First Posters Seeking Advice - Genuine or Not?

[simonhill]

Recently we have been having a number of posts seeking advice after an incident. The description is usually fairly detailed and then advice, often legal is sought The posters are always first timers and usually never reply to questions or post again.

Coincidence or spoof?

[thirdcrank]

I'm generally a bit cautious about these, but I generally try to reply as though it's in good faith.

While we are discussing the organisation of the forum, I'd ... er .... vote for something to reduce the number of polls. It's not that there's no place for them, but they seem to be launched with little thought.

[horizon]

Coincidence or spoof?

Generally I think they should be taken at face value - it is the ensuing discussion that is the interesting bit. Same with questions about which bike to get and health issues for instance. Even the wind-up questions are sometimes good if taken in good spirit.

My only doubt is for the ones where students request help with projects: I get the impression that their asking us is the work they have to do - they have to demonstrate that they have carried out market research. The answers we give are irrelevant to them.

[thirdcrank]

But they do get some advice on how to design and conduct a survey.

[Bez]

As far as forum organisation is concerned, all I want is an “everything but The Brexit Tea Shop” option.

[horizon]

As far as forum organisation is concerned, all I want is an “everything but The Brexit Tea Shop” option.

The thread actually tidied up and then coralled all new threads into it. Unfortunately the fence was breached so we've now got a proliferation of Brexit threads. I think there should be a couple more "catch-all" threads to cover other political areas as well.

[Paulatic]

A first time thread concerning Phuket, Trek Madone and air freight I replied to recently has gone into the ether. No idea why.

[al_yrpal]

As far as forum organisation is concerned, all I want is an “everything but The Brexit Tea Shop” option.

+1 It's become a home for serial trolls

[Airsporter1st]

I've seen exactly the same thing happening on other furums (fora?).

I think what happens is that someone uses a search engine to answer a question and up pops the forum, amongst other hits. They then sign up and ask their question, but with no real conviction and no lasting interest in whatever else the forum might have to offer and simply drift away from whence the they came.

[thirdcrank]

A first time thread concerning Phuket, Trek Madone and air freight I replied to recently has gone into the ether. No idea why.

I don't know about that specific thread but there's been quite a lot from what I presume to be the same poster and I think they have received exemplary courtesy.

[Graham]

A first time thread concerning Phuket, Trek Madone and air freight I replied to recently has gone into the ether. No idea why.

That new topic, from a new user, contained near identical text from another genuine post.

This is a standard spammer method. Sometimes it may go un-noticed , however, this time the subject matter was unusual and current - it stood out like a sore-thumb.
I thought your reply to it was a sarcastic flagging-up of the "what an extraordinary coincidence" . . . ..

[thirdcrank]

And now we have yet another Brexit-related poll.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Ile go with the first three posts

[Paulatic]

A first time thread concerning Phuket, Trek Madone and air freight I replied to recently has gone into the ether. No idea why.

That new topic, from a new user, contained near identical text from another genuine post.

This is a standard spammer method. Sometimes it may go un-noticed , however, this time the subject matter was unusual and current - it stood out like a sore-thumb.
I thought your reply to it was a sarcastic flagging-up of the "what an extraordinary coincidence" . . . ..

It was, but I wasn’t certain.

[peetee]

It's worth bearing in mind that there is nothing stopping insurance company investigators from reading forums too. One would imagine it's entirely possible that a poster giving over too much info and fishing for compensation avenues might be recognised and their persual of a claim treated differently as a result.