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Dear Cookshack, as a frequent reader and contributor to this forum, I and some others have noticed an increasing frequency of "spam" posts, i.e., posts that resurrect a five- or six-year-old (or even older) thread and add a seemingly innocuous comment, sometimes in poor English grammar, that at first look seem relevant, but really show little or no relation to the subject, and then include a link to what invariably is a spam or fake site, sometimes generating warnings or actual crashes of a web browser.

In these cases, the poster shows as a "member," which indicates the process of joining the CS Forum may be a bit lax. I have reported a large number of these fake posts which have then usually been removed. I wonder if CS would provide its real members with some information on how it plans to deal with this increasing annoyance to members interested in BBQ and not in irrelevant and even dangerous links being posted? Thanks for your responsiveness to those of us who want this Forum to succeed and become better.

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I actually don't believe there is any forum moderation by CS at all, and I think that is by design. I just don't think CS any longer sees this Forum as anything but a free-for-all. When they started the new forum format, they deleted the old verbiage about what was and was not allowed on the forum. It used to be, no non-BBQ related posts, no selling anything, no advertisements or business notices, etc. And Smokin' Okie pretty well policed it, as well as keeping things on track and on correct topics, and keeping things civil. I don't know for sure if he was volunteer or paid but I suspect volunteer. I know he commented some on how much work it was towards the end of his tenure.

I am somewhat encouraged that when a technical issue arises, frequently a CS rep will reply with some help, which tells me someone there is reading it sometimes. But they apparently have no interest in moderating content unless a post is reported.

Last edited by jay1924

You are more right than wrong.  The owners of CS may pop in once in a while but they have a business to runs and time is money.  Shortly after the new forum kicked off, I was forwarding problems and negative comments to the folks at CS via email and they responded on the forum usually within one day. I also communicated with the people who were responsible for the selection of the new format and also visited the web designers/hosting website.  I was less than unimpressed.  I suggested they visit Let's Talk BBQ, Smokin Meat Forums and the Smokin-it  forums to look at who or what is powering or hosting.  Great formats!  No go.  The lady I was communicating with at CS was very polite but change was not an option.  I don't know what that means.

I just have to go with the flow.  Under the old forum, visits were daily.  I am now weekly or every other week.  I know, that is not helping.  And I should visit much more often.  If I had a PG 500 or 1000, I could, in all likelihood contribute a lot since those 2 units seem to be getting a lot of attention and I would definitely put one of them through it's paces.  But for now, such a purchase is out of the question.  But I cannot shoot off my mouth about something I do not own or use.  The Amerique I know, and aside from being the big boy, what I know I can apply to the smaller units.  

And now spam and time wasters are discouraging the members.  Such a sad state of affairs.

 

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