Did you see that only members can now post in G2G?

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

This morning we made a change that has long been discussed: you can no longer post anonymously here in G2G. You need to be a logged-in member to participate.

This was done primarily to slow down the spammers. You might not think spam is a very big problem here, but if so, that's only because we have some great members and moderators who flag, hide and delete spam before most members see it. But this does not prevent our forwarding the spam to members, as Carolyn Martin mentioned this morning.

We hesitated to make this change in the past because of how difficult it was to become a member. Our changes on June 1 made it a lot less intimidating to register and participate as a Guest or Family Member.

We also hesitated because of a persistent bug where G2G doesn't recognize you as member even though you are logged-in. G2G says you are not logged-in, but the main site says you are. We made a change this morning that will at least make this a little less confusing (a message appears on the login page saying to logout and login again if you are having trouble with G2G).

One unfortunate consequence is that more spammers may register. You can never completely defeat these jerks.

If you spot other unintended consequences or problems let us know. Thanks.

Chris

Comments

Thank you! 

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 - Thank you Chris for the info - -

 - ? - - Is there a flow chart of the ways to let 'you' know ,   please - - - say - flagging , posting in g2g , e-mail to whom , etc - - cheers - ja

If you spot other unintended consequences or problems let us know. Thanks.   Chris

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Hi John. Sorry, there is no flowchart, and no easy answer. :-) If you have input on this particular issue, and it's not an emergency, post here on this thread. If it is an emergency, on this or anything else, email info@wikitree.com. If it's not about this, posting a new G2G question is usually best.

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John --

If there's a problem post, you can flag it. That notifies the Team.

If you are having technical problems but are still able to post in G2G, you can post and tag it with "sysops" or "bugs." That will be noticed by the Team, as well.

If you are having serious technical problems and/or aren't able to post to G2G, you can email info -at- WikiTree.com. Again, that's the Team. ;-)

Finally, if you're seeing consistent problems with a member who could use some help, use the Problems with Members process on the Help menu.

Hope that helps!

Did I miss anything???

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Fantastic well done

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Thank you, Chris. Much appreciated.

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Great idea!

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Checked boxes to email me if there was a reply during the connect-a-thon was getting constant messages that spammers had replied. The crew did a really good job of hiding them though.

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Is this still working. See https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1083461/new-member-introducing-myself where no account is linked to the poster *anonymous*

Answer 1

Good move!

Answer 2

Chris: Thank you so much for all that you do to support members.

Answer 3

That is a good change. Everybody is free to become a member and then he is allowed to use G2G.

Answer 4

Thank you so much for this change!! It will certainly help prevent the G2G spamming. A lot of other spammers are stopped by the Greeters and, of course, the Rangers. Thank you, Chris!

Answer 5

Excellent! Thank you Chris and Team.

Answer 6

I often saw spam in the European morning, so when North America is sleeping. Don't ask me how many flags I gave out for non-registered spammers. I surely hope that at least some of them don't consider it worthy to register here only to have their spam postings moved out of sight within 5 minutes.

Comments

Script kiddies do not care about registration requirements.  They write their bot scripts with all kinds of forum setups in mind, and bots will still find a way to post. That said, implementing this should slow some of them down, at least until the script kiddies re-write their scripts.

Answer 7

Great Spot On Work !! 

Answer 8

Thank you, Chris.

Answer 9

Super great news! I've been hoping for this. 

Answer 10

Thanks for this additional protection, Chris!

Answer 11

I am very pleased to read this also

Answer 12

Thank you, Chris, for once again protecting the safety of our members. This was definitely needed. I truly hope it helps.

Answer 13

Thank you, Chris.

This is a change that I think all members will welcome.

WikiTree is a cooperative, collaborative community of genealogists and family historians so having secure ways to communicate among members is a key part of G2G.  Hopefully this will also slow-down the spammers and bots, although I am not optimistic.  If only they would use their energy for useful, positive purposes but....

Answer 14

Thank you, Chris and Team! Wonderful news.

Answer 15

Very much appreciated for multiple reasons.

Answer 16

This is fantastic news, thanks Chris.

Answer 17

I just blocked a spam post that was posted about 23 hours ago but only just now discovered and flagged.  On the same question there were 5 other spam posts stretching back to February all from the same poster (only the last numbers of the IP addresses varied).  Some of the links were to porn sites.

Jerks indeed.

I'm very happy to see this change implemented.  While it may ward off the occasional genealogist it may push some spectators into family or full membership accounts.  In the end it should be a win-win.

Answer 18

Very happy to hear this! And if members forget to sign in, it will remind them. 

Answer 19

Thank you very much.

Answer 20

I am still learning as I explore Wikitree and have so much to still learn. It is reassuring to see the changes being made to improve Wikitree. Any effective monitoring and evaluation process requires the implementation of the learnings. I have found a lot I like in this collaborative, single family tree space. Thank you from a relative newbie.