Forum Ideas or Suggestions

[Larwee]

Back in the 1950's there was a research scientist by the name of Alan Turing. I mentioned that because his name plays a part of what CAPTCHA stands for, which is Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart.

Over a period of time computer software improved to the point where it was getting easier to get around the captchas. As a result it has always been necessary to make the captchas more difficult. But in the process of making them more difficult for automated programs it has also become more difficult for people.

Researchers are working on ideas that would make it more difficult for computers and more friendly for people. There are several different ideas being considered.

One of the more interesting ones is ASIRRA (Animal Species Image Recognition for Restricting Access). It involves photographs and questions about animals and has more than two million images.

It is sad that it is even necessary to do this, but there are a lot of people in this world with bad intentions.

[Edwin]

I hear ya Larwee
Animal Species? Sounds like a plan to me.

[cdorob]

Linda,

Any chance we could do some polls here on the forum? Got some interesting stuff to ask that would work better as a poll.

What do you think?

Cristian

[Larwee]

There was a time when members could post polls but they were suppose to get permission before they did. However, there were those who would post polls without first getting permission.

The forums have many more members now and are more active. There is also a bigger chance for abuse by spammers and others.

I have it set so that members can not post polls at the present time.

Polls can be done and there are a few ways this could be be done. This is something Linda and I haven't talked about. We will discuss it and a reply will be posted to your question.

[Linda Buquet]

Cristian,

I was not aware that polls had been turned off.
I wondered why we never had any polls.

Larry and I will discuss and like he said, we'll get back to you on this.
Thanks for bringing it up.

[Larwee]

cdorob, we will give it a try again and see how it works. We are in a better position now to deal with any potential problems. You and other members may now post your polls.

Edit:We have made some more changes and members may no longer post polls. However we might start some polls at times and members will be able to respond to those polls but won't be able to start any polls of their own.

[longroad]

Linda (or anyone else), how about combining links to all the very best threads from the forum into one post, make it a sticky and continually updating it?

Has this already been done somewhere?

We could even have a "best of" and link out to articles and blog posts from other sites that will be particularly helpful to people, making the thread a one stop shop for some of the best IM related content you'll find anywhere.

[Larwee]

longroad, thanks for the suggestion. We are always interested in receiving suggestions from members.

What we have at the present time is some sticky posts in most of the forums that feature some of the best threads in that particular forum.

We also have a Hall of Fame thread Hall of Fame - Best Words of Wisdom from 5 Star Members That thread honors some of the great posts rather than outstanding threads.

Your suggestion does bring to mind something I've had in the back of my mind for a long time. It isn't exactly the same as you suggested but it is aimed at achieving the same thing in a different way.

We will discuss this as well as give some thought to the idea you have suggested.

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks longroad. We are really happy you care enough to make suggestions.

I think the Hall of Fame can largely fit the bill. We or mainly I slacked off on remembering to always add the good posts there, but we're going to try harder to keep up with it.

Sounds like you helped Larry think of something, so we'll talk about it and see what we can come up with.

Great feedback!

[positivecarry]

Anyone ever think of maybe putting a donate button in here that we could donate some paypal to if we wanted to. Seems like a decent idea.