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Classifieds are no longer available. Forum threatened.
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windfind



Joined: 18 Mar 1997
Posts: 1899

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 12:16 pm    Post subject: Classifieds are no longer available. Forum threatened. Reply with quote

Hi Gang,

Sorry to announce that we have shut down our Classified Section.

For years there has been no practical way we can insure that crooks are not cheating our customers using our Classifieds and the problem is worsening.

Ideally, everyone would verify all the details about a prospective buyer but it is clear that most of our customers are trusting of other "windsurfers" and get burned.

Recently this situation has become worse as spammers join IW. or IK then place plausible sounding forum posts commenting with a post or providing "helpful" information.

It is obvious these spammers are trying to establish a forum history so they seem like a trustworthy west coast windsurfer or kiteboarder whom our customers are more likely to trust in a classified transaction.

We are working on a forum solution but in the meantime, you can recognize spammers since their date of joining is just a few days old.

Please don't respond to them since that just doubles our time deleting messages.

Very very few of our customers use the forums but we know the forums are important to those customers and we don't want to also close down the forums because of these spammers.

Lastly, please refrain from attacking your fellow windsurfers and kiters in the forum. Deleting those posts just adds to our work on a service that brings in no income. Plus several of our most colorful posters are getting very close to the threshold of being banned from the forums for attacks and we would hate to lose them.

Thanks,

Mike Godsey
Weatherflow



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evanwambeke



Joined: 24 May 2021
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 3:33 pm    Post subject: not that hard to fix Reply with quote

Why not just limit the forum and classifieds to paying members? No spammer is going to go through the trouble to get a payed membership. Seems a pretty simple temporary solution.

Also, look at sites like tennis warehouse, they've had a forums and classifieds as long as IW and its a robust ongoing community of users.
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windfind



Joined: 18 Mar 1997
Posts: 1899

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 3:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The issue is that sailflow, fishweather, windalert, etc. etc have very large free user bases that use us for all our free public domain sensors worldwide. That brings in ad revenue.

But we are working on a similar approach that will make it much more difficult for spammers to make posts. And frankly, without the Classifieds there is little incentive for them to make fake useful posts.

Mike
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H2OJoe



Joined: 20 Aug 2002
Posts: 112

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Message deleted.

Last edited by H2OJoe on Fri Jul 15, 2022 9:04 am; edited 1 time in total
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

... or to help people.
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H2OJoe



Joined: 20 Aug 2002
Posts: 112

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Message deleted

Last edited by H2OJoe on Fri Jul 15, 2022 9:05 am; edited 1 time in total
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NOVAAN



Joined: 28 Sep 1994
Posts: 1541

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2022 11:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think most of us old farts try to pass on useful information. We do it to try to help people who ask questions. And most do it in a positive and honest way
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Fri Jul 15, 2022 9:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Even "respected persons" are not infallible. I've seen and successfully refuted at length some truly bad -- some of them outright violations of the laws of physics -- advice from pros in WSing, dirt bike, and meteorology magazines.

Just one example was the dirt bike magazine editor and racer whose article on how we control a motorcycle's airborne attitude (nose up/down) mid-jump violated two laws of physics. He claimed that the front wheel became heavier when slowed by braking and that its heavier weight dropped the nose in midair. BS and BS; it's all about rotational inertia, not falling bodies.

H2OJoe wrote:
if it isn't from a qualified instructor like Wyatt Miller or Tyson Poor or a respected perspon in the industry it's just like everything else on the internet, just someone's opinion passed off as expert advice.
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jse



Joined: 17 Apr 1995
Posts: 1460
Location: Maui

PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2022 5:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

isobars wrote:
Even "respected persons" are not infallible. I've seen and successfully refuted at length some truly bad -- some of them outright violations of the laws of physics -- advice from pros in WSing, dirt bike, and meteorology magazines.

Just one example was the dirt bike magazine editor and racer whose article on how we control a motorcycle's airborne attitude (nose up/down) mid-jump violated two laws of physics. He claimed that the front wheel became heavier when slowed by braking and that its heavier weight dropped the nose in midair. BS and BS; it's all about rotational inertia, not falling bodies.

H2OJoe wrote:
if it isn't from a qualified instructor like Wyatt Miller or Tyson Poor or a respected perspon in the industry it's just like everything else on the internet, just someone's opinion passed off as expert advice.


Sounds like he was confusing gravity with conservation of angular momentum. Which would actually bring the nose down when braking. By how much? Who knows.

Steve
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Tue Jul 19, 2022 6:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jse wrote:
Sounds like he was confusing gravity with conservation of angular momentum. Which would actually bring the nose down when braking. By how much? Who knows.


That wasn't my point, but for one among scores of thousands of dirt bikers, I do. I raced bikes for decades, up to 3-5 days a week, getting air constantly unless max acceleration was more important at that moment. It takes only a light touch on the front brake to couple an airborne front wheel assembly's angular momentum into the chassis.
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