Heres the text of the email I sent to Justin, if anyone cares to read it:
Re: Concerning the Recent Inundation of AdBots in the Community
Justin,
Hello. I'm Maverick4 (though most call me Mav), and I've been a member of the site for a few years now. Though out that time, I've actively participated in the community, commonly frequenting the Tavern, AMW, Popular Media, and Forum Games. I've enjoyed the site immensely, both the Community and flash games, and want to say thanks to you and the rest of the Administration for all the blood, sweat, and tears that you've put into it.
But on to more serious matters. As I'm sure you're aware, the community has in the past few months been under 'attack' from AdBots posting links to free movie downloads, live sports streaming, and cheap designer clothes sites. And in the past week or so, these AdBots have stepped up their assault upon the Community, and in some sub-forums the amount of spam threads have grown logarithmically as time has progressed. In some sub-forums, namely the Forum Games and Support and Suggestions, the amount of spam threads are at such an astronomical number that Gantic (the moderator rabbit) has been forced to make a sticky so that users can actually give suggestions and receive support.
On Saturday (March 31) I believe, ReCAPTCHA was implemented in an attempt to halt the AdBots, and decrease the amount of spam threads. Simply put, its failed miserably. The amount of AdBots and spam threads has stayed the same, if not grown, along with the number of irate users who have their entire posts deleted when they incorrectly guess what the blob in the box is supposed to be.
As a result of this, numerous threads have popped up here and there, many of them discussing possible solutions ranging from appointing more moderators to blowing up the entire Internet. But one idea has been put forth multiple times, and is starting to gain support amid us users (Tron reference, no?). The idea, in a nut shell, is to prevent new accounts from being created until an effective and permanent solution can be attained. This would allow the AdBots to be banned, the spam threads to be deleted, and would give everyone a chance to breathe, collect themselves, and 'lick their wounds'.
While I'm trying not to sound like a star-struck 'n00b' with dreams of becoming a moderator (I think we all had them at some point), I do think serious consideration should be given to appointing a few more moderators. The recent flood of AdBots and spam threads has proven that the moderation team as it currently is is stretched too thin to effectively deal with the threat. The number of moderators who can be considered 'active' can be counted on one hand, and is in no way helped by the recent retirement of Cenere. As most of the moderators (surprisingly) have lives outside of Armor Games, many of them simply aren't on enough to effective all the time. So the site really needs some more moderators. Now, I both understand and support the reasons for only mod-ifying users above the age of eighteen, but I think something can be said for the maturity and mental stability of several users who are under this age, namely sixteen and seventeen year olds. My experiences in the Community has shown me that many users who are active in the Community and site are in this age group, and while I won't name names (I think its against 'the rules', I can personally vouch that many of them are wonderful people and would be extremely beneficial to have on the team if choosen. If handled properly, making moderators of select individuals in this age group would be beneficial to the site as a whole, both now and in the future.
So I hope you and the rest of the Administrative team will give these, and other, suggestions some serious consideration. And while solving the AdBot problem is neither simple in design or action, I truly believe that implementation of one or both of the above mentioned ideas can really help solve the problem, or at least throw a wrench in the mechanizations of whomever is behind all this.
Best regards,
Mav
Anybody mind giving their thoughts?
