Our Spam Problem

[ChromaticChaosPony]

Oops. I'm guilty of spamming threads. A lot. I'm sorry. I didn't know that my randomness was ruining the site.

With Celestia as my witness, I will stay on topic!

[Mundius]

I swear we used to have another one of these threads.

Maybe we could use a Drama section where ponies rage on about something and where it doesn't become another spamfest?

[Hangin' From A Cloud]

I would also like to make a note:

Threads older than 6 months that are revived (aka necroposting) will be locked without further comment.

Wouldn't it be easier to auto-lock threads older than 6 months to prevent necroing?
And I think deleting completely unnecessary topics (like someone didn't know it was done before and basically creates the same one) would help too.

[Lavender_Harmony]

I would also like to make a note:

Threads older than 6 months that are revived (aka necroposting) will be locked without further comment.

Wouldn't it be easier to auto-lock threads older than 6 months to prevent necroing?
And I think deleting completely unnecessary topics (like someone didn't know it was done before and basically creates the same one) would help too.

I'm only a mod, and there are sometimes special cases and I'd rather decide on a thread by thread basis whether or not a lock is nessecary. I'm speaking for the broader term, when threads are ressurected pointlessly.

[Mundius]

I would also like to make a note:

Threads older than 6 months that are revived (aka necroposting) will be locked without further comment.

Wouldn't it be easier to auto-lock threads older than 6 months to prevent necroing?
And I think deleting completely unnecessary topics (like someone didn't know it was done before and basically creates the same one) would help too.

I'm only a mod, and there are sometimes special cases and I'd rather decide on a thread by thread basis whether or not a lock is nessecary. I'm speaking for the broader term, when threads are ressurected pointlessly.

Yeah, I can see how threads past 6 months since last post can still have a discussion. I mean, artist posts something new. That's reason enough.

[UnderpΩny]

Wow I thought it was just me. I'm hoping MLR will get good again.
Time to update my avatar and stuff and start visiting regularly.

[Mundius]

To be honest, nothing will ever return to being as when it started, back when g actually meant something. The damage's been done, but we can restore it. Somewhat.

[the4thImpulse]

I couldn't agree more with makkon, this site has become a joke in my eyes and the only reason I have stuck around is so I can one day see it change for the better. I don't mind if it never returns to where it was, but the immaturity needs to stop.

I will be honest I'm tired of the 'new' kids who come here and only take knowledge from the regular members and never offer anything in return. For a while I posted in the music section trying my best to help everyone (I know I may not have succeeded sometimes) and when I posted my stuff I was lucky to get one or two replies.

[Overkillius]

Interesting that you made a thread about this!

I have recently been lurking on a couple of other forums, and then I wondered what MLR is like compared to that. I came back for the first time in a while and read some of the newly posted comments and I thought EXACTLY this.

"the members act like a bunch of twits."

It's sad, but it is REALLY annoying when I'm trying to keep up with MLR and all of the most recent posts are just petty conversation, even if it IS on-topic (which it often isn't)

If you want to have petty conversation, go into the MLR IRC like Bartekko suggested, or you could join the Official MLR Skype chat. We have PLENTY of petty conversation in there and topics are optional.

apology

accepted.

Maybe it is simply better to remove the post counter? One of the forums I've visited recently doesn't have one on purpose so that issues with people making meaningless comments BECAUSE they want to rack up the post counter are avoided.

[bartekko]

I'm only a mod, and there are sometimes special cases and I'd rather decide on a thread by thread basis whether or not a lock is nessecary. I'm speaking for the broader term, when threads are ressurected pointlessly.

Yeah, I can see how threads past 6 months since last post can still have a discussion. I mean, artist posts something new. That's reason enough.

All long help threads should have a sticky-editable post at the top saying "DEAR PEOPLE FROM THE FUTURE: HERE'S WHAT I FIGURED OUT SO FAR...

Also, I think that the official spam thread, should be locked immediately as the spam thread of today is something the irc/skype can replace with no loss to the community

[Mundius]

Yeah, I can see how threads past 6 months since last post can still have a discussion. I mean, artist posts something new. That's reason enough.

All long help threads should have a sticky-editable post at the top saying "DEAR PEOPLE FROM THE FUTURE: HERE'S WHAT I FIGURED OUT SO FAR...

Also, I think that the official spam thread, should be locked immediately as the spam thread of today is something the irc/skype can replace with no loss to the community

YES. THIS IMAGE SO MUCH. DO THIS. EVERY ACTIVE MEMBER HAS ONE OF THEM AND THE THREADS ARE ALL RANDOM. MAKE IT FOR THE GOOD OF THE FUTURE US, WHO ARE GOING TO BE FUCKING IDIOTS.

[Foxtrot89]

I've kind of noticed the problem, myself. It's a shame, really. There are a couple really cool people though. From my short time here, I've really come to appreciate Lavender Harmony for how damn helpful they've generally been. I'll quietly stick around in hopes that things look up, but sadly this place feels a lot like every other community I've been a part of.

[Makkon]

Also, I think that the official spam thread, should be locked immediately as the spam thread of today is something the irc/skype can replace with no loss to the community

Seriously considering this. Thoughts?

Please continue to report spam as you find it, everyone. It's extremely appreciated. Eliminated a few today because it was reported.

For the offenders, don't try me. If you continue to be so blatant with wasting my time and money, then the right to use this site and it's resources will be taken away from you, including participation in our events and contests.

I'm a difficult person to make angry. But don't try me.

[Overkillius]

Also, I think that the official spam thread, should be locked immediately as the spam thread of today is something the irc/skype can replace with no loss to the community

Seriously considering this. Thoughts?

In a perfect world, yes. As things stand, I'm not sure there is any harm to the spam thread, and sometimes some hilarious stuff happens in there.

I could be wrong, but it seems like something that should stay.

[VINXIS]

It should be lock for some time until the spam thing does get cooled down, then open it once again as the ONLY place for spam.

[Makkon]

Not a bad thought, VINXIS. But I don't know if that will help the issue or make it worse. We'll keep talking about it.

[LunchBagMusic]

I think spam, for better or worse, is an inherent part of Internet culture. You can't get rid of spam. That's like getting rid of trolls.

With all that said, MLR's spam is a bit out of hand. It isn't as bad as it was ~6 weeks ago (That Global PM debacle), but threads still get derailed and IRC/Skype stuff still spills over into the srs musc bzznss threads.


I can't remember from when I joined MLR, but if at all possible perhaps there should be a page where the house rules are posted that every new user is required to read? I keep seeing people jump in without having a look around first (see: people posting individual introduction threads rather than posting in the introduction thread). Of course if you give new users a wall of text, most people will TL;DR (just like a EULA), but at least it's something.

I think the problem here is that it takes a user two or three weeks to learn the house rules of MLR, whereas they really should be presented with them at the start.

EDIT
Do we even have any official house rules?

[Foxtrot89]

I'm not sure shutting it down and then expecting the spam to go down before opening it back up again is a good idea. Regardless of what you do, there's about a 100% chance that there will be spam elsewhere regardless. If you take away the one public thread to do it and try to police the rest of the site, I think it might be a little harder than just enforcing a "guys, you're spamming.... There's a thread for that, go there" type thing.

Personally I think it would be nice if we could just do away with the spam altogether, but that'd be in a perfect world. Just don't think that locking the spam thread will do anything really to help the spam problem. If people want to say something, the internet will unfortunately let them do it regardless of how relevant it may be. Might as well at least TRY to lock it in the closet where the guests won't see.

Edit: @LunchBagMusic I've always been a fan of, but have never really seen done, a simplified ToS. One that's vague, gets the point across and isn't riddled with wall of text creating legal speak, but is followed by a more proper and descript legal speak ToS. This way the general public won't get bored reading a simple bullet list of rules, but the detailed rules are still there in case you need to refer to them. People would still skip this, I'm sure, but it might help.

[K3WRO]

#text

I agree with this, shutting down the whole website like how VINIXIS said won't do much better, well, it might, but I remember another community forum (vdexproject) shutting down the entire website for a month just to make the spam go away, but it didn't really had much effect, in fact, I think it made things a bit worse.
Well, til then, I'll just stick to the rules.

[VINXIS]

I think spam, for better or worse, is an inherent part of Internet culture. You can't get rid of spam. That's like getting rid of trolls.

With all that said, MLR's spam is a bit out of hand. It isn't as bad as it was ~6 weeks ago (That Global PM debacle), but threads still get derailed and IRC/Skype stuff still spills over into the srs musc bzznss threads.


I can't remember from when I joined MLR, but if at all possible perhaps there should be a page where the house rules are posted that every new user is required to read? I keep seeing people jump in without having a look around first (see: people posting individual introduction threads rather than posting in the introduction thread). Of course if you give new users a wall of text, most people will TL;DR (just like a EULA), but at least it's something.

I think the problem here is that it takes a user two or three weeks to learn the house rules of MLR, whereas they really should be presented with them at the start.

EDIT
Do we even have any official house rules?

YES, you also summed up your idea too so I like this, and from what I know, there isn't much rules :\. There should be some official rules for this site, and be enforcing them very well. I also stopped/trying to stop myself spamming since

[Captain Ironhelm]

Do we even have any official house rules?

I put Makkon's name in there so it fits context better, but here's pretty much the rules of how to behave properly on the internet, and I like how this guy put it on his forum:

"You shalt not troll or spam, show respect and behave like a proper human. (Makkon) reserves the right to permanently ban trouble makers at any point." - GuardsmanBob

[ÜberTriangle]

I don't see any problem with being a twit or offtop. Keep up the good work!

[ChromaticChaosPony]

I don't see any problem with being a twit or offtop. Keep up the good work!

You mean I'm not a bad brony musician?

[Lavender_Harmony]

Also on the necroposting–It would essentially kill off the Discography forum.

[R-Y-S-E]

Also o the necroposting–It would essentially kill off the Discography forum.

I used to run a forum, and in the admin control panel there was a feature where you could set certain sections of the forum to automatically archive threads after a certain period of time (so you could set it to every forum section except the discography one).

Do you know whether that's possible for this forum? (I assume not or someone would've have probably mentioned it, though you might find that feature somewhere )