I think the spam is the root of GC's problem. I keep hoping that someone is working on prevention rather than just removal.

To the posters who are asking about the spam, please know that many, many, MANY of us have notified the super mods who are the only ones that can get rid of it. We have asked the owner of GC, John, repeatedly to ban offenders. Many of us have stepped up & offered to perform the task. We just need the necessary access. Many of the people that have been on this site for years have done everything we can think of to stop the spam. Nothing has changed.

John has been MIA for several months. We don't know if he is seeing the messages and our begging for help or not. I have to assume that he is somehow incapacitated and cannot manage GC for some tragic reason. Better than thinking he has abandoned the site for me.

We have only 1 super mod that can ban members and remove spam that I know of. She is really busy & has a lot of other responsibilities, but she does what she can.

Regardless of the spam, message boards are not what they used to be. The other MB I was active on (completely different subject) is technically still active, but there have been no more than a handful of posts in the last couple years - all the members have moved their conversations to Facebook. TV Without Pity was one of the most active boards on the entire Internet, and it just disappeared.

This all being said, bumping threads and adding no new content just to push down spam makes the majority of people more irate than understanding, & I wish people would stop doing it. If you want to bump threads, go into some of the entertainment or chit chat forums and something that you can actually contribute to. If you don't have any new content, and you're just here to be a voyeur, then you're part of the problem, not the solution.

I certainly have no gripe with the mods. They are doing a good
job trying to keep up with the mess. I think John has abandoned all of us.

A good alternative to TWoP is Previously.tv.

The thing is, the spam goes away -- actually, relatively quickly, although some filters could keep it from showing up in the first place.

The bump threads are still there, with the new post indicator on, and NOTHING of interest. Just someone who decided arbitrarily what to bump.

Yes, message boards are a relic of the early internet. This is the real reason why GC is slowly dying and PNMs are not coming here as much anymore.

Also +1 million to the bumping threads for the sake of bumping to try to push down spam is rage inducing.

Yes. PNMs are going to sites like Greekrank, which has forums specifically dedicated to schools. On one school's forum, the young women are listing where they preffed by name. I can't imagine that happening here. There seems to be enough anonymity there, whereas when PNMs come to GC, they're warned about making themselves look too visible.

We don't have a lot of PNMs, at least not that I can tell. It's mainly moms--and I think most of those come from College Confidential.

There are a few other message boards I frequent--those seem to be pretty popular. They don't get spammed, though.

Ah yes...the end of message boards. I used to post like crazy at iVillage.com, and it has died a complete and rather dramatic death. I laugh when I think about my early chat room experiences.

I think part of the change is the new platforms younger folks are using. Live "Feeds" like twitter, instagram, and snapchat have taken away the habit of reading through threads. As a matter of fact, even our recruitment stories, taking place over several days, are probably not appealing to the younger crowd. They "do" social media differently.

An idea..... (and please know I'm ducking because I know a lot of you would be throwing popcorn at me)

Is there any way to repost (copy and paste) information so that it is more current. I understand alot of it still applies, but an 18 year comes to the sight looking for current info. They see 2012 or before on the original post and they immediately disregard.

I am mostly talking about the recruitment thread rather than stories. Just an idea.... And! I have no idea if it will help with spam.

I think the implicit meaning behind sticky threads is that it is something that is kept current and updated - for example, to reflect the changes in quota additions.

If college students really are so shortsighted as to think that something written 3 years ago couldn't help them in any way, that's not a problem GC can fix.