Lookout for spam e-mail disguised as message from forum member!

[Mandycat]

One reason there may be so many Newbies with no posts is that there are other forums where you can't even read the posts without registering.  Many people may come here just to read and think that they also have to register.  Some may never come back, but still are registered, or they may have discovered that they can read the posts without logging on.  Just a thought.   

[dingbat]

Mandycat

may be true, but usually you can read the posts without registering, I do it all the time, go to different forums for all kinds of info, just can't post without registering.

I was really surprised to find out that there are that many newbies

db

[MarySmith]

Maybe the majority of newbies with zero posts joined during the main recall event and came here while doing a search. They may have forgotten to bookmark the page and therefore can't find their way back. I've searched a lot and later tried to find a page and could not. I've since learned to send myself emails with links, or just make a WordDoc with links, that way I CAN find my way back to interesting pages.

[Laurie]

  Ok maybe this does not belong here but I just recently discovered the "see who is on line" page. Everytime I go there there are quite a few guests looking at members profiles. The majority of profiles being looked at are members who have not posted in months. Some have not posted for almost a year. What's up with that??? Spammers looking for email addresses???

[Poco]

Laurie, you may have solved the mystery about that.  Could be looking for email addresses.

Another reason people might start an account just for reading is that guests cannot view attached pictures, only the embedded ones.  Ot maybe they just wanted to PM someone and ask them a question.  Many non-sinister reasons.

Are we getting xeonphobic or what?  Maybe people are joining the forum and get scared off before they post.

[JustMe]

Sure, a lot of them are looking for emails.  I see it on a regular basis. That's why I keep harping on blocking your emails.  They're constantly looking at members that have only posted once, twice, or never.  That was going on this morning.  A new member registered, went straight to looking at forum stats, then went straight to membership listings, then logged out without posting or looking at anything else. 

I might as well be spitting in the wind.

1.  Block your emails.
2.  Post links to newspaper articles etc., with a line or 2, but don't post the whole article unless you have permission to do so. 
3.  You are all responsible for your own individual posts.
4.  Internet is NOT anonymous.

[dingbat]

I might as well be spitting in the wind.

Ptooie

There are days that I just get tired of saying the same thing over and over again, duhhh, block your email address, oh well

By the way Justme didn't mention, that we did a little detective work and found out the newbie in question is a known spammer on the internet, 'nuff said

db

[JustMe]

YOU did the dectective work, dingbat.   Thank you very much.

I'm just the nosey one.

[ChelsAndPhoebs]

I'm a jr member and I'm sure it took more than 5 posts.  Seems like I was a newbie forever.

[ChelsAndPhoebs]

Oh wait, I see I'm a full member.  I'm not sure when that happened.  I don't know what I'm talking about....but I'm still sure it took more than 5 posts.

[catbird]

I believe that the number of posts necessary to reach any given "rank" has changed.  It was 25 to move out of newbie status back in July when I joined, was 100 for full member.  Sigh, how times have changed.

I'm betting that Itchmo may have changed something today when he enabled the setting that only allowed a newbie one PM.

[dingbat]

It was 25 to move out of newbie status back in July when I joined, was 100 for full member. 

See I knew it was more than 5 and 100 for full member, thought I was losing it there for a moment, well probably lost it some time ago, but sort of do remember some things, but then sometimes I do forget something or other, then sometimes I ramble on senselessly on and on about nothing, but then I forget what I was doing, oh well

db

[MarySmith]

2.  Post links to newspaper articles etc., with a line or 2, but don't post the whole article unless you have permission to do so. 

One thought regarding this - it might be well to keep a personal copy of the entire article because newspapers are noted for moving and deleting articles within a week or so.

[Poco]

The first few articles about the satellite the Pentagon is going to shoot down disappeared fast enough!  But the UK one is still there and some of the science web site ones are still there.

[Mandycat]

Newspapers generally only keep an article at the site you may have originally seen it on the day it was first published for a few days.  But, if you want to find it, you can usually go to the home page of the newspaper and search for it in their archives.