Forum Boss
Administrator
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.
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.
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