should murc become a closed community?

[VJ]

Another vote against closing, but for a more difficult registration process...

How about making the first post(s) of new users moderated?
On some forums, when you post your first post, you get a message stating something like : "your message has been submitted and is a awaiting moderator approval". This message does not occur for subsequent posts.

(but I must be honest: I don't really now how much messages this would generate for moderators)

Jörg

[Kruzin]

Another vote against closing, but for a more difficult registration process...

How about making the first post(s) of new users moderated?
On some forums, when you post your first post, you get a message stating something like : "your message has been submitted and is a awaiting moderator approval". This message does not occur for subsequent posts.

(but I must be honest: I don't really now how much messages this would generate for moderators)

Jörg

It is already set up like this, for more than just a new user's first post.
Moderated posts are not visible to anyone but mods of that specific forum.

This was something I posted in the Mod's forum on Dec 5:

Just for giggles, I looked at the last 2 months of threads in GHW/SW.
At 20 threads per page, I got 6 pages.
~120 threads.
Of those threads, there was maybe 15 legit threads.
And almost every legit thread had multiple spam posts deleted from them.

[cjolley]

Could the first x number of posts require passing a captcha as opposed to just registration?

And require a post to register?

And prune single posters automatically every month or something.

The idea being to move the work that is involved from the moderators to the new members.

[Kruzin]

I would very much like to see some kind of tougher registration.

I think it is currently set up so that a new user has to have x# of posts in existing threads to get 'unmoderated' status. Then they can post new threads of there own that don't come up as moderated.
So the mods have to keep up on all moderated posts.
And the bots will go back and post in threads that are weeks old. These threads don't get bumped up, so I have to search through a couple months on old threads to find them all.
When I just pulled up the last years worth of threads, I saw a LOT if 'moderated post' icons in threads that are months dead. Not gonna take the time to go back and get them all, it would take me all night.

Most ppl dont see it, but we get TONS of spam.
'Moderated posts' are not visible to anyone but mods.
I just spent 45 mins cleaning out GHW/SW again for the last couple months worth of threads.
I do this every couple of weeks, searching back 2 months each time.
Almost daily I deleted at least one thread, some days 4-6 of em.
And I delete dozens of spams in weeks old threads on my bi-weekly type clean-ups.
Obviously some still squeek through, if you have seen some of the spam that shows up from time to time, publicly visible.

If you look in past months of GHW/SW, any thread that is rated with 4-5 stars has been spammed at least once, in many cases 8-10 or more times. Just look at the titles of the threads in the last year. If it's got stars, it's been spammed.

In the last year, GHW/SW has had 747 new threads (as visible to mods). Only 364 of those threads where not deleted. That's near 380 spam threads. Over 50%. With the spam posts in legit threads, I have no doubt that it's over 90% spam in that forum.
This only really effects the mods, but to us, it is a PITA.

Please, Almighty Sasq, tighten up registration somehow

[Nowhere]

Hm, recently I reported quite a bit more spam messages than usualy but didn't realise the magnitude of the problem...

So...yeah, do what you can to comb it.

I looked at registrations from the last year...out of 853 only 27 have posts, none more than 4:

11 1-posters (including 3 of spambots that escaped incineration)
6 2-posters (3 ordinary spambots and one uncertain, probably a spambot closing in on attaining sentience or unsophisticated wetware)
8 3-posters (1 spambot)

Practically none are coming back...so I guess complicating the process of registration for the new members, not mods, wouldn't hurt much.

Also, perhaps expand vastly the number of mods to distribute the effort? We're pretty small and close-knit community, we respect each other mostly, so that shouldn't be a problem (secret mods forum for everybody! )

[Sasq]

Sorry all, took a very much needed Danny is alergic to PC's holiday over new years.

I have to renew the vb subscription and update. as for the captcha, I have some backend driver issues I have tried to resolve to make it more difficult to 'bot past', but still fight with it from time to time

not listing the exact number of required posts, but, new users need to post X number of posts, before they can make a post with links/pics/e-mail addy etc in it.

and adis, yes, I do periodically prune the zero post users
the number of new registrations in the last year is in the 2k5 range or so. I clamped down on allowable e-mail addresses, and a few other things, which actually helped reduce that number.

[Sasq]

I did just manage to tweak the captcha to a little more difficult

[Delany]

You da man Dan...

ok, ok, that comment didn't really add anything to this conversation, but for some reason i just really needed to say that, probably something to do with rhyming or somesuch, but when it comes to looking after us MURCers, it is actually true.

[VJ]

Here here!


This thread makes me wonder:
who is the last to join the "frequent posters that most people know" group...

My guess would be Guchi, but I could be wrong...

[Sasq]

You da man Dan...

ok, ok, that comment didn't really add anything to this conversation, but for some reason i just really needed to say that, probably something to do with rhyming or somesuch, but when it comes to looking after us MURCers, it is actually true.

Actually i haven't done so much recently. work and personal life has been getting in the way.
more on the work side, and an extreme aversion to going near a pc when I get home.

My sanity should increase this year, as the new trainee to help reduce my load at work, now actually has some idea, and can start reducing my load, instead of adding to it