Revisiting first-time posting requirements

[AllAboardTheBlingTrain]

I feel like the spam’s gotten worse around here lately!

I have an alternate suggestion to help with spam - possibly not as effective as yssie’s but treads the fine line of allowing new users to make a post immediately without waiting (as many of them could be impatient ring purchasing boyfriends who don’t want to have to wait 24h, which could reduce legitimate traffic to PS) without flooding the homepage with reams upon reams of spam.

Not allowing new users to start more than one thread per day, for the first 5 days. Also limiting them from being able to comment on other threads, excluding their own (maybe 3 comments a day on unrelated threads, for the first 24 or 48h)? I can’t imagine any new user needing to make more threads than that, but it would at least limit the amount of spam we have to face (though unfortunately won’t make it free of NSFW content).

 

[kenny]

I wanted to bleach my eyes out….

Nah!
Bleach is a COVID vaccine.

 

[MissGotRocks]

I wonder if it’s someone who has a beef with the forum rather than multiple trolls?

Seems to be one troll that keeps coming back?

I think that is entirely possible. Might be linked to a p**n site, but maybe it is someone lifting pics from there. Again, seems like the IP address could provide some insight.

Imagine too if you were a new forum member or considering becoming one, only to come here to find those pics! After wading through the voluminous cable ads, you come across that mess. I have no idea what the policing of this site involves, or how much moderation it takes to keep it clean. I am sure it is just as frustrating for those as it is us - is there anything more that members can be doing to help the cause?

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

I was thinking of asking the Spectrum TV people if they could assist cancelling the **** people.

cheers--Sharon

 

[MissGotRocks]

HI:

I was thinking of asking the Spectrum TV people if they could assist cancelling the **** people.

cheers--Sharon

I like the way you think!!!

 

[lovedogs]

@psadmin Just saw something completely horrifying in another post - I won’t link it, it’s already been reported.

Can we please revisit posting policy? Specifically, preventing new users from posting for a certain amount of time after registration (could be as little as 24hours), and disallowing new users from creating new threads until they’ve got some post history (could be as little as 5 posts)…

What I just saw - it’s way past the annoying spam. Straight up “OMG if I’d opened this at the office I’d be fired on the spot”. This is now a forum usability concern

Completely agree! They posted in almost every subforum!!!

 

[seaurchin]

I don't hugely care about it myself, since I don't have little kids or a boss who might look over my shoulder and see p*rn pop up on the screen.

I also have no idea how it all works behind the scenes. However, perhaps one possible improvement would be if they gave a couple of trusted people who are on here a lot limited mod powers, to delete spam and block spammers when they see it.

 

[Amber St. Clare]

I'm glad I missed it.

 

[MissGotRocks]

I'm glad I missed it.

You are lucky! It was an extremely shocking thing to see first thing in the morning!

 

[yssie]

There's spam flooding the forum every single day, these days. I mean quite literally daily.

Some days it's just scammy posts for random services. Makes the forum look unprofessional but not offensive.

Other days...

@Garry H (Cut Nut) I don't know how to tag admin, the old one seems to be gone, but you'd started a thread a while ago about forum traffic - this constant barrage of spam cannot be good for pricescope's appearance to newbies or reputation.

First time poster requirements and waiting period are the norm on many other fora and social media venues. I really fail to understand Pricescope's resistance.

 

[kenny]

... I am sure it is just as frustrating for those as it is us - is there anything more that members can be doing to help the cause?

All we're allowed to do is report policy violations.
Admin can't possibly read everything here, so they welcome us to help out by reporting violations.

BTW this thread is chock full of discussion of moderation, a PS policy violation.

I report stuff when I see it, but then I let it go.
I did my bit.

Publicly contributing to a pile-on of Admin is, IMO, disrespectful.

Yes, we are valuable stakeholders here at PS, but we're not stockholders.
PS is a private business; we are its guests.
PS was never a democracy ............ not that democracy matters anymore.

 

[yssie]

Kenny - you and I are both very long time members of this forum. I can say that any forum without users is a financial loss, and enticing and retaining newcomers is always of critical priority, and most of us on this thread of genuinely care for this forum and community and want to see it succeed.

You're right, PS has never been a democracy, nor has it ever claimed to be. But it's a community that I hold beloved and I'm willing to share serious concerns unsolicited. Not everyone is and that's understandable; my commentary may be dismissed and that's also understandable.

 

[kenny]

You're right.
I deeply value PS, and would hate to see it, and my online family, go away.

Everyone knows I ain't no saint when it comes to obeying rules.
I also have risked my membership here by "pushing the limits" to make points important to me.
... and I have the PS rap sheet to prove it.

 

[Tartansparkles]

We are not guests; we are customers. Customers vote with their feet and many have already done so. As for respect? Respect goes both ways.

 

[MissGotRocks]

All we're allowed to do is report policy violations.
Admin can't possibly read everything here, so they welcome us to help out by reporting violations.

BTW this thread is chock full of discussion of moderation, a PS policy violation.

I report stuff when I see it, but then I let it go.
I did my bit.

Publicly contributing to a pile-on of Admin is, IMO, disrespectful.

Yes, we are valuable stakeholders here at PS, but we're not stockholders.
PS is a private business; we are its guests.
PS was never a democracy ............ not that democracy matters anymore.

Admin never responded to any concerns that several of us had over the Sunday morning debacle. The issue of a new poster not being able to immediately post has never been discussed either. No, this is not a democracy nor is it expected to be. We wouldn't have PS if it wasn't for the owners and moderators, but they wouldn't have PS If not for the members. My suggestion was simply that we work together to try to find a solution.

 

[MissGotRocks]

You're right.
I deeply value PS, and would hate to see it, and my online family, go away.

Everyone knows I ain't no saint when it comes to obeying rules.
I also have risked my membership here by "pushing the limits" to make points important to me.
... and I have the PS rap sheet to prove it.

Exactly! We would all hate to lose PS for many reasons!

 

[Ella]

Folks, we are doing our best. No one is ignoring this problem, we are doing our best to find new solutions and implementing new things daily.

The reality of it is we have a lot of new users who do immediately want to post about a ring or a gem and we don’t want to lose them, so historically that is why new posters can post right away. We may revise that, but it’s an ongoing discussion, not something that is changed lightly.

We are doing our best to find new ways to filter out spammers but they are getting better and better at evading our detections. Believe it or not for every one you see on the forum we’ve probably stopped 100 from posting. I’ve asked our backend developers for more solutions and they’re working on figuring out what else we can do.

No one is ignoring this, no one hates this more than I do, I promise! I’m going to close this thread because it is against our policy and does not need to be rehashed again. Please message us if you have specific questions.