Wakey wakey mods...

[ScottulusMaximus]

I've held my tongue for a while now as I know you guys are just volunteers and have other things in your lives BUT:

2 pages of spam bad enough for Google to ask if it should translate the page sitting there for close on 2 hours every morning is getting a bit ridiculous.

 

[sgbros1]

Spam filter probably neglects unicode, so that's why all the Chinese and Japanese spam flood in.

 

[lenscas]

oh, so that is why they the pages are filled with squares, I still have to download those symbols but I'm lazy >_<

it is indeed getting a bit ridicules. I hope a solution is on its way but in the meantime its a report fest

 

[epidemia78]

I think its kinda funny.

 

[jordsta95]

They are currently working on it. From what I heard the spam filter was acting up, and no one knows why.

But as sgbros suggested, it could be unicode just not being detected. It was a suggestion to just ban all posts that contained non-latin characters, but obviously that isn't a good idea

But the people who deal with spam all live in the Americas IIRC (Padfoote, Flipz, and VapourDrive) along with the FTB core team who, apart from Captainnana and Slowpoke all live in American time zones

 

[sgbros1]

Some other members have been given spam cleanup powers though, like Someone Else.

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

But the people who deal with spam all live in the Americas IIRC (Padfoote, Flipz, and VapourDrive) along with the FTB core team who, apart from Captainnana and Slowpoke all live in American time zones

Great planning that... Because everyone reading this forum lives in the states too.

/sarcasm off

Approaching 3 hours now, imagine a person finding the forum for the first time and seeing it just filled with spam. They'll head right back to MCF

 

[lenscas]

Great planning that... Because everyone reading this forum lives in the states too.

/sarcasm off

Approaching 3 hours now, imagine a person finding the forum for the first time and seeing it just filled with spam. They'll head right back to MCF

Maybe they didn't plan that everyone would live in the states but just happens as they where the only ones with enough time/wanted to do it

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

Maybe they didn't plan that everyone would live in the states but just happens as they where the only ones with enough time/wanted to do it

I'm just saying it should have been considered, sure now it's just harmless spam which is at most mildly irritating but a lot can happen in the 8hrs the forum is unmoderated... We've all seen how threads blow up in a shorter amount of time, next time could be someone hurling abuse or posting illegal links/pics/porn/whatever that then sit there till a mod wakes up.

 

[lenscas]

I'm just saying it should have been considered, sure now it's just harmless spam which is at most mildly irritating but a lot can happen in the 8hrs the forum is unmoderated... We've all seen how threads blow up in a shorter amount of time, next time could be someone hurling abuse or posting illegal links that then sit there till a mod wakes up

Links have been posted in the past and I don't think that much harm was done(if any at all).

and why do you think it was not considered?

 

[EconBrony]

the minecraft forums have been having a similar issue, quite often too

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

Links have been posted in the past and I don't think that much harm was done(if any at all).

and why do you think it was not considered?

Yes but it could happen, and quite easily... I could wake up at 5am my time and post child porn which will then stay up until at least 11.30(the time now), yes it's unlikely but the possibility is there.

Well it was either considered and ignored or they just didn't think about it, either way nothing was done to address it.

 

[lenscas]

Yes but it could happen, and quite easily... I could wake up at 5am my time and post child porn which will then stay up until at least 11.30(the time now), yes it's unlikely but the possibility is there.

Well it was either considered and ignored or they just didn't think about it, either way nothing was done to address it.

If there are no people who they know enough/trust enough in our timezone to give them the ability to hunt for spam then they can't do anything about it

 

[jordsta95]

Well Flipz is still awake (3-4am their time) and they stayed up to try and stop the spam, as most of it seems to come UTC 00:00 - 11:00 ish. And they are trying.
Remember, spam-deletion isn't really what a moderator is here to do as the forum software should capture spam before it is posted. And when they come in massive waves like they have done recently, it is hard to keep on top of it, especially when it is just one, or even two, people trying to deal.

 

[Padfoote]

First off, mods aren't selected due to their timezones, as that's an absolutely horrible way to do it. Secondly, as jord said, the spam filter is acting up a bit and Captainnana is trying to get that all patched up. As you can see, it's taking longer than expected. Thirdly, the spam cleaners are just as capable as us to take out spam up to a certain number of posts, but I have no idea when they're all active, nor do I know the full list of who they are, and I'm not going to ask them to take time out of their days to check the forums every five minutes during peak time. That isn't fair to them.

Edit: Also, report this stuff. Makes it much easier to clean when we have 15+ spam reports instead of four.

 

[sgbros1]

Edit: Also, report this stuff. Makes it much easier to clean when we have 15+ spam reports instead of four.

You might want to consider removing cooldown for reporting. It's kinda the biggest throwoff for me reporting.

 

[Zarkov]

Couldn't the first post from each new user be put through a moderator screening before appearing (and further posting is allowed)? It seems these posts are all made by new users.

 

[mattp_12]

You might want to consider removing cooldown for reporting. It's kinda the biggest throwoff for me reporting.

I think that people should "sign up" for having the cooldown removed, as a trust system of sorts. If it was just removed, "trolls" could come along and constantly report normal posts.

 

[lenscas]

Couldn't the first post from each new user be put through a moderator screening before appearing (and further posting is allowed)? It seems these posts are all made by new users.

that would hinder people that just made an account to ask for help

 

[Padfoote]

Couldn't the first post from each new user be put through a moderator screening before appearing (and further posting is allowed)? It seems these posts are all made by new users.

We did have that, but it quickly became unmanageable.

You might want to consider removing cooldown for reporting. It's kinda the biggest throwoff for me reporting.

I think that people should "sign up" for having the cooldown removed, as a trust system of sorts. If it was just removed, "trolls" could come along and constantly report normal posts.

I'll pass that suggestion along.