Topic: Ideas for the site.

@Tasuki They must be watching you.

@themcnoisy 😱

@Tasuki I don't think anyone has created more than three threads on a single day. I don't even think we get three new threads per day, collectively from all users. If you're posting more than three new threads on your first day, you're probably a spammer anyway

@Octane That sounds like a decent idea. It wouldn't. Heck even if it's 5 threads it would still help the problem. I don't think anyone that's not a spammer has ever created 5 threads in a single day on the first day or two here. I think (I haven't been there for a while though) that would go for Nlife too. And if someone does want to make more than 5 threads on their first day, they might need to calm down a little about joining anyway lol.

Most new threads from new people seem to be either asking for help on a game (which then get locked and requested to go in that games thread by God of Forum) or help about their PS4 console. In my 8 months or so here I don't recall any new user creating more than a couple of new threads when they first joined. Heck I've not done that many since I joined lol.

I can see the problem that creates as already mentioned as that means spammers will just post in existing threads which is harder to notice. And that means limiting new users on how much they can post which seems very restrictive to genuine people that wanna post.

@JohnnyShoulder @Jaz007 @Octane I still think that ANYONE who wanted to join and be part of the PushSquare community would not be put off by not being able to start a 'new' thread for a set period of time or even a set number of 'comments/posts'. They would be more appreciative of the fact that the site takes some precautions and protects its users from Spam as well as a 'vetting' process until they are familiar with the rules etc.

The 'newcomers' its likely to put off are those that want to spam or those that are only joining just to ask a question, post some 'aggressive' comment because they 'disagree' with a review etc and not wanting to be part of the PushSquare community anyway. Rarely do you see those 'newcomers' who join to ask a question ever participate in any other areas of the forums or in the comments sections of threads - they only joined purely to ask just 1 question or to Spam. As @JohnnyShoulder states, these often could be asked in the 'game' thread or in the General PS4 thread anyway so there is still no need to start a 'new' thread. If you set a 25 comment thresh hold for example, that these had to make 25 comments before being able to post, and being 'new' were monitored or at least highlighted to all moderators so that they can see whether these are 'constructive', keeping to the rules etc before going live, then they can deal with ANY spammer, help those that are new to get used to the site and its rules and,once they have fulfilled that, be free to post like any of the others here. It may make moderation easier too because you can concentrate purely on the 'new' people first and foremost, see how they are getting on and virtually leave the rest to get on with it for the most part. We know that the moderators can't be online 24/7/365 so if the newcomers post don't go live until a moderator allows it, then they can't Spam and have that Spam online for hours.

Personally, I prefer a Site with stricter controls for 'newcomers' and yes I have been a 'newcomer' in those sites, gone through those procedures and appreciate the fact that I am on a site with others that have also gone through that and know I won't be bombarded by Spam.

@BAMozzy The only problem with monitioring a new user is the amount of new users we get at times especially just to comment on an article. I for one honestly don't have time to be sifting through new members comments and approving them especially if we get hundreds a day, I would be here all day. I know that Sammy and Robert wouldn't have time and if they did then articles would suffer and such. In the end it's just easier on us all to catch them when they post.

@Tasuki Well there is that of course. It can make things easier in the long run though as you don't get all those 'big' spam attacks and unnecessary 'new' posts from newbies to have to close and point them in the right direction of where to post. Don't get people joining just to troll, or at least if they do, are not 'live' on site and winding up the regulars. That trial period, where posts aren't live until vetted, provides a buffer between those that want to create hassle or just spam. It seems that its 'similar' spam week after week after week and whilst it is perhaps annoying for you to have to deal with it and it remain on site for hours until a moderator is available to deal with it, its also annoying the regulars, the genuine members and I think affects the integrity of the site too. You are 'allowing' them to at least create post after post after post and have their 'spam' on site for hours sometimes so even when you do get around to deleting, they have still succeeded - albeit for a few hours but still succeeded in getting whatever spam on to the site.

Maybe what is needed then is a couple of extra moderators then if the site can't be monitored 24/7. That would also help with the monitoring of new peoples posts - a simple click to either go live if they are conforming to the rules or delete and either block from posting (spam/abuse etc) or message them to instruct them on where to find the rules and guidelines - which may help long-term as you won't get old threads resurrected or new threads created that you have to close down so often. Even if you don't go this route, its clear that the site needs a few more moderators that can deal with any Spam attack very quickly. I know you do a great job but like you say, you cannot be online 24/7 and watching the forums waiting for these attacks. I am sure if you (or other moderators) were online, you would have been able to deal with them before they reached 3 or 4 pages worth.

Any genuine people will be OK with conforming to any rules to be a part of one of the best gaming communities and forums.

@BAMozzy First off we welcome any and all suggests and even though we don't discuss in the public forum some things like secruity measures and such for obvious reasons be assured that Ant is constantly working on ways to deal with spammers. It's just like.something along these lines these people seem to always be one step ahead.

Also let me assure you the I or any of the staff DO NOT allow these people to post anything. But again we can't be on the site 24/7

@Tasuki As I said, I am sure that if you (or other Moderators) were online at that time, then they would have been stopped. I am certain you do not actively allow them - I wasn't insinuating that you do and hope you didn't think I was accusing you (or anyone else) of actively allowing them to do so.

My point was though that if you had more moderators, maybe you could cover the site 24/7 - maybe set up a rota so that you always have a moderator online. That way you could catch them before they have chance to create and post pages of new threads, delete them within minutes instead of hours. I do appreciate the fact that you and any other moderators cannot or should not be expected to monitor the site every waking hour. If there was a 'buffer' in place so that 'newcomers' can't create threads and their posts are monitored for the first 25 or so, then again you wouldn't have to be online and can deal with them when you (or other moderators) do come on. It does protect the site whilst its not being actively monitored at that time.

I am sure that everyone of us here, the regulars at the very least, greatly appreciate all the work you and Ant do and certainly are not blaming you or anyone else for the fact that 'sometimes', these spammers pick the moments to attack that just so happen to be at times when the moderators are not 'moderating'. I am sure NONE of us expect you or others to be here 24/7 and we all expect you to be able to sleep, to work, to have time to play games etc without having to deal with spam attacks or any other issue that requires you to step in.

Both of my suggestions were not in criticism of you or anyone else who works on the site. It was suggestions to either stop them from impacting whilst there isn't anyone online or to increase the number of moderators to increase the chances of having someone online so that it can be covered 24/7. You could set up a rota too so that there is always a moderator online -that should also make it easier too because you are not coming online to 'issues' because the moderator who was online before you should have dealt with them before you take over for your 'stint'.

To reiterate, none of this is to undermine the work you (or others) do and we ALL know that you (and others) cannot be online 24/7 so both of the suggestions were to 'help' - either to buffer until you (or others) do come on or to increase the number of moderators to provide 24/7 coverage to stop these attacks immediately. We do appreciate the work you do and may not know all the 'work' that may go on in the background, the amount of Spam attacks that you catch before they get noticed by the majority if at all to keep this site as family friendly and a great place to be. My suggestions were only meant to help you all out in one way or another.

Would it be possible to have the spoiler tag work with more than one paragraph? My tags have not worked a few times because I forgot that.

@Jaz007 I've had this too, a few times!

What about a Pushsquare live-chat room? I know I’ve seen something like that before.

We definitely should have a world cup final livechat/blog.

@Tasuki I appreciate that rules are rules, and goodness only knows what successfully moderating an online community must entail, but surely there's an element of fair, common sense discretion when distinguishing a nefarious marketing survey from somebody's Masters thesis?

I'm always cautious about which topics I reply to, and helping that chap out earlier felt instinctively the right thing to do. The survey didn't ask for any personal information; it was very obviously created to support specific academic research (something we should all be prepared to do). Calling it spam seemed a little harsh.

Again, I say this with all respect for you and Push Square's community rules. I apologise for inadvertently compromising them; I guess I just expected a little leeway for the human factor.

Perhaps, as more people study gaming-related subjects and more institutions offer courses which will include online gamer data-gathering, there could be greater clarity over what is (and, I would hope, isn't) considered against the rules?

@RogerRoger no leeway for the human factor round here champ I do see your point, there is spam and there is "spam" - still, it could be worse, and I do tend to agree that if surveys ain't allowed you can't really pick and choose

I doubt there is enough users here for that. This forum is pretty dead.

@RogerRoger I do agree - hence I also 'helped' but I also agree with @KratosMD and @kyleforrester87 too that rules are rules and you can't really allow 1 but not another. I guess the right thing to have done would have been to ask Sammy first and maybe come to some agreement, do an article with the some of the questions as a 'vote' and then use those stats to compile their thesis. Of course certain questions from that couldn't be asked - like Gender for example - but some of them could have been. As long as Push Square is cited in the thesis as a source, then maybe that would be acceptable.

However, I do agree that you can't allow people to do this without asking otherwise it could get out of hand and everyone would probably have a story that legitimises their reasoning. PushSquare has had reader surveys that we have been politely asked to fill out which I have happily done - no issues at all so I don't think surveys are inherently bad. 3rd party surveys though should not be tolerated unless they have asked permission.

@RogerRoger While I do see your point the problem is if I let someone come in and poist a link to a school survey, it's the same as me just letting some post a link to an ebay post.or anything else along those lines. Also it's like @KratosMD said people come to a site like this not to be bombard by people pushing surveys.

Anyway hope that clear things up and unfortunately this is all I can say about it.

Thanks for understanding

@SilentE It's not every 5 minutes, but it's got a pretty active community. I've seen it done on this network of sites before when there wasn't even a link on the main site (if you knew you knew, if you didn't you were out of luck) and it was decently active, surprisingly so. I think it might work.