Registration Rule to reduce spammers and bots

[Dan Szwarc]

In order to reduce spammers and bots, any account created and activated will be deleted in 30 days if the user does not post in a topic.

Any meaningless replies to posts will not count. I can tell when a new user is a spammer because no one joins just to post a reply without asking a question.

You do not need to be registered to search or read so you don't need and account if you are not going to post.

[mge825y]

Dan - is this policy for new users or will existing users have to post every 30 days too to avoid being deleted?

[Dan Szwarc]

This does not apply to regular users. I do not tend to delete users who have even 1 post.

[1Bad55Chevy]

Stupid question and is really none of my business..

How many active users are on this site? It also seems that this site has an older user base compared to other big forums, has the user base increased or decreased over the past few years?

[Dan Szwarc]

Active users? Unique weekly visitors is probably 15-20
We’ve had between 4000 and 7000 users but many never posted and bots and spammers have been deleted.

The current membership is 6373. It is visible at the bottom page of this link. . Way at the bottom.

2010-2014 was the golden era where we had dozens of posts and replies per day. Now, about 3-5 posts per day.

Yesterday, for example, I think there was ONE post and it was this one. I guess your reply makes 2.

[CaptainDave]

Well, I'll chime in, if only to make it three. People will get sick of FaceBook and turn to a more relevant, less Bozo-fied channel. This one. Everything has peaks and valleys.

[1966BlackonBlackConv]

This site, The Lincoln Forum is the cornerstone for anyone who owns one of the cars. The amount of knowledge this site contains makes it by far the most valuable resource. Do the sites on Facebook offer detailed knowledge and "articles" on how to upgrade a 66 to dual master cylinder, the importance of a 3-port fuel pump, power steering pump operation and maintenance? If it does- I don't know where to find it. Any question asked on Face book can be found in extreme detail on this site. Thanks to Dan for maintaining it!

[Dan Szwarc]

Well, I'll chime in, if only to make it three. People will get sick of FaceBook and turn to a more relevant, less Bozo-fied channel. This one. Everything has peaks and valleys.

I hope you're right, but I have my doubts. FB will be replaced with an even less useful site, I'm sure.

[1Bad55Chevy]

Active users? Unique weekly visitors is probably 15-20
We’ve had between 4000 and 7000 users but many never posted and bots and spammers have been deleted.

The current membership is 6373. It is visible at the bottom page of this link. . Way at the bottom.

2010-2014 was the golden era where we had dozens of posts and replies per day. Now, about 3-5 posts per day.

Yesterday, for example, I think there was ONE post and it was this one. I guess your reply makes 2.

I really think online forums have been on the decline since YouTube really started taking over. I work on cars for a living at my independent BHPH dealership and I find most of YouTube mechanics are completely lost.

I am 37 and I will say I completely hate my millennial generation... Nobody reads anything and would rather watch some loser on YouTube show them how to miss diagnos something. Everybody wants the answer handed to them rather then picking up a shop manual or looking up a diagnostic troubleshooting tree on All Data. It's like nobody wants to take the time to understand what the hell they are fixing.
/**
*End rant
*/

[Mike]

Its Facebook that's doing them in. There been declining since before the sudden surge of youtube know it alls.

While I always like reading a forum write up or able to ask someone directly how to do something i do have to say you tube videos on the same thing are extremely handy. It's one thing to read step by step and see pictures, it's another to see someone actually do it.

[Dan Szwarc]

YouTube is handy, but it can’t answer questions for our rare cars. There was that Bubba guy doing vids, but he’s probably realized he gets very few views for convertible and 60s Lincoln advice.

I’d love to do videos, but I don’t have the skills, time, or motivation.

[CaptainDave]

We are entering a new "dark ages"!

[CaptainDave]

Thinking back to what Mike and Dan said, perhaps a partial solution would be for their to be a YouTube "channel" for video clips just from members of this forum. They'd probably be much higher quality that most of what's out there and if one was inaccurate or fell short, comments here could lead to revision. Just a thought. And no, I don't have any idea how one establishes a channel on YT.

[CaptainDave]

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1646861?hl=en details setting up a "channel'

[Dan Szwarc]

A channel on you tube is just creating an account, like here. Then you can comment.
‘I have a channel. It has nearly nothing on it.
Making videos is hard. Editing is hard. I’d rather post text and a few pics.