Suggestion Something needs to be done about spam.

cearp

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Lately there have been some malicious users spamming the site, but even before, occasionally there is 'generic' spam, like most forums get.
Can we not make the first 5, the first 10 posts of a user hidden and need to be approved by a mod to be shown?
So, other users will see nothing, or simply see 'awaiting moderation'.
And once a mod comes along and looks in the list, they can either approve the user/post or ban them.

It seems other forums have some things like this, why can't we have it here?
Is it too much work or something?

I just hate seeing people post junk here :)
 

WeedZ

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Lately there have been some malicious users spamming the site, but even before, occasionally there is 'generic' spam, like most forums get.
Can we not make the first 5, the first 10 posts of a user hidden and need to be approved by a mod to be shown?
So, other users will see nothing, or simply see 'awaiting moderation'.
And once a mod comes along and looks in the list, they can either approve the user/post or ban them.

It seems other forums have some things like this, why can't we have it here?
Is it too much work or something?

I just hate seeing people post junk here :)
If there aren't enough mods to keep up with spam for chunks of time, how are they going to handle the work load of approving the first 5 to 10 posts of every new user? I'm not sure how many new users gbatemp gets a day, but I'm sure it's more then just a few.
 

The Catboy

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I honestly think there might be a need for more staff members. There used to be just Moderators as well as Global Mods, who used to just moderate different sections.
It seems like they did away with them because the GM's seemed to be able to handle the workload. But it seems like there might be a need for the Mods again.
 

evandixon

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Or better yet, employ a spam filter. A lot of this is obvious spam.
This thread is (probably) here because a real person, banned several times already, willingly chose to post spam in the style of a noob who can't English properly. I doubt a spam filter would help much for that. Having experienced spam bots first hand (as a moderator on another forum), I would say this forum already has a spam filter, probably using something like StopForumSpam.
 
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KingpinSlim

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Maybe a threshold would be the right idea.
But it shouldn't be about posts, but about length of membership
Maybe no more approvals required after about 3 or 4 years.
 
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cearp

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If there aren't enough mods to keep up with spam for chunks of time, how are they going to handle the work load of approving the first 5 to 10 posts of every new user? I'm not sure how many new users gbatemp gets a day, but I'm sure it's more then just a few.
ok, then just the first one or two... it would still help a little
if the people who run this site don't care, we can't force them to do this!
 
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WeedZ

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ok, then just the first one or two... it would still help a little
if the people who run this site don't care, we can't force them to do this!
Agreed. Whats funny is, im watching people in this thread formulate the idea of having a custom group for slightly elivated members. An idea I've pitched to staff a few times but they refuse to consider. To much work to set up or something.
 
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This thread is (probably) here because a real person, banned several times already, willingly chose to post spam in the style of a noob who can't English properly. I doubt a spam filter would help much for that. Having experienced spam bots first hand (as a moderator on another forum), I would say this forum already has a spam filter, probably using something like StopForumSpam.
You could always check for at least 4 properly spelled words. And anyways, GBATemp uses StopForumSpam
 

XavyrrVaati

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I saw someone mention that other users trying to push boundaries being more common then spam, and I agree, but when normal users get banned, that's like a final punishment. Meanwhile this spamming douche gets the last laugh. Banning doesn't do what it's supposed to in this case.
 

The Catboy

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People see one or two instances of spam and just assume it's a massive problem when really other sites have it much worse than we do.
This actually isn't the worst I've seen, but it's by far the most annoying because people kept bumping the thread and feeding the troll. That's an issue that should have been stopped before it hit 6 pages and the person hit 100+ posts.
Now it's not the staff's fault, but it would be nice to see a return of the old Moderating staff to get some of the workload off the GM's.
 
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