Future Hardware Idea

[macaddict]

I am getting so sick of wading through endless crap posted by new users coming to the board, claiming whatever specs for new hardware products and spawning a million replies and flame wars. There's a difference between speculating and posting "confirmed" info, and there are tons of new posters who just come along and splurge out new topics.

I say we make a rule that a new member must either wait a week or get ten posts before being allowed to post a new topic in Future Hardware. Hopefully it will tone down the endless spawning of pointless threads, like the twenty G5 threads we have going on now.

People who do have real info will hopefully post in an existing thread. And the last time we really got the scoop on new hardware was what, a year and a half ago?

[Paul]

Exactly!!

[EmAn]

I think that's a great idea. I'm also really getting sick of everything that's going on in FH.

[qazII]

[quote]Originally posted by MacAddict:
<strong>
I say we make a rule that a new member must either wait a week or get ten posts before being allowed to post a new topic in Future Hardware.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Great. So we get ten junk posts PLUS a junk topic.

[Paul]

[quote]Originally posted by qazII:
<strong>

Great. So we get ten junk posts PLUS a junk topic.</strong><hr></blockquote>

@ least we could then identify the poster as being a troll...

[CosmoNut]

I think something needs to be done, but I don't know that that will help. I don't have any ideas either, though.

[macaddict]

Then maybe forget the 10 posts part, keep the 1 week wait part.

Actually how about 1 month.

Nah, 1 year.

[Cosmo]

Its a great idea and would achieve its intended goal, however it also prevents people who really do have inside info from registering simply to post that info.

for example if i was going to break my NDA by posting here, i certainly wouldn't be using an account that can be traced back to my home computer. I would be going to a public place (internet cafe, etc), registering a new account and then posting.

It is a plan that works on paper, but i think it would discourage the few real insiders that we do get, thus defeating the purpose of a board that strives fo as much inside info as possible.

Look at Time, for example. I could be wrong but i thought he registered simply to post his info. He had real info that was correct. If he had had to wait a week after registering he couldn't have posted.

The proposed plan works on paper...but so does communism.

cheers :cool:

[qazII]

How about a "New Rumors" forum?

1. FH would have no more of these usually-worthless threads.
2. Anyone who wanted to ignore them could just stay in FH.
3. If anyone wants to see all the current rumors out there, he or she would be able to do it much more easily as it would all be in the New Rumors forums, which would have relatively infrequent new threads. All threads which did not impart new information would be locked/moved.

[Logan Cale]

Just leave it like it is. I for one like the "endless crap" as it's what makes Future Hardware what it is. The stories people come up with, "CONFIRMED!", all that. It's part of AI history and it's entertaining.

[macaddict]

[quote]It's part of AI history and it's entertaining.<hr></blockquote>

It really isn't though. Back in say, 1999, the Hardware (not Future Hardware) forum wasn't trolled, flamed, and spammed with endless crap.

Maybe we could have one topic for "Insider Information", and combine the FH and CH threads. I dunno...we just get so much crap from new users. I just went to FH to see 5 threads, all by users with less than 10 posts, which in no way should be in FH. Luckily, they were locked quickly.

[agent302]

personally, i think a could way to get rid of all the crap is for the mods to delete threads, rather than just locking them.

[Amorph]

I would say that people posting random, off-topic threads in FH is a bigger problem than rumor trollers, based on the number of threads per day I end up moving.

However: The fact is that FH is an attractive destination for trollers. Why? Because anything that looks like a rumor is all but guaranteed to spawn a lovefest filled with demands for proof, insults, debates about the authenticity of every other rumormonger in the board's history, and maybe, if fortune is smiling, an interesting subthread discussing actual technical merit.

Just to make things worse, nobody sane with inside information is going to post anything like proof, because it can be traced right back to them. So there's no way to tell a real insider from a clever troll.

So what can we do? Well, trolls want replies. That's the whole point. They don't care what kind of replies - although the more colorful they are, the better. The biggest hurt we can inflict on a troller is to let him watch his topic sink off the first page with 0 replies. Flaming them (or the people who do reply to them) just encourages them. Flaming real insiders (and speculators) will probably drive them off the boards.

So, if you're interested in a cleaner, more hospitable Future Hardware:

[1] Only post topics concerned with future Apple hardware there.

[2] Don't reply to any thread you think is a troll.

[3] Don't go into attack-dog mode at the slightest whiff of a rumor. This is related to [2]. Flames and rudeness drive off good posters, drain any intellectual merit out of discussions, and attract and encourage trolls.

[4] This is one of the oldest rules of USENET, the world's oldest online discussion forum, and it ties into [3]: Never, ever post while angry.

Stay calm, be nice, and have fun. That's what we're all here for, right?