Forum Post: Solutions for Solving the "Problems" of Multiple IDs and Bots.

Many users here seem quite distressed and angry that some users have multiple IDs or use bots on the forum.

Iv'e quoted the word problems in the title of this post because these issues do not bother me at all. My personal opinion is that only ideas matter, and, as far as I'm concerned, I would blank out usernames entirely so that only ideas would remain in comments. Half the comments here are users attacking other users simply because they don't like them. Taking the names off comments would make that near impossible. People would have to respond to the comment's content, not its proposer.

However, I do understand some don't have this opinion so I will generously provide a few ideas on how to solve the multiple IDs and bots "problems". It's useless to complain about these "problems" since real actions could be taken to fix them. So, pick an action and do it!

1. Ask jart to implement better security in the software, and/or better moderate the site.

2. Provide your own code enhancements with pull requests to the source code on github. This is an open-source project and anyone can contribute.

3. If you cannot code, you can ask a friend who does.

4. Share ideas for code security. Even if you can't code them, coders can benefit from your ideas and might implement them.

5. Donate money to this site for the specific purpose of programming and moderating. Perhaps jart could hire programmers to help her, or hire more moderators.

6. If you are a long-time user who has accumulated many karma points, has never been banned, and uses this site actively, then ask to become a moderator. I'm thinking of users like shooz, DKAtoday, GirlFriday, zendog, shadz66. All these users are regulars and are trusted by the community. They have proven themselves by receiving high praises for their comments and by never being banned. This is an entirely normal request. In the days of usernets and newsgroups, people who had proven themselves and were active users were often promoted to what was known as a "wizard". Essentially, a moderator. This is good for the site owners since it relieves them of some tasks, and assures them that there is almost always a moderator using the site. Also, users often respond better to moderators who are visible, than to moderators who do not post on the site. shooz and DKAtoday are particularly active here. They use the site during most of their waking hours. I submit that they should both be promoted to "wizard" status.

7. Ignore the users you deem as trolls. This usually works quite well.

The issue of multiple IDs and bots can only be fixed by better programming and/or better moderation. Complaining about it in every comment won't make a difference and is just a waste of time.