A Creche Thread to Whine In -- The Spam Situation

I note that the thread is getting slightly derailed - I will address the title topic, but first I must make some mention of this TA-#regulars animal.

I started visiting about two days ago, and indeed, as you've said, it's either Milo and Kay, or usually empty. And again you're correct - those two seem to have a recurrent theme that centers around the genital area in some way. Either that, or Sean Connery. Thus far I've noticed: if you try to change topics to something not concentrating on these themes the room becomes sluggish and quiet. Only when the conversation comes back to said themes does it again pick up pace, and with fervor.

Anyway, These are my initial impressions. I hope more of you log on, and perhaps we can vary the conversation some. There's only so long I can talk about penises and be entertained, you see.

About spam: I actually think that, for most, the constant attention that the topic is being paid, has worked. Most people have now gotten into the habit of making sure their posts are meaningful before pressing the "submit" button. So there already has been a short-term solution. However, unless we just go on and on about spam continuously (which I highly, highly do NOT recommend) people will forget, and the unintentional non-meaningful posts will return. I'd like to submit for your consideration the possibility, however, that continually whining about spam is almost just as bad as the spam itself. It is necessary to make mention of it only to try to stop the situation - and for the most part, this has been accomplished. I say "for the most part" because:

For those handful that, after all this constant moaning, have not gotten the message - I'm afraid they're either a) too stupid to understand what is being asked of them or b) just don't care. Either way, there is precious little that can be done about this, save instituting some type of policy as Sheriff has mentioned. The continual reminders and bitching has not worked, and will never work, for these few.

A policy may be the way to go then, but the direct consequences will only be for that handful of folks who can't control themselves. It's the indirect consequences of a policy like Sheriff's that I'm beginning to appreciate:

If a policy is instituted - I'd like to think that the constant griping about spam will stop. Anyone abuses the forum, actions are taken by the admins, and that's the end of it. Every thread will not become infiltrated with pleas and flames to stop the spam. New threads will not be started specifically devoted to the issue. We can all finally stop worrying about the post counts and content and all this, and just get back to having fun talking about things! This is what a well-oiled forum is supposed to be about.

Of course, and I'm not sure anyone's suggested this yet - we could nip this thing in the bud once and for all, by dismantling the entire post count/rank system. If the number of posts one's made doesn't mean anything anymore, noone (but the intentionally malicious) will make a post just for the posts' sake. I obviously realize that it would take alot of the novelty away from this forum - but it is an ubersolution to the spam problem, if desperate acts call for desperate times, and Jarinor's not around. ;-)

These are my ideas and observations. Thank you for reading them.

 

I don't like the last idea you proposed, Windmills. Just my opinion. I think the custom avatar is a good idea, it gives posters an identity. Also, it doesn't seem that we have any spammers who are spamming purely for an increase in post count. Most of them (FoE, nbrosz...) were just using the forums as a chatroom. Just having innocent fun, in their eyes.

Also, about the spam, I know it's too early to say so, but it looks as though most of the spammers have gotten the message. They seem to be limiting their posts, and willfully trying to turn themselves around.

One last thing....About what you said about people "constantly whining about spam" I don't really see it the same. Dragoon made a thread about it. That was the beginning of it. Then, I exploded on poor ol' FoE. Now, Milo made a thread about the spam. While I do realize that whining about spam can be just as bad or even worse than spam itself, I think that the amount of spam was MORE than enough for the little amount of complaining (or exploding in my case) we did.

And I'm spent.

 

There are other avatars than the spam can. And ones that no spammer would be willing to make posts with. I found one (soft version of it but it's still humiliating) so perhaps I'll post it.


One more thing Ferret. Forget what I wrote in that pm and change your avatar - I can't concentrate on what I'm reading. It draws my eyes and makes me laugh. I just can't resist to smile when I look at it. That animal* looks like it just ate your dinner and now waits for you to place it in your favourite armchair - reminds me of Garfield somewhat


*I assume it's a ferret but looks a lot like a cat to me.

 

I've only ever seen the can of spam, and the banned avatars, so I don't really know the ones you're talking about - unless of course, you mean that you've got avatars of your own that you've come up with that you think might make good 'anti-spam' avatars.

If you have something suitable to stop spammers from posting, then it might be worth just posting them here, as an example and turn-off for those who would consider continuing the spam.

And I think Retard is right about those certain members spamming less. After all the whining and warning, most of them seem to have realised that they do indeed face retribution if they continue.

However, the problem is only temporarily solved. As new members join, the same thing will undoubtedly happen again, as these events are pushed from memory - or at least, the first page - and the newer members find that this is a good place to post a lot.

With this in mind, we will have to put some sort of system in place, that at least notifies new members against that sort of posting, and the consequences of doing such things to too great an extent. Most of the older members must realise that this sort of thing has happened before on this board. Indeed, most of the older members probably participated in such events before realising that it is not the sort of behaviour most people appreciate.

On a different note, my signature picture contains a Ferret (thanks to Sheriff Fatman for that one! ), but my avatar is just a kitten (thanks due to Luchaire for that particular one! ).

It looks surprisingly just like me really. And I do like my armchair!

Also, I've got and interesting link that I think you might find hilarious.

Commander Kitty

 

Howdy all!

Gosh, it's been a long time. I was soooo busy, but I'm taking a few weeks off now. Just thought I'd pop in and state that I'm still alive, and I visit #ta-regulars and #arcanum from time to time. But no one is there! Or no one is talking. Where are the Milo's of yesteryear?

And I'd appreciate it if none of the newbies respond to my post with the phrase "Big freakin' deal".
Hope you're all doing well, and get your asses to irc!

 

Big Freakin Deal!

Only kidding, it's good to see you again. Looks like Jar won our sweepstakes regarding your fate, since he drew "mid-life crisis". You're not getting me with that "Come to IRC" thing again. I know you've all got some script set up to log yourselves off as soon as I log on.

Just out of interest, why'd you post this grand return message in this thread? Were you thinking of making your first return post a nice log whine about spamming? That would have been funny.

 

yes, that's what I meant. It is an avatar that I really wouldn't like to give to anyone (if I were a mod and all that), nor look at it often but I know it works fine. It is a soft version btw with clothes on.

EDIT - something's wrong with my host, check for the pic tomorrow please.

 

*grumble*

BTW, that link doesn't work.

It doesn't work when you click on it either...

 

As I said something was vewy wong with my host yesterday. Here it is now in all it's humiliating glory:

 

I never thought that something as insignificant as a picture could stop me posting. I was wrong.

That might still be a little harsh, though, for the 'good-hearted' spammers.

 

I don't see what's so offputting about a man bent over, with his head tucked down, so it looks like it's up his ass.

He's even wearing trousers, so anything that could actually constitute being offputting is hidden.

Sorry, but if that was my avatar, I would in no way be put off from posting.

 

what if it were connected with "Looking for Wisdom" rank? Plus as I mentioned it's a soft version. The other one is without clothes in a bathroom so that's more off-putting. I know I wouldn't like to post with something like that next to my nick.

 

That wouldn't make a difference to me either.

I guess I'm just a case in point, that it just won't affect some people. You'd need a really nasty avatar to put me off showing my face around here, and unfortunately, there are a lot of spammers out there who don't care what they look like, as long as they can annoy others.

The offensive nature of the avatar to others might even be attractive to some annoying users.

In this case, the only thing that will work is limiting access somehow.

It's a good thing there aren't many out there like that.... although there is one, or possibly two, on Aozos right now.

 

That's because you're a biologist

 

Feldon! Welcome back!

Re: the debate -

Is there a way to link the avatars to how long a user has been active for?
For example, Untrained could be the first day or two; and Safeguard of the Wild could represent six or seven months.

Or, the avatars could be linked to the number of threads a user has participated in; this would mean that those of us getting high ranks because of spam threads like Four-Word Story D) would have that entire thread count as only one post. It'd also mean that users would start to participate in more of the forum discussions, instead of picking one or two and ignoring the rest.

 

It's good that you're coming up with other ideas, Etalis - I don't want to sound like a pessimist, it's just that I see some hitches in both ideas.

If we base rank on how long a person has been on, then people who've created a character a year ago but never posted much since, would have very high ranks, although they're not even active on the forum. ... unless we go about monitoring the recent activity of members - which I'm not sure the admins would want to code, and definitely would be too tedious to keep track of "by hand."

I generally like your idea of post count "by thread" instead of by post - as it would be a good solution to "spam threads"...however, what happens if someone decides, then, to just start thread after new spammy thread? (Like Hel Khat did with all those games at once) (no offence Khat)

Just some thoughts.

 

I have to agree with this. Linking avatars to # of threads would only cause problems with every thread being replied to by every person, and even the best threads would start to fill up with inane responses.

 

Windmills, yes, those are major flaws, but no solution is perfect. These were the best I could come up with.

Luchaire, yes, threads would get a lot of inane responses; but instead of pages of them, there'd only be one or two. Spam is created by relatively few people; if they spam to irritate, then nothing can be done about it short of banning them. If it's done for mutual amusement, then there's really not much harm in it. And if it's done for ranks, then at least this answer will keep the amount of it per thread down.

 

Sheriff, with your idea on X+ posts per day gets you banned, I think that at this point it is a good limit, but that in the past it was possible to have 30+ posts a day. Hell, I did, and kept it up for several months. The catch was though, about half of that was in the hints'n'tips section, which by now must have covered everything in the game, so there's no real room to boost your count now I'd say. On the other hand, going by that system, Khat gets banned. Hooray! I'm kidding people...well, half-kidding...

To whoever was wondering where I was, I just didn't get onto T-A for a couple of days.

About #TA-Regulars I don't stop by there much, if at all, these days. Things just kind of died suddenly, and I've been going to uni and things early, so I don't have much chance to get on.

Finally...

Feldon, nice to see you again. Maybe you can stay this time .

I had a lot more to write, but not the time.

Edit - Just remembered what else I wanted to write. The Something Awful forums use PHPBB 2.0, yet they don't have post counts any more. As I understand, an admin screwed up somewhere, and they got deleted and they haven't bothered to fix it yet. So, it can be done, and could prove to be a solution if someone started spamming to get their post count up (*cough*Quethim "I'm spamming till I get to 1000"*cough*). They also have custom titles there that you get after a certain period of time (or lack of it) and you can buy custom avatar's for other people. Kind of like a remote attack - buy them an avatar that pisses them off, and they're stuck with it until they, or a friend, forks up the money to get it changed. Quite a little money generator they have over there at SA - for the right amount of money, you can get pretty much anything you want done. At least until someone else pays to get it changed. Then again, they need the cash flow.