Auto-nuking of spam

Moon Roach

Currently a post can be reported only once.

I suggest that this is changed, so a post can be reported only once by each user. If a post is reported a number of times (perhaps 5) by different people with the same reason (it's spam, goddammit) it is automatically deleted.

We wouldn't have to wait for a moderator to see the spam report and act on it. All we'd need is a **** mob.

GothicKratos

The unfortunate truth is something like that would be abused.

Moon Roach

I don't know what the limitations are of this bulletin board software, so I don't know what's possible. But there are some safeguards that I'd suggest to avoid abuse.

1. Delete a post only where the reputation of the poster is negative; I always down-vote when reporting spam, following the example of (I think it was) locked.
2. Delete a post only from threads where they are the only post, i.e. there are no replies.
3. Delete a post only from users where the post is within a week of the user joining (assuming they don't reuse the accounts they create).
4. Count votes for deletion only from users with high positive reputation, let's say 49.
5. Don't permanently delete a post, but put it in a trashcan where it can be restored if necessary, i.e. if it was the subject of a coordinated attack.
6. Ban or downgrade the reputation of anyone who does abuse it.

[Edit - updated minimum reputation to 49, as GothicKratos's reputation went up by 1]

Cragger

I'd rather a mod have to reinstate a user deleted post with anti-delete protection in the extremely rare instance that abuse occurs than have to suffer through an entire page of spam every morning.

Unknown

If we changed auto-delete thread to auto-hide thread from the rest of the community, I think it would work.

Cragger

invisible spam? It would work. If the OP's comment is downvoted to 10, it just goes away (pending Moderator re-approval as not being spam, hate-speech, double-post, ect)

Moon Roach

Cragger wrote:

invisible spam? It would work. If the OP's comment is downvoted to 10, it just goes away (pending Moderator re-approval as not being spam, hate-speech, double-post, ect)

Are you saying that down-voting to -10 removes it and that functionality is already there?

If so, all we need to do as forumites is to stop ignoring spam and vote it down. We won't even have to report it as spam.

(I've checked the FAQ (the button top right), and see nothing at all about reputation there, so I don't feel too bad for not knowing about this.)

GothicKratos

He was suggesting that is how it could work. I like it.

Moon Roach

GothicKratos wrote:

He was suggesting that is how it could work. I like it.

Ah, I was reading present tense instead of future indicative or whatever it is really called.

So, instead of using reports of dodgy posts, we just mod them into oblivion. Slashdot works a little like this. There you can set your own threshold, and I guess here in this example the default would be -10. If you really wanted to see spam you could lower your own threshold, though why you'd want to...

I wanted to do some investigation of the software used here. Strangely, the Reputation Systems link http://pico88.github.com/phpBB-Reputation-System/ at the bottom of every page gives a 404 error.

Cragger

Can we just get a sticky at the top of every forum that says simply:

"forum users, please downvote and report spam on sight"

then explain in the body of the text what the Admin plan for spam mitigation actually is, so that we as responsible and invested users can do the right things to help.

Moon Roach

I found the real link for the guy who did the reputation system: https://github.com/Pico/phpBB-Reputation-System

Alack and alas it says this:

[RC] Reputation System

Postby Pico88 » Mon Jan 02, 2012 7:41 am

This mod is not developed any longer. It will be converted to the extension for phpBB 3.1. Please report only bugs and don't request any new featrues. Also please don't ask how to do sth else with current version.

Modification Name: Reputation System
Author: Pico88

Modification Description: A full reputation system (karma) for phpBB3, with adjustable reputation settings. It allows forum users to rate posts or users, view rating statistics, reputation rankings. Users can write a short comment with giving reputation.
Modification Version: 0.7.0

I suspect we won't be getting any changes to the reputation system any time soon. Unless we have a PHP programmer on the forum?

Then again, according to https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/modifications/anti-spam-9/ there are already a whole heap of anti-spam measures that our forum overlords could implement.