An update on the anti-spam efforts

[TorbenGB]

Hi all! I'd like to take a moment to fill you in on what's going on behind the scenes:

Some years back, the forum was hit hard by spammers and I had to turn off many useful features. It was only that the forum was repaired by way of a major makeover. One of the changes was that newly registered users' posts are moderated before being made public. There are a few volunteer moderators but the moderator log shows that I'm the only one doing any moderating. I don't mind; traffic is fairly low. But it does mean that new users might be a little frustrated because I don't check in every day, although I try.

Among all the new posts to be moderated, maybe a quarter is still spam; the rest is good. As users, you're not seeing that spam, so the impact on the site is very low. This is a great benefit because it means we're winning the spam war now! But if the number of spam user registrations, and their posts, increase much then the good content will be drowned out and the moderation work becomes hard. If that happens, I'll have to reach out to those of you who have read this far! You could become moderators too and help approve or reject new contributions.

If anybody wants to participate now, let me know. It'll be highly appreciated!

[nomaded]

If the system can send an email every time there's something that needs moderation, I can help with that.

If it's something I need to remember to check every day, without prompting, I'll be in the same boat as you Torben . But I'm still willing to try to help.

[The00Dustin]

I have allowed a post or two, but I was unsure whether or not to allow a post by a new user in the marketplace (I haven't heard of it happening, but the rarity of our devices does leave potential for a scammer to take advantage of). Presumably I should allow any such post regarding a FingerWorks device with no questions asked and we should operate in a buyer beware manner?

[TorbenGB]

@nomaded, the system can't send notifications -- I'd love that too. I've just added you to the moderators group, so you will see a link to the moderator control panel just below the site logo. Things should be pretty self-explanatory: there's a list of posts awaiting approval and you can approve or disapprove each one or several at a time.

The system asks if the poster should be notified; I always say yes, because I figure that when he submitted his post he was told it would need to get moderated, and the notification is probably helpful to him -- and nudges him to visit the site again rather than forget about it!

If you disapprove a post, the system asks for a reason as well. This should usually be obvious; there's a choice about the main purpose of the post being advertising. No need to enter additional comments manually. I've only ever banned users twice but I'll review the moderator log on occasion and see if any such action is needed.

@The00Dustin, I think most posts are easy enough to identify as spam or ham; certainly the worst spam posts are very obvious. If you're unsure, simply leave it for another moderator. And yes, "buyer beware", as with any other forum we can't and won't take responsibility for what people do with the information they find online. I believe this forum's terms of service say something to that effect.