Call For Feedback: Delete Spam Button + New CPAPtalkers

ichitumi wrote:Thanks for providing us with such invaluable forum. I have learned so much since I started reading stuff here.

Maybe you can make the spam button an alert to admin. to review instead of just delete by any user?

Thanks.

ditto for me.

Oh, that's a thought. You could delegate moderator responsibilities to volunteers you trust, instead of just making it all a function of your paid staff. And you.

All of the other forums I belong to are 100% volunteer run. I've moderated and owned several forums, and I've been asked to help moderate or take over while a moderator is on vacation. It's a very common practice out in cyber space.

I can think of a couple of trusted cpaptalkers I'd nominate for that.... RestedGal, Wulfman, Maybe Jules...

Cheers,
B.

I've been here for a while now and I have used the spam button for spam only. I am honored that Johnny feels we are able to use this feature responsibly. However I have no problem with limiting the spam button to users with more than 'X' (1 month, 2 months, more)amount of time as a member of the forum. I also have no problem with only certain members(chosen by Johnny of course) being able to delete spam.
Of course anyone abusing the report spam function should be held responsible for their action, up to and including being locked out of the forum(is that even possible?).

Brenda

First of all I also want to say how much I enjoy this forum. I have learned so much even if I haven't contributed all that much. I am a forum/store owner of a digital scrapbooking site. Members on our site can report a post that they find objectionable, but only a forum moderator can delete a post. Even then I have the power to not allow a complete and permanent deletion. A few days ago as I was browsing this forum I came across a very obvious spam post and used the delete spam button, I also thought it only reported the post.

I do like the idea of appointing a few volunteer forum moderators, then you wouldn't need to worry about accidental or retaliatory post deletions.

I am a moderator on one forum and member of several more and NONE have the ability for a member to delete a post. All I'm on, have a way of notifying the Admin/Moderators of a questionable post or of actual spam and I think that is the best way, so there is no abuse of deleting if you don't like the reply.

I vote RG be one of the moderators!

I'm fine with whatever people want. I think the wait one month is a fine idea, so are some of the others on this thread such as just giving the button to a number of trusted people who are here a lot or maybe making newbies wait a bit longer than a month.

I'm also on several forums and none of them give deleting privileges to all members. I do think it's important to be able to report both spam and objectionable posts. Can the button be changed to just read "Report"? That's how a couple of my forums do it. The admin folks then decide what to do with it.

I also agree that having volunteer admins is a good thing. I vote for Rested Gal, too.

forumadmin wrote:Delete spam was built to really, seriously and only delete spam but it has come to be a tool to clean up objectionable community material.

The obvious questions:
1) Are the people who are using the tool in the wrong way ones who have been registered for less than a month? If not, the problem is not solved by your proposed solution.
2) Once you learn that someone is using the button as a means of censorship, wouldn't it make better sense to deny them access to the button?

A few other random thoughts.

* We all know spam when we see it. The people deleting relevant content know they are not deleting spam. You should find a way to restrict just them.

* What purpose does it serve to take away Babs use of the delete spam button because someone reported one of her posts? Let's suppose that Babs really did post some spam. It doesn't make any sense to me to deny her the ability to delete other spam just because she posted spam.

*And once you realized that it was used inappropriately, shouldn't you restore Babs use of the delete spam button?

* I vote a big giant NO on the suggestion to leave the reported post up until an administrator examines it. You'll run yourself ragged having to be there constantly, or allow spam to remain. The way it works now is actually quite brilliant.

* Asking people to be volunteer monitors, well, all I can say is I've seen that done at a thousand other forums, and in my opinion, it gets abused a lot more than it helps. It also tends to create little demi-gods that no one can risk offending. No offense meant, of course, to the hard-working, impartial forum monitors out there. Both of you deserve praise.

* The fact that things are done differently on other forums was pointed out by several readers. That does not make those ideas better.


Look, the easy answer here is to allow freedom until someone abuses it. Then remove their privilege. After one time. You don't need to be a scorekeeper. You don't need to be available to delete spam 24 hours a day. Go back to one of my points, which is that EVERYONE knows what spam is. Just issue the rule (if you delete non-spam, your privilege will be taken away permanently) and stick to it. People who abuse the rule even one time deserve what they get. You shouldn't have to fine nannies to police this.

And if I haven't made my preference clear on this, NO, NO WAY, NIX, NOPE, don't want moderators/monitors. That reeeeeeeeeeally sucks, worse than having spam in forums. You'll have to spend a lot of energy getting the right people, and if you choose poorly, you'll screw up a really good forum. Not to mention, you will be diverting a LOT of energy of the people most knowledgeable about sleep disorders and their treatments (I assume that's who you'll pick for moderators) from answering sleep/treatment questions to dealing with the 2% of the population that know how to suck up an infinite amount of time whining and demanding explanations. This is such a bad idea. Oh, well. People tend to be strongly attracted to what they know, and most forums have moderators. So the crowds will clamor for it, whether it's good or not.

I'm a newbie myself and don't object to a waiting period. However, I also thought that it reported suspected spam, not deleted it. Wouldn't it be better for everyone involved if it did just report suspected spam for the moderators/admin to check into and then they can decide if it needs to be deleted?

luvsbutv wrote:I'm a newbie myself and don't object to a waiting period. However, I also thought that it reported suspected spam, not deleted it. Wouldn't it be better for everyone involved if it did just report suspected spam for the moderators/admin to check into and then they can decide if it needs to be deleted?

No, it really would not. That scheme allows the spam remain until the administrator can log on and delete it. As a consequence of that, the admins are going to feel more pressure to stay in touch on a more frequent basis.

LoQ wrote:No, it really would not. That scheme allows the spam remain until the administrator can log on and delete it. As a consequence of that, the admins are going to feel more pressure to stay in touch on a more frequent basis.

It might be possible to hide it from view until it can be checked and either restored or permanently deleted by someone who has access to hidden posts. I know that is possible on some other forum systems, not sure about phpBB which I think this is running? I agree with you about just taking away the ability to delete anything from those who abuse it. That might be easier than trying to work out some whole new system just because a small number of people abused that button.

nobody wrote: It might be possible to hide it from view until it can be checked and either restored or permanently deleted by someone who has access to hidden posts.

I think that's essentially the way it works right now.

The difficulty I have with this thread is that we haven't been told what problem is trying to be solved. What we've been given is a proposed solution to an unidentified problem. This is generating lots of off-topic conversation, with no real forward progress.

Johnny, maybe you could just tell us what the problem is that needs a solution. It is really hard to give/get meaningful feedback when people don't know what problem the proposed solution addresses.

Anyone could potentially abuse the "delete spam button".

To solve that issue the "delete spam button" should be turned into the "report post button" where a moderator is notified and can take the appropriate action.

The "report post button" should allow for comments entered and forwarded to the moderator.

Dang, I thought I was the only one that objected to everything Babs posts!!!!!!!!!

Jerry