Some advice concerning the forum

[OutOfPlaceNinja]

I came back to the forum after your recent video about users coming to the forum to be sure you get their advice.

In your recent video you talked about being able to ban entire households, IP addresses, and reporting them and such. This is only partially true.

I have ran forums over the years and had to deal with my fair share of trolls. The "professional trolls" can and do use various methods to sidestep most attempts at keeping them out. IP addresses can change and usually do change on a router restart (there are exceptions but generally speaking they do). Simply unplugging ones router, waiting a few minutes or so, then plugging it back in will give them a new IP address most of the time and whoever gets their old IP address can't visit your forum since you banned it. IP bans are generally only useful in certain situations. I once had a determined troll who used Asian proxy servers and throwaway email accounts to register new accounts just to waste my time and cause chaos in my forum. I ended up trying to ban a large number of "open proxy servers" but ended up giving up since there are hundreds of thousands of open proxy servers around the globe. I didn't want to ban whole IP ranges or ban all IPs from a given country (such as China where there appears to be a huge number of open proxy servers) since there may be legitimate users in said country.

The only thing I found to work (most of the time) is requiring registration with an email and requiring confirmation of said email, mixed with moderating the first 20 or so posts of new users, then making a judgement call after such, and having captchas. You should also always keep the forum software up to date and use solid security practices. This kept out most "trolls" as it required them to spend a lot of time just to be able to troll. A very determined troll will go through such and for them about all you can do is ban their account and wait for them to go through the registration and moderation process again. Generally you can tell a troll since it seems they can't contribute 20 or so useful and meaningful threads/posts in a row. I have yet to find any "non professional troll" that can do such. If one can and does, keep your eye on them as they could be trouble.

Again, I would advise against banning IP addresses or email providers (except maybe those that are made for throwaways such as mailinator.com). Such bans could keep legitimate users from your forum in the long run.

Concerning YouTube, I have been using YouTube since before Google took it over. It has always had issues but Google has really screwed it up. It still remains decent for video hosting and maybe making some money, but the comment system is garbage. I suggest continuing to suggest users use the forum for communications when possible. Maybe make a still frame at the end of the video for 10-15 seconds with the forum url and a note and include a link in the description. With time, the good users will migrate I'm sure. The trolls may follow but they can be managed easier with a forum than with YouTube.

[Shiftlock]

YouTube comments are known for being a cesspool in general, and I would go as far as disabling them all together. For each video, create a comment thread here on the forum. Provide a link directly to it at the top of the video description. Problem solved.

Internet trolls are annoying, but what freaks me out is that some of them have taken it a step further and actually been out to Troy's property. That's a whole different thing.

[techman]

I have a strong sign up page which eliminated 98% of the spam. The rest I just manually delete when I see it. I delete their accounts and I can permanently ban their email address.

I generally do not get into IP banning due to what you said.

[techman]

YouTube comments are known for being a cesspool in general, and I would go as far as disabling them all together. For each video, create a comment thread here on the forum. Provide a link directly to it at the top of the video description. Problem solved.

Internet trolls are annoying, but what freaks me out is that some of them have taken it a step further and actually been out to Troy's property. That's a whole different thing.

I have long considered having all comment move to the forum but many people do not want to have yet another account. And YT uses comments to help rank a video in the search. So I hope to keep it clean.

It is annoying that simple trolling went from internet to my back yard.

[monroe]

I wonder if it might actually be worth doing so - there's a lot of constructive content here, and whilst naturally a lot of people won't make the move to the forum, I'm sure that a great many will. I can imagine the comments drama becoming tiresome, and with your own safety in mind it makes sense, at least to me anyway. I'm not entirely clued up on this, mind you, I've only been following the build since a few weeks prior to you moving into the house, but the fact that people are actually coming to your home concerns me.

It might be worth investing in some security - there's a handful of ideas here that are powered by solar and/or wind sources. I'd even suggest investing in some personal protection, although that might cause more controversy than its worth.

Did any further problems come of that telephone call to the authorities that you posted a while back?

[techman]

Wow, that is some cool stuff. But way out of my price range I am sure. I do plan to set up some solar powered IP cameras outside soon. One will be online full time for everyone to watch me work day or night.

I have a lot of motion sensing lights, battery powered cameras and self defense. For a while there someone was out here every Sunday and Wed when I was at church. Till I got more cameras. Caught one on video one night on a new night vision camera. Wont give any more details for now though.

Videos rank higher based on comments. More comments means higher rank = more views = higher income.

I am really thinking about it long and hard though.

[JimW]

Troy, when you do get the IP cameras set up, I would suggest that you post the links to them here on the forum - visible only to members. I kinda think that if you make the links public on youtube, or on the forum for anyone to see, then you will be getting a lot more spam and trolls on youtube. I could be wrong (I have been, many times, before!)

[techman]

Actually when all the cameras are live I will have them on a web page for the World to see at any time. I will sell ads to companies and put the ads on the web page around the camera view. Should be a hit and make some money on the side.

[george house]

troy, did i not see a ip wireless cam on the rail of the rv, i have some and not found the way to make them non lan cable, i'll get it some day, as the other fellow said, munroe, i think, if the trolls don't see the camera show wouldn't it be more secure. i watch your shows an d angiously wait for the next one. i think you said the more comments bad or good should mean more views = more money. never did get the formula, have a good day, it is -17 now at 2217 hrs.

[techman]

I will have some cameras visible for the public to see full time. Some will not be.

But think about it. Imaging the best security system in the World. I will have people around the clock watching my security cameras. Nobody in their right mind would want to come out here with that many people watching.

I am sure if somebody noticed anything out of place they would contact me or the police immediately.

Rich people pay thousands of dollars for such a service.