Message to the forum staff

[littlespark]

As i wake up at godawful times in the morning, can I be put in a position where I can delete these damned Chinese posts? I see most of them appear at around 4am british time, I get up at 6 and not start working til 8 (new puppy, she's a bitch. Obviously)
I've got an hour or so spare time every morning to spend on the forum anyway.

Is there a way to give me part-admin powers? I promise I wont delete Murdoch

 

[Octopus]

Justb use the ignore function

 

[littlespark]

Did someone say something?

Yes, I ignore them. But once its seen, it stays there with 'ignored member' as the poster.

I'm just offering a service to help out

 

[SparkyChick]

I'm in the same position, in that I'm usually up early and nosing around the forums while I'm eating breakfast and could easily have cleaned up quite a lot of the ---- posting.

 

[SJD]

Since it seems more or less the same thing happens every morning, you would think there was some simple way to prevent or reduce it, e.g. ban a range of IP addresses, only allow 1 or 2 posts from a new user in their first 12 hours, etc. I'm assuming, of course, that the forum owner doesn't actually want this stuff appearing!

 

[Spoon]

only allow 1 or 2 posts from a new user in their first 12 hours,

I did was suggest in a previous thread that the number of post a new member should be limited, but 1 or 2 in 12 hours is way to small. We complain that the OP's never get back to us regarding our questions. They will have no chance with 1 or 2 posts in 12 hours.
It does sound that the only answer is just to keep 'ignoring' them.
The powers that be don't seem to come back with a reply when suggestions, like making some members able to ban people, are suggested.

 

[SparkyChick]

The powers that be don't seem to come back with a reply when suggestions, like making some members able to ban people, are suggested.

I can tell you from personal experience (running forums for a couple of unrelated subjects) giving someone that power is a huge leap of faith.

I haven't bestowed that power on many people on the forums I currently/have previously run.

A rogue can cause untold damage to the site in a very short space of time if they wish so the staff and of course Dan have to think long and hard about it.

 

[SparkyChick]

I should add, when you do something to make it tricky to sign up, you run the risk of pushing people away.

For the game development site I run I implemented a multi-stage process. But the difference is, if you've got a newbie there who can't get an answer to their question today, it's unlikely their software project is going to kill them.

Here, it could be argued the sign up process needs to be quick so if someone does have a genuine emergency they can get help quickly.

So as with everything... it's a balancing act.

I was able to reduce the membership database on my site from over 250k members to around 3k because there were about 247k users who had signed up and never posted. Now, thanks to the multi-stage sign up process, automated culling of idle users that have never posted, a couple of anti-spam plugins, some judicious use of iptables firewall rules to block certain netblocks and automated IP bans via the server control panel software, the site ticks along nicely.

 

[Spoon]

I can tell you from personal experience (running forums for a couple of unrelated subjects) giving someone that power is a huge leap of faith.

I haven't bestowed that power on many people on the forums I currently/have previously run.

A rogue can cause untold damage to the site in a very short space of time if they wish so the staff and of course Dan have to think long and hard about it.

Well you wouldn't give this power out to just anyone. They have to be trusted members. That would be down to the staff & Dan to see who is best to have it. Or just giving them the power to temp ban new members, until the staff review the ban list.

 

[littlespark]

Well, I can assure you I am trustworthy.

As the OP, I understand completely the pressure Dan and the admins are under. I was in no way criticising their running of the forum.
I would assume this is a part time hobby to them, and they'll clean up the junk as and when they have time. They will have full time jobs like the rest of us.
The only problem I see is that when you first load the forum page to see any new posts/ questions, the page is full of rubbish. Is there a way to jump to a second page of new posts? Even after ignoring the troublesome member, you cant skip past.
The spam posts last week was interesting though. The user copied a few older introduction posts before spouting out the Chinese stuff.
That takes a little time.
To make them look like a genuine user?

 

[Spoon]

Can you not just limit everyone to only posting no more than 1 post per minute. That will stop a lot of spam.

and if you are a genuine member who does post more than 1 post a minute then you need to get a life..

 

[camerabloke]

@Pete999 would be a good choice. He gets up early

 

[timbobelfast]

Can they not introduce that captcha thing where you have to enter the numbers / letters to post / proceed? Or ban Chinese text!

 

[MDJ]

Justb use the ignore function

That Don't work

 

[MDJ]

@Pete999 would be a good choice. He gets up early

He may need oxygen though, he is getting on bless him