Accept or decline membership?

[Kristofer Emerig]

For what I believe to be quite obvious reasons, I am reluctant to accept this petition for new membership. I'll invite the group to vote on this one. Please opine and justify your answer:)

[David]

that was indeed my suggestion.

 

[Ivor]

I'd go along with this - otherwise why not give it a throw and watch carefully. See if any complaints arise. This site is unusual in that one has to request friendship before messages can be exchanged so there's some discernment there. If I received a request I'd look at the profile before "approving".

[Stephen Ferre]

I think it is important that we do. Long ago I ran a Ning forum (when it was free), and I found that spammers were a never-ending battle. I had a whole series of questions, but no approval process, and I kept getting answers of "." or "0", which got them through.  If we can nip it in the bud, some may get through, but that should stop much of it.

[Kristofer Emerig]

Intentionally so.. I've set it that way, and members are encouraged to reach out if they accept the odd friend request and then immediately receive a suspicious private message. Spam accounts, it seems, will usually reveal themselves promptly.

 

[Kristofer Emerig]

I would absolutely agree with that stricture, except for the fact that many fine, legitimate composers are not at all savy about forum navigation. I often have members leaving responses to my comments, requests, or inquiries, on their own feed, where I'm unlikely to ever find them except by accident. Those that are familiar with the Ning platform assume others are too. But many simply don't know the appropriate place to put things, nor where to find them.

Trust me, many new, well-meaning members would be confused and frustrated by the request, as many don't even suss out the bio field until after they've been around for awhile and become accustomed to the platform.