# New Members via Facebook



## David Pence (Aug 3, 2014)

As you know, I've disabled new member registration for some time now. We have been under siege, as it were, by a group of pinheads bent on taking over this site.

That has been their stated goal to me at least.

They were quite determined in their efforts too. Flooding the site with fake accounts, so that as soon as one caused to much trouble and got banned, they would pop up with a new one. All using a wide range of IP addresses to make it difficult to curtail them.

All this being said, I'm looking into allow access to TTF via Facebook's login architecture. It most ways, this would bypass the current method of joining TTF, and since Facebook has more time and money to deal with troublesome members, it should help stop these attacks.

What do you all think of this idea?


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## Alcuin (Aug 4, 2014)

> We have been under siege … by a group of pinheads bent on taking over this site. That has been their stated goal to me at least.


Dave, they’ve _communicated_ this to you? Who are they? To what end? And – pardon my impertinence, it’s professional curiosity – what are they doing to get themselves banned? Let me know how the Facebook sign-up works. Of course, you’re giving control of your new membership to Facebook, an organization which is, well, much less than transparent, with its own agenda and social and political biases.


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## David Pence (Aug 4, 2014)

Yes, they attempted to 'taunt' me via e-mail, and even very odd phone calls. It's all been kind of weird.

Several 'agencies' have been involved, and most of it has died down. I'm in a wait and see mode right now.

As to why? It seems they felt they had a better grip on what to do with TTF then we do, that's the best I can make of it. At least one or two of the leaders are banned members, so I'm sure they played into why as well.


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## Uminya (Aug 6, 2014)

It's unfortunate that people think that a hostile takeover is any sort of solution that would make things better. It sounds a bit like something an egomaniacal sociopath would do.


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## Erestor Arcamen (Aug 6, 2014)

I don't know if it would help, but isn't there some kind of "approval by mod" before you can post type of thing? I know on other sites I sign up, sometimes you can't post at all unless a mod approves first. Maybe that way the mod can review and make sure like the IP address the user is signing up for isn't the same, things like that.


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## crabby (Aug 8, 2014)

being devils advocate, but could they possibly make it worse?

two or three posts a month - exactly what does anyone think they are preserving by fighting off this horde of trolls and ne-er do wells?

the subject matter is not dead - and a quick google search of half a dozen other Tolkien/LOTR forums will show. forums come and forums go, they can be hives of activity for years and then they just die, thats the nature of the internet - theres no shame in it, and theres no point throwing money and effort into keeping it going when its died.

my t'pence worth - take it if you wish, ignore if you want, but i'm out, i see no point in taking the time and effort to post stuff no one will ever reply to.


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## Halasían (Aug 8, 2014)

dapence said:


> As to why? It seems they felt they had a better grip on what to do with TTF then we do, that's the best I can make of it. At least one or two of the leaders are banned members, so I'm sure they played into why as well.


Sounds like a bunch of @ss-hats. Why don't they start their very own site and do with it what they please? This sounds like it's more a personal attack/harassment than anything else.

As for tying this place to Facebook... I hope you don't. Facebook is the major cause as to why message boards are so sparsely populated these days.
Erestor has the right idea.


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## Erestor Arcamen (Aug 10, 2014)

Halasían said:


> Sounds like a bunch of @ss-hats. Why don't they start their very own site and do with it what they please? This sounds like it's more a personal attack/harassment than anything else.
> 
> As for tying this place to Facebook... I hope you don't. Facebook is the major cause as to why message boards are so sparsely populated these days.
> Erestor has the right idea.



Thanks. I like the idea of getting new members and making this place active, it just has to be done right (and I trust Dapence that he does it right, this site is amazing!). Do we have any active mods here now other than HLGStrider (I think)? If Facebook comes in, may need one or two more. 

Dapence, did you see my thread here? I think some of my and others' suggestions make sense. HLGStrider made a comment: 



> Food for thought: the site isn't very streamlined. When there were so many posts a day all the forums and subforums made sense. They don't any more. They're big empty, echoing caves. If I clicked on this site for the first time, I wouldn't know where to go, and the amount of divisions makes it very easy to miss when someone actually does post.



I think this would help a lot too. There are some areas where there is only one or no threads at all (History Of Middle Earth) and other places where there hasn't been a post in months or years.


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## Halasían (Aug 12, 2014)

crabby said:


> i see no point in taking the time and effort to post stuff no one will ever reply to.


I have to admit crabby does have a point with this statement, and have found myself thinking about, but then not bothering to post, stuff because I felt the same way.


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## HLGStrider (Aug 12, 2014)

I'm barely active, unfortunately. I'm working so hard on my own writing and the promotion of that, that I don't have a lot of time for just hanging around here, let alone actively participating. I do a little bit of Facebooking with The Tolkien Society and will throw my hat in on a discussion topic there every so often, but yeah, I am just above flatlined on my activity and I admit it. 
I do miss this place sometime and still keep in contact with several members, but it has been awhile since I've come here to more than just click around a bit for nostalgia purposes.


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## Maiden_of Harad (Aug 13, 2014)

Please don't use Facebook to log in...
...I don't know how to attract new members, but one reason why I like forums is that the potential for quality discussion (and a longer one) is much higher than on an average social media site, but then, I can't speak for everyone....


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## Halasían (Aug 14, 2014)

Maiden_of Harad said:


> Please don't use Facebook to log in...
> ...I don't know how to attract new members, but one reason why I like forums is that the potential for quality discussion (and a longer one) is much higher than on an average social media site, but then, I can't speak for everyone....


I agree with the Fair Maiden of Harad in that deeper discussions can be had on forums. Unfortunately, it seems the era of facebook and twitter seems to squeeze the discussion down to a few lines, or 140 characters in twits case. 

Hi Elgee! Good to see you!


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## Uminya (Aug 15, 2014)

Reducing the number of subforums is a good idea. A lot of them--as others have said--are redundant and unnecessary now that we have less traffic. Seeing a big, empty site makes it look more vacant than it might otherwise seem, so consolidating things into smaller sections would be advantageous, I think.


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## David Pence (Aug 15, 2014)

I agree that TTF is in need of some serious spring, summer, fall, and winter cleaning. I'll need to look into how best to do that. I also think TTF suffers a great deal from an "it's already been discussed" syndrome. There's a ton of read only access to the site.

As to Facebook, that would only be a means of logging onto TTF, not a replacement of how topics are posted. I just need to know how Facebook deals with troublesome members. I don't want to deal with any cult of personality members (as we have in the past), and be told I have to because Facebook says so.

Back to the cleaning topic. What I can do is archive any post that's older then five years or so, comments or no ... that would open up some room for new discussions. We could also consider archiving the entire site and starting a new one from scratch.


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## Alcuin (Aug 16, 2014)

dapence said:


> We could also consider archiving the entire site and starting a new one from scratch.


Ach! Please, no! TTF is a great resource! Starting over from scratch would destroy the archives, which are invaluable.

Another solution is encouraging people to reopen old topics, starting new threads on old topics. That way newcomers and younger members can debate old questions all over again, enjoying those topics for themselves while at the same time bringing new perspectives and quite possibly – even likely – new insights we’ve not before covered.


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## Erestor Arcamen (Aug 16, 2014)

Alcuin said:


> Ach! Please, no! TTF is a great resource! Starting over from scratch would destroy the archives, which are invaluable.
> 
> Another solution is encouraging people to reopen old topics, starting new threads on old topics. That way newcomers and younger members can debate old questions all over again, enjoying those topics for themselves while at the same time bringing new perspectives and quite possibly ? even likely ? new insights we?ve not before covered.



I agree, don't start from scratch please! lol I may not post on a day to day basis, but I'm constantly on here reading old threads and exploring forgotten topics.

I know on some forums when you go to submit a thread, it automatically searches the forums for similar threads and asks if that's the same thing and will suggest you add to the previously made thread. Not sure if VBulletin offers this or not but that could work well, maybe.


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## David Pence (Aug 16, 2014)

Just a note on Facebook access. It would not move any content to Facebook, it would just be an alternative method of logging onto TTF.


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## HLGStrider (Aug 16, 2014)

dapence said:


> Just a note on Facebook access. It would not move any content to Facebook, it would just be an alternative method of logging onto TTF.


I already use the "login with facebook" option, which is why I always forget my "real" password.


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## Erestor Arcamen (Aug 16, 2014)

dapence said:


> Just a note on Facebook access. It would not move any content to Facebook, it would just be an alternative method of logging onto TTF.



I've used it before once or twice, it's not bad. If that's what it would do that would be ok.


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## David Pence (Aug 17, 2014)

*gasp* http://vbtest.thetolkienforum.com/forum.php


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## Erestor Arcamen (Aug 17, 2014)

dapence said:


> *gasp* http://vbtest.thetolkienforum.com/forum.php



It...It's all empty! :-O


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## Halasían (Aug 20, 2014)

Wow! Clean! Don't see the Glittering Caves there so I guess the collaborative RP writing would go in the Prancing Pony?


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## Uminya (Aug 20, 2014)

I would suggest compressing these forums into one forum each:

1) Ivy Bush & Forsaken Inn
2) Floating Log & Off-Topic
3) 1st/2nd Age & 3rd/4th Age RPG
4) Hall of Fire & Bag End
5) Literature & Art and Music

It'll help make sure we don't have a bunch of empty or nearly-empty forums with overlapping functions.


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## Erestor Arcamen (Aug 20, 2014)

Ciryaher said:


> I would suggest compressing these forums into one forum each:
> 
> 1) Ivy Bush & Forsaken Inn
> 2) Floating Log & Off-Topic
> ...



I agree, a lot of these are either dead or very little activity.

On a different note, will smilies be fixed soon? Or is it just me?


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