Forums end up banning these people anyway, when the situation has become intolerable. They tend do so reluctantly and belatedly, and after the damage has been done. They don't like to do so earlier, perhaps because "it's not really clear that any rules have been broken" and things look like "grey areas" and "judgment calls". This is a regularly repeating pattern, and the reality - uncomfortable though it may be - is that the very few forums that err on the side of getting rid of these people as soon as established members start complaining about them are the ones where the membership, participation and traffic are increasing.
Yes, and because of all this, I would actually be more than willing to pay for the privilege of using a forum where I don't have to put up with this. I realize Baron cannot do any sort of fact checking and figure out who is truly profitable, who is actually trading for a living, and who is just full of hot air, but I can't help but think that at least one barrier to entry, like a low monthly fee, could eliminate much of this.
As it is now, about the only thing they do is track IP addresses, but this requires they already have a posting history on the individual from other accounts in the past using the same IP address. These days, IP addresses mean nothing given how easy it is to hide/change them.
You've got guys paying Baron money to operate as a vendor, and who knows how much money this costs, but this doesn't cover the vast majority of posters who have nothing to sell (thank god). But if in some ways a poster had the option to have a "verified" account, even something as simple as paying a one time fee, I think this would go a long way to reducing trash posters. Someone whose intention is to deceive would in no way want have themselves tied to a payment that could be traced.
Would surf have really paid 20 different times in order to have all those aliases? I doubt it. And most people wouldn't even have that many credit cards anyway.
When I signed up for Uber, I was surprised that they didn't even require my address, just a name and credit card. Given that your first ride is often free, you would think that people would want to create a million different accounts so that they always got a free first ride. But I bet that the system would only accept a credit card once and never that same one again for other accounts, so just this must be enough for them to eliminate multiple accounts from the same person. Likewise, if Baron had the tiniest fee to put the tiniest icon beside your name which states that you paid something, it would go a long way to showing that you're not going to turn out to be some spammer.
Anyway... totally off topic, I know, but something that pops into my head every now and then.
@Baron
