What's up with all the spam?

[Kryst51]

Unfortunately spam is like ignorant posters - as long as there is reaction the crap will contimue to flow. The only way to stem the flow is to ignore the posts and bin what you are able to delete. Unfortunately both types of annoyance eventually receive some sort of attention so they perpetuate...

I don't click on the spammy things.... It just drives me insane is all.... a little loopy.

 

[Kryst51]

The recent surge of spam (all of last week for example) could be due to the fact that I was on holiday and as I monitor the sight daily. I cannot stop the senders but I do try to delete and ban them on a daily basis.

David

Well, now that really does answer my question.... I knew there had been a recent increase.... Thanks for all of your work there. And I hope you enjoyed your vacation!

 

[Atomic Shrimp]

I don't know if such a plugin exists for vB, but it would be simple enough to rely on member voting - something like:

-If three people report a thread/post, automatically move it to a hidden forum suspend the author (restrict reporting participation to, say, users with more than 50 posts)
-Legitimate threads can be restored on appeal to the mods (shouldn't be too much work, as most spammers don't stick around long enough even to know they are banned)
-If a member makes a habit of maliciously reporting non-spam posts, warn (1st time) suspend (2nd time) ban on the third strike.

 

[Fifty2One]

Unfortunate there are some ignorant posters here who perpetually cry the blues, whine, piss and moan and try to blame it on the citizens of the United States of America with prejudicial overtones. They would not last more then 5 minutes with those sort of rules and would continuously return like a cold sore whining about their deleted posts. Their crap would be more populous then the spam.

I don't know if such a plugin exists for vB, but it would be simple enough to rely on member voting - something like:

-If three people report a thread/post, automatically move it to a hidden forum suspend the author (restrict reporting participation to, say, users with more than 50 posts)
-Legitimate threads can be restored on appeal to the mods (shouldn't be too much work, as most spammers don't stick around long enough even to know they are banned)
-If a member makes a habit of maliciously reporting non-spam posts, warn (1st time) suspend (2nd time) ban on the third strike.

 

[Atomic Shrimp]

It would have to be a separate reporting/voting process from the reporting of posts that were simply objectionable, but I think the mechanism would be self-correcting.

People identified as spammers end up banned
People legitimately complaining that they were misidentified as spammers get reinstated
People who habitually misidentify things as spam end up banned (they could come back under another user ID, but would not be able to mark anything as spam until they had 50 - or however many posts)

 

[Banana]

Unfortunate there are some ignorant posters here who perpetually cry the blues, whine, piss and moan and try to blame it on the citizens of the United States of America with prejudicial overtones. They would not last more then 5 minutes with those sort of rules and would continuously return like a cold sore whining about their deleted posts. Their crap would be more populous then the spam.

FWIW, I don't think anything will be done unless other people here take time to tell the folks in charge that posts of this kind isn't welcome. I'd encourage anyone who feel that way to make use of Report Post (e.g. the exclamation point icon right of the scale icon on upper right of each post), which is usually used to report spams but can be also used to report problematic posts.

 

[ColinEssex]

FWIW, I don't think anything will be done unless other people here take time to tell the folks in charge that posts of this kind isn't welcome. I'd encourage anyone who feel that way to make use of Report Post (e.g. the exclamation point icon right of the scale icon on upper right of each post), which is usually used to report spams but can be also used to report problematic posts.

What constitutes a problematic post as opposed to an opinion?

If someone makes an opinion which happens to be disagreed with by a member (or members) and the post is non foul language, a non personal attack on another member but purely a comment, should it be deleted?

Surely if it is deleted then that becomes censorship just because someone may not agree with it.

I disagree with many posts but wouldn´t dream of reporting them just because I disagree.

If someone (for example) say from Canada dislikes someone elses style of writing and commenting, then surely they can just ignore any posts by the person they loathe.

Col

 

[Banana]

The question is not about what an opinion is held by individual, but rather whether the post is presented in a courteous manner.

 

[ColinEssex]

The question is not about what an opinion is held by individual, but rather whether the post is presented in a courteous manner.

But I said the post contains no foul language, and is non-personal attack on another member, the post is grammatically correct and is reasonably well constructed.

Plenty of non courtious posts have been aimed at Rich and I, some containing foul language and personal attacks, name calling etc. These seem to be allowed.

What is non courtious? Who decides?

Col

 

[Banana]

It's up to the mods to decide. After all, this is privately-owned board; they're free to run it as they see fit.

Besides, reporting can backfire; do it too often for wrong reasons may lead the mods to decide that the reporter is the one causing trouble.

The point remains: If anyone (including yourself and Rich) feel a post is inappropriate and nonconstructive, they can make the use of Report Post and leave it in mods' hands. To me, this is far better than feeding the trolls or bumping spams to the top. There's also the option of responding directly but one has to be mindful about whether the post in question merits a response at all. In case of trolls, this is exactly what trolls want, so Report Posts is an effective solution.

As for the foul language & personal attacks, this isn't the only criteria. I can post 100 threads of "hello, there" in all subforums; would that be constructive even though it didn't have any foul language or targeted anyone in particular? No, not really. I can post statements that are loaded solely to evoke angry reactions. Is that constructive? No, not really, even though it didn't have any foul languages or personal attack. At the end of day, it's still in mods' discretion to make the final judgment, but all posters here do have a responsibility to play if they want to keep this forum a great place to come and hang out.

 

[Brianwarnock]

Tut tut, Dear me Col your standards are slipping , you misspelt "courteous" twice in your last post and I know how you like these things to be correct.

Brian

 

[Rich]

Unfortunate there are some ignorant posters here who perpetually cry the blues, whine, piss and moan and try to blame it on the citizens of the United States of America with prejudicial overtones. They would not last more then 5 minutes with those sort of rules and would continuously return like a cold sore whining about their deleted posts. Their crap would be more populous then the spam.

And there are some posters who proclaim the greatness and supremacy of the US, how about imposing some rules of the truth on them?

 

[Vassago]

Similarly, if you receive an email from WHO telling you not to eat pork from cans because of swine flu... ignore it.

It's just spam.

 

[Brianwarnock]

ROFL

Brian

 

[ColinEssex]

Tut tut, Dear me Col your standards are slipping , you misspelt "courteous" twice in your last post and I know how you like these things to be correct.

Brian

You are correct of course, and I thank you for pointing it out. Perhaps I should report my post and get it deleted. Perhaps Banana should report me - after all, I am a very bad person spelling a simple word incorrectly.

I put my spelling problem down to this wierd Spanish keyboard in the hotel here, the keys don´t seem to be in the normal place.

Col

 

[Vassago]

You are correct of course, and I thank you for pointing it out. Perhaps I should report my post and get it deleted. Perhaps Banana should report me - after all, I am a very bad person spelling a simple word incorrectly.

I put my spelling problem down to this wierd Spanish keyboard in the hotel here, the keys don´t seem to be in the normal place.

Col

Do you mean weird or wired?

 

[ColinEssex]

It's up to the mods to decide. After all, this is privately-owned board; they're free to run it as they see fit.

A typical American cop out.

1) The mods don´t own it, Jon does.

2) If a mod is (for example) American, then they may have different levels of what they see as "bad" posts from say a UK mod. It´s down to cultural differences.

3) So there needs to be a fairly level playing field to start with and not have it left to some person who thinks they are greater than everyone else just because they have a few more buttons to play with.

Mods can run it as long as they all sing from the same hymn sheet - which I doubt will happen, especially if one is having a bad day.

So when is a statement deliberately provocative and not a genuine comment? How do you know? Do you have 6th sense? Are you greater than the rest of us?

Col

 

[Vassago]

A typical American cop out.

1) The mods don´t own it, Jon does.

2) If a mod is (for example) American, then they may have different levels of what they see as "bad" posts from say a UK mod. It´s down to cultural differences.

3) So there needs to be a fairly level playing field to start with and not have it left to some person who thinks they are greater than everyone else just because they have a few more buttons to play with.

Mods can run it as long as they all sing from the same hymn sheet - which I doubt will happen, especially if one is having a bad day.

So when is a statement deliberately provocative and not a genuine comment? How do you know? Do you have 6th sense? Are you greater than the rest of us?

Col

1. ...and Jon chose the mods based on his trust in them to run it as they deem necessary. Ultimately, he left them in charge.

2. It's not even about cultural differences. Every individual will have different levels at times in what they tolerate or do not tolerate on the forums. This is also why they have a mod forum for them to discuss amongst themselves and decide the best course of action together. It seems pretty rare that a post is deemed "bad" anyway.

3. Pretty much agreed. They should all follow a similar "hymn sheet," but as I stated above, they have a mod discussion forum for this very reason.

 

[Rabbie]

You are correct of course, and I thank you for pointing it out. Perhaps I should report my post and get it deleted. Perhaps Banana should report me - after all, I am a very bad person spelling a simple word incorrectly.

I put my spelling problem down to this wierd Spanish keyboard in the hotel here, the keys don´t seem to be in the normal place.

Col

Colin, as you often correct people's spelling and grammar you should not be surprised if your mistakes are picked up.

Prsonally I don't worry too much about these things but some do

 

[ajetrumpet]

Never ascribe to malice what can be ascribed to stupidity. And never ascribe to stupidity what can be ascribed to ignorance.

never talk to rabbie if it's mon, tues, wed, thrus, fri, sat, or sun.