Moderating new users

[oren]

I wonder if we could implement the xkcd forum system for links. It's not allowed to post a link until a user has made five posts. This would make spam a little more difficult.

I agree with this idea. If you can't put links, spammers won't appear. Occasionally a real post would have to wait a short time to be approved.

[amnal]

I wonder if we could implement the xkcd forum system for links. It's not allowed to post a link until a user has made five posts. This would make spam a little more difficult.

I like this idea. I've seen it work well in other places too.

[Joaz Banbeck]

My feelings are:
- Occasionally I see a bit of spam here
- It quickly disappears as the mods delete it, and is very obvious
- As a new user, I always find it extremely annoying to have to await moderation. It is a strong push to not sign up at all.


=> I would rather see this small amount of spam occasionally than have to await moderation, and personally don't think moderation is necessary/a good idea

I agree with Amnal here. The harm currently done by the spam is vanishingly small, as we mods/admins are keeping up with it. If it buried the board, then it would be a different matter. But I don't want to lose new members. We have too small a pool to draw from already.

[DrStraw]

I agree with Amnal here. The harm currently done by the spam is vanishingly small, as we mods/admins are keeping up with it. If it buried the board, then it would be a different matter. But I don't want to lose new members. We have too small a pool to draw from already.

Completely agree. I look at this site twice a day usually, only reading topics which sound interesting. I have not seen a spam here in ages.

[deja]

We're being inundated with spam once again. I think Redundant's idea is the best one yet. To do nothing preventative as Joaz suggests is a bad idea, a non-idea in fact.

[fwiffo]

I'm warming up to the idea of not allowing links until a user has 5 posts, though I haven't looked into exactly how it would be implemented. It seems like I'm banning spammers a couple times a day now, and given how aggressively Google spiders these days, even an hour or two between when the spam is posted and when it's deleted can be a victory for the spammer.

We could also add more moderators.

[Chew Terr]

If it's a burden for the moderators or if removing the spam is urgent, adding moderators might not be bad. While ya'all are awesome and always on the ball, sharing the burden/workload doesn't seem like a bad idea. Additionally, if disallowing links from (brand) new members is an easy-to-test option, perhaps we should give it a shot?

[hyperpape]

Spam is mildly obnoxious if you use "unread posts", it's a real pain if you look at the index and see whether your favorite forums update (I'm about 50-50 on those).

Why not let established users mark spam and have it be held for moderation? If misusing this power is severely discouraged, this seems like an ok solution. It's less intrusive than holding everything for moderation, but faster than leaving it to the admins.

@fwiffo Does phpbb not use nofollow?

[Magicwand]

i think we can add report spam button.
if there are more than 3 report it will profile him as the spammer and del all thread stared by that spammer.

[kirkmc]

i think we can add report spam button.
if there are more than 3 report it will profile him as the spammer and del all thread stared by that spammer.

There's already such a button. It's just that there's getting to be a lot of spam, and it takes time for the spam to be deleted. I've seen new spams at least a half-dozen times today. I don't see it getting any better without something to mod first posts.

[Chew Terr]

As hyperpape said, I like the idea of hiding spam once it's been marked as such by a user. A moderater could then either delete the post or override the flag. My concern with this is if it takes much extra programming for the admins to implement.

[Jordus]

The spammer issue should be fixed soon. There is a new update to the phpbb3 forums that fixes a bug in the captcha feature that has recently been exploited by spam bots.

I will implement the update tonight at a low traffic period.

[Jordus]

Update is done.

[Joaz Banbeck]

Update is done.

[kirkmc]

Update is done.

Could this update have removed the "Mark all posts read" text, which is no longer visible at the tops of pages?