GreekChat = Members-Only? Should we close the doors on GreekChat?
 

So... I've been very seriously considering this for a LONG time.

NOT closing down GC, but just closing the doors.

Bad bots are a scourge on the Internet.

GreekChat has had serious problems with bots for many years now. Spam bots first and now AI web scraping bots. Both are still a major problem.

Dealing with all the millions of bots over the years has been extremely time consuming, costly and quite exhausting.

Making GC verified members-only may be the quickest, easiest, most convenient and most affordable way to solve GC's bot issue once and for all.

The idea is simple:

Verification would just be a one-time cover charge of literally ANY price you choose paid to GreekChat's Buy Me A Coffee page at https://buymeacoffee.com/greekchat

$1 is all it takes, BMAC's minimum.

That's it. Nothing else. A contribution of any amount would verify that a GC account is not a bot.

I think this would work, because my guess is that bots won't pay any amount, not even a dollar.

This verification system is not active yet. Not certain that it even will be but is likely to be implemented.

For now, let's discuss.

Let me know what you think.

If you like the idea, consider making a contribution now of any amount you want at https://buymeacoffee.com/greekchat in preparation for when/if this GC account verification system goes live.

(Reserved post, in case I need to add anything here.)

Great idea! Anything that makes your life easier and keeps the page up and running smoothly!

I’m on board, John. Great idea!!!

I don't think a dollar is too much to ask for members to verify themselves as legitimate not to mention all of the work you do BTS that we don't even know about.

I think this is a great idea! Low risk, high reward, and it's even two-birds-one-stone bc we get to verify ourselves to keep the site secure, AND we get to fund GC.

Verification sounds like a good idea. But John, closing GC should be your decision alone-you do ALL the work, non gratis, at that. I support you no matter the decision

:HUG:

Amen, FSUZeta. And I'm more than willing to pay. But you do what is best for YOU!

Yes, I am willing to pay to keep GC alive and bot free....

It makes sense. I can’t imagine the headache dealing with this sort of thing has been over the years.

I’m totally in to contribute

I wouldn't be opposed to paying a small fee. This is your project that you're keeping afloat. If it's becoming too time-consuming dealing with electronic hassles, by all means, do what you need to do.

Verification would be good.

I'm willing to pay and have enjoyed the community sporadically. The first concern must be the impact on you, John.

Sure.

Thumbs up! Thanks for all you do, John.

When I first read the title of this thread, I thought John was permanently closing the site down. :(

John, I'll be "buying a cup of coffee" by the end of the week.
Again, thanks for all you do!

I would support.

So did I! :eek:

It looks like we have 100% support for this, which is great.

Sorry if my thread title wording shocked anyone. Definitely not closing the site down, just shutting the doors on all the bots.

If all goes well as planned, I think it will sort out the vast majority of GC's issues with bots flooding the site.

99% sure at this point that this is going to happen. The 1% is just a little wiggle room for anything unforeseen.

Anyone who has chipped in any amount to help support GC will have verified accounts.

If you haven't done so yet, you can get your GC account verification cover charge taken care of by making a contribution at https://buymeacoffee.com/greekchat $1 is all it takes. Make sure the email address you use on the BuyMeACoffee site matches the email address used on your GreekChat account.

I don't mind throwing some US greenbacks your way.

The internet is really ruined if this has to be done to keep site from being overwhelmed by malicious intrusions on the site. Please keep in mind that doing this (which may look like a paywall) may drastically reduce the number of visits, including those from kids seeking to learn about rushing and will likely reduce the number of people contributing to the site, which appears to be happening anyway compared the number of new postings 5 to 8 years ago.

Thanks for keeping the site open for so long and for all the work you've put into it.

I'm mostly a lurker now and don't post so often BUT - yes, absolutely - I would pay to make your life easier AND make GC bot free.

Thank you to everyone participating in this effort and for all the kind comments.

There are many videos on YouTube about something called "Dead Internet Theory" which is basically about all the massive bot traffic online.

I don't think the Internet is ruined over it, though, but definitely does necessitate some adjustments to how things are done.

The way I've blocked bots on GC over the years has blocked probably 10 to 15 million bot account registrations. Although, it doesn't work all that well and also doesn't block bot traffic but rather just account registration attempts. It causes 3+ minute delays (last time I checked) for new account sign-ups and probably isn't 99.9% accurate which even at that accuracy level means probably 10 to 15 thousand legitimate accounts may have been blocked during all that time, not counting any who abandon joining because of the delay. I'll probably post another thread with more details about this at some point.

One of the major current annoyances with bots on GC is simply how slow they cause the site to be at times. I usually stop by GC several times throughout each day and probably 50% of the time the site is extremely slow due to the number of bots hammering the site.

In a way, it sometimes feels as though the work I do on GC is mostly for the bots, because it's almost as if the bots get most of the benefit out of it. I want my work here to benefit GCers, though.

These are issues that I am really quite concerned about. I think it's fair to say that I have been extremely hesistant about doing this (been considering it for years) and I agree that there may be some negative impact.

But, there's also a chance that it may work out quite well. I've basically come to the conclusion that I'll never know unless I at least give it a try. And if it turns out to be a really bad idea then I simply reverse course.

The $1 one-time cover charge is intended to be a "bot wall" rather than a "paywall," but I do agree that it may be mostly seen as a paywall. The price, $1, I hope makes it obvious that I'm not trying to be unreasonable and am not trying to put this out of anyone's reach. I would have set it to 1 penny if that was available as BMAC's minimum, because I seriously doubt bots would pay even a penny.

Long time member, and 100%, John! Happy to support this approach.

I just paid because this site is worth supporting. So much history since 2000 of greek life is here.

Hi - I will try to remember to pay but I haven’t been on here much. Wild that I joined in January 2001!

I just realized that this is (coming up to) my 25th anniversary of being on GreekChat!

Thank you, John!

Only trouble I see is that I don't have the slightest clue what email I used! That was ages ago. :)

:)

You can view the email address on your GC account at https://greekchat.com/gcforums/profi...o=editpassword

If you decide to change your email address on GC, please check out my second post/reply in the following thread: https://greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=249052 I added some additional info and precautions to just help ensure account email changes don't accidentally cause anyone to get locked out of their account.

Done and done! Thank you for all your hard work, John.