How would this go about being implimented? I used to have my domain name be my username, and I was a contributing member of that forum.
I think this could be a potentially bad idea
[*]Block open proxy registrants
Good idea, no reason to be coming here with that anyway!
[*]A karma points system (ie you need a certain number before posting in problem areas)
I like the parenthesis’d part, although from the above posts, karma point system (voting) would be awfully close to reputation…yes?
[*]A blanket ban of all IP addresses from problem areas (like India)
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So… let’s hear it.
Note: this thread will be closed in 3 days.
I’m not affected by this, so all aboard!
Would you be stopping all India users from coming? That’d be bad for some people (obviously) but alas. For the greater good. Not many Indians come here.
Why not develop a more creative solution, rather than defaulting to the tools available to you?
I’ve always wanted to develop an artificial intelligence that can automatically parse out content and auto-flag interpreted spam for moderation. Such a system would suspend the flagged users’ rights to post further content and funnel the posts in question into a moderation queue for simple 1-2-3 removal & banning.
I think SP can see a ROI from such a development that would justify the cost.
Alternatively, consider XenForo - they actually implemented the 2nd part of the above in their new software… you could move to that platform for increased moderation efficiency (though you’d still have to rely on community flagging of posts).
I was a member of a forum with this implemented. I wasn’t as active as I am here, I found that even though my replies got thanks that solved my problem, my karma was 0, however members who were slightly more active seemed to get karma added for even cheeky replies.
No signatures at all in problem areas (like the SEO forum)
No company or product names in usernames
Block open proxy registrants
Not so sure about the Karma system though, like someone else already mentioned. New users might have a good SEO question, and I for one would never bother to reach a certain karma limit before I’m allowed to ask a question. I would just go somewhere else instead. I also think that the IP banning of whole areas should be the very last option to use.
It would be a bit weird if they would ban / block users from India that have proven to be valid users
IP banning the majority of a country is extreme, even if it is identified as a source of the problem it seems rather discriminatroy to me.
Are they bots or real humans? If they’re bots they probably behave differently to normal humans, e.g. posting very quickly. Couldnt any posts where the person was on the new topic/reply page for under 5 seconds go into a moderation queue?
I remember there being a karma-type system on here, although it wasn’t put to much use.
The only way I can see us truly getting rid of spammers is to moderate ALL posts from the beginning. After ten posts, if the posts are of a reasonable quality and the user is actively looking to participate in discussion then they should be granted karma, with each forum requiring a certain amount of karma. Karma should be given by moderators and other users in a position of power.
This would require a herculean effort from the moderators, but it would definitely stop spammers, and would give the community an opportunity to grow and produce a good level of discussion.
Like most of the others, I agree with Rudy’s suggestions.
I find it distressing that you would even consider blocking a whole country. Like mentioned above, if you block India one month then the next month you can also close the road to China. Get a couple of spammers from the US (a couple? That’s a dream) and block the US in the next month.
The Internet is global and that is the beauty of it. Much of that beauty transcends to places like SitePoint. Don’t censor someone because they were born “on the wrong side of the tracks”. I would much rather see us continue to deport and exile the lawless who come here to pillage.
I personally think signatures should be point based. IE You can’t have one until reaching 100 posts or something.
IP bans sound like the answer initially before you consider the consequences of blocking half the planet from connecting. Clearly they work if you have a very serious problem with a few IPs which continue to abuse the site but if its a drive by hit then the next user of that IP could be genuine.
The problems with point systems are that you either get a bunch of “buddies” that beef each-others’ point counts up or you get two people that don’t like each other and use the point system to keep each other down. SitePoint used to have a point system and they did away with it. I’m glad they did.
I personally do not see much spam myself. That’s because Sitepoint did a good job of weeding them out before I even notice them. So I would vote to keep the status quo. Some of the proposed measures sounds kind of drastic to me.
I think we need to sort this out at source. There are guys just promoting their business and skills which I think is legitimate and potentially useful if they do it by providing information. Then there are the posters putting up to get inward links to rubbish websites.
I don’t believe you can stop that at the forum level. As a development community we need to talk to Google about the algorithm. It’s not good for them either because I am finding that the first page of a search is rarely useful. Incoming links are just no longer an indicator of popularity or a good site.
The Google guys are smart - if they downgrade any links off forums and comments (as opposed to text body), people will stop doing it?
I’ve addressed this in my previous post. My idea is that points should be awarded by users with power (e.g. moderators, advisors, admins, etc). This way, those with a vested interest in the forum being a great place for discussion will get their wish.
My idea goes a lot further than just signatures though, in that ALL posts should be moderated and judged on quality before they are shown. If a user can prove themselves to be a worthy member then they can have restrictions removed.
99% of these links are never useful, and this isn’t the place to promote your business. If your site/business is reliant on low-quality links from forums then you’re doing it wrong.
I don’t understand what you mean.
Regardless, Google ARE changing their algorithm to cut out the same spammers that litter this forum with their terrible websites.
Forums are a legitimate way of sharing links to solve problems, and as a result they are most likely important to Google.
We shouldn’t have to give in to these scum who ruin forums. The point of this is to find the most effective way of getting rid of them.
On a similar note, would it be possible to implement Akismet or a similar service on a forum? It works fairly well for some WordPress blogs, and it may be applicable to forums.
I agree that a country IP ban would be bad - can’t people in the “know” fake their IP address anyway?
People using poxy servers always give me the impression they have something to hide so could be prevented.
On this sort of forum I would have thought that all users have a website so deny people signing up with hotmail, yahoo and gmail type accounts? They can hide their email address from everybody except admin so they should not be worried about it being abused - opening a can of worms with this statement ?
I do not see a lot of spam on the sections I visit and the moderators are quick to remove any. If users find any report it.
Points systems seem a waste of time as who would bother leaving feedback - I must have nearly a hundred people on my ignore list that have not said that my answer to their question was any good or not.
There is already a “points” system in action with the amount of user posts although I can not belive some users have hundreds of questions but have never helped another user with a problem - another thing that anoys me.
Whenever I build a site that has any kind of comment or forum, I ban Romania, Malaysia and China before I even launch the site. Those countries don’t ever buy products, don’t contribute and take advantage continually. As entire communities they need to deal with their own issues - by punishing everyone perhaps they will have the will to do something about it.
The rest of Eastern Europe I wait for the first registration from a listed spam IP address or email. They are getting very clever by registering and waiting about a week before posting the first comment. Then you suddenly realise that you have 30-40 members already registered that come from similar IP addresses. I ban the country as soon as the first one registers. If you wait about a month, you get off their list for 1 year. They seem to have an annual cycle before trying again.
The real problem is that I get a lot of fake registrations from the Netherlands and the US, but one can’t really block the entire country.
