Discussion on:

TR Community scoreboard for May 4, 2012

Here are the TR community stats for the past week:

TR members with the most total posts on the forums
NickNielsen and Slayer_ - 30
Mark W. Kaelin - 26
Hal 9000 - 24
vulpine and Palmetto_CharlieSpencer - 19
JCitizen - 18

TR members with the most Votes Up in the Discussions forum
MrMarcelo - 32
Skruis and Charles Bundy - 28
magic8ball and NickNielsen - 21
dcolbert - 18
yloops and Justin James - 18

TR members with the most Votes Up in the Q&A forum
OH Smeg - 3
wizard57m - 2

Spam busters
wizard57m - 7 (plus 47 Zombies)
de.doughboy, techthisway, and shaverd38 - 1

Hope everyone has a spantabulous weekend

Wow---2 votes up in the Q&A! For the longest time it seemed nobody wanted
to acknowledge the help being given, maybe things are improving?
And yes, I went on a zombie hunting spree, hehe!
Edited to add:
Speaking of zombies...you know what we really need? If the Discussions
and Q&A could be "closed" after XX months (maybe 12 months) without
any new posts, that would help (that's the way I ran my old email group,
after 12 months, a topic would be closed, if someone wanted to re-open
something, they could start a new discussion/question). Sometimes I
wonder how people find 5 year old discussions, then post spam links
to them???? Oh, and the zombies at TR move a bit quicker than the
ones in the old SciFi movie "Night of the Living Dead"!!

But personally, sometimes there is good information in the posts....not often, but sometimes

because there are a few posts to old discussions that are good,
and sometimes I just add a reply to "let the zombies sleep".
I have noticed a decrease in spam posts lately though, but
with the end of the workweek upon us, some will probably try.
They are sort of predictable, targeting same or similar discussions
and questions, especially Outlook/PDF "repair" sites.
"Scan your file for free" but the fix might cost you!

I've noticed the same thing...things seem too quiet lately, makes me a little concerned :/ .

Keep up the good work

I've just deleted at least 20 posts from the same person all spam.

And not one came from Jason see how nice I am.

Col

You're getting all of them while I'm sleeping...no wonder I don't find anything when I'm awake, you get them all

That's the few that I got within the past few days. I'm still not seeing anywhere near as much as Wiz is seeing and reporting.

OK I've seen a bit in the last 4 or 5 days but that's got to be the first lot that I've seen in a while now.

OH and dont ask why I'm posting at this time its an Ungodly Hour.

Col

But he does and it's all good.

And yes, why ARE you doing awake at this ungodly hr? It's gotta be soooo late

Member name rajeshjpr, member number 6431877,
but the strangest part is it is exactly 2 years, to the day,
that this member last posted, and it was also spam!
Marked the entire thread, and for good measure threw
some down votes!

.. is my (and more likely Wizards friend)

-Tammy

I just float through the Discussions and Q&A every now and then,
choose to view "Newest"...then just check a few out...time-
consuming sometimes, but effective. When I find one, I normally
click on the member name and bring up list of all postings,
then go through them one at a time...to borrow a phrase,
"We do it the old-fashioned way, we earn it!"

this is actually something in my eye sight on a future feature...

Stayed tuned

-Tammy

Now I can go quietly and get some sleep.

Col

I'll ask again. Okay, page hits are up. How does this make TR more social when post volumes, based on the numbers above, are a third (or less) of what they were?

The Page Hits are up because the Spammers are hitting the place hard and as often as possible.

We are only needed at 1/5 of our previous postings to keep the Spammers Happy and generate new Threads for them to post to.

Don't you really feel Important now?

Col

no longer measured in terms of member participation, but rather the
number of " FB likes", "G+s", "re-Twits", err, "tweets"...heck, I bet they
still count MySpace "commented on your wall" clicks! "Hey, this article
about Windows gained 5000 'Likes', it must be popular!"

To get the 'score' in a timely fashion I have to click the 'Hot Discussions'. Although it's rarely 'hot' (by TR standards), it still cools off a bit--freshness-wise--before it gets to my e-mail.
Thanks to Nick, Colin, and Palmetto for your input last week on my RV-internet situation. Although there IS free wi-fi at GoodSam/KOA, I expect to be spending a lot more time in state/national Parks than those type of facilities (elbow-room issues!). Since *cost* isn't my big concern now, I think a sat-dish will suit me best. I can always use wi-fi when available ( I'm ignorant about public wi-fi's bandwidth and security, though....), and still stay in touch with friends, customers, and things I'm in the middle of whether I'm in the high desert or the corner of a Wal*Mart parking lot. I'm still comparing a couple of pushers, but I got myself a 1999 Miata on Tues. to pull behind whichever one I end up with. I was lucky enough to beat a nice couple to it; it's a rare AT (3-speed+OD), and that's the best thing for my non-compliant right arm/shoulder. I've been making up excuses to drive into town and back all week now; there's nothing like hill-climbing up the mountain in a little roadster. It feels like a cross between a go-kart and an AC Cobra. Woohoooooooooo!

My understanding is that most of the campgrounds at national parks now have wifi available. Because public wifi is almost never encrypted, he biggest issue is security. About bandwidth, it all depends. Some providers have some serious high-speed links, while others cap the bandwidth available to the wifi. You can't tell going in.

My experience:
1. You may or may not have to accept a use agreement when you first connect. If you do, expect to have to renew the connection 24 hours later.
2. Some locations will require a user ID and password, available at check-in. These links are not encrypted; the credentials are used to limit connections to paying customers.
3. Whenever possible, use https connections to websites. If you can use VPN, so much the better.
4. Run a local firewall on your pc.
5. Expect some surprising limitations on your browsing. For example, the free wifi available in Kroger won't allow you to check your lottery tickets or access xkcd.com because "gambling" and "mature content" sites are blocked. But you can browse Youtube and Google Images all day long...

Just sayin'....

that the emoticons now spell out the word instead of show the face.... grrrrr...... filing a bug now.

are showing up on my page now, in both FF and IE. ^_^

All my dreams.... are still unfulfilled...