Why are posts disallowed on your wall?

Question

I have a feeling I know the answer to this, but I want to check.

Why are Users not permitted to post on their own wall without enough points? It's their wall, so trolls wouldn't/shouldn't be a problem.

"They don't have enough points"
Duh. I know. I want to know why they NEED the points.

"Pokemaster can't/hasn't separate(d) the ability to post on different walls. If you don't have enough points to post on a wall somewhere, you can't post anywhere, your own wall included."
I have a feeling this is the answer.

I'm kinda curious, though. I have no knowledge of programming, at all, so I'm not going to say that it is easy, but it sure SOUNDS like an easy fix.

Why is this?

Comments

The concept is the same. The idea of points is to prove that you're not a random bot or someone looking for a way to advertise their product. If they could spam their own wall, that's exactly what they'd do. Fill it up with links that lead to who-knows-where which might not be appropriate for some of the users here. Or it could lead to a phishing site, or have a virus downloaded onto your device. Otherwise, it might simply link you to Facebook/Amazon or whatever brand paid the people to create accounts everywhere to promote their product.

While it *could* be fixed, it's not an issue of programming as much as a conscious choice to prevent unwanted people from filling the site with things unrelated to the site. I mean, the programming could be a little tricky, but that's hardly the point of it.

Answer 1

The ability to post on your own wall is a long-requested feature, though I don't recall Pokemaster ever confirming whether it's something he'd spend time on -- you're right on the front that it would require some custom code. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Empty Boxes does have a good point about how this feature would still be helpful to spammers, though. Adding wall posting for everyone gives spam accounts an outlet to post followable hyperlinks, which is what they want in the first place usually. They're just trying to boost the search index rankings of whatever site they're dumping. It's a question of whether we would allow the site to be a host for shoddy spam accounts behind the scenes.

It's not like there aren't other solutions, though. Off the top of my head, we could:

• Let moderators remove wall posts. Then, we can just delete spam posts if they become an issue. (We should be able to do this regardless...)
• Make wall posting permissions easier to attain. For example, set the requirement to 22 so you can pass by asking a question and selecting an answer. Spammers won't get their posts approved to do that.

But to answer your question concisely, it's because a) no feature exists that allows it and b) whether the feature is worth having is debatable, and at the very least makes it a low priority.

Comments

Thanks! That's a great answer, fizz AND empty boxes.