Do you think I could just leave this part blank and it'd be okay? We're just going to replace the whole thing with a header image anyway, right?
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The solution is extremely simple.
Nobody can post when all the mods are gone. It makes sense when you think about it.
The forum is a library. People come and go, always providing information or learning about new things. Now, libraries need somebody to keep the noise level down so other people can focus, right? The librarians do. The staff.
What happens when the staff is gone? The library closes. The forum closes.
People can still read, just not post.
The idea isnt bad, but sometimes there's just no mod online. Let's pretend you are in a time zone where no mod comes close. Usually there's no mod online when you are.
Then you fail.
I have never heard of a forum that is read-only when the mods are offline. This is highly excessive.
Yep. And the mods definately do read the reports. Just about everything I report gets solved within 10 minutes. Okay, I'ma stop typing now because Jakery's Citizen Cane's hands are giving me a seizure.
Last edited by Chimi (Jun 9 2011 8:19:40 pm)
I miss so much when I'm grounded...
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What, you wanted to see the forums turn into a goatse shock site?
"Sometimes failing a leap of faith is better than inching forward"
- ShinsukeIto
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Maybe you can set a time from and to when we can post? Like 8:00am to 12:00am?
Well, actually, that wouldn't work because people have different timezones.
Hmm...
In my 2000th post I say: We need more mods!
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I'm in timezone 0 GMT. That good enough? Whenever i'm online I don't see any mods ever.
^ Here is the first person that would fail with Takoman's idea.
Well, you reap what you sew. If you allow people to post unsupervised then you're going to get troll raids.
I think it would be a lot easier than recruiting 3 or 4 mods, but once again that's just what I think.
Yeah, well, you know that's just like, uh, your opinion, man.
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It's not always about easiness, though. Disallowing posting when mods aren't on is something that has never been done on any other forums, and for good reason. That would let the trolls win, no? Average users would be blocked from using the forums because of what the trolls did.
I do agree there definitely needs to be better defenses against trolls, though. I also agree that more mods could help in the long run, but there must be other tricks that can be employed to prevent this kind of stuff.
So the only two options that I can think of that would make sense and not impede users from using the forums are the following:
1. More mods (as this topic suggests).
2. This, with some modifications, could work somehow.
A system to prevent repeated signups from one IP would also slow down people who's have to use proxies. Also IP blacklists, if they're not already being used, could stop repeat offenders and proxies in use.
In all honesty, fighting against stuff like this is very easy to turn into a slippery slope. We have to keep the current users happy and safe while preventing others from destroying the good that's there.
EDIT:
As mentioned before, using time zones is not the way to go about finding mods, either. It all has to do with activity. And if anyone has noticed, there is a neat feature called "Who's online" that was recently implemented that can be tweaked to make charts of most common times members are on. This could be seen by the public, or kept solely to moderators. (It would be a good feature to implement regardless of this mod selection idea). I'm sure Cyclone wouldn't have too much trouble making this feature, and I could help if he needs it.
Last edited by Zalgryth (Jun 10 2011 7:17:48 pm)
If we do get new mods, I think instead of timezones, we should see which of the best candidates are online when no other mods are, (Excepting Different's always-on auto-refresh bot-thingy, of course)
I'm checking new users for proxies and if they already are in the system under that IP and I'm slowly building an IP blacklist from stopforumspam.com
"Sometimes failing a leap of faith is better than inching forward"
- ShinsukeIto
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Takoman: Your post-only-with-mods-one idea will never be implemented, I can tell you that much.
We do reserve the right to ban anyone using a proxy, if anyone is wondering. Most IP's from stopforumspam.com are probably IP's of proxies, too.
I'm still in favor of Jakery's flagging idea.
I'm also in favor of Jakery's idea.
Jakery's idea is great, but should be edited a smidge.
Okay, I agree with Zalgryth somewhat. The "who's online" feature should be modified to show who is on when, and a new mod would be selected based first on when they're online (to see if they fill in the missing space) and then on if they'd be a good mod or not.
I hate tall signatures.
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That's probably the best suggestion I've seen here, but there'd be new code involved, and it wouldn't come into play fast enough.
I hate tall signatures.
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I only have 1 question = maybe a solution :
Would be possible to block and delay posts with all format pictures posted by a recruit ( for a week or 2 just to keep him under observation) till a an admin is available and accept the new post/topic to be actually posted on the forum?
That is actually a great suggestion. Though it would suck for newcomers like me, having a limit for a week where users can't place links or images would definitely be appreciated. The worst we would get is text spam or non-clickable links.
As for the work-around where users could create accounts and remain inactive on them for a week, mods would have to keep an eye out for all new user registrations to look for anything suspicious. But that's what mods are for, right?
Of course it would be difficult to determine which new accounts are trolls and which aren't, but it would at least seriously lower the rate of raids.
Also, JadElClemens: Coding something like that should be a piece of cake.
I have 3 problems with Dazz's idea:
-People can post some inappropriate words, too. Like chrisgay. Not just pictures.
-Some raiders have been on the forums for a while, like IFriedChiggin.
-A recruit only needs 5 posts before he becomes a laborer (or something like that), so it wouldn't be hard at all to upgrade a rank and then spam
Yeah, well, you know that's just like, uh, your opinion, man.
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We do reserve the right to ban anyone using a proxy, if anyone is wondering. Most IP's from stopforumspam.com are probably IP's of proxies, too.
What's a proxy by the way? Might be a dumb question :/
Anyway, I think there should be more moderators, since people are in different time zones and they will often go to sleep because they have to anyway. And if you remembered on 6/12/2011, someone named Lady Gaga and Kylorn raided the forums with innapropriate pictures that were absolutely absurd and disgusting. Their were no moderators on during that time until Chewy came in about I don't know, about 2 hrs or so, something like that? But by that time he banned them, it was too late, cause I lost my appetite because I was about to eat breakfast, and maybe also decreased the population of the forums now. Well, yes, I think there should be more moderators and that concludes my comment here for now.
We do need more mods...
Mabey just a 3 more from diffrent time zones.
I do like dazz's idea as well
No. We don't need more mods, we need better mods. Also,
I have 3 problems with Dazz's idea:
-People can post some inappropriate words, too. Like chrisgay. Not just pictures.
-Some raiders have been on the forums for a while, like IFriedChiggin.
-A recruit only needs 5 posts before he becomes a laborer (or something like that), so it wouldn't be hard at all to upgrade a rank and then spam
It would be based on how long they've been here, not their rank.
If they've been here a while, then the mods'll've had a longer time to detect if they're for spam or not. If there's no opportunity to do that, they're just wasting an account that's been here for quite a while. Chrisgay is nothing compared to the recent attacks, and, indeed, isn't even that bad.
I hate tall signatures.
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