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Fed Up Of Spammers
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The_Old_Bag
Posts: 4,706 Forumite
Suggestion to Mods and Martin et al, re Spammers - who seem to be breeding like rabbits recently.
I am a member of my local Freecycle group - and all posting firstly go thru an moderator who will weed out posts which do not give enough detail, are inappropriate etc...
Well, obviously it depends on you mods, and how much work this would be, as compared to the work involved in prowling all the boards looking for these spamming vermin, but what about......
Newbies who try to open a new thread automatically have to go thru a mod before it actually gets posted.
The definition of newbies is up to you mods to decide - someone who has been registered for less than a month, had less than say 30 posts to their 'name', had less than 30 thanks.
Not only will this hopefully weed out the spammers, it would be a genuinely useful way for newbies to learn the ropes. So when their proposed new thread is reveiwed by a mod, they may be told, a thread on this already exists, or this is the wrong board, or simply this type of thread is not in the spirit of MSE etc
And before you all shout at this deaf old Bag, I know that this isn't a grabbit - but here and on the freebie board is where I seem to find most of these spammers, so I thought it the best place to ask for opinions.
Thoughts anyone
I am a member of my local Freecycle group - and all posting firstly go thru an moderator who will weed out posts which do not give enough detail, are inappropriate etc...
Well, obviously it depends on you mods, and how much work this would be, as compared to the work involved in prowling all the boards looking for these spamming vermin, but what about......
Newbies who try to open a new thread automatically have to go thru a mod before it actually gets posted.
The definition of newbies is up to you mods to decide - someone who has been registered for less than a month, had less than say 30 posts to their 'name', had less than 30 thanks.
Not only will this hopefully weed out the spammers, it would be a genuinely useful way for newbies to learn the ropes. So when their proposed new thread is reveiwed by a mod, they may be told, a thread on this already exists, or this is the wrong board, or simply this type of thread is not in the spirit of MSE etc
And before you all shout at this deaf old Bag, I know that this isn't a grabbit - but here and on the freebie board is where I seem to find most of these spammers, so I thought it the best place to ask for opinions.
Thoughts anyone
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Comments
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They sound like very sensible suggestions to me - but the key thing will be the moderators' workload as you say.0
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yes very good idea but the workload would be great thats for sure, who has the time to do this? as the mods dont get paid.my bark is worse than my bite!!!!!!!!0
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where's the Grab It?
The thanks button is here to the right. If you find a post saves you money, gives you useful information, or you agree with it, take a second to thank the poster!
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This is no grabbit. spam reported:rotfl:0
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one good thing though, is that new posts of spam are replied to within seconds of posting by other members. it is rubbish that there is so much spam, but some members do a damn good job of reporting them and alerting anyone reading them that they are spam.:happyhear0
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it's certainly a very appealing idea to have newbies modded till they're established, but there are no actual mods here to do it, & given the size of the site & the amount of posting that goes on, the job itself & the numbers of mods needed would be enormous
the board guides are all volunteers & do an absolutely marvellous job already, I can't imagine them having the time to cope even if they were given such power
although it is frustrating chasing some of these idiots spammers all over the boards to report them, I guess we'll all just have to keep on being vigilant 0 -
the workload would be far too great: although perhaps moderating new threads (rather than merely posts) by 'newbies' would be more workable.
Or alternatively a 'hack' to the script which allows 'spam' posts to be moved to another hidden forum for the moderators to check after it is flagged as spam by more than x forum members who contribute (however so defined) to the site.
I also believe that the report function using email slows things down unnecessarily and could be dealt with in a more effective manner - but that's just an aside.0 -
Current process is the only way, without a big investment in the software behind the site, or a large number of staff.
A 'hack' for the forum script wouldn't be terribly difficult or onerous to do (the greatest problem would be potential downtime and possible instability if not tested before hand) - i can't imagine it would take much more than the 'thanks' addon for the forum.
The amount of spam is only going to increase further and further - without something being done it'll only be left to become an even greater annoyance and drain on the site's resources.0 -
This subject has been raised on other boards [and please don't shoot the messenger] but the general consensus is that newbies are in pretty desperate straits sometimes when they come here and having to go through a clearing process + associated delay, may stop them from posting.
Al Mac - you are a star :T , I watched you stomping on spammers, the other night there was one in particular who went across all the boards like a rash, but you got him/her 1st or 2nd hit - brilliant and thank you.0
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