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OISV - Organization of Independent Software Vendors

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Carol Haynes:
Slightly bizarre really - anyone can sign up (as far as I can see ... not that I followed the links but it didn't say don't bother unless ....) so it isn't exactly private.

Why publish short extracts from some articles on the home page with a link to read the rest when you then can't without signing up.

I am not in principle against the idea of a private website but if you are going to put a public front on the website it should actually acheive something for the public. Obviously private issues can be discussed behind closed doors but I would guess the front page articles as shown now aren't particularly in need of privacy ???

mouser:
well to be fair, they may want to show potential members the kind of articles that are available so they have some basis to know whether to join.

and we also don't know if they are letting anyone join.. though i suspect that they are.

Renegade:
Slightly bizarre really - anyone can sign up (as far as I can see ... not that I followed the links but it didn't say don't bother unless ....) so it isn't exactly private.
-Carol Haynes (June 19, 2006, 06:46 PM)
--- End quote ---

Membership is verified. It's a long story, and I really don't want to get into it too much, but as I'm sure you're well aware, there are always some habitual trolls/flamers, etc. For example, if you check out alt.comp.shareware.authors you'll find at least 1 example of a very disturbed and disruptive person in there. To be honest, I find his posts humorous as they are just completely so far removed from reality and wacky that I can't help but laugh. However, most people don't find him very amusing.

It also serves to keep the community relatively clean from 'the dark side'. You just don't want hackers or spammers getting in, and usually they won't pass the pre-requisites needed to get in, such as having a real web site that isn't a spam or hacking related site. That's probably the most important thing.

Renegade:
well to be fair, they may want to show potential members the kind of articles that are available so they have some basis to know whether to join.

and we also don't know if they are letting anyone join.. though i suspect that they are.
-mouser (June 19, 2006, 06:59 PM)
--- End quote ---

It's not open to just anyone to join (as far as I know and I'd bet I'm right). You need to be a developer or somehow legitimately in the community. Whether you own/run/work for a web hosting service, or develop or resell software - whatever it is - you just need to be legitimate. i.e. Not a spamware/hacker/cracker, etc.

e.g. Check some posts of comments at Slashdot - complete garbage written by kiddie techie wannabes that know nothing about technology ("I hate MS." "I hate Linux." "IE is stupid." "I have nothing better to do..."). That kind of stuff just wastes time and for busy people, it's just not worth wading through.

An excellent example of a great forum that is public is JoS. Another is WebWiz. They are nice and clean. Occasionally there's some junk posted at JoS, but it still maintains a lot of high quality posts from respectable people in the community.

Carol Haynes:
Actually the sign up asks a lot of questions about your business so I guess if you aren't a business they may decide not to let you sign up.

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