Guest posters

[shrinkmaster]

I have to say I am not in favor of "guest posters" I have seen this on other forums and frankly I dont care for it. You cannot research these users nor do you know if they are sme person or not. You cant contact them. One other issue I have sen elsewhere is when a user does not register and have a site ID (username) they tend to be more rude and/or offensive as they do not have to be accountable for the post due to their status as "guest poster". Just throwing my two cents in.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Law forums are not the same as regular forums, IMHO. People come here with problems. Many of them want and need to retain their privacy.

Is there a need for you to contact these posters? If they posted here, they know where to return to see if an answer was posted. It provides some with an additional feeling of anonymity at times. It's not the perfect solution but at least it allows those to post who would ordinarily be turned away. And yes, some of the guests are rude and which is why I generally delete the useless comments that are nothing more than incendiary. This is just IMHO of course and I do appreciate discussion on the matter.

 

[army judge]

More often than not, anonymous posters are better behaved than registered posters.

In fact, it's better that we, as moderators, not make any other contact than in the forum (and an occasional PM).

Why?

It shows that there has not been, nor will there ever be an attorney-client relationship.

Furthermore, a person with a complex legal issue does not belong on an internet forum, anymore than a cancer patient belongs on an Internet medical forum.




Sent from my iPad3 using Tapatalk HD

 

[Proserpina]

My experience on a different forum where posters did not have to register was that the "guest" posters were far, far more likely to become belligerent, argumentative and often plain abusive to the contributors.

As you know I focus mainly on family law and being able to review the poster's history can be extremely helpful to both the poster (who doesn't have to spend time re-typing their situation) and the volunteers (who don't have to figure out whether this is a different poster, a different situation or any combination of many things).

 

[shrinkmaster]

I agree I have seen the same and dont care for unregistered to post it creates many problems. Users can remain anonymous and still register very easily. I think allowing users to post and not register creates more problems than it solves

 

[mightymoose]

Whether the original guest returns for an answer or not, the question and subsequent answers may be useful to others who come along later.

 

[shrinkmaster]

Whether the original guest returns for an answer or not, the question and subsequent answers may be useful to others who come along later.

Which may be true however we ar not talking about legit users

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Which may be true however we ar not talking about legit users

Most of the guests are legitimate users. If they are spam they are removed. Sometimes a few of them get through the filter but it's few and far between. I tend to find that those who don't register are either teenagers or older people who aren't computer savvy. If I remember a pattern of late it has been people with terrible spelling and seem to be uneducated people with criminal backgrounds having a difficult time using the computer. It has been interesting seeing this (not in a happy way.) Either way, the new system has a much better guest posting methodology and wasn't custom programmed as it was here. There is no perfect solution but all guest posting in the new system would require moderator approval as well so anything that looks like spam won't get through.