REGISTRATION FEE - WOULD YOU OBJECT?

[HRHSaintMamazon]

just seen that yet another troll has gotten in and caused one of the more prolific and well loved members of the site to leave.

This is getting to be more than just an occasional annoyance.
we seem to have become victims of our own sucess. we are all so fabulouse we are attracted a much wider audience, thoguh sadly as we become more popular we appear on teh radar of a few nutballs too.

How would we feel about the possibility of a 50p joining fee.
obviously this would have to be paid either via card or paypal so there would be some kind of verification of the persons ID.
it would mean that if trollery was supsected MN would find it easier to investigate, if the poster seemed to be in trouble MN qould be in a position to help organise real help.

but mostly it would deter the 14 year olds joing to post about pube's or incest or whatever.

The fee would be minimal so that its not too restrictive.

What do you think? woudl it work? would it be workable from MNHQ perspective or would it cause other red tape type problems?

I just really think we need to do something before the site implodes.

Who?!

EP?

i thought dynamic ip addresses were the norm, afaik you have to pay extra for a static one.

in answer to the op
no I wouldn't object

The thing I like about this forum is that it is self regulating. Lots of mods=A.N.other site, boring and fluffy and deleted as soon as anything slightly interesting happens.

Simply - because it's very simply to get a new IP address

but even all the talk of how terrible/disgusting it is that cod has had to leave mn because of being caught up with in rl is all irelevant to the rest of us surely.

The only reason why someone from rl could be nasty to cod on mn is because she has obviously made herself identifyable to people in rl.

It's easily done.

I know that if people from rl came looking for me it wouldn't be that hard to find me, because although I haven't posted my name or address I have posted identifyable information about me (where I live, fact I am VI/have guide dog etc) it wouldn't be that hard to put the pieces together.

I have recognized someone from a newspaper artacle and subsequent blog who now posts on mn.

And invariably we don't mean to identify ourselves - we just become more and more comfortable in our mn environment, and before we know it we're giving away info.

Imo rather than charging people, there needs to be more emphasis on the fact that this is in fact a public website which is open to anyone, from anywhere, and that if you post identifyable information about yourself, you sssentially only have yourself to blame if someone tracks you down and threatens you in any way.

Hear hear wannaBe.

in general, residential accounts have dynamic IP addresses and business accounts have static IP addresses (a bit sweeping but usually true I beleive)

Good, just and fair post on that other thread.

We'll all have forgotten by morning (until we notice a strangely unnerving improvement in the quality of spelling on the board )

I agree with wannabee except for "you sssentially only have yourself to blame if someone tracks you down" - I don;t think thtis is fair. You give out more personal information to strangers in real life and don;t expect someone to turn up on your doorstep and start harrasing you. However if they di then you should trwat them the same intenet or RL. Its ALL real life, t'interweb is just another method od communication, people are not entited to break the law.

I think, Kew, we should all remember that information given online is essentially more important because people can use it against you anonymously and with less (perceived) fear of reprisal.

Not your fault that some nutter wants to give you a hard time, but undoubtedly your fault if you've left yourself open to it.

Why not have a two-tier membership system?

So a registration fee of £10 say for people who use the site a lot - maybe a perk being that they get to enter MN competitions or something ... and free entry for others who choose not to. Obviously the ones who choose not to are the ones who's IDs have not been verified etc

Yep, Justine's. Measured, I thought.

typos corrected for wannabe's software

I agree with wannabe except for "you essentially only have yourself to blame if someone tracks you down" - I don't think this is fair. You give out more personal information to strangers in real life and don't expect someone to turn up on your doorstep and start harrassing you. However if they did then you should treat them the same, internet or RL. Its ALL real life, t'interweb is just another method of communication, people are not entitled to break the law.

yes Davina - thats sort of why I agree with wannabe's point. Be aware of that what you disclose can be used against you, just dont agree with "its your fault".

fair point kew perhaps I worded it wrongly.

Essentially what I mean is, all too often we see posts from people on here saying that they're leaving because someone in rl has read their posts and knows about the situation they're in etc etc. People are too comfortable on here sometimes IMO, and will often write about things they wouldn't dream about telling people in rl. And they seem to have this idea that it's anonomous on here - it isn't.

so by the "if people track you down" I by no means meant that you were at fault if someone broke the law, more that if your private life which you have posted on mn becomes public knowledge in rl, only you are accountable for that because if you didn't want people in rl to know then you shouldn't be posting it on a public website.

lol kew no it was just my crap typing.

Ok scratch that idea then .

I have membership on another forum (currently dormant) where non-paying people can read the threads but can't post and they also have member-only events which non-payers can't access unless they cough up. Trolls or other timewasters seem to be banned by their IP address which is what made me wonder if that was possible in this instance. That's more of a social networking/dating site though... not a support/friendship forum. I couldn't agree more about not giving out info on the internet but sometimes we don't always realise that we're doing it.

I am mixed on the idea. I can see where it's coming from but not everyone has a card or paypal. I would end up having to use my Mum's card to do it. What about the posts on other forums telling people to ask a question here? If someone came here desperate because their LO was feeding all night or they didn't know what to do about weaning because everyone was telling them to do it at 6 weeks would they want to faff with filling in card details? TBH I don't know of another site I would want them to go to if they were desperate about any child rearing issue.

Maybe another option would be to have certain areas open - like the important advice ones (feeding boards for example) - and some that are locked for members only. Still it may be difficult for some people to do if they don't have a card.

Simplysally you can change your IP address very easily. If you look at the wargh thread you'll see that certain members got themselves banned several times from another IP blocking forum.