I agree with most of what Michael says above.
There are many, that refuse to join any internet based social networks. I am one.
Paypal is a service of the very last resort for me. I do not like them and use them very reluctantly and rarely.And I feel very sad afterwards.
That's a good sentiment to be aware of.
But what is the issue here?
Simply this: I don't want folks information to be harvested and their privacy breached through my own fault. I just want to do my level best that OPF is a small safe place to share our love of photography and we are large enough to answer any questions posed.
What do the other sites do? How do they control that which OPF wants to control? Don't they face similar risks?
As far as I can tell, most allow anyone to use any email and just join and deal with spammers when there are enough complaints. That way, there's the least barrier to membership and traffic.
One forum I belong to does not accept e-mail addresses that are non-fee based. Another forum is a fee based service. It does not guarantee a spam free, hacker free, troll free site. Cost and effort versus results.
Do you have any opinion as to whether or not this would be good or bad to institute that here?
Traffic and active membership on OPF, guessing here, is not that high. Posters are really few in comparison with other photography fora. I see a little over 10,000 members. How many are active?
Of those who try to register, about 1/3 will be automatically rejected. About half of the registered members are actually banned after checking their background.
What are the objectives and what are the resources available should be the first step.
See answer above.
Fahim,
There a re two issues for me.
- I'd like to make it easier for photographers to join OPF
- Decrease the burden of screening for spammers and exploiters.
The issue is that there's extra effort and waiting for 2-24 hours to be accepted by OPF, depending on the load of new registrations. Facebook membership is common and could make it easier for those with existing Facebook accounts to join with just one click. Then if they spammed, they'd be removed. It would allow new photographers to join and immediately post. We could even have the first 5 posts or so moderated. This seems to be a viable option for those who are already comfortable with social networking.
We could add filters that check for spamming activity even for Facebook members, so the vast majority would be clean.
Hope this helps you respond.
Asher