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Why do we need to wait 5 minutes(?) between two reports?
- Thread starter xJustxMegx
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Well okay. You are welcome to disagree, but I highly doubt that will be the case. If a person has a pressing technical issue and has to wait to be approved, there are other sites which this delay is not present. IMO, the site will lose subscribers.
Fascinating thread.
Anyway, I am in complete agreement with you both.
From what I can gather, a great many members of the site have joined the site simply to ask a question, and then, some decide to stay, (as I did).
If (unreasonable) obstacles (road-blocks) are placed in your path when you have joined on online community because you simply wish to ask a question of a collective membership that are supposed to be reasonably knowledgeable on that and related topics, then, it is most unlikely that you would wish to linger there any longer.
More to the point, I seem to recall how someone in the staff posted a breakdown of forum members, defined by the number of posts they had made, described as a pie chart: A large number of members had made no posts at all, and at least as many had made only one post - and those two categories combined comprised more than 50% of the total membership, if memory serves.
Another category with a high percentage of members were those who had posted between one and ten posts.
I’d say a lot of first-timer posts asking for “urgent” help have solutions that are easily found using MR’s search box. So I’m not opposed to a brief—say, 1-2 hour—delay in publishing new users’ initial posts.
FWIW, this is from the site and forum feedback thread following the big spam attack in September 2023.
Indeed.
But not everyone is cognisant of how computers work - let alone the online world, and computing in general; this solution is all well and good to those who already know how - and where - to seek it.
And not everyone is entirely comfortable with - let alone mastered - basic literacy, or the complicated (and sometimes challenging) delights of the English language.
Moreover, for many of those who join such a forum for the precise - if simple - reason that they may wish to ask a question, their general lack of knowledge will also mean that using MR's search box before they try anything else is not a solution that is already known to them.
Neither am I.
And this suggestion strikes me as pretty fair and reasonable.
This means that a moderator has 1-2 hours to check posts each time a user joins, 24x7.
If there would be an hour or two delay on posting. I would think that the poster would immediately try again. Assuming something went wrong.
I have seen multiple identical posts a few times, from several users in a short timespan. And I guess that is what happened. A delay occurred, and another attempt was made immediately.
I have seen multiple identical posts a few times, from several users in a short timespan. And I guess that is what happened. A delay occurred, and another attempt was made immediately.
It can be annoying for new users if their post is not directly visible and that can lead to confused users who attempt to post it again and again.
Once a post has been posted a popup with "This post is currently under moderation review and will be reviewed shortly" should help.
Once a post has been posted a popup with "This post is currently under moderation review and will be reviewed shortly" should help.
There's a different, two-part way to approach that general idea:
Part 1: No new restrictions on new users, but existing users (either everyone, users with X posts, or paid users) can toggle a filter that applies to all forum views / feeds (mechanically the same way as the ignore list). When activated it remains active for 24 hours, but can also be manually turned off. While active the filter hides posts from A) accounts less than X hours old (say, 24) and B) accounts with fewer than Y posts (say, 50).
Part 2: That relatively high post requirement means posting that much within a short period of time can be automatically detected as "spamming" whether it's a new or existing account, and the user's ability to post can be temporarily revoked if spammers try to work around that limit. Spammers by their nature aren't going to create accounts and take days or weeks to contribute meaningfully to discussions (and rack up post count) just to be able to then use that account to spam for a couple of hours before getting suspended. Meanwhile automated, nonsensical filler posts, even if drip-fed, will get reported by users as spam, just as before.
This approach doesn't hinder regular new users and allows normal interaction with them most of the time; doesn't add extra burden on the mods; gives existing users a way to easily and temporarily neuter spammers until moderators are available; and spammers have no cheap and effective way around it.
No idea if any of that is technically feasible on this forum software, or worth the MR team's time and effort, of course.
Part 1: No new restrictions on new users, but existing users (either everyone, users with X posts, or paid users) can toggle a filter that applies to all forum views / feeds (mechanically the same way as the ignore list). When activated it remains active for 24 hours, but can also be manually turned off. While active the filter hides posts from A) accounts less than X hours old (say, 24) and B) accounts with fewer than Y posts (say, 50).
Part 2: That relatively high post requirement means posting that much within a short period of time can be automatically detected as "spamming" whether it's a new or existing account, and the user's ability to post can be temporarily revoked if spammers try to work around that limit. Spammers by their nature aren't going to create accounts and take days or weeks to contribute meaningfully to discussions (and rack up post count) just to be able to then use that account to spam for a couple of hours before getting suspended. Meanwhile automated, nonsensical filler posts, even if drip-fed, will get reported by users as spam, just as before.
This approach doesn't hinder regular new users and allows normal interaction with them most of the time; doesn't add extra burden on the mods; gives existing users a way to easily and temporarily neuter spammers until moderators are available; and spammers have no cheap and effective way around it.
No idea if any of that is technically feasible on this forum software, or worth the MR team's time and effort, of course.
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Well, something needs to change in my opinion. These constant spam attacks are ridiculous.
Seems like mostly middle of the night (California).
If you log in early in the morning (for example I was here this morning at 5am EST and spam was everywhere), you'll see it.
9:45am in the UK and here we go again.
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I'm not reporting at the moment - it seems odd to just report one (as I won't wait for the timeout to report another one) so might as well not report any. The spam is so obvious, I'm sure the mods/admins can work out there's spam without reports.
They spam when the US is asleep, as that's when the mods are also likely to be wanting some sleep too 😁
Edit: I just reported one 😁
They spam when the US is asleep, as that's when the mods are also likely to be wanting some sleep too 😁
Edit: I just reported one 😁
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I just handled a few reports, banned a couple that weren't reported. Definitely not a "deluge" this morning (yet).
I reported a couple this morning (thanks @Boyd01 ). I wish we could implement the suggestion of @xJustxMegx to shoot spammers into the sun, or my dark fantasy of bringing a Klingon ship through a time warp to orbit Earth, scan and transport down warriors to any spam centre - well imagine what a Bat'leth (Klingon battle axe) could do to .... a bunch of computer and server equipment.
Sadly, we will have to deal with this best we can and the staff are doing a good job - and we should report what we can.
I understand how frustrating waiting for new posters would be so I am not that keen on this solution IMO.
Sadly, we will have to deal with this best we can and the staff are doing a good job - and we should report what we can.
I understand how frustrating waiting for new posters would be so I am not that keen on this solution IMO.
To those of you running up against the report timeout, if the spam is mostly in one forum section, like say iPad, you can report one and in the report comment mention something like, "The iPad forum is overrun with about 35 spam posts."
Then we know to come look and catch them all.
Then we know to come look and catch them all.
A simple* "block newbies from posting phone numbers, weird fonts, and maybe also the word 'robin'" and you're done until the next lot come.
* Maybe. Or maybe it's complex; I don't know 😁
* Maybe. Or maybe it's complex; I don't know 😁
It is now though
I don’t envy you guys having to deal with these sad pathetic oxygen thieves.