For a long time I've noticed a problem at Daltaí, and one that has been growing - absolutely irrelevant or simply abusive posts by non-registered contributors. Almost all language forums similar to Daltaí only allows registered users to post and I would suggest introducing the same rule here. Registering takes about three minutes.

At the very least I'd suggest the you must enter a name -- you don't know who's who when you've got:

(Unregistered User)

and also from time to time I neglect to put in my username and password so my posts come out as (Unregistered User) too.

In general I'm not crazy about having to sign-up for things. . .

Jonas, a chara,
Aontaím leat.
Slán beo!
Chris

A Jonas, a chara,

Sin é smaoineamh sármhaith!

a chairde,

thanks for your suggestions, they are much appreciated.

Our decision to allow unregistered posting was a conscious one, which we debated internally for some time. We decided in favor of unregistered posting to encourage broad participation in dicussions, including participation from those who, like Fear, have a legitimate aversion to registering for accounts or just aren't that technically proficient.

Since switching over to the new board we also began applying our posting guidelines more stringently for the very reasons you mention. This has cut down considerably on abusive posts, but since you took the time to bring up this discussion, obviously not enough.

In any event, your comments are well taken. We will be discussing a change in policy over the next week and will let you know the outcome.

Caoimhín

Jonas,
if you are refering to my dig at you about the langues, my explanation is pointed out in my respose to Fear na mBróg in the thread 'Stupid question' where I gave kudos to those who have, with good intent learnt the langue, which includes yourself. I was 'unregistered guest' due to forgetting to add my name. The ISP data is held by Dalaí anyway, so if I were to threaten anyone I suspect I could be blocked from having access, from this location anyhow.

I understand it can be insulting to be assailed after creating a new thread -it seems disrespectful. I hope it was a natural and quite appropriate human emotional response to be taken aback and angered by someone who was been irreverant, and not some pompos atitude of someone who believes they are held such in high reguard that such jocular activities as making a joke are out of bounds.

I trust we are all men here and can have a laugh and on the flip side acknowledge when we step out of bounds. I'd like to make clear I'd like to contribute and have no intention of causing a disturbance, but neither am I going to act like a dickless wonder whos so afraid of his shite he'll say nothing. You can have and edge, and get along with others too.

Jax

As a person who comes on unregistered , I would like to put my point of view.
I intentionally dont register for a number of reasons ,firstly there seems to be a lot of sermonising goes on here with beginners and a lot of snobbery too , I should say there is a lot of positive input too , from which I and many others have benefited whcih is why I return often . I used to sign on here but found that I was collecting a lot of bad feeling simply from objecting to being patronised , I have since found that being unregistered is much better becuase people see my input at face value and give feedback on it . I just want to learn Irish , end of story, I dont want to deal with the minority of fragile egos that get pompous when asked a question, or if I make a mistake . As Im not registered I dont get involved ,

The problem may lie with me and my inability to cope with friction without it affecting me a lot, but that doesnt mean I shouldnt be allowed to use the board too. I wonder if there is in fact a direct relation between the number of abusive posts falling and the rise in the number of unregistered ? Could it be Im not alone in my strategy of problem avoidence , and that some of the 'abusive ' posts were in fact reactions to the atitude I described above? Food for thought.

I dont see what the problem with unregistered people is , you know who they are , they are people learning Irish , which is this the main purpose of this board.
Im happy to hear arguements for the need to register but Im not convinced myself.

My two Zlotys worth .

My apologies , but I forgot to add that I looked down the list of threads and there is not one that doesnt have to do with the learning of Irish , so the irrelevance factor doesnt doesnt seem to have much weight.
If people feel they are being abused , Im sure there is a way of drawing it to admins attention and if they agree its abusive they can ban particular IPs , perhaps the way forward rather than a ban on non registered? could this be a compromise between the to positions?

As one of those who's seen both sides of the current system, I would point out that the old 'flame wars' have for all intents and purposes disappeared. I suspect that the improvement is the result of management's intervention when the interchanges become inappropriate. Registered or not, suit yourselves. I don't think it matters. As for me, I enjoy recognizing the familiar names. Some of you have become as old friends.

go mbeannaí Dia sibh.

Jax, no hard feelings whatsoever on my part. When I first read your post I thought it was from someone who had just stumbled into this site. Had I known then that you are indeed a member (I don't count members by registration) I certainly would have replied in a different manner. :-)

and not some pompos atitude of someone who believes they are held such in high reguard that such jocular activities as making a joke are out of bounds.

Well put, a chara. I certainly hope I shall never find myself in that category. No, just as you said, I was a bit surprised and wrote the first post in this thread immeadiately. I then went for a coffe with a friend and didn't think more about the whole matter.

As to your original post, I do understand how it might look. It was never my intention to boast about language abilities, I know very well that there are some eminent linguists on this site and I'm definitely not one of them. If it had been my intetion to boast, I would never have created a thread in which I know I will be behind some other members. I don't know from what country you are, but in the society I live in the language skills I mentioned are not especially remarkable. True, no-one of my friends here speak Irish or Welsh, but then again some speak Italian, Polish and other languages that I don't. Most people I know get by in at least five languages, it's just something native speakers of very small languages have to cope with, I'm sure there are illiterate hunters in Guinea who speak more languages than anyone of us do.

As always, I'm writing too much. What I wanted to say was just: Don't be afraid to have a go at me again... :-)

Alls well that ends well!

Jax

A chairde,
I'd have to say that the system works just fine as is and see no need for a change.

Le meas,
Paul

quote:

I trust we are all men here

I also have an aversion to sexism.

Fear na mBróg,
a) since I was addressing a man, I meant it in the sense we can all be balanced and adult about this. No women were involved in the issue.
b) It was a way of expressing oneself ibe might see in Ireland when calls for balance and been 'big' about something comes up -a local style if you wish.
c) gender is implicit in langues. A woman can be the 'chairman' if that is what the word is, with no disrespect at all. Are young and teenage Gaelic girls at a disadvantage if 'cailín' is in the gender system masculine? I understand gender politics has pushed some pertinent changes in how we assume abstractly our readership (say if we were writinga book on history) as in "The Gael would have sang heartily by the camp fire; he did this and he did that..." where women are been de-empasised.

My opinion is that words should not be improperly anthropomorphised in part or in toto as so much comprehension requires non-social, non-conscious cognitive processes occuring in the brain which have nothing to do with sexual differentiation, so that to impart an ethic (external) analysis where it is not due is ignore that when most speakers hear 'chairman' in the sentance 'Claire was appointed chairman', no gender conflict or sense of derogation towards females is expected or felt, unless the reader is familiar with classical feminist discourse and has a problem with the 'assumptions' involved. The assumptions are non existant, for the most part been perhaps more an etymological question, than a gender one.

Of course, I don't mind if English is de-genderised if some people use it as a lever to enable sexism, just it can render sentances artificial and non-idiomatic if taken too far.

Oh and by the way, the two posts as 'unregistered guest' after me above are not by my hand, even if they sound a little similar.

Jax

Besides, a woman is a wif-man (*"banduine"). Men=homines=daoine.

Fadhb leis an mBéarla - A problem with English, this one.

Homo = Mensch (German) = Duine (Gaeilge) = Man (english)
Vir = Mann (German) = Fear (Gaeilge) = man (english)

(Message edited by aonghus on January 21, 2005)

Some recent inept, inane and, in one case,insane postings, were all posted by people who had signed in. I don't see unregistered guests as a problem. They can be escorted off the premises readily.

a chairde,

We have decided to continue to allow posting by unregistered users, at least for the time being. However, as requested by Fear na Mbróg, the board preferences have been changed to require the entry of a user name for unregistered users.

Should anyone encounter a post they think is incendiary (flame bait) or abusive, please bring it to the attention of Liam or me by clicking on the "Contact" link in the navigation area to the left.

Go raibh maith agaibh,

Caoimhín