthusiast forums, and yes this is one too, we are all passionate about what we do, has to have constant new blood in order to remain relevant.

A neat feature of internet forum software is the ability of identifying the IP address of the posting individual, and with that information the forum can be set up to ask the 'Guest" to join up. they could even be presented with a form to fill in and become a member. This tool can also be used to remind a registered user to log in, I know I have posted a few times as 'guest' and realized I forgot to log in only after hitting submit.

On the subject of name calling, I too feel rather sad for these people, I always wonder what in their life has lead them to behave is such a manner, that is a lot of anger to be carrying around. Then again there is the old adage, well not so old as applied to the internet, alcohol and keyboards do not mix well.

Sorry for rambling a bit, must be forum withdrawal, since I have not posted for a few days, been relatively busy with a new project.

have a great weekend everyone,

It made sense to me!

Is that bad?

Could mean I am making more sense than normal for me, or you re finally coming around to thinking like I do. Next thing you will be going out to buy an old Land Rover.

Never. Driven and repaired too many in the 60s and 70s, got completely put off......I drove across east Africa in one once......there it was in its element!!

Guess what, here we are 40 years later and they still leak. I love driving then if for nothing else than the sense of adventure when you leave home and head for groceries, will it make it there and back without dropping parts?

Do you realize that limiting or negating guest posts will greatly reduce the number of very good questions? I have learned a lot from guest posts and our answers to them. As well as some of the responses by guests (that resulted in GA's). Many of us started as guests and found a home here after a while, and thusly registered.

I always encourage our guests to register, not because we won't help them if they don't, but so that they can more easily track their own threads. If every guest with only one question registers and never comes back, what have we gained? If they do come back a few times the usually do register anyway.

If we start this process of "policing" this forum too closely we will only bring down the level of the posts. I, for one have only posted a couple of questions. Will I eventually be invited to leave because I do not contribute enough questions? Will someone look at my posts and see that I tend more toward a humorous response, although sometimes helpful, but less than "professional", and decide that I am undesirable here?

What will be next? "Sorry not so smart, but since you have not submitted an engineering degree you are not of the caliber of our registered users and must be purged from our records and our (sight) site."? I have skipped other sites that require membership to enter the site because they are too highbrow. Please lets not become one of those sites. I would hate to have to leave this site, too.

I feel that we need our guests. We should all actively encourage them to register and come back, but don't force the issue. This only creates disharmony.

Thanks for your continued indulgence of this non-degreed "engineer?".

Once again I think I have been unclear, the idea of the registration form being offered is merely a way of simplifying the registration process simpler for a 'guest' who asks questions over and over again, a number of posts, say five, eight, ten, could be attached to the software before the form displayed, and a 'no thanks' button could be added. For those who post that many questions one has to wonder why they don't join, and not being notified that responses have been posted must take up a lot of time revisiting the site to see if anything new has been added. This form of tracking also gives the administrators the option of sending a friendly invitation to join our group and the ability of highlight the advantages of membership.

Thanks for your continued indulgence of this non-degreed "engineer?".

I wouldn't worry about this happening. I confess that all I have is an associate degree, but it was issued in 1969. I got my first "Engineer" position in 1976, and I feel that I have not rested on my laurels over the last 40 years.

There are many of us here with that sort of situation.

Bill

I am 99% sure that I have never posted a question. I am sure that I am not alone either....

Posting answers is where I enjoy myself!

The guests are welcome anyday to contribute and we should encourage tham, whether registered or not.

People may have there own misgivings ane reasons not to register. may be they feel tied up .

As far as the basics are there, the sharing of our knowledges, we don't bother whether the contribution is from guest or host or anybody. But again i stress the contribution part.

It should be creative, and not simply abusive.

As it has been pointed out, these abusive guests may have their own limitations and complexes which are forcing them to behave this way, and we can simply neglect them.

In fact I do a step better simply report them to our BB - CL and the posts are deleted without trace.

And it becomes funny (look at post #43 - deleted courtesy me - don't tell the guest)

The funny part is averybody now up on arms agaist #43 and poor 43 has not done anything , that post is as pure as angel .

But that has added spice to the thread.

Now #43 was something on AG and new 43 is AG himself.

Now you see AG pilloring AG in #73 and all others are supporting AG and cutting AG to small bits what a great thing this is. I deserve a Great pat on my what ever portion of the anatomy for this adventure

Did anybody see that Del has disppeared as soon as photos of dogs started coming in

Anonymous.

Another interesting statistics (kris may love the vital one)

There are 11500 _(11474) registered users with zero post, 4600 ₍₄₅₈₃₎ with one post and 2200 ₍₂₂₃₀₎ with 2 posts till date.

The numbers decay exponentially as the number of posts increase.

The CR4 may be better off with limited number of contributors rather than 25200 total of which only 441 has posts > 100 and another 400 > 50 .

So the guests may be welcome to add a bit of spice here and there

If you add say another 100 or so who are active and will make the grade , it is still about 800 or so. since a lot out of the original 850 have migrated away.

Maybe we should ask them to come back, tell them we miss then.

ROFL ! How about auctioning off the unused names. If someone joins and doesn't post for 1 year, the name could be sold to the highest bidder. There are plenty of candidates. The original person would have to be denied access, and the name would need to carry some qualifier such as ""XXX, joined 2005, adopted by Kris 2009". I could post all my serious stuff with my adopted name. _{Admin would be able to sell it again in 2010 and buy more doughnuts.}

I have been keeping up to date and reading all the posts, both for and against guests.

I have an idea, how about guests can participate in all respects, but not start a blog with a question? Many who do start a blog, don't (seemingly!) ever come back, probably because they get no notification whatsoever, so basically they only need to join if they want to start a blog.....

It appears to me to be a balance between both extremes AND of course they will get notification of any posts to their blog......eg. they may take more further interest, instead of simply forgetting what they asked and where.....

What do you say Guys?

Oh, linchy, that was cold. How can you not find bricks fascinating?

"All we are saying....is give bricks a chance"

Look here for my ancestors:

http://brickcollecting.com/

Yup, I'm a brick collector, and yup, I'm strange, so nobody needs to remind me.

Anyone that comes across an interesting brick, please contact me. I will gladly pay postage.

Right now I have about 75 different bricks in my collection. Most are from New England, and most of them are from the Hudson River Valley.

Nothing personal Bricky, could just as easily have been a wacko post about cats, or gremlins.

I have a brick precursor collection. I've named it Clay.

You got me excited there for a minute. A Lynch is a very rare brick indeed. However, you photo looks suspiciously like the photo on the brick collectors website.

http://brickcollecting.com/collection.htm#lynch

Dam, I would love to get my hands on an authentic lynch.

You want to get "authentically lynched."

WOW!!!

Found out! Yep, stole it right off the brick site!

It's amazing what amuses some people. No offense intended Bricky

Quaint hobby you've got there, though. You probably don't even stack them on top of each other.

LL

We have got one brick how much are you going to pay for it ? '

Postage must be postpaid.

Prepaid???

That is a confusion

Pre-paid means paid in advance so I pay for the bricks and the bricks are not accepted since the brick is the brick and hence i lose the money.

Postpaid must be opposite of prepaid so again bricks do not accept the bricks but the postal deptt loses the money .

What happens to bricks is the secondary..

I have quite a few thousand bricks. I'm reluctant to sell them individually, and can't vouch for how interesting they are (it's a bit of a subjective thing), but would consider a reasonable offer. If it's good enough, and you pay for shipping, they could be yours within the week.

I say no, But...

That's indecently funny for 7:38 a.m !

Are the guests really the problem or is it a problem of annoyance?

It is like those religious Nuts shouting, there is too much Nudity on TV!

Then switch the channel! Those guest who are rude want an reaction, so they

can enjoy themselves, i just say ignore those posts.

I need my time to decipher the hidden meanings in those Gremlin posts

I try not to even read questions from guests!

Every month or so we get a thread started about why more people arent interested in science and engineering. After several replies, a concensus emerges that scientists and engineers are somewhat isolated from mainstream society due to the lack of media involvement, lack of interpersonal skills, etc.

To the original poster: Your proposal is elitist, and if it did ever go through, would make the CR4 forums rife with hipocracy because it would only server to futher isolate the community. If you had it your way, the forums would only allow communication between people who already know the answers and therefore dont need to ask questions. Some of you are claiming that you want to put an end to bullsh*t threads and replies, but I dont see anyone complaining about the "what is this gizmo?" posts. Christ, we started an automotive section which consists of nothing but people asking other people how to fix thier POS car! Where is the complaint there?

And another thing - who are you to determine what a "quality" post is? A persons lack of english skills doent mean they are an idiot, just just means they lack english skills. Yes, it would be nice to get rid of the "Please do my homework for me" questions, but not at the cost of removing the potential for well-intentioned, meaningful, and insightful posts.

For the record, I do have a CR4 account, I get this newsletter everyday in my email. I just dont care enough to remember the password.

Avery Montembeault

Dear Avery Montembeault,

I cannot fathom out why you use the word "Elitist" with regard to this blog.

The point of this blog is to promote joining CR4, as a person with a logon gets a personal email telling them not only which blogs have been updated, but also by whom and gives a quick link to allow a browser to open the respective page - with just 2 clicks.....

We see guests without the skill to click on the spell checker, which would help the non English as a first language people to IMPROVE their English skills in a simple manner....as well as making the posts easier to read (look up unknown words in a dictionary of choice, but only works if the spelling is correct!) for those others with few English skills...

We see the homework questions where the guest apparently NEVER comers back to read any answers he has received....

And we have the rude guest posts.......

I personally do not feel that I am elitist and would be most happy to see guests prevented from starting a new blog......it will not fix all problems, but its a good start!

You are just plain lazy in not finding your logon and using it, hardly a character building talent!!!!

Avery

Shall I register your name etc and send the password to you? Please send me your e mail. You may change your password afterwards.

Mister Montembeault,

I am just a down home Oklahoma Country boy and I personally take exception to being called an elitist.

What I find Hypocritical is someone to lazy to remember his or her own account login and password. I have at least 20-30 online account with forums, blogs and the like. I have no degree that allows me to be considered above or better than anyone else but I can remember my login and password on any account that I chose to log on to.

If that make me elitist then woopdy friggin doo.

As for being Isolating the community, CR4 is free, what is isolationistic about having someone actually register to a free site if they wish to have a discussion within it. I never bothered to ask questions as a guest because it was no trouble to become a member. I never hide my identity when I answer questions or start a blog because I am not afraid of what people will think of me.

Maybe I have asked questions that do to my own personal ignorance (not stupidity there is a difference) don't come out like i would like them to. But I find the intelligence of the posters within that particular forum know the right questions or suggestions to post to clarify the original question.

As for how to fix the POS car? Well there's an elitist question if I ever heard one. Not everyone in the world, myself included has the money to buy a new car every year or 2. I personally have about 5 cars that are all over 15 years old. I love my old cars and I love working on them because I get a sense of accomplishment out of it.

Elitist indeed!

Definition A quality post: By your reasoning any post is a quality post. IMHO, In most cases a quality post is a fair and legitimate question, that when provided factual information a distinct and informative answer can be provided. If additional information is requested, then a quality poster will keep track of and respond with the necessary feedback to get to a resolution. What the question is really doesn't matter it is the context in which it is presented.

"For the record, I do have a CR4 account, I get this newsletter everyday in my email. I just don't care enough to remember the password."

You don't care enough to remember but you care enough to B*tch about not getting to post as a guest because of it. So you want to have CR4 support you inability to remember or laziness about having it sent to you.

Hey lets all just support the lazy jobless introverts with nothing in life but handouts given to them to keep them interested. NO THANK YOU!

Elitist Indeed!

Jeff Brunner aka double_j_b

I realize that as a non engineer, I don't have the degree of expertise that many of you do. It seems that many guests fall into this category. That being said, I have asked a few questions on occasion and been rewarded by people like Jorrie explaining things to me in simple terms that I could fathom. I wish that those who wish to close this blog to guests would be more like Jorrie who seems to understand that this is a place for people to become a little bit smarter about the world around them, and not a place to show everyone else how smart they are.

If you joined and picked yourself a name, all possible problems are fixed!!!

So please don't complain, remember, if CR4 is important enough for you, and the admin do stop guests, you will have to bite the bullet or miss out completely!!!

Andy, maybe tomorrow.

Sounds promising anyway!!

A Hearty Welcome if you do decide to join.

Good grief, sb. What are you doing ? I'm almost thinking of giving you a GA !

I won't^@, because you said "resume". That might be taken to imply too much. All I'd like to see is a clear* statement of any question, and any relevant* factors needed in an answer*. Many guests add that they are not technically minded*. That's great, because members can pitch answers* in a way they think will be understood*.

*I know, I know.....how could I, of all people, suggest such things. I'm incapable of any of them !

^@A cigar, with your name on it, will be held for any such occasion that may arise in the future.

We could hold it ourselves? at another (hobby)forum they have yearly polls for lots strange and funny catagories, the CRazzies4?

That's not a bad idea, though we'd be hard pushed to find just one winner for 'best funny of the year'. There are so many !

While I have your attention guys, can I ask what type of bath plug you have ? I'm told that in the UK, the standards is a tapered one (45mm). An inquiring mind wants to know about other parts of the world. I'm quite serious - would you have look please ? Would be most appreciated.

'best funny of the year'.

Certainly I will vote for Del

But the question is still 'which one', he's got so many good ones !

Del is consistently funny. Anyone who hangs out with a skwirl has to be, or will soon be. However, edignan's post about the golf game on Midway Island takes the cake, the frosting, the fork and the plate! I can just picture that story used in a movie.

That points to the positive side of this discussion. When a member posts a comment that you find commendable, you know who you is getting your

Off course on has to generalize with the poll topics.

i will check my B..athplug later

I've begun to post anonymously now and then, since it is allowed.

So far I think I've done 4 or five anonymous posts, that show up as Guest.

I don't have to read a guest, and nobody either way has to read what I post.

In an earlier thread I asked Why So Many Guests?

The answers were, "I got kicked off." "I forgot my Password."

When I post anonymously, which is the same as "Guest" my reasons were that I wanted to be anonymous.

To deal with Guests, my solution has been to be one, now and then, and just roll with it.

If we just get guests stopped from being the OP, but can give answers, I personally feel that we get the best of both worlds as far as possible.....all should be "fairly" happy.

There remains the stupid position where huest argues with "himself", but they must live with that, I just find it funny......!

Its the best possible method I feel if complete bans are not possible or allowed, (for all of you who like to post anonymously from time to time and for those who want "real" (HaHa) guests to remain.....!)

The biggest problem I have is not knowing which "Guest" is which.

Could they be assigned a sequential number when they first log on, (Guest 1, Guest 2, etc.) and retain that ID # for the duration of the thread? At least this way you would have indication as to how long the guest had been in the conversation and if your reply was going to the right Guest.

If this has already been suggested, sorry. It's too mind numbing to try to read the whole enchilada.

Bin thinking along similar lines - wondering how easy/difficult it would be for mgaulin to sort it out (????). Anyway, have a GA , (1) for voicing it, and (2) 'cause it may help flag up the idea in the right area.

I've suggested pretty much the same on a number of threads. You don't think you could see your way to...well, you know.....desparate need of GA's etc.....

Nah, just playing. I don't need no GA's (). Numbering guests (maybe allocate a random number from their IP address ? I dunno how it works !), is the way to go. If someone is hiding their address and won't eat the cookies, then it's no big deal (possibly even good) if they can't post because of such a system. I can't believe such a system is impossible. It could work without guest having to do anything. Mark is the only one who knows how technically feasible it is on CR4, and Chris Leonard is the one who probably makes the policy decision. In my 'umble opinion, no comment = "we've decided to keep it as-is". They're not going to want (and shouldn't have to) to endlessly debate the decision with members.

If the host likes a particular type of decor, then we all accept that and enjoy it. Occasional chat about the furnishing is good, but we're all here to enjoy a meal together. The hosts allow us to choose what we eat, so it's not important unless the guests cough all the cocktail food. 'mien host' will operate a door policy as/when they see fit.

Think I'll go tuck into a few prawns.....