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What is happening to TechRepublic?

By kevaburg ·
You know, there was a time that I would come to TR because I would look to my peers to help resolve IT issues or to discuss professional subjects in a mature and conversational way. So what has happened and why do I feel so obscenely let down by TR?

Here is a clue. It is a question on the forums now: "Group Policy - How to configure". A question from an "IT Consultant" in India. Or maybe a question like "How do I program in C++", this time from Pakistan. Perhaps something like "How to configure a Cisco router" from an African state.

I use to try and offer assistance to these people but I started getting bombarded by emails from these people/criminal organisations and two phishing emails and three pharming emails got to my inbox from these TR members.

My question is: Has TR become a platform from which to launch attacks, maybe even using social engineering in the form of the forums to met their ends? I have the feeling that it has. I also believe that TR is not fulfilling a committment to weed out these miscreants. Does that sound harsh?

I try and protect my computer at home as well as I can and never open dodgy attachments etc; but when I see something from a TR member sending me a personal message, it makes my skin crawl now. I can guess 9 out of ten times what the content will be.

Does anyone else feel as I do and does anyone feel that TR, a once fantastic site for techy people the world over, could do more to return the site to its former glory days?

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They send you messages?

by Slayer_ In reply to What is happening to Tech ...

I have never received a message from TR.

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As God is my witness

by kevaburg In reply to They send you messages?

I have answered a couple of really dumb questions with what I hoped were helpful and polite answers. Before I knew it I had three emils from that person in my Junk mail. All were exactly the same, simply sent three times.

It is beginning to annoy me.....

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Maybe just don't answer questions from those "bad" countries...

by Slayer_ In reply to As God is my witness

Unless the question sounds intelligent...

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That is the only solution

by kevaburg In reply to Maybe just don't answer q ...

The only problem is that the questions (at least in the title) are begining to sound intelligent.

At least until you get to the body text.....

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No one knows what your real email is until you reply.

by Ron K. In reply to That is the only solution

Don't reply. <br>
There are only 12 or so people here that can send me an email anytime and they don't need to use peermail. <br>
If you want to answer questions go to the questions forum.<br>
You don't OWE an unsolicited TR peermail a reply. If they keep it up use their email address to sign them up for a free laptop or something.

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If they keep it up,

by CharlieSpencer In reply to No one knows what your re ...

notify the PTBs, including the offending member's e-mail address.

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I made the decision to not answer them

by CG IT In reply to That is the only solution

At one time I thought about answering them with smarmy answers but then I'm waisting time.

Not going to waste time on time wasters.

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And if they put some other country?

by AnsuGisalas In reply to Maybe just don't answer q ...

Does the board code check the location of a member? I didn't think so at least.

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The country is often irrelevant.

by CharlieSpencer In reply to And if they put some othe ...

While the majority of poorly worded, uninformed questions appear to originate on the Indian subcontinental area, we've had twits from all over the world.

We suffered an attack of potty-mouthed Irish kids around Christmas '07 or '08. They disappeared when school started back up.

There was an invasion of rude 'anonymous' idjits during Jason Hiner's 'President of the Internet' discussion, and a wave of them combating with Scientology defenders before that. Unruly posters from both groups originated in many countries. None of them were TR 'regulars' per se; they spotted a couple of 'hot button' phrases they apparently search for constantly and came like flies to fresh cowpats.

We've had obvious homework questions from most English speaking countries.

For a while we had a rash of "I bought / was given / borrowed (read: stole) a computer and 'forgot' the Admin password" nonsense from right here in the Good Ol'.

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What can the board code do to help?

by AnsuGisalas In reply to As God is my witness

Would it be possible to give the recipient of a peermail the option of replying with a non-identifying blanket reply of "please post your question on the forums, I will respond there", or something to that effect, that doesn't expose the members mail?

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