As I saw more and more spam posts popping up here and there lately, I thought it would be cool to have a post where people could report spam posts and then Moderators could go and delete them.
I cant delete the posts myself but I hope this is still helpful.
Question: How do I delete comments like in the other "Outdated Apps" thread? Or do only mods have that power?
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I go through every new post now and pick up spam as I go - I don't think any spam spam is getting through (other not-quite-spam things may merely be questioned). I've been noticing slightly higher spam rates than usual too, I've been having to block an account and delete comments just about every day in the past couple of weeks. (I'm thinking of writing a quick Drupal module to add a "spam" link to the edit, reply, delete links, to delete all comments by the user and block them. That would save us time.)
Only mods can delete comments at all.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
only you and John can ban accounts which is part of the problem, us other mods can only delete as we go along, I think this should be changed.
Even so, I think it would make it less tedious for mods if regular users can click a link to highlight spam posts. At least that way mods wouldn't be forced to check every single post or feel like they have to perform spam patrol every day.
And that's to say nothing of the great satisfaction it would give me to click a link knowing that I'm helping to take down these spamming scumbags.
We tried the spam module a while back and it just didn't work that well. I'd be willing to give it another shot and make that feature available only to admins, mods, developers and translators, though. That way we could configure it better (and not have to use the weighting system) since all users would be trusted to one-click report actual spam.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
great. I support the idea and would be willing to help.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
I didn't have any particular module in mind, besides Chris already volunteered himself to write a custom PortableApps one... isn't that right Chris.
I think long time users who have been here for a year or too should also be able to report spam.
If someone can have an account here for a year, chances are they can be trusted to report spam.
Simplifying daily life through technology
There are some user accounts on here where the people have been here for a couple years but they are also working with one of the illegal portable sites, so I don't know if they'd have our best interests at heart.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I suppose, and I think I may have said this before in another post, it comes down to how big of a problem it's perceived to be. If the current mods are happy dealing with the volume that they have to deal with then perhaps no action is necessary. Doing nothing is always an option, often overlooked.
I don't find it's a huge problem here, I just find spamming particularly offensive, a personal pet peeve of mine if you will because it's so senseless. My take on things is that the more eyes you have looking at something, the more easily and quickly you'll be able to identify issues and the less work it is for everybody, but that's just my personal opinion.
How would you define "developer" and "translator"?
Would they be defined as only those individuals listed on the team page, or would new developers be allowed to report Spam as well?
Ie. Would people such as myself, dboki89, coputerfreaker, etc, be permitted to report spam?
good idea. A "Report Spam" button would be nice and help a lot.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
How about adding new moderators? People who are here a lot.
Normally I would not be prone to volunteer as I learned firsthand as an admin what too much moderation can do to a dynamic and volatile community (bad things happen to make a long story short) but as there is next to no conflict here, it wouldn't be a factor. My methods for reading the forum mean I see spam quickly. In a nutshell, I hit up Off Topic first, since it's excluded from the tracker (portableapps.com/tracker). Then I hit the tracker. And I read most posts not about Thunderbird, Toucan, or other apps I never use. I read most of the requests, pretty much all of general discussion and off-topic, and a good bit of the Firefox, VLC, and boards of apps I use.
And all I'd do is delete spam. Only thing is, I'm pretty much only on, on the weekends.
To be honest, from what I see, this site does not get much spam, it may be just that the mods are quicker at deleting them than I am reading them...but compared to other places I visit, spam would seem minimal here.
Which to me is odd, there is a big user base here, and it is a very popular site. So you would imagine that there would be a lot of spam, but there isn't. I get more spam on a forum which was created no more than a couple of months ago, so the user base is much smaller...the funniest thing is that they post spam comments while a mod is online...one poster repeatedly spammed after seconds of me deleting his first post...at that time I don't think I had banning power but now I do and they get banned instantly...
“There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!”Richard Feynman
What about having a group of people who are able to hide posts from general view. Then a real forum mod can go through and confirm whether or not they are actually spam or not.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
I like that idea
https://portableapps.com/node/23400
Talking about a free ebook, only registered an hour before posting it...
...but then a pretty insightful comment about LBreakout Portable:
https://portableapps.com/node/11280
Y'all's call.
That is NOT spam! Have some common sense when judging such things. Even though he is promoting his own e-book, it is free and designed to help designers using FOSS in 3D modeling.
Also, his insight about LBreakout2 is correct. Not only that, but I would add that most old portable apps are painfully outdated and somewhat buggy. LBreakout2, except for sound quality, also has somewhat poor portabilization. For example, if you make screenshots in-game, they are saved somewhere in the App folder, and are not backed up into Data folder. LBreakout2 needs improvements, both in portabilization, and with sound. Sound may appear fine to you, but if you have slightly more precise hearing you notice differences. It's just like with monitors and low refresh rate, for example.
He was good enough not to provide his "insightful comment" about many other buggy "official" apps, such as TileWorldPortable in particular. Yes, I'm defending him, even if he's here for about an hour. Haven't you noticed the way real spam bots post here? They have quite recognizable style. This is a real person, for one. If he decides to spend his time to provide something useful for free, just like any other developer here, I welcome such behavior. If he starts to troll the forum, I'll be the first to frown upon him, and report him up for banning. Until then, he should not be chased away.
If you don't agree, that's your problem. FYI, spam bots post comments like this:
"I ned potrable doc2pdf free"
and later on in the thread:
"I found ths grate program to convrt doc2pdf.... link".
The entire problem with spam was caused majorly by spam bots, not by real people registering. I have no intent of further discussing this matter, and it is finished as far as I'm concerned. Good thing only administrators can ban people...
Since I'm already posting here, I'd say that OliverK's suggestion has the most sense, if implementable. But even than, the group which can hide them has to be extremely small (i.e: 5-10 people max). The more people are involved, the more troublesome it gets.
Thank you for your time, and (@mods) sorry for posting here, as it was not my initial intent to involve myself in the discussion about neither spam management, nor dev teams/test teams.
My posts are old and likely no longer relevant.
I too dont think its spam.
Could you tell me how to make in-game screenshots in LBreakout2?
Perhaps post it here?
I am planning to have a look at it soon (when converting the launcher to PAL) - this might be a good time to try and work out all the other issues.
About the sound issue: I thought we had that sorted out but Ill take a closer look soon.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
"Possible" -- Dictionary definition from Webster
In short, "possible" means that it's not definite, ergo, judgment was not passed.
Not all spam bots work like that, and paid human spammers are even more varied.
And good job noticing the LBreakout comments. I linked that as a counterpoint, not support, to the possibility of spam. Furthermore, stuff being given away for free have been criticized in the past. And, on top of that, PDFs can be infected with badware (typically links to bad sites that jump automatically).
I do hope you're not as finished with this topic as you imply. You really put your back end on display, making such a huge assumption and then blasting me for making a small one. I'm sorry if your continuing effort to learn my native language created a communications barrier, but I really only meant to imply that the one post may be spam, and the second one puts that in doubt.
Your point does have some validity, however. Not everybody will agree on what is fact. I've been thinking about OliverK's suggestion, and I don't know of any forum/CMS system that has a feature like that. There are blogs, however, with comments that can be given a thumbs-up or thumbs-down, and too many thumbs-down ratings hides the comment. If the threshold were lower (1 or 2) and only certain people could rate, that could work.
The mods here do a great job with that stuff.
On the other hand, posts from brand new users (or users who have only posted a few times) that look like positive reviews of consumer products can be quite damaging. Real people create fake blogs and post comments to move product.
As an example, if an electronics maker wants to make their product appear "sexy" (?????), the posters will go out of their way to create feminine user names. (They will also hire hot models in some of their ads.) Then the blogs/comments/posts will use typical ad copy about how wonderful the product is (?????), and frequently reuse words related the selling points. (How many times are they going to point out how slim it is?)
It bothers me because of the senselessness of it. Does it have any hope of actually working? How confident am I likely to be in a product when the marketers of that product can't even spell or write, complete, coherent sentences? In case it's not obvious, the answer is not confident at all.
Sure, you should ignore ignorance and all that, I just get tired of it. There are too many idiots and scumbags in the world, wasting valuable oxygen. :|