p2pnet Reader’s Writes
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Hi all:
I just said to someone in an email, “I either start monitoring, which is against what I believe, or I say ‘enough is enough’ and pack p2pnet in. And I’m very, very close to that. I’m spending more and more time trying to deal with fakes, phonies and pissed off people than posting, these days. I’ve been here since 3:20 am. It’s now 4:30 am and I haven’t even started on a story.”
I didn’t even mention hate mail.
I can’t block individuals – I don’t know who they are – and I was a click away from from instituting monitoring of all comment posts
But this would defeat the principle of freedom of speech.
p2pnet is what it is. If it has value, I’m glad, and I feel good about the fact I’m able to add another voice to the growing discontent ordinary people are increasingly showing against their governments and the corporation’s which rule them — or used to rule them.
If I start monitoring, it’ll make mockery of anonymous posting, and what p2pnet stands for.
If I, and others, can’t post freely because of a handful of people who aren’t playing with a full deck, then it’s a sad, sad world.
So please bear with me. If I have to start monitoring everything [read censoring], I might as well give up altogether.
Cheers! And all the best …
Jon
January , 2009
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February 2nd, 2009 at 9:22 am
I’m sorry to hear this Jon and I hope you don’t pack it in. I look at your site several times a day. Much more if the comment threads look interesting.
If someone wants to make stupid posts in reply, then I don’t really see how that’s your problem – they are the fools, not you. If this still gets to you, how about disabling comments altogether, perhaps? Try it for a week? After all, the important part is getting the articles out, not what some moron wants to post in response.
Just a thought. Hope this helps.
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:28 am
Hey Jon, have you tried using the Akismet plugin for Wordpress? It’s supposed to be pretty good at cutting down on comment spam.
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:39 am
@SteelWolf:
I do use Akismet, and it’s excellent for comment spam, even if it’s a bit overzealous at times. But I’m talking about people who hijack Reader’s Writes for their own purposes, and who post under different names.
@DRM Koolaid, “disabling comments altogether, perhaps?”. I wouldn’t want to do that. Comments are an invaluable and essential element of p2pnet, and they’re often the story in and of themselves.
Cheers!
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:47 am
make registering to post mandatory, with a valid email address. This takes a bit of the ‘anon’ out of the loop, and its unobtrusive, but adds a tweak of accountability by exposing a small amount of ‘who you actually are’.
its worked in the past, and might be worth considering.
on the other hand, you know my stance on all of this, I am not as resilient as you Jon and would be hacking puters by now.
stw
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:47 am
sorry, the above post is by surfer.
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:59 am
Ok, I can see that. I don’t see why you feel they devalue your articles though; they don’t. For every idiot post, there’s thousands of readers that will get the message in your article and ignore the buffoon. And don’t forget the various sites that repost your articles, spreading the word even further.
I can see you quitting unfortunately, but I really think that’s a real shame and it might make you feel like you “failed” although you haven’t really, because of all the good you’ve done over the years with p2pnet. You *have* made a difference.
May I suggest another reason for how you feel? I know that whenever I read about the latest Big Media extortion tactic, ACTA treaty crap and all the other shit that you expose, I feel a certain level of stress and anxiety over what seems to be an inexorable advance by corporate corruption to screw over the little guy. This stuff is depressing and stressful for anyone to read about.
So then, how uch more stress do *you* feel at having to spend all that time and effort to research and post about it? It must be enormous and is enough to get anyone down.
Perhaps this is the main reason you feel like quitting and the dodgy comments are merely the irritant that are pushing you over the edge?
Don’t let those corporate bastards grind you down.
If you wish to discuss how you feel about continuing or anything else in private email with me, please feel free.
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:02 am
That was supposed to read “So then, how much more stress…” Doh!
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:04 am
Maybe compulsory registration is the way to go. I’ll think about it.
Cheers!
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:16 am
Registration will get rid of most of the spam. But few of the true lunatics.
(Me i’m just to lazy to think of a name to type in)
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:21 am
be careful with the word censor he says
Jon listen to me Screw the haters theres a button called ‘delete’ lol
They want you to give in They want you to throw in the towel please dont there idiots
A blog is a powerful tool
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:29 am
I’m not throwing in the towel. I just get pissed off having to wade through all the equine excreta. heh
And like the man (or woman
) says, “Registration will get rid of most of the spam. But few of the true lunatics.”
p2pnet is to me kind of like direct channel to a bunch of friends, so I’m OK with telling people how I feel about things.
It may be unprofessional (as a friend who runs a fairly large site keeps telling me), but then, so am I.
Cheers!
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:37 am
“It may be unprofessional (as a friend who runs a fairly large site keeps telling me), but then, so am I.
”
lol. Cool.
I would like to add a little to Surfer’s good suggestion if I may.
Most forums require registration, which has the following benefits:
- It fosters an atmosphere of community, which reduces the tendency of silly/troll posts
- Like training dogs, people like boundaries and limits and will tend to misbehave and troll less. Posting clear forum rules helps with this
I think there’s another benefit, but it’s escaped me for the moment.
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:47 am
When it comes down to it, these people are trying to make you quit. I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of them was some sort of RIAA/MPAA/sh*thead lackey anyways. I’ve always appreciated the insight and other-side-of-the-story reporting you’ve done, but you need to put yourself first too. I’m not going to tell you whether to quit or not, but if anything I’d want you to do only what you feel is best for yourself. DRM Koolaid is right, though -You haven’t failed. Even if you stop, you’ve inspired a generation – you should be proud.
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:20 am
I also vote for registration. You have enough of a reader base to pull it off Jon.
February 2nd, 2009 at 11:23 am
If you make registration mandatory to post, expect a sharp decrease in comments and visitors.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Speaking as a true (gardening) lunatic, no, registration will not prevent me from posting. More flowers, less p2p, is my suggestion (notice tongue planted firmly in cheek).
Also, what everybody else said.
February 2nd, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Topix.net did the opposite: they removed registration.
And here are their results:
http://blog.topix.com/archives/000106.html
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:10 pm
+1 for registration, and maybe appointing some moderators, and of course the ever necessary ‘are you a bot’ text verify boxes, personally i like the simple math ones, rather than the “tell me what this indecipherable text says” ones, but thats up to you.
February 2nd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
I know we’ve had our differences and I also know what it’s like since I [actually we] run a free access server and anonymizer for anyone in range [wifi]. It’s community based and administered but it gets lots of assholes, of those mostly to break it or stop it.
Some days I want to unplug it or attack every last one of the pricks. Other days, which is most days, it provides some of the best info found on net and a sense of community that’s had to find in most towns or big cities. There’s a few that want it shut down and have it stay down. As soon as I found this out I keep it up on purpose, I guess by now you have figured out I’m stubborn old fart.
My and our worst enemies are actually Bell and Rogers ever since 9600 baud modem days. We caught them actually attacking it.
We leave the message area wide open so this way they don’t break in and cause worse damage. It’s the users who actually police themselves. Any shills are found out pretty quick and jumped on. “Put up or shut up” is our motto.
Our message board spam for sunday:
today week total
admin0 = 5737 17463
admin5 = 24804 59413
admin8 = 2535 3808
Our good messages are about 30 maybe 50 % of total messages.
In any case, no matter what you do you will have spam. With having messages secured it compounds the problem by having more experienced punks causing even worse problems. Having messages anonymous we get to see all kinds of comments and get a general idea of what’s going on. Ones too harsh we just delete.
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Registration FTW to get rid of the spammers >:(
February 2nd, 2009 at 3:26 pm
I, like others would love to embrace the entirety of the internet culture. However, if you are looking for quantity of postings, no registration required. If you are looking for quality of postings, then make the trolls register. This allows people to still post ‘anon’ behind their insecurity, yet leaves the admins an avenue to drop them like 3rd period French when they get out of control. And I dont mean the drunken posts by Chronnoss (however he spells it this week).
I for one am sportsman enough for a periodic battle of banter, but I lose interest when pummeling the stupid. Beating the ‘tards with a stick only solicits a finite amount of attention.
either way, Im with ya Jon !
(p.s. I registered.)
stw
February 2nd, 2009 at 5:28 pm
The problem with registrations is that trolls have LOTS of time. This means that they have plenty of time to register.
Also, unless you require passports for registration, registrations are pseudonymous, close to anonymous. So, trolls can troll.
If you decide to require registration, add a benefit to it. For example, let the registered users VOTE on comments, so that useless comments from trolls can be voted DOWN and useful ones are voted UP.
(actually, comment voting does not necessarily need registration, but in your case, Jon, you can’t count unique IP addresses, so, better to add voting right only to registered users so that one user votes once per comment)
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:21 pm
I like the comment above mine. Seems to work fairly well for Digg and other sites for the most part, especially since you’ll never be able to stop the crazies and trolls entirely. The only way to win that war is to take down the site which is kind of like killing the patient to cure the disease. It’s Jon’s site and one worth supporting to keep it around (there are far too few, especially of Canadian orientation) so I’ll of course support any decision he ultimately makes.
PS: Six years on Oxycontin and I’m learning this week what withdrawal is really all about. Just wanted to mention that if it wasn’t for Jon’s recent story about his own life I’m not sure I would have been able to stick it out as long as I have. Thank God the symptoms are only supposed to last a week and that I finally found the will power to kick my addiction once and for all. I haven’t posted as much lately because I’ve been getting my life organized, figuring out what is important and what isn’t. I miss my family. I miss my friends. I’ve wasted the past five years of my life and it’s time to take it back while I am still able to. Thanks for all the great stories, comments and hard work you’ve put into p2pnet over the years. Take care Jon.
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:30 pm
@ IratePirate Says:
âIâve wasted the past five years of my life â¦â
You havenât wasted anything. Itâs all part of the experience. Youâll understand what I mean when you start looking forward instead of back.
âIâm learning this week what withdrawal is â¦â
Minute by minute. That you can do. The rest will take care of itself and youâll find that person youâve had locked up inside you will take you to some places youâve never been – and you wonât need drugs.
Cheers! And all the best. Really.
PS – If you havenât done it already, find a Narcotics Anonymous branch near you. Itâll help. I promise.
Canada – http://www.canaacna.org/
US – http://www.na.org/
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:21 pm
I have no problem with registration.
While it’s true the hardcore trolls still have time to
create multiple e-mail addy’s and such, it only takes seconds to
delete an offending e-mail addy’s posting priviledges.
As I have said a few times before, it’s not ‘censorship’.
This is Jon’s place. He has just as much right to keep his ‘virtual house’
clean as he does his RL home. The ones who insist good housekeeping
on a PRIVATE site is the same as government censorship really are the
trolls insisting on the right to pee on the carpet without getting shown the door.
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:58 pm
…But, for God’s sake, don’t ever start using the CAPTCHA system Michael Geist’s site is using!
(It really is awful. Has anyone seen it?)
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Shit!
Another post vanishes into thin air.
(Time approx. 9:56 by your clock)
: (
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:03 am
@AD ^^
Email it to me – p2pnet @ shaw dot ca
Cheers!
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Michael Geist’s site CAPTCHA (aka RECAPTCHA) makes users work for a good cause. Users help read words in scanned books that OCR could not pick.
February 3rd, 2009 at 4:47 pm
go find and read my anon post
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:02 pm
“Michael Geistâs site CAPTCHA (aka RECAPTCHA) makes users work for a good cause. Users help read words in scanned books that OCR could not pick.”
Yeah, that’s noble.
But, the damned thing is too often too difficult to actually decipher with the human eye.
(That’s why I mentioned it.)
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:05 pm
“@AD ^^
Email it to me – p2pnet @ shaw dot ca”
I’m assuming you mean “@DA”
: )
No worries, Jon.
I was basically just saying I had no problem with registration.
I believe my words were “given the choice of the status quo, and the possibility of you throwing in the towel in frustration, or registration, I’d have to say registration”.
; )
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Yup. I meant DA.
Cough, cough. Gotta have that operation.
Cheers!
February 4th, 2009 at 1:25 am
I’m a fan of limits-per-day by IP, which at least makes the trolls work harder to be asshats 24/7.
See also: disemvoweling, which seems to have worked out well on some other sites.
-bh