Life In 19x19

Don't you all think that setting new users to be moderated for their first post might be a good idea? It would prevent pretty much all spammers, like the one that dumped a bunch of stuff on the forum today.

I do it on two other phpBB forums; it's easy to do, and just requires that admins check for posts being held in moderation.

It's ok, if mods/admins are able to do it quickly enough (say within 24 hrs). OTOH, if mods/admins are active, they will spot spam and remove it pretty quickly anyway.

I'm fine with both methods.

Why do this? A little bit of fresh troll meat will not harm anyone, and it's not like there is a huge flood of spam on this forum. I see no reason to put obstacles in the way of first posts.

kirkmc wrote:Don't you all think that setting new users to be moderated for their first post might be a good idea? It would prevent pretty much all spammers, like the one that dumped a bunch of stuff on the forum today.

I do it on two other phpBB forums; it's easy to do, and just requires that admins check for posts being held in moderation.

Seems like a good suggestion for me - it's only for the first post, and any mod or admin would be able to approve.

gaius wrote:Why do this? A little bit of fresh troll meat will not harm anyone, and it's not like there is a huge flood of spam on this forum. I see no reason to put obstacles in the way of first posts.

There were about ten spam posts when I looked this morning. Once a forum gets in the radar of spammers, it'll just get worse.

Seems like it would be a good idea if it really got to be a problem. I haven't seen much spam myself so I am guess it is not a big problem yet.

gaius wrote:Why do this? A little bit of fresh troll meat will not harm anyone, and it's not like there is a huge flood of spam on this forum...

Actually, there has been a relatively huge attempt at trolling/spamming in the last week. I've been killing spammers/trolls left and right. ( Due to the horrible weather here in LA I've been stuck indoors, so I've been able to check the forum frequently )

FWIW, the trolls seem to be kiddy go players from Russia; the spammers seem to be clothing sellers from China.

EDIT: I looked at the admin and mod logs. It appears that Topazg has been deleteing a lot recently too.

I think the admins are doing a great job at keeping the spam/trolling at bay right now.

This probably cannot be done, but it might be nice to permit normal users (users who've posted over a certain number) to censor posts by users of under, say, 10 posts.

But so far, it doesn't seem to be a major problem as it is.

judicata wrote:I think the admins are doing a great job at keeping the spam/trolling at bay right now.

This probably cannot be done, but it might be nice to permit normal users (users who've posted over a certain number) to censor posts by users of under, say, 10 posts.

But so far, it doesn't seem to be a major problem as it is.

This seems like a terrible idea. It isn't obvious to me that it's reasonable to assume they are unwanted, and even if it was, I think other methods (like moderation) would be better.

amnal wrote:
This seems like a terrible idea. It isn't obvious to me that it's reasonable to assume they are unwanted, and even if it was, I think other methods (like moderation) would be better.

ok

I'm bumping this again. Wouldn't it be easier just to have new users set to moderation? In the few times I've checked the forum today, I've seen a half-dozen spams. I know it can be done (auto-moderation), because I do it on a forum I run...

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 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.

Redundant wrote: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.

phpBB has a feature whereby you can mod a user until a first post is approved. That's generally all you need in a specialized forum like this to know if they're for real.

And I highly doubt that many people would be put off by that type of moderation.

Redundant wrote: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.

Or perhaps there could be a list of approved sites for links. Any post that links elsewhere would await moderation.