Post Grinders

[Vassago]

This seems to have suddenly become a major issue. New members grinding out posts in the non-technical forums to make 10 posts so they can post active links. Although their posts with links are legitimate links for their questions, I think the post-grinding is getting out of hand. Can we make posts in non-technical forums not count before 10 posts or something like that to avoid people who do fly-by posts just to make the number? I'm about to start deleting the posts for the sheer annoyance factor.. :banghead:

 

[Brianwarnock]

I agree but I don't know how you can stop it as people don't read instructions , they even ask questions in their introduction.

It is annoying to go to a thread thinking that there is a fresh contribution only to find an inane comment.

Brian

 

[boblarson]

Jon has the keys to this. I'm not sure how it will help as they will just post 10 lame posts in the technical forum areas. I don't know the answer because, as Brian pointed out, they don't seem to read the sticky notes so how do you notifiy them in advance? It would be great if we could have an Announcement about how to contact the moderators if a valid link needs to be posted (they can upload a file before 10 posts but it has to be zipped) and have that Announcement appear to only those with fewer than 10 posts.

And then, with that much visibility (the Announcement will stay at the top of their page in a prominent location) if they start posting lame posts in an obvious attempt to either spam or run up the count for something then they will get the same treatment as spammers. It is hard to not notice the Announcements that appears. I know that I created the Birthday Announcement which stays up for the day of the person's birthday. So I have some knowledge of that.

 

[Jon]

Maybe I could make the minimum requirement 15 posts?

 

[Brianwarnock]

They would just post more rubbish, I don't think there is really an answer.

Brian

 

[Jon]

How often do we get a "post grinder" individual?

 

[Brianwarnock]

I don't know and usually it is not too much of a problem, I think the issue has been raised as we have just had a rash of them.

Brian

 

[Vassago]

Yeah, it's common enough to notice a couple a day, but lately it's increased. Increasing the post count required will not help really as they will just post more nonsensical posts.

 

[ChrisO]

They want a quick fix for their problem. One way to stop that would be to limit new members to 1 post per 24 hours for, say, the first 10 posts.

Chris.

 

[Vassago]

Too harsh.

 

[CJ_London]

Just trying to clarify what you guys are talking about since i'm not really noticing this. The most I notice is same guy, same question more than once which seems to happen once or twice a week.

I've generally put this down to the fact newposts will drop from 50 threads to 2 or 3 at least once a day, so if the guy hasn't had a response he reposts.

If I'm totally away with the fairies - tell me to butt out

 

[ChrisO]

Too harsh.

But effective.

And it is the only effective solution we have had so far so why knock it? 1 post per day could become 1 post per hour. 10 hours means more than 1 working day. What it means is that we take away the very thing they are doing it for; the quick fix.

Now the question is not so much that it’s impossible but; how do we do it without affecting members who behave correctly?

And I think the answer will have to be up to Jon because it would probably adversely affect site traffic and he is the one who would need to do the work to implement it.

So it seems to me that the only effective solution we have so far may not be worthwhile implementing, not because it’s too harsh but because it’s not worth the effort.

Chris.

 

[Vassago]

And because it's too harsh and will inevitably effect traffic. If someone can't follow up to responses, they have no reason to stick around. So, it will be effective in only making possible good behaving members stay clear of the site far more likely than the few who do this.

Anyway, of course everything would be up to Jon, that's why I posted it here and was looking for suggestions.

 

[Brianwarnock]

I know that this is an old thread but this has become an issue again with a different grinder almost everyday, I like ChrisO's suggestion of 1 post per hour , say for the first day, if that's not possible a limit of 5 posts for the first day would lessen the impact.

I would point out to Bob and Vassago that these posts occur in the Technical areas as well as the non technical.

Brian

 

[pr2-eugin]

I second the notion of Limiting the post count, I have seen more than 5 users within the past 24 hours, have reported many of them too, but they keep on coming.. Quiet annoying actually.