A couple of people have suggested that we should only allow registered users to post or, at the very least, be able to start new threads. My concerns about this are:

1. If an unregistered user can reply to messages but can't start new threads, new users that don't even understand the difference might just start posting unrelated questions in existing threads. This might not be to avoid registering but simply because they don't understand that replying to an existing thread isn't the appropriate way to submit their unrelated post.

2. Even if all posting is restricted to registered users, registering is not hard. We might get rid of a few "one-timers" that post and never come back but I'm not sure how common those are. Requiring registration doesn't particularly avoid posts with multiple aliases, either, since users can just register multiple times using multiple throw-away email accounts.

I do like the idea of marking "incomplete" questions such that if a follow-up is not posted within X days that the thread be automatically deleted as an abandoned thread. I'm not sure how the system would know when sufficient information had been provided--I guess that someone would have to manually remove the "incomplete" status.

Another option I've been pondering is a kind of "moderation committee." Sometimes Steve and I don't delete or close a thread that, perhaps, should be since we want to moderate as little as necessary and try to give posts the benefit of the doubt. We could have a group of trusted members that would have the ability to mark a given post or thread for closure or deletion and said closure or deletion would occur after some number of those members voted. I.e., have 10 members in the committe and if any 5 of them voted for closure or deletion of a specific thread or message, that would occur even if Steve or myself didn't take action. This could make moderation more representative of the community and relieve Steve and me from some of the responsibility for dealing with these things. Fact is, it is entirely possible that 5 members could see and vote for closure or deletion before Steve or I even see the post.

I'm open to suggestions. I haven't really done anything in terms of requiring registration, etc. mostly because I'm not convinced it will really solve the problem--but will tend to reduce posts, although it's not impossible that we've reached a point where reducing posts is actually the better option. I guess something else that needs to be done is a statistical analysis to find out what percentage of posts are registered or unregistered, and how many unregistered posts are valuable.

Regards,
Craig Steiner