What's up with the new spam shittards?
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I GAF. I also get rid of all I find as soon as I find it. You guys can help by reporting the spam by clicking on the triangle icon below the username.
I have nearly 300 sites to take care of. I participate here more than most, Fred; but I can't be here 24/7/365. You can help by reporting spam, or you can decide I'm a prick. I honestly don't care about that at all. Spam is the scourge of the internet, and no one person is ever going to stop it all. So get real and play nice for everyone's sake. Kthxbai.
I have nearly 300 sites to take care of. I participate here more than most, Fred; but I can't be here 24/7/365. You can help by reporting spam, or you can decide I'm a prick. I honestly don't care about that at all. Spam is the scourge of the internet, and no one person is ever going to stop it all. So get real and play nice for everyone's sake. Kthxbai.
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3,652 Posts
Sorry to say this but this right there essentially sums up why the forum is run the way it is...quantity simply doesn't equate to quality...
There seems to be a very basic misconception about the role of a moderator or administrator of an internet forum. All we do is provide a place for people of like interests to talk, learn, discuss, assist and just generally share their enthusiasm for the topic.
Nobody is here any way other than voluntarily. Nobody but the owners have any money riding on it in any way. It's free to join; free to play; and free to leave.
All I'm here to do, in the capacity of my job, is to make sure it runs reasonably smoothly, and is kept within the guidelines of behavior that the owners want in sites bearing their name. We're not trial judges for grudges. We're not the mom with the screaming kids knocking shit over in Walmart. We're also not Nurse Ratchett from Cuckoo's Nest. Nor are we supposed to be.
You guys are free to call each other out and hate anyone you want here, just as anywhere. But when it goes beyond a certain point--and we all know where that is--we are expected to take appropriate action. Whether that's a PM saying "hey man, chill out, willya?" or it's a perma-ban largely depends on how disruptive any one person becomes, and how they behave while they're here.
It shouldn't be too hard to follow the overly emotional garbage guys like Zoot/Fred put out there, and recognize it for the "we want a frat house of hand picked people" crap that it is. That's not why this forum is here. You want to join a frat? Then go pledge a frat.
Nobody is here any way other than voluntarily. Nobody but the owners have any money riding on it in any way. It's free to join; free to play; and free to leave.
All I'm here to do, in the capacity of my job, is to make sure it runs reasonably smoothly, and is kept within the guidelines of behavior that the owners want in sites bearing their name. We're not trial judges for grudges. We're not the mom with the screaming kids knocking shit over in Walmart. We're also not Nurse Ratchett from Cuckoo's Nest. Nor are we supposed to be.
You guys are free to call each other out and hate anyone you want here, just as anywhere. But when it goes beyond a certain point--and we all know where that is--we are expected to take appropriate action. Whether that's a PM saying "hey man, chill out, willya?" or it's a perma-ban largely depends on how disruptive any one person becomes, and how they behave while they're here.
It shouldn't be too hard to follow the overly emotional garbage guys like Zoot/Fred put out there, and recognize it for the "we want a frat house of hand picked people" crap that it is. That's not why this forum is here. You want to join a frat? Then go pledge a frat.
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12,933 Posts
I like the SpamBots....reminds me of up and coming football and basketball games......oh.......wait.....I don't watch football of basketball!! Ok now I don't like the Spambots!!
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364 Posts
Nothing personal, but 300 forums to monitor? I have a hard time with 4 that I'm on, but that consumes only about an hour of my day...
If I may ask, do you get paid per forum? Or is it volunteer?
If I may ask, do you get paid per forum? Or is it volunteer?
I started as a volunteer back in 09, when the first Motorola Droid came out, and I joined the new DroidForums.net. The company had grown enough by '12 that they hired me. There are now 3 remote admins in the States (including me), and one in Taiwan. There are another 4 or 5 now in the home office, along with the owners. In essence, I'm a salaried contractor.
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2,127 Posts
Hey Neil, can I make a suggestion?
I too have been a forum admin and the way I removed span was very easy. I just set the registration preferences to; "admin must approve account". I know that sounds whack because we do have a few legitimate new users every day. However, my suggestion is to ignore all the new users for a week or maybe more. It doesn't take long for the spammers to give up because it does take time to build new accounts and if their account never gets approved on this forum, they will do just that.
You could also type in a brief apology message in the code for the response e-mail which states "This new registration system is to weed out potential spam, sorry for the inconvenience" and of course, there will always be legitimate user names being made and those you simply pass right through.
Anyway, just a suggestion and I think it would be much easier to resolve this on the front end, then digging up already made threads on the back end.
I too have been a forum admin and the way I removed span was very easy. I just set the registration preferences to; "admin must approve account". I know that sounds whack because we do have a few legitimate new users every day. However, my suggestion is to ignore all the new users for a week or maybe more. It doesn't take long for the spammers to give up because it does take time to build new accounts and if their account never gets approved on this forum, they will do just that.
You could also type in a brief apology message in the code for the response e-mail which states "This new registration system is to weed out potential spam, sorry for the inconvenience" and of course, there will always be legitimate user names being made and those you simply pass right through.
Anyway, just a suggestion and I think it would be much easier to resolve this on the front end, then digging up already made threads on the back end.
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3,652 Posts
I can't speak for others, but I am fairly familiar with the role of a moderator, so I certainly do not have any misconceptions about it. And the above description is actually not what the moderators provide but rather what the forum in itself provides.
I guess it all depends on what the forum owner aims for. I am actually kind of disagreeing with your comment about a frat house of hand picked people; I am fairly certain most of the members here are not aiming for that.
And yes, as a moderator you actually act as a judge as most of the times you need to judge the sides of an argument, whether something is considered out of line and so on.
Moderating takes a certain type of person and not everyone is made out for it. Being that nearly every forum runs them in a voluntary fashion - that certainly doesn't always help in the quality of moderation provided...
As I stated before, this number is way too small compared to the number of sites (and I assume there are even more than the 300 you mentioned) and hence is one reason why this forum is one of the worst moderated ones out there.
Unfortunately, this mostly is a given for companies who value quantity over quality and hence are rather interested in continuously increasing the number of forums without adding the necessary manpower to actually run them.
Monetary value of a forum is mainly measured by the income made on ads etc. which certainly depends on the popularity of the forum itself. However, just with anything else, 100 mediocre forums are still able to generate the same revenue as 10 well running, popular ones so hence one can simply shoot for quantity.
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564 Posts
Some people are just bored assholes with nothing better to do, just brush all the trolls and spam off. In all sincerity, thanks for what you do WERA, as well as all the other admins. For me, this forum has provided a wealth of knowledge and increased the DIY knowledge for my bikes, it's also proven to be a safe haven from all the bs of the real world. Keep doing what you do!
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