Very Young Edugeekers

[witch]

I know this has been discussed before but I am concerned about the number of very young people joining Edugeek. I know that you allow old members to stay on, and obviously some of the Techs are very young, but I for one do not really like the 15 and 16 year olds who are not techs joining. This surely means that anyone with an interest in IT can join, and surely that was not really the point of Edugeek?

I'm not sure how you can stop them but I think they should be taken off, or at the very least identified.

I have enought interaction with teenage boys at home without it happening on Edugeek - a place I run to when I want to surround myself with people who understand and a place where I feel safe!!

 

Sarah

[Guest richard]

I know this has been discussed before but I am concerned about the number of very young people joining Edugeek. I know that you allow old members to stay on, and obviously some of the Techs are very young, but I for one do not really like the 15 and 16 year olds who are not techs joining. This surely means that anyone with an interest in IT can join, and surely that was not really the point of Edugeek?

I'm not sure how you can stop them but I think they should be taken off, or at the very least identified.

I have enought interaction with teenage boys at home without it happening on Edugeek - a place I run to when I want to surround myself with people who understand and a place where I feel safe!!

 

Sarah

 

I agree with you totally. Also I would like to point out that some of the subjects are "technically sensitive" and could in theory allow a student to bypass his schools network security.

[gwendes]

Hear, hear!

[Netman]

Sorry guys but I have to disagree - surely those who are interested enough in IT to join here have a right to? They will find it an invaluable reference like many of us already do.

I know there may be some information on here about security and for that reason we have to be careful what we post, but to say we should ban youngsters is a bit extreme. Good luck to them I say - if they are genuine and are looking towards a career in IT then fine. If, on the other hand, they are just here to troll or flame then get rid of them by all means - but that applies whatever the age.

Some of us may have come to IT later in life, but I started in 1983 at the age of 16 and would have loved Edugeek back then, even though I was still in education and not working in a school.

[mattx]

I get told that I act like a 12 year old - does that count ? ;-)

[russdev]

Problem is no way of doing this bar pre-approving every member and sorry that won't work been tried on too many sites the site just dies.

 

Even if did that how do you tell so and so works as a tech well they have school email adress that ends sch.uk great but so do most students. Right so we have to phone the school up to get confirmation. Again adds another step we havn't got man/women power for.

 

The fact is this is community most non tech staff joining are very disappointed when they join anyway and leave after while. This nature of online communities.

 

The facts is this community works on the fact it is open amd your boss could read it it keeps us all honest

 

 

Russell

[Geoff]

Welcome to the internet, by it's very nature, a public network. Trying to restrict information available on it is an exercise in futility. No doubt you've come across this problem in another disguise, namely web filtering.

 

Also, out of interest, how do you propose we enforce an age restriction?

[PEO]

Sorry guys but I have to disagree - surely those who are interested enough in IT to join here have a right to? They will find it an invaluable reference like many of us already do.

I know there may be some information on here about security and for that reason we have to be careful what we post, but to say we should ban youngsters is a bit extreme. Good luck to them I say - if they are genuine and are looking towards a career in IT then fine. If, on the other hand, they are just here to troll or flame then get rid of them by all means - but that applies whatever the age.

Some of us may have come to IT later in life, but I started in 1983 at the age of 16 and would have loved Edugeek back then, even though I was still in education and not working in a school.

 

I totally agree with you Netman.

 

There are plenty of websites out there that have information on how to bypass network security.

 

sarah - This surely means that anyone with an interest in IT can join, and surely that was not really the point of Edugeek?

 

And what would you say about the people who constantly put up random threads that have noting to do with either computing or education?

 

I have a 14 year old brother who is well in to php, css, etc and he uses forums all the time for help and information. Because he is 14 does this mean he has no right to accessing public information?

 

Sorry i have a lot of respect for you Sarah but i think you have started something that makes no sense

[gaz350]

could in theory allow a student to bypass his schools network security.

if its not sensitive enough to appear here, then there is nothing stopping them from finding the info needed from other places on the net.

also even if they are not registered they can still read stuff so what is the problem? as long as topics remain on topic surely any input to a topic is useful no matter how old they are.

[witch]

And what would you say about the people who constantly put up random threads that have noting to do with either computing or education?

 

And if that is aimed at me then you know exactly where you can go.

I don't need to know that you 'have a lot of respect for me'. I don't need respect from you thank you very much

 

My point is only that this is SUPPOSED to be for people working in IT in education and if it is just an IT info forum then it should be identified as such.

Talk about confrontational

 

Sorry, but I think that there has been enough trouble from students in the past to ban them. Obviously identification is difficult, but as soon as they are identified they should be labelled as such and if there is any trouble they are out, with no second chances.

[SYNACK]

I have to agree that it should remain open, I probably would not have been allowed admittance if such a procedure was in place given that I am located in a different country.

 

The network security argument is valid in the fact that you may be able to bypass security using the information on this forum. The flip side is that the information is already available on other sites and at least here they are not being exposed to the destructive influences present on some other sites.

 

Juvenile content and comments are a fact of life, the only way to combat the offensive ones is for the community itself to maintain its high standards and call people on bad behavior. So long as it is in balance it actually helps prevent the site from becoming like a textbook and loosing a lot of what make it interesting and good.

[tech_guy]

I get told that I act like a 12 year old - does that count ? ;-)

 

My wife says the same about me......

[dhicks]

> I have enought interaction with teenage boys at home without it

> happening on Edugeek - a place I run to when I want to surround

> myself with people who understand and a place where I feel safe!!

 

The young people who have posted here (e.g. Lambert, originofsymmetry) have been polite, mature and sensible. I figure that's really about the only criterion that really matters. If you mean that you don't feel free to post "Gah! Teachers/children! They're all *#!*!#!*#!'s" items, then you should bear in mind that this forum gets indexed by Google (and often features high up its search results, too) and that everything you say is permanently available for review (by teachers, pupils, spouses, potential employers...).

 

[Richard wrote:]

> Also I would like to point out that some of the subjects are "technically

> sensitive" and could in theory allow a student to bypass his schools

> network security.

 

These are public forums - if something is that sensitive, it shouldn't be said here. Often, searching for a school IT-related subject on Google turns up this site as the first search result. Besides, security-through-obscurity doesn't work. You should encourage pupils to try and break in to your network and be rewarded when they report a security hole.

 

--

David Hicks

[mattx]

Can I just say Happy Xmas ?

[Geoff]

Sorry, but I think that there has been enough trouble from students in the past to ban them. Obviously identification is difficult, but as soon as they are identified they should be labelled as such and if there is any trouble they are out, with no second chances.

 

Please elaborate. You have not provided enough information to successfully implement your idea. How should we identify them? How should they be labeled? How should we ban them?

[mattx]

My wife says the same about me......

 

You know her ??!!

 

If there is going to be an age restriction - what about us old farts like tech_guy and myself - who is going to wipe our bums after we have soiled ourselves ?

[mortstar]

Sorry, but I think that there has been enough trouble from students in the past to ban them. Obviously identification is difficult, but as soon as they are identified they should be labelled as such and if there is any trouble they are out, with no second chances.

 

Please elaborate. You have not provided enough information to successfully implement your idea. How should we identify them? How should they be labeled? How should we ban them?

 

We could identify them through ... Edited due to Godwin's Law occuring. Members need to be careful how they equate one another.

 

Tony

[HodgeHi]

If they have useful comments then i cannot see what the problem is.

 

Like mentioned before the information about security will most likely be found elsewhere on the internet.

 

Letting people of that age on can sometimes be beneficial. They can still read the posts without registering can't they?

 

If they were up to no good they probably wouldn't bother going that far.

 

I think it's the ones that want to know more that register in the first place which means we can also get knowledge from the ones in the classroom i,e dodgy proxy sites etc.

 

Just my opinion.

[PEO]

And what would you say about the people who constantly put up random threads that have noting to do with either computing or education?

 

And if that is aimed at me then you know exactly where you can go.

I don't need to know that you 'have a lot of respect for me'. I don't need respect from you thank you very much

 

My point is only that this is SUPPOSED to be for people working in IT in education and if it is just an IT info forum then it should be identified as such.

Talk about confrontational[/qoute]

 

So what should we say to the people who joined this site before they left IT support in education? "Ooow your off are you.... right sorry you are not allowed to come back... cya!"

 

Are people opinions and profesional expertise who work out side of education not acceptable for this site?

 

Sorry, but I think that there has been enough trouble from students in the past to ban them. Obviously identification is difficult, but as soon as they are identified they should be labelled as such and if there is any trouble they are out, with no second chances.

 

and the point of having administrators is? Dont you think thats would would happen if it was the case?

[tech_guy]

Season of goodwill to all men (and women), etc (and including spotty herberts).....

[tech_guy]

My wife says the same about me......

 

You know her ??!!

 

If there is going to be an age restriction - what about us old farts like tech_guy and myself - who is going to wipe our bums after we have soiled ourselves ?

 

Rofl - hey we'd better watch out or they might bar under 16's and over 40's and then we'll have nowhere to go to rant and rage!

[eduabncs]

One way I know works on another site I visit, is that in order to see a part of the site that is 'sensitive' and not stuff that they want to be available to the general population of the site, is that you have to build up a 'rep' on the board first and then be sponsered by an 'old hand' to be allowed access to the 'sensitive' area. Seems to work well and doesn't seem to add to much extra admin burden onto the site staff. Might this work on here too?

[witch]

Oh for goodness sake....They are identifiable, at least after a while if not at first, and as for banning them, the staff are currently discussing the possible banning of one member, so I know it is possible.

 

It isn't an age thing if you bother to read what I have written, some techs are very young - it is the fact that you are supposed to be in Education and an IT professional. Otherwise what is the point of this being a specialist site? And people who have left education still know what it is like and how it all works for us, so their comments are likely to be useful.

Yes, a guest can read anything but I may not be happy about that either.

Quite a lot of the things posted are education specific, not hacking and security but more how to deal with things you only find in our environment.

 

 

 

I am entitled to my opinion you know - and I wouldn't be happy with my 15 year old if she spoke to me like some of you do- so YOU ARE RIGHT _ most of you are extremly immature anyway so the actual age makes no difference, does it

 

And as for the comment by Mortstar - I find that excessively offensive that you should equate my remarks with the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis - HOW DARE YOU

 

I think I will go and join Jake in his cage

I prefer his overt sexism and drooling than this attack

[tech_guy]

The holly and the ivy, when they are full grown......?!

[Netman]

The holly and the ivy, when they are full grown......?!

 

I was humming 'Peace on earth and mercy mild...' myself....

 

Anyhoo... who's getting banned? Do tell, I love a bit of Christmas gossip...