Following Threads and putting limits on Threads

[Mags Indigo]

For me the most annoying thing about the new forum platform continues to be the difficulty I have in following who is replying to who in threads. I know this has been mentioned many times but I though it would do no harm to mention it again - and in the proceed block out a spammer.:smileyhappy:

Secondly I know there has been discussion that maybe limiting the number of new threads anyone could start in a 24 hour period would not only make it more difficult for spammers, but might actually improve the quality of discussion within the forums, as people would perhaps give consideration to the 'issues' that concern them most and post about those rather than just about anything that enters their minds.

I think limiting new threads to 2-3 per 24 hour period should not really affect any member of the forums too drastically. Seems like a reasonable step to me.

[Wilhiam Hydraconis]

Having tremendous doubts here automative solutions will help here. What also has been mentioned many times is the 'captcha' option that is required by many websites today to prevent automated logons.

This would be a far better solution than just generating automated rules that can be broken as quickly as they are set.

 

[Cato Badger]

I will continue to recommend a Bayesian filter until someone realises that it works.

[Ishtara]

Has there been any spam from the L$ exchange site that starts with an E lately? The current spam is from a different website. Perhaps LL already have a filter in place for the E-spammer and only need to add some keywords for the IGEstar spam.

I remember those IGEstar goons from my Vanguard and Age of Conan days btw. They're infamous for spamming the forums and ingame mail systems of MMOs. Needless to say that their activities constitute a ToS violation in other MMOs. Most MMORPG publishers prohibit the sale of virtual currency and items for real currency.

[Wilhiam Hydraconis]

They are one and the same, Ishtara. Look at the bottom of the I G E S T A R page. Run by E i n g e  e . c o m.

[Mags Indigo]

To be honest I'm fairly sure that as time goes on LL and the platform will come up with the process to keep spam under control - it's all still fairly new and loopholes are there for exploitation. I am not that aggrieved about it at the moment - however this time next month I would be expecting spam to be a very 'transitory' problem. Fingers crossed.

 

[Rolig Loon]

It doesn't bother me much that you can't see who a reply might be directed at, since I never found much use for the threaded view of the old forums anyway.  I can see that it could be confusing in some marathon threads, however. Limiting the number of new threads (not posts) that a person might create in a day seems like a decent idea, though.  Aside from cutting down on the Easy L$ spammers, it might help even the most creative and prolific forum dwellers to focus a bit more. After all, how much attention can you devote to more than three or four good, completely new ideas in a day?

[Mags Indigo]

 

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Rolig Loon wrote:

It doesn't bother me much that you can't see who a reply might be directed at, since I never found much use for the threaded view of the old forums anyway.  I can see that it could be confusing in some marathon threads, however. Limiting the number of new threads (not posts) that a person might create in a day seems like a decent idea, though.  Aside from cutting down on the Easy L$ spammers, it might help even the most creative and prolific forum dwellers to focus a bit more. After all, how much attention can you devote to more than three or four good, completely new ideas in a day?

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Reading across the various threads this evening there does seem to be a sort of general support for limiting the amount of threads any individual can begin in a day, also some thought to limiting posts for newly registered people seems to be a reasonably popular idea. I know not everyone minds too much about who is being replied to in a thread, but I do notice a few more people seem to be on my wavelength about that. Things to bring up at the group meeting tomorrow I guess. :smileyhappy:

[Rolig Loon]

I'm not keen on limiting the number of posts per day. I have seen quite a few people in the Content forums who ask complicated questions that require a lot of back and forth before everyone understands the problem and can home in on a resonable set of solutions.  Limiting the number of posts in that environment could get frustrating for people who have those tricky questions. When you add the fact that some of us may reply to a dozen or more content questions or threads in SL Answers every day, limiting the number of posts we're allowed could really cut into the effectiveness of the forums.

[Persephone Emerald]

@ Mags Indigo 

I agree completely with your OP. I liked how in the old forums if I were confused by a post, I could click a link to find out who & what it was referencing.

Limiting threads seems like a possible solution to the spam problem, but then I imagine the spammer would just post to other people's threads instead. Limiting posts would be a disaster, especially when an OP provides insufficient information about a problem, so someone is trying to get him or her to explain it in more detail.

I haven't seen the spammers myself since the first evening they appeared. Could my blocking them actually have done some good? (for myself at least)  Since they are trying to fraud new users out of their money, there existance on these forums does nothing but hurt LL & its customers.

Note: Just address the person you're responding to in some way in your response & everyone will know who you're responding to. This is how many online forums, elists & Facebook works anyway. It's old-school, but it works as long as you can tell who posted before you.

Can we please have an option of either black or white for our names on our badges, so the name doesn't blend into the background? Thanks

I also want to be able to "Like" or "Dislike" comments.

 

[Mags Indigo]

@ Rolig & Persephone - I too would be very much against limiting the number of posts - it would really make it difficult for discussions to take place or for answers to be followed through in detail as both of you have pointed out.

I know that some people are very much against limiting thread creation to a set number per day as they believe this would inhibit creativity - I guess in the end this depends on peoples personal definitions and interpretation of what creativity actually is. To me limiting thread creation might stop the constant duplication of seemingly frivolous thread subjects and allow for more original threads to remain in the 'front page', more importantly it would also stop the spammers hogging the front page. It might also encourage new people to 'create' threads as more names appeared in the front pages.

I'm at work so apologies if I'm not as clear on this as I might be - if I get a chance later I'll return to it.