New members and the hidden forums (DT & House prices)

mustrum_ridcully

Is there anyway of stopping new members from posting in the Discussion Time and (perhaps to a lesser extent) Debate House Prices & the Economy forums?

The reason I ask is over the past few weeks I've noticed more and more highly controversial (trolling?) posts in DT by people who have just joined MSE and whose first posts are in one of these two forums.

As those two forums are hidden from the public you can't see them unless you're logged in. No member of the public will stumble upon them via google whilst looking for money saving advice, they'd have to register and login first. If you're registering then doesn't that mean you've got a money saving question you want to ask (no need to register if just browsing)? Which is why this strikes me as being a little bit too odd...

So this suggests to me (at least) most of these posters are Alter Ego's (AEs), have had their Posting Privileges Removed (PPR'd) or have been directed here to stir things up.

Quasar

I share your sentiments mustrum, but unfortunately I don't see how this can be done. After all the same problem exists on all the boards that address controversial topics, such as the benefits board of late given the recent upheaval in the benefit laws, where newbies are usually genuine people in need of advice. I think that the nature of this site (money saving) and the sheer number of users make it inevitable that we have so many stupid and some downright evil people posting in it - and those who just are unable to ignore the trolls but keep feeding them by replying ad infinitum.

Ames

I think that all that would do would be to create mayhem on the other boards till the trolls/ae's got a high enough post count to get into DT.

At least in DT we can deal with them, if they had to wander into, for instance, DFW to get their post count up they could tip people over the edge there.

I do agree though that something needs doing about them, I just have no idea what!

verysillyguy06

Quasar wrote: »

I share your sentiments mustrum, but unfortunately I don't see how this can be done. After all the same problem exists on all the boards that address controversial topics, such as the benefits board of late given the recent upheaval in the benefit laws, where newbies are usually genuine people in need of advice. I think that the nature of this site (money saving) and the sheer number of users make it inevitable that we have so many stupid and some downright evil people posting in it - and those who just are unable to ignore the trolls but keep feeding them by replying ad infinitum.

Shall I reply to you or are you a troll as well???:eek::eek::A:A

Quasar

verysillyguy06 wrote: »

Shall I reply to you or are you a troll as well???:eek::eek::A:A

You decide. :A


But be a verycarefulguy! :rotfl:

verysillyguy06

Quasar wrote: »

You decide. :A


But be a verycarefulguy! :rotfl:

Apparently I am verycheekyguy:eek::eek: