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An idea to prevent them darned spams to boast post counts.

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 6:44 am
by Rasputinii
You know the posts I mean. Where people write something like, "TERROR USE TERROR" and thats all. The sort of posts that are clearly there to get the poster a higher post count. That thing we all loathe.

Well how about when ever you see one it gets reported and then an admin or such docks that person 5 from their post count. So doing it looses you posts! I am sure that would put an almost guarranteed stop to the problem!

What do you think?

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 6:48 am
by Bemenacth
Good Idea, but it would take a hell of a lot of the moderators time.

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 6:51 am
by Gnosis
It would mean a lot of work for the mods...

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 8:26 am
by Rasputinii
Give me the power and I would happily do it.... ;)

Good point. But something must be done. I can not take all these stupid answeres that add nothing. I keep having to lecture people and whilst it is rather interesting. A punishment would be most interesting.

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 8:57 am
by Tu'shan
Do people really care that much about their post count.....

Ive been on this forum for a couple of years now, but my post count is still relitivly low.... why do people bother.....

Maybe an easier way would be to remove the ranking system, I dont like the idea, but if it stoped people from making those kinds of posts then it may be a worthy sacrifice to make........

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 9:12 am
by Ranieth
Well, the thing is that you get a custom rank with 1000 posts. Might be that they're after. Or only having loads of posts, making them think they're wise.. :rolls:
No idea actually why..

Nice idea Rasputin, but loads of works for moderators.. Maybe promote a few more members to moderators to try this idea?

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 9:53 am
by Lord Thalack
AFAIK it isn't even possible for admins to lower a person's post count (except for deleting posts). The best thing you can do is report the post. A mod/admin will then delete it/warn the poster etc.

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 11:16 am
by Black hydra
I suggest the idea that custom titles could ONLY be given by moderators.

This way, players would actually have to make meaningful posts to gain the title not just get high post counts. I think that the custom titles should be given to those who have demonstrated some help or good discussion threads in the forums.

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 11:54 am
by Drakken
While that is a possibility Black Hydra, there are a lot of people who have custom titles just cause they've been here a while (I'm not even talking about myself, I'm talking waaay back). I really don't see it as too big a deal, I don't think post count has much to do with it (or I could just be giving humanity the benefit of the doubt)...

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 1:06 pm
by Kithan^^
Hey Ras? See the morale here?

ARE posts so important? Everyone claims they arent, like you must claim they arent as you want to punish those who think posts are important. But WHY would you want to punish them? Do you really care if they want a higher post count? After all you dont care about posts do you? So actually you DO care, you dont like it when "n00bs" get a higher post count than you. Therefore you start things like this. Its true and you and a whole lotta ppl out there know it.

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 3:45 pm
by Sneaky
Kithan da supah kewl!1!! wrote:Hey Ras? See the morale here?

ARE posts so important? Everyone claims they arent, like you must claim they arent as you want to punish those who think posts are important. But WHY would you want to punish them? Do you really care if they want a higher post count? After all you dont care about posts do you? So actually you DO care, you dont like it when "n00bs" get a higher post count than you. Therefore you start things like this. Its true and you and a whole lotta ppl out there know it.
I know I'm going to lose a lot of respect for this, but I agree with Kithan. I think that by worrying about the spammers' posting counts, we are stooping to their level (so to speak). I figure we do what we usually do, because if they keep spamming they'll have a high post count on a banned account. If that's what they want, then let the baby have his bottle.

Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 9:19 pm
by Rasputinii
Its not about their post counts, its about there spam, and so far the current system hasn't worked. I see the same people adding the most useless replies to posts and I can only guess its to get their post counts up. I just thought this idea would combat the spam. I am not that bothered about post count, but I know to many and proberbly the sppammers it does, so this is a practical soloution, No?

Thats what its about Kithan.

Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 3:26 am
by Nagathi
Ras, I've said it a mllion times, and apparently I'm forced to say it again (and this time in bold):
Use the [I swear too much] Report Button, People!!!

If people started to use this thing spam would be gone within a few hours. Deleted, gone, kapoof, vanished...
AFAIK only admins have control over the members' profiles (to that level), and with only 5 admins (some very inactive) it would clog up their schedule. I think instant deletion of the spam is the way to go, but unfortunately we do not really have enough active Black Guards either. I am pretty active, so I'll take up the discussion with some admin soon.

Loremaster Nagathi

Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 4:01 am
by Rip
Not trying to be offensive but this thread is kind of ridiculous, but that is my opinioin. Is spam really that big of a problem? If the owner thinks so, then let him decide what to do. It seems to me that he has done a great job with this site so far.
Is punishing people really the answer? I would say no because you would probably lose a lot of members. If anything it would give this site a bad name. Would you really want that?
Lord Nagathi, before I say what I am going to say, I want you to know that I have the up-most respect for you, and have enjoyed talking to you on other forums---but I have never seen you so volatile. I am utterly shocked and I am not just talking about your use of the "f" word above....

A much confused,
RIP

Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 4:04 am
by Nagathi
I'm sorry, but I'm in a quite bad mood overall...
I've edited it slightly to not offend anyone.

Loremaster Nagathi

Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 6:04 am
by Kithan^^
Well, only one or two times have i been in a post with only one-liner replies (mostly useless ones). 2 TIMES!!

If one person has a spam post sure i will report it, but its never been a problem.

Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 6:08 am
by Bloodtemplar
How about just removing the post count altogether? It only creates spam and some kind of a fake hierarchy to the community, adding very little good overall. As some people post tens of messages per day with just enough text to not count them as spam and others practically write a book and post it with one blow, the post count doesn't really tell anything of the user in question so what purpose does it serve?

Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 6:13 am
by Lord rakash
Maybe you can make the creator of a topic able to delete reported posts... But I don't really care that much if anyone spams... let them have their fun, they'll get bored after 300 spamposts...

Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 6:28 am
by Nagathi
Sabush wrote:But I don't really care that much if anyone spams... let them have their fun, they'll get bored after 300 spamposts...
Trust me, they won't. I have seen several occasions where a spammer has made lots of useless crap postings and still thinks he is funny after 300 posts.

Loremaster Nagathi

Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 6:40 am
by Kithan^^
*cough* Lord Happyslave *cough*

Though i thought he was hilarious :D

The thing with those who post 10+ posts a day which arent that long. They make up probably almost half the ppl on the site who are active. Then come those with "book" replies, these users spend more time on their posts and give well thought over and good replies, a great example here is MTUCache, you almost never see a post from him that is less than 2 lines. His posts are to a very high standard. But not everyone is like that, the majority of people prefer short replies. Not necessarily for post count purpouses but because they PREFER it.

Again, every time you whine about post counts. You are really thinking egoistically. I could bet a fortune than less than 5 or 10 percent of the users here really care if there is one or two spam posts here and there. People get annoyed if "n00bs" have a higher post count than them. Its not necesarily because their replies are any worse.

Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 6:43 am
by Nagathi
And once again we must clarify what is spam:
Spam is not short replies. Spam is useless replies. Replies which have no contributing meterial are considered spam. It has nothing to do with post length.
It is important to separate "short replies" from "spam" since those are two different things. A short reply can be spam, but it is not automatically spam (as some of you seem to think).


Loremaster nagathi

Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 7:15 am
by Indraugnir
It's a good thing you clarified that when you did, Nagathi. I was just about to make some comment about somehow not even letting really short posts through. Had you posted any later that probably would have been directed at me.

I know what Kithan means by "book" replies. Although I've only ever seen a couple posts by MTUCache, another person who rarely posts anything but large yet still very intelligent replies is Archdukechocula. *sigh* I wish there were more people like that on this site.

I personally don't really care about my post count (sorry if this seems unrelated but I just need to get this out of my system). I mean look at it compared with how long I've been here. I've seen many people with less posts than me quickly rise above my count. A good example is High Handed Executioner (although him I wouldn't really consider a spammer). I remember becoming a Shade at the same time as he did and I would be surprised if he had any less than 500 posts right now.

Posted: Sun Jun 13, 2004 11:56 am
by Sneaky
Loremaster Nagathi wrote:Ras, I've said it a mllion times, and apparently I'm forced to say it again (and this time in bold):
Use the [I swear too much] Report Button, People!!!

If people started to use this thing spam would be gone within a few hours. Deleted, gone, kapoof, vanished...
AFAIK only admins have control over the members' profiles (to that level), and with only 5 admins (some very inactive) it would clog up their schedule. I think instant deletion of the spam is the way to go, but unfortunately we do not really have enough active Black Guards either. I am pretty active, so I'll take up the discussion with some admin soon.

Loremaster Nagathi


While it's true that most of the admins are pretty inactive (actually, I think I'm the only really active one at the moment, although Lord Thalack is around from time to time - the others have IRL issues, IIRC) as are most of the BGs, if the Report button is used properly moderating the entire site can conceivably be done by just one administrator. It takes a bit of time, and usually means that the mod has to spend about an hour taking care of each and every post reported (which means that we have less time to do other things), but it can be done.

I cannot stress enough how much the Report function helps when moderating the site. I've stopped marauding around the forums to get rid of silly posts because, to be honest, I don't have the energy. I only take care of reported posts because I know that those are the ones that are actually annoying people. If more posts are reported, fine. I'll take care of them.

Don't feel bad for reporting posts either. No one but the moderators know who has reported it (we don't file your names or anything, but its part of the popup window). And you don't have to avoid reporting it unless something awful's happened. If you see a post that annoys you because you feel that it's spam, report it! However, sometimes we need to know why you reported something, so it's best to post something in the thread that states what's up.

OK, I'm done. I'm off to do other things.

Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 12:19 am
by Nagathi
Sneaky wrote:While it's true that most of the admins are pretty inactive (actually, I think I'm the only really active one at the moment, although Lord Thalack is around from time to time - the others have IRL issues, IIRC) as are most of the BGs, if the Report button is used properly moderating the entire site can conceivably be done by just one administrator. It takes a bit of time, and usually means that the mod has to spend about an hour taking care of each and every post reported (which means that we have less time to do other things), but it can be done.
First of all: Whatever happened to Thanee, I'm getting really worried (maybe this is not the best place to discuss it, but send me a PM if you know).

Secondly: I really don't mind spending countless hours fixing reported posts, that's a lot better then the current state where I run around manically reporting posts. I think we have one admin with good activity, one BG with good activity and one regular mod with good activity. It feels a little undermanned (if that's even a word). I'd be glad to help as a Black Guard.

Loremaster Nagathi

Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 12:30 am
by Bloodtemplar
There's nothing wrong with short posts as long as they have some point in them. However I don't want to see a hundred and eleventh user contributing a "yeah Im wit u on dat 1" when everyone and their mother has already answered the question.

And Kithan, Druchii.net is not life and death for everyone. Just thought your theory was a bit far stretched.

I just feel that the ones having a low post count are inevitably looked down upon. The post count doesn't really serve any purpose, though I understand that the ones having 1000+ posts are not that keen on getting rid of the figure.