Thoughts about SPAM.

Harlequinn · Post by **Harlequinn** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 2:35 pm

After the post by evillum and the subsequent post by DA, I was thinking something.

One of the biggest problems that the community that is Druchii.net has been having is that of spam, ie., posts of no relevance. While the reasons for this are many, one of the largest is because all the new people want to get their post count above 20 as quickly as possible. What is disapoointing is that some of the people who have been around for a really long time are participating in the spam-fest, which causes the locking of potentially good posts and aggravation for potentially good members.

No, I'm not going to harp on the rank system. What I'm wondering is, are the constant spam offenders being weighed and measured? Are they being held accountable for their actions? It seems to me that the mods are punishing enthusiastic posters by locking their topics when the real villians in the whole thing are the people who start the spam fest in the first place.

Maybe each of us should be held to a higher standard of posting, individually. Perhaps we should all take a degree of pride in the posts that we do make and stay away from opening a can of spam at every opportunity. And maybe those of us that can't accomplish that goal should be dealt with by the mods directly.

Maybe when spamming starts in a thread, the mod can make a post in the thread as a warning (which many do already), but also PM the offending spammer letting them know that their spam is unwanted. If the offending spammer continues unrepentant, they should be blocked from posting for a time or something like that. Then they could decide if they want to be pissed at being blocked and not show up anymore as a result (big loss :roll:

), or they could change their behavior and become a more productive member of our little society.

I don't know, this is just my off the cuff thought process on the issue. I would just like to find a way to preserve the quality of the site, and I don't think that newbie posters are the problem.

Nagathi · Post by **Nagathi** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 8:29 pm

The thing is to quickly learn newcommers to try to produce high qualty post right from the beginning. I don't think a blocking system would be very good for the site. It can be experienced as a harch act from the mods and may cause even more aggrevation from members here.

Post by **Dark Alliance** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 8:35 pm

Harlequinn's point is not that the new members are spamming as such, more so that existing members are doing it. This was my opinion and the motivation for why I made today's Announcement.

I am pleased to see that the offending members have taken to apologies.

The rest of what Harlequinn says I agree with.

Nagathi · Post by **Nagathi** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 8:37 pm

But if we stop the newcomers to post this "Hello, I´m new here" posts we could all make sure this site keeps it's high quality.

Post by **Icon hack** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 8:38 pm

Harlequinn wrote:Maybe when spamming starts in a thread, the mod can make a post in the thread as a warning (which many do already), but also PM the offending spammer letting them know that their spam is unwanted. If the offending spammer continues unrepentant, they should be blocked from posting for a time or something like that. Then they could decide if they want to be pissed at being blocked and not show up anymore as a result (big loss ), or they could change their behavior and become a more productive member of our little society.

Generally, this is exactly what is done. But sometimes a thread spirals out of control a little as several people start spamming in it before a mod can try to discourage it. Once this happens, sometimes just locking the thread and putting an end to the silliness is the best way to prevent it from continuing.

The best way to prevent this situation is if we all think about what we're posting before we post it. How will this post be viewed by the rest of the community? Does it add to the discussion, or does it just make me look like I want attention? I think if we ask ourselves these kinds of questions before we hit the submit button, we'll prevent a lot of these situations from arising in the first place.

Post by **Dark Alliance** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 8:53 pm

Nagathi wrote:But if we stop the newcomers to post this "Hello, I´m new here" posts we could all make sure this site keeps it's high quality.

Quite frankly I don't see the newbie welcome posts as an issue. It is good for them to introduce themselves and for us to welcome them.

Nagathi · Post by **Nagathi** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 8:57 pm

So you are saying like this DA, that Newbies are allowed to post their "hello"-post but no one is allowed to reply, coz that's spam?

Sureal · Post by **Sureal** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 10:07 pm

Yeah - as one of the offending people, it's only right that I post here, eh?

As you can see - I'm in no rush to reach 20 posts or whatever. I just got... carried away

.

Post by **Dark Alliance** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 10:16 pm

Nagathi wrote:So you are saying like this DA, that Newbies are allowed to post their "hello"-post but no one is allowed to reply, coz that's spam?

I am going to assume you really are missing the point and give you the benefit of the doubt here.

Read the announcement I made in Druchii Discussion and the locked welcome post started by evillum where you will see that Sureal. Lord Silas etc posted utter rubbish which was why Linda quite rightly locked the post.

Nagathi · Post by **Nagathi** » Fri Nov 07, 2003 10:27 pm

I did read your post DA, but not evillum's :oops:

Sorry bout that. Now I see what you mean...

//Nagathi

Harlequinn · Post by **Harlequinn** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 2:29 pm

Lord Nagathi wrote:But if we stop the newcomers to post this "Hello, I´m new here" posts we could all make sure this site keeps it's high quality.

I'm not sure this is a great idea. For one thing, it helps the new people out to be able to go into DD and make that first post, and there's nothing wrong with several people responding in an amicable fashion. The problem occurs when responses mention the "welcome to the site" bit almost as an afterthought and the thread is turned into another free for all of senseless babble. I think that banning the newbies from being able to make their intro post would be like cutting off a finger to fix a hangnail. If we could just ensure that the quality of the replies doesn't fall into the abyss of goofy by having everyone take responsibility for the content of their posts, the problem would correct itself, generally. And that's where this particular line of argument has been touched on in other threads, so time to drop it.

Nagathi · Post by **Nagathi** » Mon Nov 10, 2003 5:51 pm

As I said, I didn't read through evillum's thread. Now I have.
I didn't mention banning any new members. You must have misunderstood me.
All in all, I agree with you Harlequinn, it isn't evillum's fault that his post was locked. I blame the childish behaviour of Silas and Sureal.

Tastyfish · Post by **Tastyfish** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 12:26 pm

How about a reputation count as well as post number, get points for good post and lose them for spammy ones? Could either make it peer or mod orientated- rather than having them locking post that have got a bit spammy but where some people are trying to comntiue the valid conversation can just post a warning and dock some reputation points. Likewise especaily good posts coud get bonus reputation.

Link the reputation to some other ranking type thing (size of estate or call it influence) and quite a few people will be trying to increase that as well- but is impossible with just spam

Nagathi · Post by **Nagathi** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 12:36 pm

Tasty, the mods are doing a great job at keeping the threads clean of spam at the moment. Any spam will get deleted and if the same user is caught spaming again it will result in a warning (if not directly from the first spaming post).
A spaming post get deleted and does not count towards to total Post Count.

Lord N

Tastyfish · Post by **Tastyfish** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 3:10 pm

Wasn't saying there was a problem (coming from the GW ones this a miles better), but thinking of a more 'prevention is better than cure'. Free up the some of the mods time by decreasing the amount that gets posted in the first place. Just a way of providing some incentive for people to carry out Harlequin's desire for people to take more pride in the quality of their posts.

Darkprincess · Post by **Darkprincess** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 3:19 pm

I think the most important thing is to think before you post. I know it sounds obvious, but you see quite a lot of replies with stuff like "I agree" or "no way", which do nothing to present the opinions of the poster in a constructive way. We've all been guilty of doing this once or twice I guess, but I think if people read the thread fully before posting replies, and then think about what they are saying before hitting the submit button, then the mods would have a much easier time cleaning up the boards.

That said, I haven't seen too much of the sort of spam being discussed here, but then I've only been here a few months, and it just goes to show what a good job the mods are doing

Lately I have been a very busy poster, but I like to think that 99% of my posts are relevant and actually say something. I like to think that people actually read my stuff - otherwise what's the point of posting it in the first place. (the other 1% I guess is mindless babble in the humour/discussion forums - but I guess that's a different thing - maybe

I guess some of my posts are too long rather than too short, but then I do have a tendency to digress at length during my er...lengthy digressions...

Dark 1 · Post by **Dark 1** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 4:48 pm

well maybe this is absolutly crazy and strange in your eyes, but i have heard that on some other forums, they have a place where you can make post that DOSNT give you post in you counter under your avatar. Maybe there should be made section like this here. People can go there, and talk about whatever they want, and spam as much they will (well ofcouse there is limits, and there should be a mod in there).

Well this is just an idea, dont hang me plz

Nagathi · Post by **Nagathi** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 4:52 pm

Druchii.net did have places, or rather forums, where posts didn't count. But I don't know what happened to them or why they became normal forums again.

Lord N

Dark 1 · Post by **Dark 1** » Wed Mar 10, 2004 5:20 pm

ok Nagathi, but so you think such forums should be made again. I have only bin here for a couple of months and have no idea of how things have been though the years. Maybe this have already been dicusted but maybe such a forum should be made?

Nagathi · Post by **Nagathi** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 12:14 pm

Personally I don't like the idea.
This is a site with a great organisation. If we allow spam in one forum it will spread to the other forums. This is at least the way I think it would develop. I like it as we have it now. Everything in its pretty boxes with name tags... (yes, I am a perfectionist)

Lord N

Kithan^^ · Post by **Kithan^^** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 3:56 pm

I agree at the point with the newbies wanting their posts above 20 as quick as possible... i myself on my first day posted around 6 posts in 2 minutes or something :oops:

and Vorchild PM'ed me and told me that theres a limit and that the last 6 posts were deleted. :oops:

heehee, well i quite frequently use short replies.. but thats for short questions. Otherwise long or medium length.... but what i really find stupid is when for example on the rules questions forums where a rule question has around 30 replies and all of them say the same answer. Thats spamming as well.....