Garbage Posting To Meet Minimum Requirement

[happyrat1]

Every once in a while I see newbies posting one liners to a dozen posts at once to get past the posting limit on new members.

Is there any way to get this annoying phenomenon to cease?

Perhaps we could set up some sort of timer to keep people from posting to ten messages in 10 minutes?

It's annoying as hell to wake up to a dozen stupid, useless replies to threads on my notification list, forcing me to unwatch just about everything.

Gary

 

[delaware dave]

the only notifications i have turned on is if someone direct messages me. i check in on occasion and scour the topics for interest. works just as well without annoying notifications.

 

[happyrat1]

the only notifications i have turned on is if someone direct messages me. i check in on occasion and scour the topics for interest. works just as well without annoying notifications

That works for you, but sometimes I'm engaged in a real time dialogue with someone who has a problem and I need the updates to respond to these time sensitive queries.

Gary

 

[JonN]

The best solution to this problem usually is a combination, 10 posts and two weeks or more before gaining access.
This gives enough time to ask questions and stops people from doing just as the op mentions, the downside is they may miss the opportunity to buy something they couldn't find elsewhere and get annoyed but there needs to be a balance.

 

[happyrat1]

Actually there would be no downside.

The only reason the posting limit exists is to stop spammers from posting links.

A decade ago it was a nightly occurrence to see Ebay Music Shops Dump PAGES AND PAGES of links to their so called "bargains" and they would teach their bots to do it every night.

Ian got tired of paying for the bandwidth and came up with the current system.

If they can't drop any links, there's no reason for spammers to post.

But it's somewhat disturbing to see 10 posts of "Great Job buddy..." in my email every week or two.

Adding some sort of time limit, IS the answer.

Along with the 10 post limit as well. That helps control the bots.

But really? How long before someone realizes a bot can be trained to post garbage one liners as well to gain spamming rights?

Truth be told, 10 emails saying "Neato!" in my inbox looks pretty much like spam already.

Gary

BRILLIANT PS~!!!! >> Instead of counting posts, we should count WORDS!!! Counting both and setting up some sort of anti dump algorithm to screen the uploads from the humans?!?!?!

 

[JonN]

BTW Gary, looks like the specific problem you hinted at may well be resolved, but I do think a minimum time would help in for the future.

Edit: Cross posted but interesting to get the history.

 

[happyrat1]

I've been a member well over a decade so I don't know if Ian is using a Capcha these days either.

Gary

 

[JonN]

God I hope not, I hate that damn thing, actually probably not or I don't think I'd have joined.

 

[happyrat1]

Good God!!!! I'm, I'm, .........OLD!!!!!

Gary

 

[happyrat1]

To be totally honest, I too, hate capchas with the intensity of a thousand burning suns.

I only visit a certain Kurzweil board once a month because of one.

Gary

 

[keyboardchronicles]

As a newbie myself but a long-termer on other forums, I agree with the time-based approach. One should need to earn one's stripes so to speak. If that takes a month then so be it.

In the meantime here's some ebay links:

 

[Biggles]

It is not the one liners that are a pain, it is the ones resurrecting very old threads and asking a question of the Op who in most cases has not been visible on the forum for years.

 

[happyrat1]

It is not the one liners that are a pain, it is the ones resurrecting very old threads and asking a question of the Op who in most cases has not been visible on the forum for years.

The Venn Diagram of your group and my group is pretty much a circle.

 

[Ian]

Totally agree that it's very frustrating to see lots of filler posts like that. I've added the 2 weeks of registration suggestion, in combination with a minimum of 10 posts - so let's see how that goes. This mainly affects the "Classifieds" section, and I've got those limits in place to prevent it becoming a spam magnet, but also to limit members coming here just to sell hardware (as there's no way we can vet anyone, it seems sensible to limit it to somewhat established members).

 

[JonN]

Great stuff, thanks Ian - really nice to see an admin listening to the members.

 

[delaware dave]

That works for you, but sometimes I'm engaged in a real time dialogue with someone who has a problem and I need the updates to respond to these time sensitive queries.

Gary

then use the 'watch' feature which is topic-specific, you'll get notifications on those specific topics but not be annoyed by the others....

 

[delaware dave]

I've been a member well over a decade so I don't know if Ian is using a Capcha these days either.

Gary

If captcha is installed you wont see me anymore, most annoying thing i've ever run into.

 

[happyrat1]

then use the 'watch' feature which is topic-specific, you'll get notifications on those specific topics but not be annoyed by the others....

That's the problem.

I get one liner followups to to watched threads.

Like I said, all of a sudden I have to start unwatching stuff.

 

[happyrat1]

Totally agree that it's very frustrating to see lots of filler posts like that. I've added the 2 weeks of registration suggestion, in combination with a minimum of 10 posts - so let's see how that goes. This mainly affects the "Classifieds" section, and I've got those limits in place to prevent it becoming a spam magnet, but also to limit members coming here just to sell hardware (as there's no way we can vet anyone, it seems sensible to limit it to somewhat established members).

Thanks Ian.

Hopefully this will put an end to it. Is there any way you can build in a timer, like 3 or more posts in 10 minutes?

This would also discourage the pump and dump posting.

Gary

 

[LisaL]

To be totally honest, I too, hate capchas with the intensity of a thousand burning suns.

I only visit a certain Kurzweil board once a month because of one.

Gary

I too hate captchas. Especially the ones where you have to click all the pictures and then do it over again. Drives me nuts