• Responding to email notices you receive.
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    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

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    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Suggestion to help ward off scammers

D

dustinntech

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I am not 100% sure if this idea would work well for these forums, but I would think it could. There is a company that I have seen used in a few different forums and what they do is offer a service called TrustWho Verification. What they do is verify personal information on a person that has applied for it (it costs $10). The information they verify is where you live, your name, and you must send in your drivers license and they verify that. Once that is done there is a feature that can be added to the forums that adds a little TrustWho Verification symbol to your name and what not.

Now what this will do is allow buyers (or traders) to know that if they buy from someone or trade with someone who is TrustWho Verified (TWV) they will know that if something goes wrong they will be able to get verified information on the person to take to the police.

Here is a link to their website for a little more information: http://www.trustwho.com/faq.php

Once again, I'm not really sure how it would work with this forum but maybe it could help reduce the bad guys in the BOI!
 
Many things can look like good ideas at first blush, but once you get down to the nuts and bolts of implementing it, things can start to unravel.

The very first roadblock that I can see is who exactly is the person running that "service"? I certainly would be very reluctant to give them the info they request simply on blind faith that they are legitimate. For all I know this could be a clever front for an identity theft ring that will gather a lot of identities, then evaporate and sell off that info.

Then once past that problem, how would it be implemented HERE in such a way that I don't have to get in the middle of it all? Certainly some sort of icon would be needed here, but unless it is given automatically to anyone who asks, who is going to take the time and make the effort to verify that the applicant is legit? Yeah, I'm sure there will likely be a couple of volunteers, who, no matter what the good intentions will tire of it in a few months, then leaving me holding the bag.

Heck, for a spell I limited access to posting on the BOI to memberships that only cost $10 in order to try to verify members making statements in there. And those who have been here long enough know how well that plan went.... :kaboom:
 
here's another problem...what if the info is verified, and its a good con artist...then who gets to hold that bag? they were verified by you then when i tried to contact them they were nowhere to be found...i trusted them because of you. that could get real whiney real fast lol. it'd be a good idea if the bad guys weren't so darn crafty.
 
We already have the BOI Good Guy Certification.

I think the biggest tool that a lot of scammers use is locking threads after they post them. It allows them to basically hide in plain site. It has been my experience on here that most folks that lock their threads are doing it to keep bad information about them from the boi being linked to their sale ads. Removing that feature would save a lot of people from problems IMO
 
There were positive and negative aspects to be considered with either having the threads as READ ONLY when posted in the classifieds section, or allowing them to be replied to by other members. Rather than making an executive decision that certainly half the members here would have complained about, I chose to make that choice optional to the person posting the thread.
 
WebSlave said:
There were positive and negative aspects to be considered with either having the threads as READ ONLY when posted in the classifieds section, or allowing them to be replied to by other members. Rather than making an executive decision that certainly half the members here would have complained about, I chose to make that choice optional to the person posting the thread.
Click to expand...

Did you ever consider putting it up to a vote. I know there are a number of members that do not agree with being able to lock threads to keep people from posting things such as BOI links. At the end of the day its up to you just wanted to make that suggestion.
 
spyder79 said:
Did you ever consider putting it up to a vote. I know there are a number of members that do not agree with being able to lock threads to keep people from posting things such as BOI links. At the end of the day its up to you just wanted to make that suggestion.
Click to expand...

Heck, for all I can remember, maybe I did put it to a vote. But regardless, unless I can see an extremely overriding reason to change it, it will remain as it is. At this point, I still consider it as the best compromise available.
 
I too have seen the ability for a trader to close his own thread as creating a problem.

But to be more on target with this thread, I think this would leave a HUGE burden upon WEBSLAVE to deal with.
 
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