Robin
Administrator
I know there has been an increase in spam recently. I hate it. I really hate spammers with a passion. On the other hand, I really appreciate that no one on this forum has been whining about it. There are people who diligently click on the Report Post Icon and make the message disappear into moderation where it then wait for me to come down with what I like to think of as Thor's Hammer of Spam. (on a side note, I really like Paul's description that I delete and ban first and don't bother asking questions later)
Here's the deal. There are things we could do to make the forum more restrictive. We could review every new user before they are can post a message or we could moderate every message from a new user before it's posted. Paul and I really don't like these options. It is really important to us that if a new user to the forum wants to post a legit question, they can as soon as that question strikes them. That means that we have to put up with some spammers getting through.
Blocking spammers is an arms race of whack-a-mole. Just when you think you have a line on how to block them, they pop up in again. We have the forum configured so that if one person clicks on the triangle ! icon (bottom right of a post), the post goes into moderation. Once the post is in moderation, I deal with it (think Thor's hammer). Paul was a bit skeptical of one report and a post goes into moderation because something else that we feel very strongly about is that we don't censor (unless it's spam). The users on this forum have been amazing and only report and item if it is actual spam, legit messages don't get reported.
I can assure you that we are getting serious about some upgrades to the forum, website, and addition of a wikki. Changes will be coming.
So, thank to everyone who has taken a few seconds to report spam. And thank you to everyone who has been tolerant of the increased spam coming through on the forum.
Here's the deal. There are things we could do to make the forum more restrictive. We could review every new user before they are can post a message or we could moderate every message from a new user before it's posted. Paul and I really don't like these options. It is really important to us that if a new user to the forum wants to post a legit question, they can as soon as that question strikes them. That means that we have to put up with some spammers getting through.
Blocking spammers is an arms race of whack-a-mole. Just when you think you have a line on how to block them, they pop up in again. We have the forum configured so that if one person clicks on the triangle ! icon (bottom right of a post), the post goes into moderation. Once the post is in moderation, I deal with it (think Thor's hammer). Paul was a bit skeptical of one report and a post goes into moderation because something else that we feel very strongly about is that we don't censor (unless it's spam). The users on this forum have been amazing and only report and item if it is actual spam, legit messages don't get reported.
I can assure you that we are getting serious about some upgrades to the forum, website, and addition of a wikki. Changes will be coming.
So, thank to everyone who has taken a few seconds to report spam. And thank you to everyone who has been tolerant of the increased spam coming through on the forum.