It's so easy to make these kinds of what I perceive as overly broad and dismissive statements when one is not aware of the issues these folks are faced with. Yep, that's
my opinion... (and I am not one working on the TOS, or I could have been much more specific.)
Part of the problems include relying on a platform (our current version of vBulletin) that has its own trials and limitations - FT is by far the largest BBS using the platform and perhaps some day it will be able to move - but for now, it's like any large IT project one team took over from another - one chance may cause a number of unforeseen changes. (To make it even more interesting", IB maintains and operates over 100 websites.)
So, changing the TOS relies on this somewhat - the people assigned to redo the TOS, who have jobs, family life and volunteer on FT - and because the tech side is prettu busy bailing and caulking as well.
It's all interdependent - an easy idea easily becomes a technical challenge and a heat sink for volunteer time without plenty of running things by others, testing and checking with each side of the team, lest we silo off and create more problems than we attempt to solve.
Certainly nobody at Admin or Tech, or Mods, can read every single post. So we rely when possible on automated systems - if we did not, this board would be so smothered with Spam you wouldn't be able to find any wheat through the chaff. And even with those protocols, moderators are involved on a daily basis chasing the spam that managed to get through, or to read and approve the posts that got sent to a moderation queue before appearing online.
Some may confuse silence as "no action" - but it's not so. (It would be lovely to have unlimited resources and an army of people working on this, but those just don't exist.)
Sorry for your impatience - I hope you are gleaning
some benefits from your presence here on FT.
We like "seeing it get done" too, but there's a lot going on on the technical end that keeps people very busy - I say that genuinely.
Person years, dog years and - FT years, right?
Originally Posted by
lin821
(bolding mine)
YES, I hear you (not you as an individual, but "you" as the whoever are/were put in charge of the task).
I do, every time! First
in April, 2012:
and again in
March 2013:
FT already missed the window to take any preemptive measure years ago. Still counting, as of
December 2013. I haven't seen anything concrete to address the referral links issues at the management level, other than case-by-case RBPs.
For me, not taking action over an extended period of time reads pretty much the same as ignoring members' concerns. It can be read in 2 ways. Either admin doesn't take it seriously, or admin can't deliver. Maybe both, I don't know. What I do know is, even without asking, plenty of input had been provided in those earlier threads.
FWIW, bloggers are not the only group that abuses referral links. Some regular members, newbies or not, do that too.
The race for referral link abuses had started long before blogspam and creation of External Miles and Points Resources Forum on FT.
It appears to me IB has no issue with feeding FTers undercooked cakes (see the most recent example
here). At least they have some perfect excuse, specifically technical incompetency and/or indifference. (I assume they didn't even consider
the insightful suggestion from our beloved cordelli about getting a monkey on the tech team).
What's the holdup dealing with referral link abuses, giving it isn't an overnight wonder or "phenomenon?"
I don't recall it took this long for the
new TB Guidelines to materialize back in 2008. After soliciting feedback publicly in September, a motion was passed in November for such a makeover. Even with some bumps along the way, it was accomplished under 6 months with rigor.
Please excuse my English, since things seem to take place in the dark room (or dark age? whichever is more respectful), I have to ask, is addressing referral link abuses in TOS a much heavier task than the makeover of TalkBoard Guidelines? How much more work-in-progress time do we need to spare before FTers can see some real action?