I am having problems with the discussion board I am setting up on the Kingston Advisers forum Website. Even though I keep checking the permission box to allow the public to contribute, it will not accept that request and each time I look again at the permissions it is back to read only? I have tried clicking 'do not inherit' and all manner of permission combinations but it just reverts straight back to not allowing the public to contribute.
I know that having an open discussion board is not recommneded, but I had been lead to belive it was now possible on the voice sites?
I have also noted the same problem in our other Voice sites, Kingston Information and Advice Alliance as well as KCABS team Pages so I am assuming this is a bug affecting all sites not specific to the AF site? Any Help would be greatly appreciated
The problem with allowing unregistered users to post to discussions is that as soon as the spammers notice then your forums will be filled up with spam, including links to dodgy websites.
Not only that, but even if spammers don't get hold of it, "real" people tend to be more insulting/unhelpful if they can hide behind anonymity.
So, the fact that the system doesn't allow you to do this isn't really a bug, but a conscious decision on our part, learnt through experience. Generally the advantages of anonymous posting outweigh the disadvantages.
We generally take the view that if someone has something worth saying, then registering in order to do so is not a big deal. And you can have more faith in comments from registered users, secure in the knowledge that they are a real person.
Have a think about it, and if you feel you really do need anonymous commenting then do explain the reasons on here, as I'd be interested to hear them!
Thanks
Joe - Voice Admin
Hi Joe
You would have thought that logging in would not be an issue, but we previously had a private site where it was necessary to log in and we found as people only use our site infrequently they were forever contacting me saying they couldn't remember log ins! We eventually took the decision to make it public and the number of people using the site has increased dramatically.
As the function is there would it be possible for you to please activate it for us on this one site? We will be carefully monitoring and moderating and we will obviously disable the function should we start to have problems with anything 'dodgy'
If this function is really not available, then possibly you should amend the information on your site, as it gives the impression that although not advised it is a possible feature?
very many thanks