PLEASE READ We Need Your Support for Increased Security

[Darwin]

Done.

 

[MattS]

Done!

I’m 36 and value all the knowledge that is handed out freely on this wonderful site, a lot of the guys that post/pm info or recommendations have spent years figuring this stuff out. Wish that half the members would step up and pay $20 minimum!

 

[Al Lu]

Done

 

[pirate ammo]

come on,, do it, take the plunge, I did,82 replies thats chicken squat, I'm going to irritate everyone till they do it to SHUT me up,,darn pirate

 

[W54]

The other thing I want to add -- if ANYone sends you a PM saying they want to sell you something, check their profile to find when they signed up. If they have been on the site for 30 days or less, do NOT give them any money. Not one dime.
.

On another shooting forum the scammers / spammers / professional trolls have gotten a bit more sophisticated and are doing registrations then letting them sit idle for 3 to 4 months before posting up their scam/spam/troll

 

[Dave in WI]

Did my little part.

 

[DirtySteve]

come on,, do it, take the plunge, I did,82 replies thats chicken squat, I'm going to irritate everyone till they do it to SHUT me up,,darn pirate

Stop bothering me. I did it.... Lol..

 

[muleman69]

Guys,
This is a pitch to get more members to upgrade their accounts. The reason is to raise funds to hire a Forum Watch-Dog.

Since the beginning of August, in an effort to cut down the spammers and scammers, I have personally checked and vetted EVERY new registration for the Forum. This involves running IP searches, checking the stated location, sending challenge emails, and other more sophisticated checks with ID-tracking security systems.

We have blocked many suspicious signups already, both foreign and domestic.

That's good. But what's not so good is the time involved. I've already spent one hour so far this morning. I may spend another hour today in two half-hour sessions.

Two hours every day of the year is 730 man-hours.
That is 18.25 forty-hour weeks of labor! (4.5 months of 40-hr weeks).

I am already working 3300+ hours a year.

This just isn't sustainable... and it takes me away from more important tasks. I would normally have a Bulletin story done by now. I haven't even started.

Accordingly we need to hire a person specifically tasked with vetting new members. That will take money.

Right now 3% of site members have upgraded. We need to raise that number.

If you want us to help protect you from scammers, we need the resources to fight back. Yes we already use sophisticated Firewall systems and other barriers, but the scammers can fake their locations. We already block 80% of the countries in the world.

I am also sending out individual communications to new sign-ups where a problem is likely but not certain -- I ask them tough questions. That takes time -- It takes 5 minutes to confirm a good ID. But something suspicious may take 15 minutes. 15 minutes of my time just to block one sign-up.

I see there is almost 3000 viewers, how many updates did you receive? Are you getting close to your goal?

 

[dbaird]

Guys,
This is a pitch to get more members to upgrade their accounts. The reason is to raise funds to hire a Forum Watch-Dog.

Since the beginning of August, in an effort to cut down the spammers and scammers, I have personally checked and vetted EVERY new registration for the Forum. This involves running IP searches, checking the stated location, sending challenge emails, and other more sophisticated checks with ID-tracking security systems.

We have blocked many suspicious signups already, both foreign and domestic.

That's good. But what's not so good is the time involved. I've already spent one hour so far this morning. I may spend another hour today in two half-hour sessions.

Two hours every day of the year is 730 man-hours.
That is 18.25 forty-hour weeks of labor! (4.5 months of 40-hr weeks).

I am already working 3300+ hours a year.

This just isn't sustainable... and it takes me away from more important tasks. I would normally have a Bulletin story done by now. I haven't even started.

Accordingly we need to hire a person specifically tasked with vetting new members. That will take money.

Right now 3% of site members have upgraded. We need to raise that number.

If you want us to help protect you from scammers, we need the resources to fight back. Yes we already use sophisticated Firewall systems and other barriers, but the scammers can fake their locations. We already block 80% of the countries in the world.

I am also sending out individual communications to new sign-ups where a problem is likely but not certain -- I ask them tough questions. That takes time -- It takes 5 minutes to confirm a good ID. But something suspicious may take 15 minutes. 15 minutes of my time just to block one sign-up.

Why not require one to be a silver or gold member before being allowed to buy or sell. Also upgrade options such as $100 for gold or maybe $200 for platinium. As it is now only a small percentage of users donate to this site.
Keep up the good work-what I have learned from this site and friends I have made money can’t buy.

 

[Steve Ladino]

Guys,
This is a pitch to get more members to upgrade their accounts. The reason is to raise funds to hire a Forum Watch-Dog.

Since the beginning of August, in an effort to cut down the spammers and scammers, I have personally checked and vetted EVERY new registration for the Forum. This involves running IP searches, checking the stated location, sending challenge emails, and other more sophisticated checks with ID-tracking security systems.

We have blocked many suspicious signups already, both foreign and domestic.

That's good. But what's not so good is the time involved. I've already spent one hour so far this morning. I may spend another hour today in two half-hour sessions.

Two hours every day of the year is 730 man-hours.
That is 18.25 forty-hour weeks of labor! (4.5 months of 40-hr weeks).

I am already working 3300+ hours a year.

This just isn't sustainable... and it takes me away from more important tasks. I would normally have a Bulletin story done by now. I haven't even started.

Accordingly we need to hire a person specifically tasked with vetting new members. That will take money.

Right now 3% of site members have upgraded. We need to raise that number.

If you want us to help protect you from scammers, we need the resources to fight back. Yes we already use sophisticated Firewall systems and other barriers, but the scammers can fake their locations. We already block 80% of the countries in the world.

I am also sending out individual communications to new sign-ups where a problem is likely but not certain -- I ask them tough questions. That takes time -- It takes 5 minutes to confirm a good ID. But something suspicious may take 15 minutes. 15 minutes of my time just to block one sign-up.

Sent mine in last week

 

[wedgy]

I just upgraded and would like to see some scammer corpses....

 

[Link]

Sent mine in last week

about 4 weeks ago. I don't sell but try to buy once in a while. All the info is worth a donation, thanks Don

 

[Milo 2.0]

Truthfully, I think I've made my last contribution to this site. The incessant whining for more money is a turn off. There are more BS posts than anything concerning accuracy these days.
Adding a couple dedicated members as moderators to help would be free and simple. Getting business's advertising on here to pony up for site sponsorship instead of a gold or silver ribbon may generate some revenue too.
This is the only gun forum I belong to that solicits money from members.

 

[Forum Boss]

The problem with restricting the Trader boards is that a successful board needs lots of items and lots of potential buyers. We ARE looking at the idea of reducing the number of free adverts that non-paying members can create. But we do think it is important to allow guys to test the system a few times.

The biggest issue is how to block bad guys from ever getting here. Doing the manual screening every day for two weeks now has helped me identify repetitive suspicious patterns. More importantly, it has helped me better identify the legitimate guys.

But unfortunately I don't see a substitute at this time for manual intervention. And yes, that is still taking up to two HOURs a day.

 

[Tommie]

Truthfully, I think I've made my last contribution to this site. The incessant whining for more money is a turn off. There are more BS posts than anything concerning accuracy these days.
Adding a couple dedicated members as moderators to help would be free and simple. Getting business's advertising on here to pony up for site sponsorship instead of a gold or solver ribbon may generate some revenue too.
This is the only gun forum I belong to that solicits money from members.

Your point is understandable. I am/was a member on other sites as well, however NONE come close to this site’s level of quality and content. There’s a lot more here than just a chat forum.

 

[JRS]

We need a Hall of Shame listing not only the scammers user name, but also the persons real name.

 

[answerman]

bump

 

[bobinpa]

I wonder how many members are one timers? How many have contributed to become a silver or gold member only once, then let it lapse..... OR Better question, how many continue to log in and learn and enjoy the forum after they let their silver or gold status lapse? I would hope that number is small. Personally, I'd be embarrassed to continue to log in if I did that.

 

[clunker]

I rarely donate to websites, but this one is worth it. Between the mortgage and student loans, I don't have much to spend, but I just ponied-up for a silver membership. The valuable advice and quality control here is outstanding, and this is coming from a guy who spends A LOT of time doing forum research. Thanks Boss for the great resource and responsible management of forum members.

 

[bobinpa]

I was just reading some of the articles on the bulletin and thought "this is really a great forum". Let's see if we can get a few more upgrades for the boss.....