Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I love evilness

I guess that's how that ship is going to go down. Makes me really sad, as the old girl deserved a better send-off than that.

Well, I do apologize for being naive , but if simply requiring paid membership would solve this problem – it does seem like a no brainer from an economic standpoint. I will miss it as well; I started my serious cooking there having met all of you with your advice and Frank, of course

With their ancient, closed and dead software, requiring paid membership would have been very hard to implement. In addition, it would likely go against the core (apparent) mission of giving a place for people to chat and discuss the recipes; people who, probably, are not subscribers to the website. It should entice them more into the world of CI, not put up barriers. Under ideal conditions, CI staffers would monitor for questions/comments on CI recipes and pitch in, though to be honest I expect some of the nastiness that they would get would probably be beyond what the staffers would be equipped to deal with.

Would it not stop the types that are currently inundating CI's BB (by the 100s) if there were a nominal minimum of $1 or $5. For that matter, would it not stop the ones we get here? Paying something would require a payment method that I assume would be traceable. Thanks for your help and thoughts with this.

Where may I send a check? Payable to whom?

Tim

Payable to me...[Dr. Evil voice] for one MILLION dollars...[/Dr. Evil voice]

Not a "bad" idea...I have served on an chaired several trade show (Chamber of Commerce) type events that we charged a very nominal amount just to keep the riff raff from coming thru for the sole purpose of grabbing all the freebies.

It could be as simple as a $5.00 member for life charge. Spammers are not going to pay anything. If the software will allow, anyone can view for free, you just couldn't post until the Fuzzy One turns on the switch.

I frequent a site which uses a 1-time $5 membership charge to post. They also suppress ads if you pay. You can read for free. It works well for that site, which has no linked business (the site is their only business). But I think for CI to charge to ask them a question on their forum would not go down well.

In any case, keeping spam out is not rocket science, tens (or hundreds) of thousands of site administrators do it every day. They simply did not wish to spend the money and time to upgrade their site software and maintain it. So, yah, it was kinda the spammers that did it in, but that is like saying the rain ruined the paper you left out doors; technically true, but rain is inevitable, so really it was you.