Tracking the next pandemic: Avian Flu Talk |
Guests and spam |
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Linda
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Posted: April 02 2006 at 8:59am |
I was just accused of being a spammer on here because I am not a registered member. I would like to addresss this. I work from home and my co. has put firewalls on my computer. I have not been able to register here but have tried....This being said I don't see how registering makes a person any more credible than an unregistered user. I could register on here and present myself as anybody. I saw a user on another site who presented himself as a Dr. and was obviously not. I have 3 years toward a BSN in nursing, have been trained as an EMT, have a psychology degree and have been a mother for 10 years. BIG DEAL! this still does not qualify me as credible. The above is true but I could just as easily have typed in that I'm a pediatrician....Guess what? I can do this as a guest or registered user and so can anyone else. Reading posts is interesting.....but when you find information that is useful then please go to your Dr. or a credible source that you know to verify what you read.
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Linda, Believe it or not, AFF DOES have the occasional spammer and ne'or do well troll that just posts comments to irritate the serious users of the board. Occasionally, they do this as members, often as Guests. When they do this as members, the Moderators can Private Message them to try to find out their intentions: sometimes someone starts out making posts that are inappropriate, but it is really more of a lack of social graces than malicious. We have users from all over the world and sometimes we have to work to communciate with each other.
For one thing, as a Guest, this cannot be done, so whatever accusation you received would have to be public. Also, as a Guest, the moderators cannot easily search on your "user" name to find out if your posts are or are not appropriate. Registering is not necessarily for you to Prove Who You Are in a professional sense, as much as who you are from a location and contact sense.
So, between that, and the fact that registered members give thier email addresses, which gives another level of confidence in being able to contact that user if need be, the only thing a Moderator has to go on when seeing a Spam or Troll post is your IP address.
If you have dynaminic IP addressing from your Internet provider, you could end up taking the heat for a post made by somebody else since your User name is no guide as a Guest. If you have Static IP addressing, somebody else, from your household, under another "Guest" account could, in fact, be spamming, and you are taking the heat. (I don't think I know of a case of that happening, but some of our spammers have been teenagers.)
If you could, could you post the link to the accusation for the other Moderators to look at? Also, if you are having trouble registering, but want to register, can you describe the problem? I'm sure that Admin would want to try to solve it!
Best Regards,
Bannor
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Linda
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Here is the link, http://www.avianflutalk.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=426 thank you for looking into it. My post was addresssing one of many on here
that gives medical advice that could do more harm then good. I did not appreciate having it being called spam. A friend of mine from my company who works in tech support is helping me to register today; I appreciate your offer to help with this and will take you up on that if it is still needed after today.
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Thank you, Linda. I have looked at the thread in question. I am almost certain that Nettie is referring to the three previous "Guest" posts, starting in January, referring to purchasing drugs online, as the spams she refers to. (I don't think they are spams, though, either.)
You and she are essentially in agreement as far as I can see on your positions. I've pm'd her and asked her to quote, specifically, in the future, when commenting on a post to help avoid confusion. Once you are registered properly, you will come up as other than "Guest Group" and that should help also help avoid confusion in the future.
Your point is well taken and is something that everybody needs to think about. The nature of the possible pandemic is such that we also need to think outside of our traditional boxes. Both sides of the topics need to be discussed and then everyone needs to make their personal choices.
Thanks for your input on the topic!
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Linda
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Thinking outside of the box is one thing....posting medical suggestions on an open forum can be deadly. Can I suggest a statement be posted on the medical portion of this site that states that even over the counter (OTC) medication and herbal remedies can be dangerous if taken incorrectly and doses should always take into account things such as age, weight, other medications being taken (including OTC and herbal). and family history. The statement should also state that that since we are not currently having a pandemic that that anyone stocking medical supplies should take advantage of discussing there use with their primary care provider (PCP) while the opportunity is still available. At the very least they should purchase a nurses PDR (drug Handbook) and familiarize themselves with it. Yes, both sides should be discussed but you know as well as I do that there will be people on here who will read posts and not know enough to investigate. There is no way to make every reader understand the importance of this but it would probably be useful even life saving to some.
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