Spam

[rdprdp01]

Good morning, everyone. For the last few days, Cormanus, pdedse, and I have been trying to strike a balance:

• We want CB1100 enthusiasts throughout the world to have access to this Forum and the incredible data it has amassed regarding the CB1100, maintenance practices, rides, and everything else that binds us as a community.
  
• For those with whom it resonates beyond the query of the moment, we want people to join our community without enduring too much trouble during registration.
  
• We want the policies and bylaws we have published as conditions of joining the Forum to be followed and embraced by all Members.
  

Those policies and bylaws are what have helped set the tone and content of this Forum, which differs from others that can on occasion descend into questionable content, aggressive behavior, and needless distractions.

Since we went live, everything has gone according to plan until last week. As Cormanus documented, we experienced a run of SPAM posts that caused us to invest time and money in preserving what you helped build. If you find yourself asking "why now," the answer is simple: this Forum has become the preeminent destination for CB1100 owners. See one form of validation below:



The success of this Forum has made it a viable target for bad actors and those who wish to exploit our goodwill.

In response, new Members going forward can set up an account and start a new thread or reply to one. That content will initially be visible only to the new Member and Moderators. A Moderator will then review it and determine whether the new Member and posted content demonstrate a willingness to adhere to our standards and a sincere desire to contribute to our community. Because we have three active Moderators, a new Member should not have to wait more than 8 hours for appproval.

Once approved, the new Member will enjoy the same privileges as everyone else, and the post will be visible to all. If a new Member is simply trying to leverage our Forum for personal gain, the post will be disapproved, and the new Member will be banned.

Guests will still be allowed to view Forum content without registering, but they cannot make a post until they complete the validation process.

To make this nerdish workflow more transparent, see the results of our gating tests earlier today:

New Member sets up account and creates first post:



Submitted post is visible to the New Member. It can be edited or deleted by the New Member.



However, Guests to our Forum or other Registered Members cannot see the post because it has not been approved by a Moderator. As a Guest, the pending post is invisible:



And to a second Member account with no moderator privileges, it's equally invisible:



We are committed to keeping this Forum ad-free, spam-free, and engaging. Let us know if there is anything else we can do to help realize those three outcomes.

You can thank my trusted AI Advisor, Claude, for removing the foul language from this post and reminding me to follow the policies I helped author. SPAM and commercial exploiters elicit a powerful reaction from me. I suspect Anthropic may start billing me for therapy sessions soon.

For the balance of today, I am going to re-assemble a CB1100 Motorcycle that survived a fire. It has been thoroughly cleaned and now it needs to go for a proper ride. Enjoy your weekend.

David