LRC Without Anonymous Posts

wejo wrote:

Although as one poster pointed out, even now we record your ipaddress when you post, so behind the scenes it's not totally anonymous and we in our privacy provisions" "6) You acknowledge that your identity is not a secret whether or not you reveal your name in your posts. Your IP address is tracked. As a result others, including LetsRun.com, may be able to figure out who you are and thus your identity may be revealed to others."

Wrong. Do you keep up with legal tech news? You have a number, not a name. And that was recently ruled by a federal judge. I've been banned but guess what...you banned my neighbor, not me. PayPal was DDoS'd by the office a floor below where I work, not me. That's why IP can no longer recognize as being legal enough.

Also, if anyone besides mods and admins are able to gain an IP address from someone's post you have a serious security issue, and you could potentially become a hostage of your own privacy policy.

People can be required to register and then post with fake anonymous email addresses. Welcome to the new thing you just gotta deal with in life.

The real solution would be this: you know how you select subject categories when you post new threads? Get an updated board where those categories already exist and you post in them, i.e.-distance running, track, nutrition, training, and NON-RUNNING RELATED all in their own corner of the forums. And then instead of mods just cherry picking posts and deleting entire threads they actually would have to work, moving off-topic threads to proper categories.

Not sure why this doesn't happen already. Its not like it's tough or expensive. I think it's just a matter of motivation for the admins. Sooner or later something will happen and there will be.

  wrote:

Get an updated board where those categories already exist and you post in them, i.e.-distance running, track, nutrition, training, and NON-RUNNING RELATED all in their own corner of the forums.

That would also be a big plus.

Déjà Vu wrote:

The other day, the front page was proud to say that "LRC Message Boarders Do It Again" regarding the inside info about Solinsky dropping out of the Olympic Trials, but what price do we pay? Are these nice little "scoops" once or twice a year genuinely worth the other 95% of the anonymous posts with their incessant trolling, spam, profanity, racism, and misogynistic comments?

Yes.

Nobody cares if Solinsky does whatever. He never medalled and was forgotten until some troll posted useless dribble on him.

YES

For the people saying that this is the only running board with lots of traffic, you are living in a tiny tiny letsrun.com bubble. Runner's world has 6 or 6 different formus that all get more traffic than Lets Runs board gets. Sure it is made up of mostly recreational runners, not dilussional high school kids who think they know more about training than the actual elites, but there are many more of them than there are of you.

J.R. wrote:

* wrote:

It can be useful to switch up names depending on what you are talking about or to not effect people's opinions of you when you regularly post with a different name.

Huh????

Your point seems to be the same as Wejo's.

I have no idea why anyone would want to do this. I'm fine posting anything that I want to say, with the same nickname each time. Why aren't you?

If you saw a post from Flagpole or Sagarin or some other regular you would have a pre-conceived opinion about what they are about to say based on what they have said in the past.

If they chose to post under a different name, they could speak without receiving prejudice based on their screen name.

* wrote:

If you saw a post from Flagpole or Sagarin or some other regular you would have a pre-conceived opinion about what they are about to say based on what they have said in the past.

If they chose to post under a different name, they could speak without receiving prejudice based on their screen name.

Don't agree with this at all. People have different opinions and as long as they're making a valid point I'll respect their opinion even if I don't agree with it. That's what makes for a good discussion. I'd be more likely to respond to a someone that I'd seen posting before (even if they only had a handful of posts) than to some random new name that I'll never see again.

The board is set up as a schizophrenic dungeon right now.

I think it would be great if everyone have to post using one, registered username. In addition to getting rid of a lot of the offensive posting (Déjà Vu makes a lot of sense), it shouldn't stop people from posting whatever they want, unless they're afraid to own what they write, in which case they have bigger issues anyway.

YEAH! wrote:

For the people saying that this is the only running board with lots of traffic, you are living in a tiny tiny letsrun.com bubble. Runner's world has 6 or 6 different formus that all get more traffic than Lets Runs board gets. Sure it is made up of mostly recreational runners, not dilussional high school kids who think they know more about training than the actual elites, but there are many more of them than there are of you.

true that. RW has it's own little gestapo mod or two but the majority of the discussions there make this place look like a joke.

It's the rare gem from Canova or some other person putting up some higher-end training that's all this place is good for. And increasingly all that stuff is found with the search button since so many imbeciles felt compelled to run all the legit guys away.

I post all of my posts on other message boards under my facebook page with my real name. I find that most insulting posts on other boards are put up by cowards hiding behind their user names ashamed of who they are and what they do. I think it would be great idea if we started doing it here.

Star wrote:

I'd be more likely to respond to a someone that I'd seen posting before (even if they only had a handful of posts) than to some random new name that I'll never see again.

The board is set up as a schizophrenic dungeon right now.

* is a pretty random name. I guess I have used it often enough for you to feel comfortable to respond.

I think the content of the post and the not the name is what gets people to respond.

At least using the same name within a thread is needed to keep a conversation going, though.

If I made this specific post with a different name then it wouldn't make sense and would like I am speaking for someone else.

I still think using one name can be used to establish yourself as a regular character and other names could be used on more controversial thoughts.

Political discussions are a good venue to use a different name.

Friends shouldn't really talk politics or religeon, especially if they have different beliefs. It just strains the relationship.

But if you can speak as someone else, you can be more free to be honest about what you think.

Some people think posting anonymously makes it easier to lie.

I think it makes it easier to speak truthfully, without repercussions of judgement.

You get to see radicals, cheaters and racists speak.

It is really revealing to what is actually out there vs. the perception of a tamer society.

Let's not kid ourselves. This is really simple economics.

Do you pay to participate on this site? No.

Does the site generate revenue? Yes.

That depends on traffic and traffic depends on content. There are plenty of people (myself included) who are pretty serious runners that enjoy the more serious running topics on the boards but also really enjoy the mindless trolling and silly topics as a distraction.

If I was a brojo I would be very reluctant to change the basic structure of the site. There are some modern enhancements that could be made with some investment but I bet the usage statistics tell them that they can just keep doing what they are doing for the time being.

Ban the really offensive stuff, tolerate the immaturity and encourage the real content.

By limiting each poster to one handle you would tell potential advertisers "We've got 6000 registered users." But right now they can say, "Over 25000 posters contribute to the site." (Numbers completely fabricated but you get the point, maybe it is 10X or 100X?)

* wrote:

* is a pretty random name. I guess I have used it often enough for you to feel comfortable to respond.

I think the content of the post and the not the name is what gets people to respond.

At least using the same name within a thread is needed to keep a conversation going, though.

If I made this specific post with a different name then it wouldn't make sense and would like I am speaking for someone else.

I still think using one name can be used to establish yourself as a regular character and other names could be used on more controversial thoughts.

How many anonymous names do you need!?

Why can't you be the same (anonymous) person when you're giving advice on training and when your talking about politics?

You sound like you're afraid of what people think of you even though they only know you as an anonymous name on the internet.

I change my name on here all the time. But that's only because of the way it's set up at the minute. I'd be more than happy to use the same name if the change was made.

I think the thread title is still misleading. The general consensus is that everything should remain anonymous right?

So the argument is whether the board should be 'upgraded' and require people to post under a single username. This gets a YES vote from me anyway.

I just like to add that if the Brojos are going to consider this, vBulletin is apparently the top dog when it comes to forum software.

My opinion is that they should not limit usernames.

Furthermore, they need to ease up on the deleting of posts and threads.

Iv'e seen pretty good discussions get wiped away because someone didn't like the opinions expressed or was simply on a power trip.

They will do whatever they choose to do.

The end produduct is the quantity and quality of the discussions.

Some people will leave becuase there is too much junk here.

Some people will leave if it gets to boring here.

I seem to be able to filter through the junk and find ineteresting stuff.

Putting limits will reduce the interesting stuff.

Dick Doobey wrote:

...but also really enjoy the mindless trolling and silly topics as a distraction. ... Ban the really offensive stuff, tolerate the immaturity and encourage the real content.

That is much easier said than done. If the "mindless trolling" really means that much to you, you will probably need to accept the fact that it is cultivated by a wide-open environment where racist comments, personal attacks, and profanity laden rants can be posted as well. Those little gems may last for hours or even days before the LRC moderators remove then.

As far as banning is concerned, once again that is easier said than done. As Wejo himself implied a bit earlier in the discussion, the most problematic people will find ways around IP-based bans, and it really isn't that difficult to do. On the other hand, mandatory screen name registration and a 24-hour delay before you are allowed to post would eliminate the vast majority of those ugly posts without necessarily sacrificing anonymity.

wejo wrote: We think anonymity leads to better discussion.

Although as one poster pointed out, even now we record your ipaddress when you post, so behind the scenes it's not totally anonymous and we in our privacy provisions"

I think this is the best approach. Not knowing who is at the other end works better when bans are imposed. That way you can't be accused of picking on a specific person.

Rather than ban IP addresses, which can be abused, ban nicks. That forces someone who is trying to create trouble to use different nicks in a thread. The thread either gets deleted or the thread dies due to lack of interest: a poster apparently no longer responding.