Forums → Support Forum → Moderators: balance of power
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I checked a few of the pages and didn't see any posts about this topic specifically, hence I'm making a new one. This is a topic that would most likely require some kind of direct review by the forum admins.
As of late, I'm sure everybody has noticed an explosion in the spam. For whatever reason this is, I also know that everybody finds this particularly distressing given the malicious nature of some of the spam.
Moderators, when active, do an excellent job of clearing these posts on the site, but I've noticed a great deal of confusion over "why has this person not been banned yet?" When I'm starting to get confronted with bucketloads of spam from the same users despite repeatedly cleaning the posts and seeing mods clearing the posts and warning errant users etc., I know something's gotta give.
This gives me the following suggestions:
1) I don't know exactly what the balance of powers are. What exactly can the moderators do? What kind of protocols are involved in the banning of a troublesome user and what exactly constitutes grounds for banning? Is it fair to ask for some transparency here, please? Hopefully this will make it much clearer to all the users so there won't need to be so many questions (cluttering the profiles of the mods, especially), as well as there being less confusion about how to interpret various rules.
2) If the moderators themselves cannot already perform some kind of suspension or ban, I suggest at least having the power to independently temporarily suspend an account, effective immediately, pending further review. Seeing that the screening process is so careful, I'm quite sure that the risk of a moderator abusing this power is low, all things considered. As far as I can see, certain users have persisted on the site for several days even after insurmountable evidence that they ought to be banned.
3) I count a few moderators in the US, and a couple in Europe. However I don't see any from the Pacific region, which means that there's quite a large time-gap when both sets are inactive, which means that certain activity goes unmonitored, and furthermore means more cleaning up the next day.
Basically I'm suggesting it's time that AG take on more mods, the mods have increased power, and we somehow are able to know more directly what the mods can do.
- 19 Replies
Okay, I didn't explain myself properly...
Let's say that there's a set list of phrases and words that trigger a script. I don't know how this will work, whether it will be complete match or partial, or what (starting to remind me of a boolean search function!) but the rules would work like this:
i) When a person enters the chat, they will have a value ascribed to them (10s).
ii) If this person then triggers the script by spamming, the script will mute them for the value (10s), and the script then adds a second to the value (so it becomes 11s).
iii) If the person spams again, they get muted for 11s.
iv) However, we wouldn't want people to be punished unduly, especially if they're not bad offenders. So for every minute that passes that they're online, the value decreases by 1s until the value reaches base level (10s).
v) This means that there's a balance in the penalty- if you do it lots, you won't be able to talk after a while. If you do it a little bit, you will hardly notice.
Hopefully we could work out a balance that captures the best of both worlds here. I don't think my numbers are right, but the only way for this to be tailored to the community is empirically!
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Also, I have to copy-paste my posts a lot too! I think this is because the timer resets from the time immediately after one posts...I'm not sure if it would be better to reset the timer when one begins typing in the form (if this is possible is another matter).
Well, Strop, this idea seems really hard to put into coding. It could be done, I'm sure, because we have a great team , but still I think there are easier means of reducing spam, wether it be by instauring anti-spam propaganda campaigns, or by instauring a minimum characters limit (as I said before). Of course these two aren't good solutions in the long run as spammers would adapt themselves to the new requirements, but in the short term they would help us a lot...
Now nick said:
But then again people can just write the same word over and over 50 times
I have to agree with him, as it's easy to write "ahaoibdozndizndizhdozodjzdozjdozjdojzodjozodjzodjzodjzodzjodjzodj" but it would take a long tima and we can spot these kind of messages really fast and we can delete them efficiently. But by instauring this limit, my aim wouldn't be to stop those who actually spam because they like to spam. obviously these would still find ways for cheating. My aim was to "warn" users who don't know what's spam and just post short comments, with no bad intentions...
Also, I have to copy-paste my posts a lot too! I think this is because the timer resets from the time immediately after one posts...I'm not sure if it would be better to reset the timer when one begins typing in the form (if this is possible is another matter).
i always copy my message before clicking on the "ost reply" button, to make sure I don't loose it. I forgot to do it once, and as the site was overcrowded, I got a MySQL error...and had to type my message all over again!!
Yeah, I'm very aware that the kind of scripting I'm suggesting may not be compatible with the nature of this site. But it's always nice to spread unique ideas around.
I would be a greater supporter of limited chats, but seeing as I type >100wpm and rattle off messages like a machine gun, I tend to find such systems harm me more than I find worth the hopefully reduced spam!
I'm online more frequently as of late to take over for Carlie a bit while she's off studying manatees or whatever, so I'm trying to fill the gap a bit.
Haha what?! I am not studying manatees! They don't even live where I am... lol.
As far as SPAM goes, there is a TON of it, I know. But we do try, there is just too much of it to really handle. This is where the Flag button really comes in. You guys can't imagine how much that little button helps! It sends the SPAM straight to us, so that we don't have to go searching for it. So if you see lots of SPAM, start flaggin!
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