Admin: posting by "guests"?

[Doc Nodak]

I posted a message a few minutes ago in the "New Recruits" thread. I was momentarily confused (doh!) by the new interface, and I had forgotten to login. Surprisingly, the board allowed me, a "guest", to enter a username (I chose "Doc Nodak") and post without entering a password.

This raises a couple of potential issues. First, any guest could assume the identity of any registered user. Second, flames and other idiocy posted by non-registered users was ultimately the downfall of Toby K's old Sioux hockey message board. I'd hate to see that repeated here.

Did the admin just forget to set a preference, or was this intentional?

[GDM]

I've passed this one up the chain.

[administrator]

Huh -- that wasn't intentional.  Though I've been playing with this new software for about a month, it's significantly more complex than the previous.

The good news is that it marked your name as being a guest name (when you look at the post, it's obvious that it came from a guest who called himself -Doc Nodak-, not the registered Doc Nodak).

Apparently the default for migrated forums was to allow guests to reply to existing topics, though not start new ones.  I've changed that so guests can only read, not contribute.

I rushed the software change a bit more than I should have because of the problems we were having with the old software.  Hopefully it will be a smooth transition.

[dagies]

So far I like this new one.  Thanks for the work!