Forum Access

Just a friendly reminder, having payment info on file is the current prerequisite for viewing and posting on the forums. Being premium is not a requirement (for example I do not have a premium account; but I do rent land).

We had problems with people creating alt account immediately after being banned or suspended from the forums. They would come back and complaining about how they were banned from the forums, which is against the rules (alt abuse & reposting). At that point they would be banned again, but typically they wouldn't get the clue and register another account. Before it was changed to only verified accounts, some people would go through 4 or 5 alt accounts. I know some of them got banned from SL outright (IP ban) for it.

I really don't see the point in denying unverified accounts to at least READ the forums.
Continue to limit posting to verifieds (as it is now), to prevent greifing/spamming/trolling.

(votes in favour)

I think LL would prefer to not have the forums at all. Anything that increases the usefulness of the forums works against that goal.

I am totally in favour of the motion tho i do agree with Suezanne that LLs would probably prefer no forums but at least while they are here and available i think this suggestion should be pushed forward as it is a fantastic learning center, warts and all

It's a shame alot of people, including myself have found the forums easier to use and find information in than the wiki or knowledge base. I hope if they ever decide to close the forums to new entries, they atleast keep them available for all to read. Until then I think all members of the community should be able to atleast read the forums. The forums atleast gives a broader picture of past history in SL through resident comments. Not just the facts.

*edit*
I did just think of a down side to this. All the increased traffic from people reading the forums. Not sure if that would be an issue though.

Eh, we'll just have to find a way to communicate via the talk pages on the wiki.

I have received soMUCH helpful info fromthe Forum I hate to see that info restricted from anybody. I thinknew people and those with no account info could really be helped by this and avoid some common mistakes.

Completely off topic here, but thanks Gaybot. I have learned a lot from your posts. You sem like a genuinely nice person [or robot or whatever] and I really appreciate your community spirit. I think of you as a friend who I haven't met yet.

thanks,

Susanne

The LSL wiki at lslwiki.net (Catherine Omega's site) has a perfectly nice comment section for each page; it looks just like a forum, you can tell who said what easily enough.

The LL operated SL wiki's talk page seems to just run together into a big blob where you not only can't tell who said what to who, when, you can't even see when one comment stops and the next one starts. At least that's how it seemed to me the last time I looked. You can probably look at the revision history or some such and see who wrote what but it is no substitute for nicely threaded forums.

I know Draco18s was just making a joke, no need to tell me that. I just get the feeling that to some folks the idea he expressed in not seen as being very silly.

Access to forums is about the only perk left to being verified so my vote is to just keep things the way they are.

What was suggested was that everyone can read them because of the amount of helpful information here, but only people with payment info on file can post, just as it is now with the exception that everyone can read them to get help.

So you would rather people not have at least a read only access to the forums to learn more about SL? To not allow everyone at least a chance to gain an education with access to the vast library of knowledge here is quite selfish and i feel it would be of benefit to the community as a whole if everyone was able to at least read here. But thats just my personal opinion

Once again we see history repeating itself. It used to be women were not allowed to vote due to the dominance of a Male Run Society. You cant use this water fountain because your BLACK.

Now we are on the verge of creating a whole new form of virtual CLASSISM. Those who register payment details against those who dont. Just because some people abuse the system does not mean that others who dont should be punished.

You do not need to have your payment details registered to be a contributing member of the SL Community. A member of SL who doesnt have Payment Details registered can still create objects and contribute new ideas and products within SL so why should they not also be allowed to have a voice. We are suppose to live in an age of EQUALITY.

Find ways to punish the abusers of the system and not a whole catagory of people based simply on CLASS STATUS.

I dearly love SL but the instruction-directions aspect can be a little thin for beginners-for those of us who are less tech savy the forums are the only place to find quick-understandable-useful answers (to our sometimes silly questions) It seems a shame-and actually like Lee said, classist-to restrict the reading and searching of the forums to people with info payment on file - and it seems reasonable to keep posting to those who are registered to avoid spamming griefing and other such distractions.

Sexism and racism are on a completely different level that it's more disparaging to those that have actually suffered oppression to compare their cause to the verified vs unverified issue.

Unlike the examples you bring up, nothing whatsoever stops the overwhelming majority from having payment info on file because well over 90% of the grid lives somewhere with easy access to credit cards or Paypal.

If the only people who were unverified were people who honestly can't for whatever reason, or were still having a look around, then you could extend full privileges, but the reality is that most can or could but just can't be bothered, in which case they really shouldn't be pampered any more than they already are.

Yes it was a bitch being new, needing questions answered and so many answers were in here locked away from the newbies needing them.

I couldn't even work out why I couldn't get into the forum, I thought they were continually down or something or some sort of staff only thing.

Someone going to mention Nazis again?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwins_law