James Crabb writes at http://www.online-college.info/article1789.html : Are people actually banned from reading DegreeInfo? Or only from posting to it?
I do not believe it is not accessable. When travelling I access degreeinfo from public libraries and coffee shops. I do not log in but just browse latest messages.
Online College I have to confess that after hearing about this list I had to go read some of the posts. It makes for interesting reading. The words "stupid vendetta" come to mind. The problems of most of the posters over there could be solved very quickly by getting them all in a closed room, with pants down and a ruler. Is alt.education.distance as bad?
Hi Deb: Worse, or at least it was. The unexampled viciousness against Rich Douglas was truly appalling. The obsession with his dissertation, now supplemented with badmouthing many folks around here, seems to be growing apace in the green pastures of collegehints. Nobody is "banned" from reading degreeinfo. I have had numerous tech glitches with access and posting--all faithfully resolved by Bruce and Chip--but the ONLY times I have been unable to READ degreeinfo has been when the site itself was "down." Your proposal has some merit--but what if they like pants down and rulers? Best wishes, Janko
My, you are an optimist, aren't you? The old Balkanoid hopes against hope you're right. Best wishes. Janko
Apparently some IP addresses are blocked -- which means you can't access the forum at all. My own IP address was blocked for some time (about a year). Then somehow they let me back in. Heh.
Oxpecker: "Apparently some IP addresses are blocked -- which means you can't access the forum at all." John: This would definitely seem to be the case, for about two years now, with the ISP on Norfolk Island. (While I understand that each computer theoretically has its own discrete number, that seems not to be the case on Norfolk. At least John Walsh says he has tried to access degree.info from various computers on the island, including ones having nothing to do with Greenwich University, and all are blocked.)
It's amazing how many times you have brought this up with no resolution. At the very least, they could send you an email saying that they are not going to let access degreeinfo. Tom Nixon
Uncle Janko, Are people at Collegehints badmouthing Dr. Douglas? I am not sure of that being the case. It seems to be moderated to the point where such character attacks do not happen. I have seen Dr. Douglas and others "attacked" in other forums. /shrug. Just my 2 cents... peACE, ACE
A group of IP addresses are assigned to an ISP. These addresses are temporarily assigned to people when they access their ISP. So if a particular person must be blocked then a block of addresses for their ISP must be blocked. Apparently Norfork Island only has one ISP. I assume that it is a simple matter for any forum software to allow the moderators to block access to any block of IP addresses. I've seen it done at other web forums as well as this one. I also know that these addresses can at least sometimes be blocked using different methods because I've seen some moderators that were unable to find which method to unblock a set of addresses.
Since I use Degreeinfo as one of my sources for up-to-date info on issues relating to distance learning, I am always interested in a forum that can provide meaningful information. My visits to online-college and CollegeHints have, thus far, been disappointing. Not much useful info and a lot of space devoted to attacks on John Bear and Rich Douglas. Hope springs eternal that the situation will improve. Tony Pina Faculty, Cal State U. San Bernardino