In an effort to curb spammers, one of the things we now do is to ask that the new member answer 3 questions. One of them is "How many States are in the US?". 99% of the respondents get it right and say 50.

The most prevalent incorrect answer is 52. In almost all of these cases, the person is a legitimate person with an interest in ponds. Where and what are the other 2 States?

Oh yeah. Fireishot didn't say 50 but got it right. He said 49 plus California.

Couldn't help it Dave. I was in a good mood that day, as Momma and I were planning another trip to California.

We went every year for year's, and we're absolutely convinced it is a little slice of Heaven.

Now, if she will let me squeeze in a trip to the Delta to fish for LMB, then I might say California + 49.

Happy Birthday, FireIsHot!

Thanks Bruce and Dave. I've learned the hard way that it's almost impossible to spend your way out of pond issues. Good advice is far more valuable.

There's about 20 of you moderators/ambassadors, plus all the passionate pond owners, that keep this site relevant, and don't think for a minute that all your contributions aren't greatly appreciated.

Now, if I can just get in my back building and find out what I got for my birthday, I'll be good. Momma told me to bring a gas can.

Momma sounds like a great gal!

Happy Birthday, FIH, and thanks for supporting the forum!

Dave, I thought about posting something similar. I sure would like to know the names of those 2 extra states.

People get mixed up between number of states and number of cards in a deck. That is the only reason I can think of 52....

The other 2 states are Mexico and Cuba

The real answer ought to be 49 since so many people seem to have a hard time understanding West Virginia is not, in fact, WESTERN Virginia! Heck, even ESPN can't get it right!

Geography test:

If you were shown a map of the U.S.A. with just the outlines of the states, how many could you correctly identify?

23=fail

TEXAS ...

Is't that the state that is about the size of a county in Alaska?

Alaska?

1973

I failed!

I thought there were 57 states? Hmmm... I wonder where I would have gotten that idea from?

From eating too many donuts?

Scott, I just went through that with Grandkids. I'm in good shape except for the 3 or 4 in the Northeast.

I'm with you there Dave. That upper right corner has some tiny ones and I can't seem to keep them straight.

The States of DENIAL and CONFUSION????

Shutting up.....

We foreigners
often get confused with "District of Columbia" and "Puerto Rico"
Wich would make the US 52 States.

cheers

That's what I was thinking, but the majority of "52 states" people are from the U.S.A.!

Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands probably throw a few off.

For some reason I keep thinking 52 also.

50 states, and, hey didn't they add a couple more at some later date.

Never good at geography myself. Focused more on geometry.

We certainly will never deny participation to anyone with bonifide pond questions and comments. If this was a Canadian based site, I couldn't answer how many provinces there are. How do you know a territory from a province. I can name the major areas, but what makes the Yukon a different kind of entity from Manitoba? Same here below the border. If I didn't grow up here, I'd be confused. We've got multiple "commonwealths" and most are considered states, but not all. We've got territory's. We've got placed like Washington DC. Sheesh, it is confusing.

Mostly we are trying to keep out the spammers. Dwight has helped cut the daily numbers tremendously. The majority of the spammers are from just a couple of foreign countries. Not long ago it was taking the moderators hours a week to clean out the daily ads for counterfeit products.

Thankfully, we have very few issues with regular members. It is something the moderators really appreciate.

Ken

Ken, since you moderators seem to be so light on work... I'll see if Cecil and I can team up and give you some more work. I mean after all, you gotta earn your pay!

I like the pay to match the number of problems. Since the prior is 0 we would like for the latter to match !!!

The 3 questions were just added a couple of months ago. It was the result of me having to delete almost 300 spam posts by a new "member". That takes awhile. Tendonitis was kicking my butt by the time I finished. That's one of the penalties for getting out of the sack too early in the morning.

The routine is that we delete offending, non pond related, posts and permanently ban the offender. Then notify Dwight who bans by IP address.

I deleted and banned one this morning for advertising ergonomic baby carriers. At this time, the new "member" is still logged on. He/she/it has done it before but will have to register from a different puter. Very few are from the US or Canada. Early risers like Bing, Travis and Blair often send a Moderator Alert when they see them. It shows up as an Email to all of the Mods. We now also notify all other mods and Lusk by PM when any action is taken.

All of the Mods hate it when they have to delete or alter a post from a regular member.

It's a pain in the butt but that's why we get paid the big bucks around here. As Eric said, the cost of living raises are a percentage of 0.

Oh wow, believe me when I say were earn our pay -- every penny of it. I must say that I truly believe we all enjoy it. It is strictly volunteer, but we all get so much back from the whole Pond Boss family, that it is worth it. Lots of great ideas and many really wonderful friends.

Ken, you are correct. It's nice to be able to stop and visit someone from the PB family no matter what state you are in. Everybody that I've met has made me feel like part of their family.

American Samoa and Guam are feeling so left out about now........

You guys are forgetting the state of Franklin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Franklin

Neat story BH