A Couple of Things
A couple of housekeeping items: 1) If you haven’t taken the reader survey yet and want to participate, please do so as soon as possible. We’ll be closing the polls at 5 o’clock today. Update: Polls are closed. We’ll have the results for you on Wednesday. 2) One interesting result of the survey so far…
A couple of housekeeping items:
1) If you haven’t taken the reader survey yet and want to participate, please do so as soon as possible. We’ll be closing the polls at 5 o’clock today. Update: Polls are closed. We’ll have the results for you on Wednesday.
2) One interesting result of the survey so far is that about half the respondents are in favor of requiring registration. We’re not ready to require it yet, but we would like to take an intermediate step of strongly encouraging readers to register for a TypeKey identity. In addition to providing greater continuity in the discussion threads, it also helps us weed out the trolls from the real posters. Over time, if you stick to the same identity, you also start to develop the respect (or at least the recognition) of fellow readers which makes the sense of community stronger on the site.
Thanks
Nice point there Mr. B. In fact, this confirms what I’ve long suspected, that calls for registration have little to do with trolls and a lot to do with people’s unfortunate tendency to be CONTROL FREAKS.
Good point about sampling error. Also, until the 400-odd people who said they are in favor of registration actually register voluntarily, the sentiment rings a little hollow…
I am opposed to registration.
I filled out the survey, but I think many of the people who filled out the survey may be your regulars who clearly favor registration. It’s the fringe browsers who would not register and who you cut out of the discussion with registration.
I guess what I’m pointing to is a sampling error in your survey — the survey by its nature self-selects people predisposed to registration in the first place.
I like having an optional typekey identity. I think it is a good thing particularly for people who have had their identities used by the troll, like Crown Heights Proud and Bx2Bklyn. I think that you should maintain the option to post anonymously but there is a nice quality about getting to know the regular posters — people over time who have helped so much with my renovation and with various advice as well as the truly entertaining folks as well. As far as usage, I click in periodically throughout the day and
at times have to order myself back to work. By the way, Mr. B. I check in on the weekends too, but I am all for your taking the weekends off. The forum is busy and I think that people can post on Open Houses (though if you are a serious buyer you may not be willing to share info which is “competitive”.) Anyway, thank you so much for your work. The site is great and has helped me immeasurably.
Don’t know why the above post didn’t show my typekey id Bx2Bklyn – I was signed in when I posted.
anon 4:45 & 10:58-
Wouldn’t you at some point, troll or not, have to give information to get an email address, even if it’s a freebie one? Somewhere down the line your information is there and can be found. I don’t know-I started to use typekey because I needed to establish that I am the actual bx2bklyn and not the troll who tortured myself and CHP (and still does.) Until you’ve been the brunt of a really malicious troll attack registration can seem unnecessary. Like Mr. B says,it’s important for the sense of community that develops on sites like this to have recognized identities. who would bother to read brownstoner if it was perceived as only trolls? Certainly it would have no credibility, and credibility is brownstoner’s stock in trade.
I try to protect my privacy as much as I can.One of those ways is to only post on sites that are trustworthy, that aren’t running malacious scripts, or downloading porn to your hard drive. I’m sure Mr. B has had hundreds of headaches over security issues and no one can protect anyone 100% of the time.
If anything, registering is adding protection. I also confess, sometimes posting anonymously is fun. All of us (except maybe bob marvin, who is a saint)have done it. Linus, you consistently post under that name and over time we’ve gotten an idea of who you are, your opinions, your personality. But what if the troll decides to post using your name and puts a link in a message that sends people to check out what turns out to be some of the most horrific pictures you can imagine? Because your identity is recognized on bronwstoner, the troll misleads people into checking out the link and it reflects back on you. I speak from experience, it’s a rotten feeling. happened to me and several others on brownstoner. stupid posts are easy to ignore (sorta), the links to those pictures were not.
I hate Typekey. Typekey is bad. Do not mandate Typekey. If you do your blog will wither away to nothing.
I wonder how many of those people that just commented against the use of Typekey are the troll?
re typekey registration:
I think its a bad idea.
1) it will not prevent trolling. People just need to not respond to the trolls and then they go away.
2) there are some topics that come up on this board that i think people would be hesitant to talk about if the board required any sort of registration.
3) Some people really prefer their privacy. Though brooklyn is a big place I fear some people might be afraid that they could be identified and might be hesitant to post b/c of that.
That said the site is great thanks 🙂