Whenever there's a forum, there are three kinds of trolls: 1. automated spambots selling viagra 2. abusers(page wideners, goatse, etc) 3. n00bs who won't search for answers first
#1 is solved by captchas #2 is solved by not allowing html tags and breaking down long words For #3... How do we force new users to search for answers before creating a duplicate thread on issues that has been addressed already? In many forums, new members are not allowed to post for x amount of days. However, this may hinder a potentially useful input. A method I thought of was letting new users post whatever they want, but requiring them to come back in a few hours to comfirm the post. This will deter lots of impulsive posts, but this too may hinder a potentially useful input although it's less restrictive. The general idea behind the methods for reducing #3 is _making the process of posting more complicated for new users_. This is operating under the assumption that new users who will be useful to the community will have the patience to deal with the extra steps, and those who are impatient are useless to the community. It also assumes that the old users will never turn into trolls, since we aren't putting any checks on old users. Has anyone ever dealt with designing a forum that effectivly reduced trolling? I'm designing one for a growing community, and it's important that we enhance signal-to-noise ratio while welcoming all new users. So far, my favorite discussion system is Slashdot, but I'm afraid that Slashdot is too complicated for new users, and also useless for a small community that's unwilling to bother with moderation. I'd be happy to see good examples. Thanks. ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
