More Moderators for the Forum?

[Rogerborg]

49 minutes ago, proffrink said:

New registrations are suspended until this can be figured out. Clearly the question and answer challenge has been solved and shared somewhere.

 

Thanks, I honour your service.

 

 

Would it be possible to delete posts without mod intervention if X number of user reports are received for them?

[Speedbird_666]

12 minutes ago, Rogerborg said:

Would it be possible to delete posts without mod intervention if X number of user reports are received for them?

 

That's an interesting idea - but it could be weaponised to bin off posts that the mob just doesn't like, even if it doesn't contravene any rules per se. Remember Mr No_Face?

 

I think more moderators is the answer. I reckon supporters such as yourself act as the 'hiring board' (if they don't want to throw their own name in the hat) - I assume you have your own forum section ring-fenced from the masses where such discussion could be held? Just another brainfart.

[Khyber]

More mods would be the answer. I'm trawling multiple times a day almost daily. Makes it hard to navigate unread posts which is how I normally view the forum when all these chemical ads are strewn across the site. I wouldn't mind taking on a role to help out.

[Tackle]

6 minutes ago, Speedbird_666 said:

 

That's an interesting idea - but it could be weaponised to bin off posts that the mob just doesn't like, even if it doesn't contravene any rules per se. Remember Mr No_Face?

Means numerous peeps having to report potentially dozens of times, or more given yesterday and today, that's a lot of work. 

I agree though that more mods, with the ability to hide any content posted by problem spammers, with the deletion process dealt with by the higher tier mods. 

[EDcase]

Whatever gets decided it should be soon...  There's a load more 🙄

I don't know what is used as a bot test these days but maybe changing the question?

And maybe having a couple of different ones?

 

Or is it possible to put a filter on posts to detect a list of chemicals

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by EDcase

[concretesnail]

Holly crap. Six pages of spammer crap on the mobile version of the activity feed before I find something not bot made. Arrrgh. 

I don't mind helping out if it helps get rid of all the crap.

[Tommikka]

The real answer is just moderators, ideally with a range of lifestyles and forum obsession to cover the late night / early hours spamming that is more likely to get through

 

Anti bot sign up methods all get beaten somehow.  Many questions have the answer in the question, therefore a bit of AI can often identify the answer or at least learn from failures.  If the forum locks out x number of fails then the bot just needs to report back it’s failures for another to try, or put the question to a human and then the answer can be shared around 

Captcha Am I a robot text images worked for a while until AI could learn to read them (Bearing in mind back in the late 80s/early 90s as a student I did a site visit to see an international distributors handwriting recognition system, which they didn’t call AI but the system was learning to read & guess hand written forms with two clerks each confirming / correcting every guess

 

The picture Captchas aren’t really checking that you get the answer right, but measure your mouse movements.  A bot would have been expected to be efficient and a human to be wobbly.  But AI bots can learn to act like a human with ‘randomised’ hesitation and wobble 

 

(But don’t worry too much about AI taking over the world, ask ChatGPT who the prime minister is, correct their answer and see what response you get)

 

Post filtering, automated report handling etc are a pain in the arse.  They will probably harass more human members then bots, and become a denial of service attack on a forum member that someone doesn’t like.

Some of these can be configured into forum software fairly easily and others are likely to be much more effort than some semi willing voluntolds 

 

The recent spam may look like a lot and is frustrating for the viewer.  Moderators and the software could be successfully smiting more before it gets through…… On one forum a few years ago went through a couple of days of constant denial of service spam bot attacks, and at times we were blocking each other out of the forum with IP range blocking ….. a lot of SMS & emails were circulating to find a moderator who could still get in and green light friendly ranges to allow the rest of us back in

[hitmanNo2]

Do mods not get a e-mail notification of a spam report?  I'm a mod on Arnies and I get an e-mail, then a couple of taps on my phone and boom.  Spammer banned and all their posts gone.

[Tommikka]

23 minutes ago, hitmanNo2 said:

Do mods not get a e-mail notification of a spam report?  I'm a mod on Arnies and I get an e-mail, then a couple of taps on my phone and boom.  Spammer banned and all their posts gone.

It will depend on the forum software and the moderators configuration

 

From a search of my email notifications and a scan of my notifications settings in forums that I moderate/have moderated  it’s a no.

The emails have notifications based on my settings but not moderation ones (or at least not in the email titles that I’ve scanned through)

My user settings for notifications don’t include moderation ‘events’ (but I do have them set on a few ‘events’ that are common flags for moderation needs)

 

The forum software does have moderation menus which include the standard actions and also flags the reports.  I would also expect a pop up alert message on log on

 

So I wouldn’t be expecting a moderating email prompting me to sign in, but could be getting emails based on my settings which could indicate a need.

Plus if someone chose to message me directly knowing I’m a moderator then I’d get an alert email to check messages …. But I don’t expect that the reports  queue / message a mod group etc are on email alerts (for those that I’m in)

 

My moderating process would follow a similar manner to my general forum process - sign in, see any alerts, check the new threads/post lists 

[Guest]

More spam this morning, despite new sign ups being banned, new users signed up 2hours ago

[Speedbird_666]

1 hour ago, rocketdogbert said:

More spam this morning, despite new sign ups being banned, new users signed up 2hours ago

 

I've reported everything I can find. Gets a bit messy around the classifieds as they have posted a couple of adverts in each section so I might have missed one or two.

 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Speedbird_666 said:

 

I've reported everything I can find. Gets a bit messy around the classifieds as they have posted a couple of adverts in each section so I might have missed one or two.

 

 

It’s all very well, but @proffrink said new sign ups  had been banned, yet a load more SPAM bots have signed up this morning 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Speedbird_666]

2 minutes ago, rocketdogbert said:

It’s all very well, but @proffrink said new sign ups  had been banned, yet a load more SPAM bots have signed up this morning 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

Yeh. I know. If something isn't done soon it could kill the forum. 

 

Let's hope things are moving behind the scenes to sort this out. 

[Guest]

This one signed up 12 minutes ago ffs

 

https://airsoft-forums.uk/profile/38308-cindy/

[RostokMcSpoons]

Sad days when this is the most active thread on the forum 😥

[L3wisD]

Picked a helluva couple of days to come and check in on you guys 😅

 

 

 

For what it's worth I've banned a few bots this morning. 

Still got my old powers so I'm helping!

 

 

10 minutes ago, rocketdogbert said:

This one signed up 12 minutes ago ffs

 

https://airsoft-forums.uk/profile/38308-cindy/

 

Boom! Headshot!

[Speedbird_666]

6 minutes ago, L3wisD said:

Picked a helluva couple of days to come and check in on you guys 😅

 

I know you are 'retired' so I wouldn't place any expectations on you - but we need more moderators that frequent the forums daily.

 

The last couple of days have been rough.

 

 

 

[Dan Robinson]

16 minutes ago, RostokMcSpoons said:

Sad days when this is the most active thread on the forum 😥

Hey at least it shows we care... 

 

😁

[L3wisD]

2 minutes ago, Speedbird_666 said:

 

I know you are 'retired' so I wouldn't place any expectations on you - but we need more moderators that frequent the forums daily.

 

The last couple of days have been rough.

 

Yeah it does look like you guys have had it rough. I'll keep popping in every day to see if I can help out.

 

We're coming up to the time of year that Jedi goes on his "no technology" two week holiday too, so the team will be a man down soon as he literally goes completely off grid 😅

[Tackle]

FFS, they've now started posting their shite in the "ask a question" box in normal (😏) members sales threads. 

 

Its like feckin skynet 😮

[Speedbird_666]

Just been hit with another wave of spam threads.  😪

 

I'll keep reporting them as I see them. 

[SBoardley]

“New members” joined 5 minutes ago….

[Cannonfodder]

26 minutes ago, Tackle said:

FFS, they've now started posting their shite in the "ask a question" box in normal (😏) members sales threads. 

 

Its like feckin skynet 😮

I'm waiting to see if they post one here

[Tackle]

1 hour ago, Cannonfodder said:

I'm waiting to see if they post one here

LOL, I'm looking forward (NOT) to when they evolve & start sending PM'S 🤯

[Leo Greer]

Lets hope our American variants don't cross the Atlantic. They'll send PMs and even send emails, but they don't spam adds for pure drug powders..

 

...imagine if they interbreed...