Require Forum Contributors to be Verified

[kangarunner]

I am making this request to change the forum to improve it and weed out the scammers, trolls, and fake people on here.

On Happier Abroad, Winston talks about being real, being authentic, being genuine.

The change would be as follows:

Anyone can publicly VIEW the forum and its contents.

BUT

Only members who have Verified profiles can be contributors. Verified means providing real name and real photo.

This makes the forum more authentic and real.

What do you guys think?

[Pixel--Dude]

I am making this request to change the forum to improve it and weed out the scammers, trolls, and fake people on here.

On Happier Abroad, Winston talks about being real, being authentic, being genuine.

The change would be as follows:

Anyone can publicly VIEW the forum and its contents.

BUT

Only members who have Verified profiles can be contributors. Verified means providing real name and real photo.

This makes the forum more authentic and real.

What do you guys think?

I don't really like the idea of having to use my real name and picture on the forum for privacy reasons.

[galii]

What is more real?

Real picture and name plus Flat Earth convictions
No avatar with Globe Earth convictions

I think the second one

[kangarunner]

Well, I can understand privacy concerns. Maybe by adding a "reputation" score similar to how Reddit does "karma".

Your post is "Upvoted" = higher reputation score

Your post is "Downvoted" = lower reputation score

[Cornfed]

The obvious problem with posting under your own name is that we live in a time when saying anything contrary to the insane propaganda evil regime causes you to be subject to persecution.

[kangarunner]

The obvious problem with posting under your own name is that we live in a time when saying anything contrary to the insane propaganda evil regime causes you to be subject to persecution.

No, just being "verified" by a Moderator. Not showing your real name and real photo public.

[publicduende]

No, just being "verified" by a Moderator. Not showing your real name and real photo public.

Yes, but that gives the Moderator a massive (and unfair) leverage over every Member. The moment you get some beef with the wrong Mod (who verified you), your public details will be in the open.

[Lucas88]

I am making this request to change the forum to improve it and weed out the scammers, trolls, and fake people on here.

On Happier Abroad, Winston talks about being real, being authentic, being genuine.

The change would be as follows:

Anyone can publicly VIEW the forum and its contents.

BUT

Only members who have Verified profiles can be contributors. Verified means providing real name and real photo.

This makes the forum more authentic and real.

What do you guys think?

You're asking Winston to moderate a forum which he leaves abandoned most of the time. I don't think that such a measure like the one which you have proposed is even necessary. I think that active and sensible moderation would be enough to separate the trolls and low-effort shitposters from the genuine serious posters. Winston enforces barely any quality control on his site and doesn't seem to care that it's going to shit but @jamesbond is an active member and could easily become an active, hands-on type of moderator too.

What I've noticed, @kangarunner, is that there is a small group of genuine, serious and relatively active new members which includes myself, yourself, @WilliamSmith, @Outcast9428, @Pixel--Dude, and @WanderingProtagonist who have injected much life into this forum in recent months. Then there are some long-time members such as @gsjackson, @Tsar, @Cornfed and @MrMan who also continue to contribute to good discussions here (sorry if I've missed anybody but the muggy weather these last few days isn't favoring my memory).

However, as soon as some of the key heavyweights go on a short hiatus and the long-term members lose interest and become inactive, all we are left with is the insincere, disruptive, lame-ass, shit-for-brains trolls and shitposters who only come here to derail otherwise worthwhile threads, antagonize people with cheap insults and accusations of mental illness, talk shit about Flat Earth in threads that have absolutely nothing to do with FE, spam the forum with low-effort shitposts, and generally bring down the quality of the forum for existing members and potential newcomers. Such dipshits are nothing more than a nuisance and bring nothing of value to the forum whatsoever and should be swiftly dispatched with in my opinion.

We have to ask ourselves what we want for the forum: a sensibly moderated online space for serious and genuine discussion or an open sewer that attracts all of the worse kinds of vermin?

[galii]

I am making this request to change the forum to improve it and weed out the scammers, trolls, and fake people on here.

On Happier Abroad, Winston talks about being real, being authentic, being genuine.

The change would be as follows:

Anyone can publicly VIEW the forum and its contents.

BUT

Only members who have Verified profiles can be contributors. Verified means providing real name and real photo.

This makes the forum more authentic and real.

What do you guys think?

You're asking Winston to moderate a forum which he leaves abandoned most of the time. I don't think that such a measure like the one which you have proposed is even necessary. I think that active and sensible moderation would be enough to separate the trolls and low-effort shitposters from the genuine serious posters. Winston enforces barely any quality control on his site and doesn't seem to care that it's going to shit but @jamesbond is an active member and could easily become an active, hands-on type of moderator too.

What I've noticed, @kangarunner, is that there is a small group of genuine, serious and relatively active new members which includes myself, yourself, @WilliamSmith, @Outcast9428, @Pixel--Dude, and @WanderingProtagonist who have injected much life into this forum in recent months. Then there are some long-time members such as @gsjackson, @Tsar, @Cornfed and @MrMan who also continue to contribute to good discussions here (sorry if I've missed anybody but the muggy weather these last few days isn't favoring my memory).

However, as soon as some of the key heavyweights go on a short hiatus and the long-term members lose interest and become inactive, all we are left with is the insincere, disruptive, lame-ass, shit-for-brains trolls and shitposters who only come here to derail otherwise worthwhile threads, antagonize people with cheap insults and accusations of mental illness, talk shit about Flat Earth in threads that have absolutely nothing to do with FE, spam the forum with low-effort shitposts, and generally bring down the quality of the forum for existing members and potential newcomers. Such dipshits are nothing more than a nuisance and bring nothing of value to the forum whatsoever and should be swiftly dispatched with in my opinion.

We have to ask ourselves what we want for the forum: a sensibly moderated online space for serious and genuine discussion or an open sewer that attracts all of the worse kinds of vermin?

We want emotionally fragile guys like you who call others dipshit because they can not handle other opinions. Being a misfit is not an excuse for acting like an asshole. Try behaving. Having a meltdown because Russian is ugly is weak. In Latin Amerika people do some worse things like killing. So relax.

[WilliamSmith]

No, just being "verified" by a Moderator. Not showing your real name and real photo public.

Yes, but that gives the Moderator a massive (and unfair) leverage over every Member. The moment you get some beef with the wrong Mod (who verified you), your public details will be in the open.

Yeah, I agree, and it will also inhibit new members from joining the forum because either independent/prideful and/or hesitant types aren't going to want to jump through this hoop of being cleared by mods, whether they're worried about unfair moderator leverage or not.

[Outcast9428]

I really don’t like this idea. 7 years ago I got doxxed by a moderator on the forum I was on at the time and it was pretty frightening.

[Shemp]

We have to ask ourselves what we want for the forum: a sensibly moderated online space for serious and genuine discussion or an open sewer that attracts all of the worse kinds of vermin?

You obviously are a newcomer here. Though I am not a moderator or forum owner, the choice above has been made repeatedly over the course of this forum's existence, and always in favor of the latter alternative.

[galii]

We have to ask ourselves what we want for the forum: a sensibly moderated online space for serious and genuine discussion or an open sewer that attracts all of the worse kinds of vermin?

You obviously are a newcomer here. Though I am not a moderator or forum owner, the choice above has been made repeatedly over the course of this forum's existence, and always in favor of the latter alternative.

Lukashenko wants guys like little Rasputin bring their valuable poetry.

[MrMan]

I am making this request to change the forum to improve it and weed out the scammers, trolls, and fake people on here.

On Happier Abroad, Winston talks about being real, being authentic, being genuine.

The change would be as follows:

Anyone can publicly VIEW the forum and its contents.

BUT

Only members who have Verified profiles can be contributors. Verified means providing real name and real photo.

This makes the forum more authentic and real.

What do you guys think?

I think I behave myself fairly well on the forum. I don't post with an intention to lie about people or insult them to provoke them.

But I want to keep my anonymity on here. One reason is, there have been a few posters who seem mentally unstable or just kind of mean, and I wouldn't want them to know my name and what I look like. I also enjoy a bit of freedom expressing my thoughts anonymously. With some of the topics we talk about here, certain opinions could get you in trouble with your employer or others in 'cancel culture.'

If you disagree with the LGBT movement and the sexual perversion it promotes, that can hurt you in your career. Just imagine what the racist posters could face.

Just practically, a lot of guys face criticism from people they know just for wanting to date foreign women, so why would we use our real names and pictures on the forums?

If we want to post under our own names, Facebook has that niche.

Clamping down on the more extreme cases of trolling and libeling people might be a good idea, but I haven't seen as much of that recently, so maybe Winston took care of some of that.

[Pixel--Dude]

This is why I suggested in the Señor Galimatías thread that we all form a vigilante group within the forum consisting of members who post serious contributions and posts of substance. It can be in the form of a thread with the same title. The basic idea is, since there is a perceived lack of interest on the part of Winston, that instead of relying on him to deal with trolls we just vote and if there is a majority we all just place said trolls in our foe list, which is essentially just like putting them on ignore. They will be relegated to sort of spectral onlooker whose comments cannot be seen by the majority of main posters. What do you guys think to the Vigilante Ghosting idea?

@kangarunner
@Lucas88
@WilliamSmith
@Tsar
@Outcast9428
@MrMan
@Cornfed
@gsjackson
@WanderingProtagonist

You guys tagged are who I interact with the most. But what do you think?