Forum Spam

[Chewett]

Over the years we have seen a number of interesting ways spammers have tried to market anti-lol pills and other such medication. But the worst form of spam, is from your own community.

The main form of it here is when people post useless things so that they can gain more posts (commonly known as posthunting).

Here is an example of posts that have have been deleted. This selection is only from one user, in the past week.

"yep as burns put it" - this was on a Q and A thread, this is a pointless addition that doesnt help anyone
Non appropiate responses to a topic as they dont contribute anything:

interesting topic,lol
KILL THE SKILL DAMAGE!!!
mmhhmm
*laughs*

"that will be hard to buy from ppl" - it doesnt matter how "hard" is it to get, that person was wanting to buy it...
"mmhhmm thats gonna be hardto buy" - then after i deleted it, he reposted a similar post
"mhhmm i always wanted lho but way way way too busy now adays >>" - this was a lho recruitment thread, why post saying you didnt want to be one!

Posts such as these do not further the topic and are unnecessary.

The user in question has received a 2 week Mod Approval. Moderator approval is when before your post appears to everyone it will have to be approved by a Mod. This is a hideously slow process as we all know the mods dont actually do anything, so can be up to a day before your post is approved

If you are unsure about a post. Think, does it contribute something? posts like "KILL THE SKILL DAMAGE!!!" followed by a sensible post is allowed if it contributes to the topic. But just "KILL THE SKILL DAMAGE!!!" does not in itself add something different.

If you are unsure about anything, or want to discuss something with me, feel free to pm me.

[Fenrir Greycloth]

I suppose that this is a needed step for some people, how ever I would like us to review the steps needed to achieve post moderation.

If we need three warnings to achieve post moderation, shouldn't it be for the same mistake? For instance, if I troll a fat person over and over (ie I berate them for being stupid and explain why but also suggest ways of doing it better) and recieve two warnings, but I get a third warning for posting spam. I don't think that I would need post moderation, at least until I troll the person one more time since spam isn't nearly as bad as trolling fat people.

So, in conclusion. We need three strikes(for failing to change our ways concerning a certain misbehaviour) in order to be post moderated by failing to listen to the previous warnings.

[Chewett]

[quote name='Fenrir Greycloth' date='16 December 2009 - 07:14 PM' timestamp='1260990849' post='50434']
I suppose that this is a needed step for some people, how ever I would like us to review the steps needed to achieve post moderation.

If we need three warnings to achieve post moderation, shouldn't it be for the same mistake? For instance, if I troll a fat person over and over (ie I berate them for being stupid and explain why but also suggest ways of doing it better) and recieve two warnings, but I get a third warning for posting spam. I don't think that I would need post moderation, at least until I troll the person one more time since spam isn't nearly as bad as trolling fat people.

So, in conclusion. We need three strikes(for failing to change our ways concerning a certain misbehaviour) in order to be post moderated by failing to listen to the previous warnings.
[/quote]

currently i dont warn people for one offence of spamming. because everyone spams a little. After a continual bout of spam i then warn the person For example this person was warned on 08 December 2009 - 06:23 AM and was told of the punishment if they continued to spam.

Then after a lot more posts i then gave them a post moderation and another warning as it was obvious that they hadnt learnt from the pm i sent them. For spam i use this because spam doesnt nesscarily need anything done about it immediately, If there was a lot of it then i would consider some action.

Rudeness on the other hand currently uses a three strikes system (although it seems we always have more) Where the user is warned each time they are rude (to a level that is unacceptable) then once the user has reached this level they will have some form of punishment

Any action taken on an account is trackable on every member so a moderator can see what warnings they have been given by whome. This allows us to track what the user has done, so punishment will incrment based on overall account activity. But it will vary based on what the user has done.

For example if they user has been abusive a lot, they might be banned form posting for a period of time, Or if they spam a lot, Have a moderator Approval

As with all punishments they can be discussed with the person who has punished you. They will always contact the user to tell them their punishment.

And if you ever feel that a punishment is unfair then you can always contact me or another mod.

[Chewett]

Another user has been Moderator Previewed for spam, This time for 28 days. this is because the user has already had 7 offical warnings, (the max normally before banning is 4) and has continued to spam.

Here are a few examples of spam he posted:

mods please either fuse these threads, or delete this one. - backseat modding. Moderators do their job freely for the good of the community. And its rude to boss people around.

posting "do you accept silver" when the user posted he didnt in the first post
Then posting "oh sorry, didn't notice the not..." after that.

[quote]if i want to i can rp... and be funny while i'm at it, i completed z's make me laugh quest in about 3 minutes on my first attempt, all i needed was someone (don't remember who it was at the moment) hitting z on the head with a club, and that was enough to get me going.... there was also another time when magicduel.org still was online, and i got bored.... so i had bored clone, and the puzzle master stage a short chase scene, in which bored clone was being chased by tpm, and finally went down under the statue of marind bell (tpm still saw the statue) and started pretending to be a ghost, at which point tpm runs of sreaming randomly... in other words if i want to be funny and rp i can... but most of the time i am too bored to do so... ooo look a Magic Jack commercial! wonder when any of us mentioned phone service... wait i just did... wonder what i can get to come up....
phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service phone service
[/quote]
no comment

hmmm... interesting.... - again, spam

As with all these things, the person can contact me to discuss the punishment and such.

And if you wish to dicuss punishments in general, this is the topic to do so.

[(Zl-eye-f)-nea]

As there seems to be a crack down on excessive posting, and a yelling of "use the edit button" I have a question:

Is there any way that when someone edits a post, the thread can come up on the tail end of the view new content thread? because if they don't make a new post it doesn't pop up, and if it doesn't pop up you dont know there is anything new on there...when often there is.

Z

[Chewett]

No there isnt, and for that i suggest making the post.

The main times when we have told people to use the edit button is when post something, then add something on 5 minutes later. If for example you are advertising a quest, editing the top post and then making a post saying there is a new is fine. The types of double posting is just meaningless additions that will be moderated.

[dst]

Now...open this and let it run in the background:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0U4nPU-LgU
Then read the below:

And now the spam is near
And so my friend
You have to read it
And let me make it clear
That there is
No way around it

I spam you till you’re full
I used each and every spamway
And more, much more than this
I’ve spammed you my way

And there were times
I’m sure you knew
When I spammed oh
More than you could chew

But then again when there was doubt
I spammed some more
I’ve spammed you out
I’ve spammed you my way

Regrets? I’ve had a few
But then again, to few to mention
I’ve spammed what i had to spam
And saw it through without exemption

I’ve spameed
And though i did
I had my share of losing
I know that all my spam
For you was not amusing

To think i’ve spammed alot
And may i say, not in a shy way
Oh, no, Oh no not me,
I’ve spammed it my way!

For what is a spammer, what has he got?
If not his junk, than he has not
To spam the things he never reads
And hope that you
Will click his ads

The records show
I’ve had some balls
And spammed you
Myyyyyy waaaay!


This is not my work. I found it here:http://www.lamaie.ro/page/13/ (don't try to read it since it's a blog of a Romanian girl but it's elegant to add the source).

[The Great Pashweetie]

Im sorry but, can we really judge what is spam and what isn't spam at the blink of an eye? I think "forum spam" can be easily misenterpretated, for example i try to say something but then people say its spam, when really i thought it had some meaning behind it... can we really just say "this is spam and that is important!" because this is a matter of opinion, and unless the person is filling the page with real simple things like "lol" "XD" "rofl" i dont think we should just erase it permamently because its completely taking out the "opinion" part of MD.

[Seigheart]

Pashweetie, the Moderators are good at their job for the most part. They are certainly more than capable of figuring out what is, and isn't spam. Even if some have flaws, they are still capable.

I agree that opinions matter, but no one wants to read 100 opinions to get to a meaningful post. It's a waste of time, and quite frankly, most people's opinions don't matter. (I'm not saying yours don't)

Seigheart

[Chewett]

[quote name='The Great Pashweetie' timestamp='1299728046' post='80464']
Im sorry but, can we really judge what is spam and what isn't spam at the blink of an eye? I think "forum spam" can be easily misenterpretated, for example i try to say something but then people say its spam, when really i thought it had some meaning behind it... can we really just say "this is spam and that is important!" because this is a matter of opinion, and unless the person is filling the page with real simple things like "lol" "XD" "rofl" i dont think we should just erase it permamently because its completely taking out the "opinion" part of MD.
[/quote]

If you have managed to string more than two sentences down, as an opinion, Then its not spam. Thats really the point whereby it wont be deleted. And most of the time even if someone posts "i think this idea is good" it wont be deleted either.

You cannot quantify what is or isnt spam, But we will judge to the best of our ability, and if in doubt we will normally leave it, or ask another mod.

Here is the list of "spam deleted" back til Dec 2010, This is the kind of thing we remove:

[quote]voted yes[/quote]

[quote]Nope.[/quote]

[quote]LIKE (:[/quote]

[quote]Lucky[/quote]

[quote]Christina Aguilera[/quote]

[quote]ale ale ale!!! [/quote]

Thats the entire list, Not counting Viagra spam, and other topics where people asked for it to be deleted.

Edited March 10, 2011 by Chewett

[Chewett]

This topic has been cleared of all irrelevent, or old material that has no real effect on the current situation.