Greg

No much, certainly less work than I spend manually searching new registrations for known spammer addresses and IPs. I might enlist a few helpers in this cause, as partisanship certainly would not be an issue for reviewing new member registrations and postings. Give me a few days to figure out the logistics of this new feature and I will report back here. Thanks! Greg

Agreed - I do get quite a few PMs and emails a day, so anything to cut down on the amount is a good idea. Also, if I don't respond to your report, please understand that I appreciate you taking the time to report the post, however, I can't possibly respond to everyone. Rest assured, I read every PM and Report that is sent in. Thanks Greg Admin

Yes, I agree. If you see spam, please take the time to notify me, and post a reply that you're reported the thread. Please note, even the most sophisticated anti-spam solution won't catch all spam. In some cases, spammers are hiring people to manually post spam in forums (to get around filters), so don't get yourself too worked up about the odd spam posting. Deleting the spam the second it is reported is the best option, and I appreciate everyones efforts in that regard!

The boards time is set via the server system time located on our dedicated server in Calgary, Alberta. Unfortunately the server time was off by a few minutes, however, that has been fixed.

This thread is in the proper forum. The original article was written by a Canadian (Janice Kennedy), published in a Canadian newspaper (Ottawa Citizen), about a Canadian topic (Muslim community in Canada), at a Canadian organization (Canadian Council of Muslim Women), etc, etc, etc. Nor is this article an example of "Muslim bashing." Betsy, you're in clear - there is nothing wrong with this thread.

Someone asked me in a PM what I was going to do with the issue of spam bots. In the interest of keeping everyone informed, here is my response:

Agreed - this thread is nothing more than troll feed and is rather petty. Lets discuss REAL issues, rather than focus on petty accusations of improper protocol.

What did I just say to you guys? If you've got a problem with the moderation - there's the door, otherwise cut the complaining and quit wasting my time.

Quit airing grievances in the forums - if you've got a problem with another poster, use the internal PM system. If the PMs are obscene or contain threats, report them to me, otherwise take this childish behaviour out of the forums. killjoy is taking a one month suspension from the forums, if any of you want one too, keep this up.

No offense taken - however, peer review is not the only requirement profs use when determining the quality of a source. If it was the only requirement, most of the books in the library would be off-limits. In fact, the vast majority of publications are NOT peer-reviewed (in the conventional academic sense).

I've spoken with a great deal of academics who encourage their students to use Maple Leaf Web in their studies - including citing the website directly in their papers. In fact, we've been referenced in government, nonprofit, and educational materials in both online and print publications. The strong reputation of Maple Leaf Web comes from our long presence online (almost seven years), the high quality of the materials (if the professor is aware of MLW, I doubt he would have a problem with it) and the personal reputation of our Executive Director, Peter McCormick. Also, each feature goes through a number of editing and reviewing stages to ensure balance, clarity and thoroughness. Also consider the academic credentials of the project personnel - no one on the project has less than a MA, with most having PhDs in such field as, political science, public policy, and international relations. However, I agree we could do a better job of communicating the high level of review. A section describing the review process and detailing the qualifications of those who are responsible for the publication reviews is planned for the site in the very near future. This section and a lot of other improvements has been stalled due to problems implementing a new content management system for MLW. We hope to have this problem fixed by the new year. If you have any other questions, and or comments, please feel free to ask,

I'll look into this, however, InvisionBoard isn't the most flexible forum around. Howeve, I've seen something similar to this funcationality by Vanilla Forum software, http://lussumo.com/community/ There are a number of forum software that I am looking to convert these forums too. I'll put that on my list of important things to have.

I'm not sure using special characters is any better than actually swearing. Both are a sign the member can't seem to discuss issues without appealing to vulgarity.

That isn't how it went down, Craig Read and I disagreed over the nature of the rules and he was removed. There wasn't a specific incident that lead to his removal, but rather a series of oversights on his part. Why do you care so much about Craig Read and something that happened over 2 years ago?

It seems like every once in while I need to come down hard on everyone to restore some semblance of order. The last time I issued a zero tolerance order, I removed a number of trouble-makers who failed to heed the warnings and the rules. There have been a number of threads discussing my moderation in these forums. I don't have a problem with that - I've always open to criticism, however the comments of some of the posters have gone far past acceptable. Therefore, if I catch anyone using insults or any other type of ignorant behaviour you will be suspended for one month. No warnings will be issued. Consider this the equivalent of a lock-down in a prison. If after that month, I catch anyone acting ignorant, the banning will be permanent. Also, I will not be employing any partisan moderators - so consider that issue dead.

Of course, the rules state clearly,

Trolls are eliminated once a sufficient amount of complaints have been raised. Product peddlers are eliminated the second the thread/post is reported. Spam is a fact of life - we'll never completed remove it from our lives. I don't see the big deal, a spammer manually registers (which is impossible to stop), and posts some spam, I come in and remove it within hours. The only thing that can be done to stop trolls and spammers is to manually approve each posting and thread. Is that realistic?

No, it's not cross-postings, so long as there is not already a thread discussing this news event. If the original thread, where the new topic was raised is of a completely different issue, then it is in the best interest of the forum to begin another thread concerning the new topic.

This is borderline, and it could go either way. There are a lot of threads on similar topics, and I rarely merge threads. However, in the future, lets do our best to keep topics like this together. Perhaps the best thing to do is send me a note through the report this post feature if you see two or more threads of similar topics. I have the ability to merge the topics together and change the overall thread title.

I've received a few complaints over the past weeks about "partisan trolling." The complaints were that some members are not really interested in political discussion, but rather pursuing a particular partisan agenda. Now, if you read the Rules and Guidelines, we have a section on Trolling, However, partisan trolling is difficult to monitor and even more difficult to stop. However, it's important that I address this issue now before it gets out of control. For those members who have been here awhile, you might remember that a few of the banned members where partisan trolls. I personally define a partisan troll as someone who: blindly accepts a political party as being always wrong, and or advocating one party as always being right. posts/topics repeatedly take a negative tone towards one or more political parties. as someone who refuses to address the larger issue, instead focusing on insignificant aspects of a particular political party. someone who repeatedly makes generalizations about a particular political party or parties - e.g. Liberals are all corrupt, Conservatives are racist, New Democrats are Communists, etc. If you have engaged in any of the above activities, I would suggest you alter your behaviour. The quality of this forums rides on everyone's ability to treat each other with respect. Also note, everyone makes mistakes - I'm not interested in banning someone who lets their emotions get the best of them. If you're in a heated debate and or you just read something that makes your blood boil, sit back, relax, and get some composure before you level a assault against a political party (and anyone who happens to be a member of that party). Remember, civility will get you a lot farther in this world (and this forum!) than anger and contempt.

I agree with Figleaf, These types of distinctions are important and I strongely encourage everyone to follow Figleafs advice. Remember, it is important that we all pay attention to these types of distinctions, as the written word does not convey nearly as much as the spoken word. If you're too lazy to write properly and to pay attention to the details, it is doubful anyone will take what you say seriously.

Just so everyone is clear, We have no plans on charging anyone to participate in these forums.

August, Kimmy, sorry - it was a security issue. We had a hack attempt a few months ago that attempted to upload a virus through the image upload function. I was forced to clean out the user contributed images. As August pointed out, I've already addressed the avatar issue - the reason we do not allow them is (1) security (2) bandwidth and (3) it looks bad. The bandwidth is the biggest obstacle - last month we push 20 gigs of bandwidth - which if you didn't know, isn't cheap.

Please note, if you see two threads that are identical (in topic), please report the two threads to me and I can merge the two (or more) threads together.

Cross posting is simply posting the identical posting in multiple areas of the Internet or in this forum. What you are refering to is ok - so long as the new thread isn't identical to the original thread. Every attempt should be made to ensure that a thread - dealing with each topic - does not already exist. Multiple threads on the same topic just clutter up the forums.