How about CAPTCHAS?

[CAPAL]

Dear LindenLabs or the ones who are in charge of the forum,

 

how about introducing a system called CAPTCHAS ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA ) for creating new threads in order to prevent a certain type of threads on the forum.

 

Sincerely yours

the friendly avatar from the neighbourhood

[Ted McGregor]

Seconded.

[Drake1 Nightfire]

---

CAPAL wrote:

Dear LindenLabs or the ones who are in charge of the forum,

 

how about introducing a system called CAPTCHAS (

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA

) for creating new threads in order to prevent a certain type of threads on the forum.

 

Sincerely yours

the friendly avatar from the neighbourhood

---

i said that a week ago... HERE. was shot down pretty fast.. still don't know why.

[Ted McGregor]

---

Drake1 Nightfire wrote:

---

CAPAL wrote:

Dear LindenLabs or the ones who are in charge of the forum,

 

how about introducing a system called CAPTCHAS (

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA

) for creating new threads in order to prevent a certain type of threads on the forum.

 

Sincerely yours

the friendly avatar from the neighbourhood

---

i said that a week ago...

HERE

. was shot down pretty fast.. still don't know why.

---

I still see no reason why your suggestion should not be implemented on the spot. :robotindifferent:

[Phil Deakins]

I've also recently said that a CAPTCHA system is easy to implement and would prevent all the spam threads. (I spelt it CAPCHA though - without the T)

 

To the OP:

A CAPTCHA system isn't needed for every new thread. It's only needed when a person registers with the forum. But I don't think we register for the forum, so it's needed when a new person creates an SL account. Having it for every new thread is overkill. It's only needed once when an account is created. It's just too easy to implement.

[Innula Zenovka]

This Chrome Extension to bypass captchas is by no means the cheapest way to circumvent them, but is probably one of the more convenient ones that are widely available

Since the spammers are presumably doing all this as a commercial venture, it seems to me that introducing captchas would do no more than cause the spammers a trivial increase in their overheads, while doubtless annoying and inconveniencing legitimate users of these fora.

[Phil Deakins]

I didn't know such a nasty thing was available. Even so, the spammers don't use browsers, so that extension wouldn't help them too much. They don't target this forum. They target as many forums as they can find that allows them to freely post, and this forum is just one of many. If LL took steps to prevent the auto-register-and-post, like most forums do, the spam would be a thing of the past. The sort of bulk threads that we get here is not common in most forums, so it's easy enough to prevent it.

[Phil Deakins]

It just occurred to me that, if the managers are not LL employees, then it's in their own interests not to inform LL of the amount of spam. Perhaps it's time to continually inform the top man about it.

[Innula Zenovka]

You don't need a browser to use those CAPTCHA bypass services, Phil, any more than spammers need to use browsers.   I just used those examples because they are accessible and readily available.    

As I understand it, serious spammers buy, or at least rent time on, black-hat services that will fire off so many tens of  thousands of spam posts for them, from an untraceable address somewhere in the Former Soviet Union or the like.   These services are typically set up to bypass CAPTCHAs automatically with widely-available technology.

I have no particular objection to LL introducing CAPTCHAs here.  I simply think it will end up being a considerably greater nuisance to legitimate users of the forum than to spammers.

 

ETA:  See, for example: http://www.brains-n-brawn.com/default.aspx?vDir=aicaptcha

[Charly Muggins]

CAPTCHAs are easily circumvented by professionals.

Even though it usually takes me about five attempts before I get it right.

Bayesian spam filtering is much more effective, immediate and doesn't require the intervention of a part-time contractor living on the Pacific Rim who has to be woken up, distracted from their manga soap opera, or taken away from changing diapers.

 

[Phil Deakins]

Ok, I'll accept that. Nevertheless, a CAPTCHA system would prevent some spamming, and it wouldn't interfere with users if it were part of the SL registering process rather than on each new thread. There are other methods too. If LL had any interest at all in this forum, they would do something about the spam. It can be done quite easily if they want to do it.

[Tex Monday]

This is a wonderful idea. I, for one, would love to see a decrease in the amount of s**t that comes through the forums.

Your point, however, is moot...because as we all know, LL does not read the forum and if they do, they would not implement the excellent ideas posted here.

[Charly Muggins]

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Tex Monday wrote:

I, for one, would love to see a decrease in the amount of s**t that comes through the forums.

---

Agreed!

I would like them to get rid of the spam too.

[Drake1 Nightfire]

---

Charly Muggins wrote:

CAPTCHAs are easily circumvented by professionals.

Even though it usually takes me about five attempts before I get it right.

Bayesian spam filtering is much more effective, immediate and doesn't require the intervention of a part-time contractor living on the Pacific Rim who has to be woken up, distracted from their manga soap opera, or taken away from changing diapers.

 

---

That would block honest threads about escorts in SL though.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

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Tex Monday wrote:

Your point, however, is moot...because as we all know, LL does not read the forum and if they do, they would not implement the excellent ideas posted here.

---

I don't know if anyone from LL even reads the sub-forum where such feedback/suggestions should go.

[Perrie Juran]

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Drake1 Nightfire wrote:

---

Charly Muggins wrote:

CAPTCHAs are easily circumvented by professionals.

Even though it usually takes me about five attempts before I get it right.

Bayesian spam filtering is much more effective, immediate and doesn't require the intervention of a part-time contractor living on the Pacific Rim who has to be woken up, distracted from their manga soap opera, or taken away from changing diapers.

 

---

That would block honest threads about escorts in SL though.

---

Is that an oxymoron?

[Madeline Blackbart]

---

Drake1 Nightfire wrote:

---

Charly Muggins wrote:

CAPTCHAs are easily circumvented by professionals.

Even though it usually takes me about five attempts before I get it right.

Bayesian spam filtering is much more effective, immediate and doesn't require the intervention of a part-time contractor living on the Pacific Rim who has to be woken up, distracted from their manga soap opera, or taken away from changing diapers.

 

---

That would block honest threads about escorts in SL though.

---

Realisitically there's no way to stop a determined hacker that doesn't inconvience the user. I mean just leaving the forums to the wilds probably isn't the best mind you i'm just saying.

[Thinkerer Melville]

Capchas would discourage many legitimate users.  Not just those with vision problems, but also those who lack the patience to try several times before they get it right.

TKR

[Innula Zenovka]

As I said in another thread, the system we use over at SLU (which is at least as busy as these fora) works pretty well.

Cristiano, the owner, does all the moderating.  However, he has some helpers whose only role is to respond to spam, and complaints about spam.

They can, as I understand it, hide posts they consider to be spam and temporarily suspend the author, so long as the post has been up for less than an hour.   There may be some restriction that they can only do this to accounts that have only just started posting -- I can't remember.

Anyway, if they do this, it gets sent to Cristiano for review next time he logs on, so he can do what he thinks appropriate, and also so he will very quickly get to see if someone's abusng their authority and removing posts inappropriately.

I am wondering if something like that couldn't be adopted here.   Let helpers or contributors or whoever deal with spam, subject to review.

[Charly Muggins]

---

Drake1 Nightfire wrote:

---

Charly Muggins wrote:

CAPTCHAs are easily circumvented by professionals.

Even though it usually takes me about five attempts before I get it right.

Bayesian spam filtering is much more effective, immediate and doesn't require the intervention of a part-time contractor living on the Pacific Rim who has to be woken up, distracted from their manga soap opera, or taken away from changing diapers.

 

---

That would block honest threads about escorts in SL though.

---

No it wouldn't.

Escorts don't have telephone numbers in SL.

Escorts don't offer services in Mumbai in SL.

I could go on.

But I won't.

Because I am not a Bayesian engine.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

---

Innula Zenovka wrote:

Let

helpers or contributors

or whoever deal with spam, subject to review.

---

Some would start to think that they ^^^ had "responsibilities" that the lowliest Member supposedly doesn't have.

There would be cries of abuses of "power" by the "red tops" and sneering that "rank is for the privileged few".

Conspiracy theories that a LL-sanctioned gang of forum thugs operating at the behest of rogue mods would circulate.

Oh. Wait.

Already been done. :smileyvery-happy:

[Storm Clarence]

---

Drake1 Nightfire wrote:

---

Charly Muggins wrote:

CAPTCHAs are easily circumvented by professionals.

Even though it usually takes me about five attempts before I get it right.

Bayesian spam filtering is much more effective, immediate and doesn't require the intervention of a part-time contractor living on the Pacific Rim who has to be woken up, distracted from their manga soap opera, or taken away from changing diapers.

 

---

That would block honest threads about escorts in SL though.

---

You may be thinking this wrong.  The whole idea of applying intelligent software within any framework is to take the responsibility away from human hands i.e., the mods, what you suggested.   An intelligent engine would recognize the 'difference' in posts.  And it would continue to learn.  

[Czari Zenovka]

I agree SLU has a good system.  It was my understanding, which is admittedly limited on this subject, that the moderators are not employees of LL, which makes sense (in LL's world) since they ditched the old forums for this one which is (again based on what I've read/heard over the years) is a third party source not run by LL.

 

[Phil Deakins]

Giving regular users the power to do something can go very wrong. There's an LL-owned group that was sometimes spammed, as groups often are. A few users asked to be made moderators so that they could deal with the spam, and they became moderators specifically for that purpose.

The moment they became moderators, they suddenly saw themselves as running the group, even to the extent of telling people to stop discussing RedZone because it had been discussed earlier in the day (when the current people discussing it were fast asleep in bed). I was actually ejected from the group because I politely, but continually, refused to accept that decision by a spam-moderator. One of them even said, "Do you think we should let people talk about whatever they want to talk about?" Remember, they became moderators specifically to deal with the spam. People can get dillusions of grandeur given the opportunity.

On the other hand, RA had a resident-moderator who was very good at it. Not everyone gets corrupted by a teeny bit of power but too many do.

[Innula Zenovka]

I realise things can go, and have, in the past, gone, badly wrong with Resident Moderators,  but all I can say is that Cristiano's system seems to work.    This may surprise people who know SLU primarily by reputation, but...

If people over there had the power to do anything other than remove posts that were obviously spam, then I agree, it would be potentially a disaster.   But, as it is, everyone knows that the only thing anyone other than Cristiano can do is remove obvious spam, and people trust him to run his policy fairly.    That might, I suppose, partly be because he's running the forum because he wants to, and presumably is monetising it somehow.   In contrast, these forums sometimes feel as if they're there simply because LL feel they're expected to provide the damn things.

In any case, people here wouldn't necessarily need to know what's going on.   If LL simply approached some of the saner regulars in these forums and asked them if they could help by hiding obvious spam, provided they didn't let on to anyone that's what they were doing,  then all the rest of us would know is that LL seemed to be dealing with spam far more promptly than had been the case.