You want to make it harder for freepers/trolls to register here? How about a longer waiting period?

If I recall correctly, I had to wait 24 hours after registering before I could post.

What if it extended to a week? A month?

My reasoning behind this is as follows: An actual liberal/Democrat/Progressive reads this message board on a regular basis and would like to participate. To have to wait a couple of weeks or maybe even a month in order to post after registering would not make him or her lose interest. In fact, they would be forced into eager anticipation.

A freeper or a troll, on the other hand, wouldn't even bother. Their only objective is to disrupt, and the longer they have to wait, the more likely they are to throw up their hands, especially if they go through the trouble only to get tombstoned right away. There would be exceptions of course, but I think I'm right about that in general.

You should eMail the Admins about it. :thumbsup:

people who want to get more involved in politics and just came to this site harder to participate. The only problem with closing the gates is that you leave everyone out.

But I'm thinking that people who truly want to participate would have no problem with lurking for a few weeks. After all, isn't that what the majority of us did before we registered?

I lurked for years before finally getting a name here. A couple of more weeks would've been no problem for me.

you have to wait 24 hours if you have a gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc. account.

Yeah, and I wonder how many trolls have multiple accounts and multiple user names?

I think we're better off as it is now, weeding 'em out as they show themselves. Why discourage people up front?

at least this way we can find the freeper trolls pretty fast and they're dealt with immediately.

I like it as it is.

before I could start one. I think the trolls make themselves visible pretty quickly.

I don't actually have a problem with this, it works wonders on the only other board I frequent in terms of cutting down on ridiculous trolls (it's not a political board).

Obviously we've had plenty of "donor star" trolls but I really do think even a small $ requirement goes a long way towards cutting down on trollage. And then even if they come, at least they contribute and help the board run.

I think to respond to a post is another issue.

If anyone at all thinks I am way out of line on this, let me hear about it. Even though trolls annoy me greatly at times, especially when they infiltrate so badly like NOW...I do admit it does not make me comfortable suggesting a posting fee...even coming from my own mouth.

Call me ambiguous on this subject :)

I'm so skeptical of things, in fact, that I believe some freepers are going around as right wing Democrats, so they could destroy the Democratic Party. That's why it's essential that the Democratic Party get back to its roots and stop the centrist bs.

:P

You are the yin to my yang.
O8)

had registered around previous elections (just before 2004 and another just before 2006) that have just become "active" again. Some of the freeper/trolls are quite patient. Fortunately once they do start posting, they generally pull the mask down quite quickly.

Seems to be plenty of "sentries" and I know many derive amusement from the activity.

and the 24 hour period is perfectly adequate.

DU mods do a fine job of eliminating the troublemakers as long as we bother to alert them.

It's a team effort to keep the board Democratic and Underground.

I, for one, wish when the trolls are tombstoned, we could go someplace to see what was said - we're not always on in time to see it...