Moderate new threads.

shaz77_2

Following on from a post in the past regarding people applying for freebies that they do not require, this posts relates to both poor quality freebies offered and scams.

I feel new posts on this board should be approved by a moderator as there have been quite a few instances in the recent past in which threads have been flagged by eagle eyed posters as spam. However the problem with this is that someone reading the thread originally could be enticed into applying for the products on offer unwittingly thinking that the offer is genuine.

There is also the problem that some of the posts on this board while genuine do have small print which allows compaines too send vast amounts of junk mail to people who apply for a free sample etc.

The final reason for me bringing this thread to the attention of this board is that some of the freebies on offer have been of a rather poor quality and while I would never knock a free item, I feel that items hovering under the heading of junk dilute the effectivness of the board and lead it to being known as tacky.

Just a few suggestions, they may not be popular but I thought I would mention them, I do however greatly enjoy the freebies section of the board.

save-a-lot

Hi

If posts all posts were heavily moderated then I think this part of MSE would lose alot of its appeal for many, it is far better to keep this as an open forum whereby members can post freely. Throwing up barriers such as having to wait for approval from a mod would not work here. The forums are too big to even consider doing that anyway.

The boards are pretty much self moderated and 'bad' posts are usually reported to the abuse team within minutes by users of the site.

meerustar

You raise a good point, however the mods here don't really have time to go trawling through freebies and checking them all out ... also, if someone wanted to post spam then they will. They'll just change the subject title and put it on another board.

fluffynit

I think BG do a good enough job as it is...

Board Guides oversee specific forums. They generally have the ability to edit and delete posts, move threads, and perform other manipulations. Becoming a Board Guide for a specific forum is usually rewarded to users who are particularly helpful and knowledgeable in the subject of the forum they are guiding.


Please bear in mind the forum operates on a report-an-abuse system. The forum team does not read all posts. Action can only be taken on posts reported using the above methods.


The Board Guides are site users who have volunteered to help keep the forum running smoothly.


perhaps if you have the time shaz, you could put yourself up for moderating

fluffynit

masterbrown

We should all be policing the board, i.e. if we see spam, report it.

zero2007

If all new posts had to be modarated first by the time they had been approved
people could miss out when there are a limited number of samples on offer.

Giving other freebee sites an advantage, so in the end people would use them more.

System

why not stop noobs posting new threads unitl they have a post count of 10?

Ytaya

How about relying on the common sense of board users? You rarely get something for nothing in life, so make sure to check the offers for mailing list additions and other pointers that something is spam. Failing that, learn by experience!

fairydust

On a different board I go on each post has a 'report' button which, when pressed, gets sent to all moderators.

Although I (I'm mainly a lurker *hide* ) appreciate when someone posts thats its spam after the op - stops me from looking further

jo_b_2

fairydust wrote: »

On a different board I go on each post has a 'report' button which, when pressed, gets sent to all moderators.

Although I (I'm mainly a lurker *hide* ) appreciate when someone posts thats its spam after the op - stops me from looking further

Every post on this site has a 'warning triangle' on the bottom left. Click this to report any offensive posts or spam/referral links etc.

This sends an alert out to the Abuse team (not Board Guides).

There is a warning on the top of every page on this site, reminding people that this is an open forum and to exercise caution when acting on any advice etc. As a free to use site, Martin is not able to place any more resources into moderating the site and asks everybody to report any offensive posts so that they can be removed and dealt with as soon as possible.

MrsTinks

You can also PM the BG for the board affected if you are concerned - especially if you feel it's a phishing site - that means as soon as we sign on we can zoom straight to it and investigate, but report it too using the triangle