Should Theatre Australia Members Only be allowed to post

"I have indeed recently joined and happily admit that I've looked at a few profiles, some of them naturally being those of female members. I certainly hope that this doesn't mark me out as some kind of voyeur with suspicious motives. Being new to the forum and fairly new to computers in general, I was not aware that the viewing activities of members could be tracked in such a fashion, which, I have to say, I find a little unsettling. I hasten to add, however, that this does not mean I suspect Na's comments of being directed at me." First point: this person appeared to me to be suspicious. Doesn't mean they are, I simply requested Grant keep an eye out for the member and check to see if they are in fact doing anything dodgy via this site. The other reason they appeared dodgy is because the member filled out their profile in a way which to me suggested a person simply signing up to read other people's profiles. It's also the only thing they did when they visited the site over a course of several weeks; and most of the profiles they were checking were young members (all of them were women though). I know from experience that people who do sign up can be dodgy: on other sites I have seen members who use a quite R-rated name, a password that is also R-rated, and then proceeded to load info on their profile that isn't appropriate to general audiences. All I'm saying is that it's better to be safe than sorry, and that in this case I notified Grant and left it to his judgement as to what to do with the member. Second point: No, it wasn't you. Three: as I said before, I have special moderator status. I can view the history of members and see what pages they visit. However, I don't simply spend all day checking what other people are up to. I use it in cases of suspicious behaviour; last month, when a member was spamming via the messaging system, I could track what pages they viewed to figure out that they weren't just spamming me. In that way I could not only warn other members, but also figure out a way to stop them from continuing. I have also used it to figure out if newbies have checked the FAQ, or, in the case of my blog post last year, to create a list of statistics on the use/abuse of the site by newbies. I don't abuse the backend system, but I'm sure if everyone had the access, there would eventually be abuse (power corrupts, etc, insert cliches here). "I am all in favour of the proposal that only registered members be permitted to post comments. Knowing that true identities can be easily verified by reference to profiles, may just encourage members to be more mindful of their behaviour and ensure a more politely conducted forum." This argument doesn't work either. Registering doesn't mean you offer honest information about yourself. Anyone can make up a profile (ie. go google Fake Steve Jobs) and be believable. Only if you attach registration to proof of identity, like references, confirmed address, credit cards/ID cards, can you heighten the likelihood of profiles being honest. Even then, in this day and age, a small percentage will still be fake. Again, for me, it comes back to creating an atmosphere of respect, rather than worrying about the issue of building walls. Mini-monster puppets customised just for you! at Puppets in Melbourne