The best way to combat spam in this forum...

by garyv
4 replies
  • OFF TOPIC
  • |
The best way "IMO" - to combat spam in this forum, is to let us talk about whatever we want to. It's happening anyway.

Why not just ban bad behavior, and then give us the freedom to talk about whatever we please. If we were to keep more of these threads open, then we'd squeeze the spam right off of this page.

This may be just me, but whenever a thread I've spent time in gets shut down, I feel less of an urge to come back here to see what's going on. Of course maybe that's the point - But spammers never go away, so why not let us drown them out with heated discussions?

Save the muzzle and locks for mean behavior.



... anyway - place your bets here for how long this thread will last:
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Lol, your not squeezing the spam off the page without moderating, there's just too much spam.

    The forum needs to have $1 subscription for all new profiles. It's as simple as that. That would knock out the largest percentage of spam. I doubt that will happen, just saying that's the easy way to moderate bulk spammers.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9275865].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    Gary,

    I can appreciate your desire to keep discussions going, but people get banned for bad behavior all the time. You're really asking for the line to be redrawn to include members who are usually decent people and good members, but sometimes get carried away on certain topics.

    They occasionally do get a temp ban. Do you want it to be permanent? Banning people isn't something moderators enjoy doing, not most of them anyway. The ones who do enjoy it tend to get removed as moderators as their over-zealous attitudes are exposed.

    The no politics/no religion rule was already in place when I started visiting the OT, so I don't know what it was like without it. I would guess there were a few reasons for creating those two rules, with one being that it took a lot of moderating resources to monitor and moderate threads on those two topics. I would further guess that it got real old for the mods to have to continually monitor and moderate them. But I am only guessing, I could be wrong.

    And really, there is some tolerance for the topics already. I don't see many threads getting closed unless the posts become too blatant or the conversation is just going around in circles. These types of discussions often go nowhere because everyone is so entrenched in their own position there's little movement from either side. It's total polarization.

    When you've seen enough of these kinds of discussions, you know where 99% of them end up.
    Signature

    Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9275872].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author ThomM
      The no politics/no religion rule was already in place when I started visiting the OT, so I don't know what it was like without it.
      Not much different then now, except around elections. I do remember a repub. chasing me around from thread to thread attacking me and my family because I thought his candidate was a POS.
      I belong to a couple of Cannabis forums that have sections for religion and politics.
      Things get heated from time to time, more so in the religion section then the politics one. When things get really out of hand the thread is closed, if a member gets really out of hand they get banned.
      Signature

      Life: Nature's way of keeping meat fresh
      Getting old ain't for sissy's
      As you are I was, as I am you will be
      You can't fix stupid, but you can always out smart it.

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9275982].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Kay King
        The spam we're getting isn't "discussion" - it's Crappola links from spambots.

        I was thinking about the WF yesterday when someone mentioned another forum with "less rules". It occurs to me one reason we CAN discuss such disparate topics without people going totally off the walls is because of the rules here.

        There is a limit to what you can say and the tone you can use. Even when discussion becomes heated, most here seem to respect those limits. There are few who use the limits to get threads closed down. Kind of a stretch for a feeling of power but to each his own.

        For the most part when we tiptoe around banned subjects we often post links that provide insight to those who don't fully agree with us.

        Every forum or page I've visited where there were "no limits" was a page I didn't want to return to. It was often people posting their viewpoint and their belief that everyone else was wrong - and the other side doing the same. A lot of fuss and no substance.
        Signature
        Saving one dog will not change the world - but the world changes forever for that one dog
        ***
        Please do not 'release balloons' for celebrations. The balloons and trailing ribbons entangle birds and kill wildlife and livestock that think the balloons are food.
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9276074].message }}

Trending Topics