Our Spam Problem

[Lavender_Harmony]

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 )

Not an admin, only a moderator, but will look into it.

[Habanc]

I agree that shutting down the spam thread won't do much, but what else can you do?

Think of spam like garbage (because, well, it is). For the sake of examples, let's pretend MLR is a city. So, in the beginning, we have all this garbage spread across the city, and if left unchecked, it will make said city not a very great place to be. Therefore, it's smarter to move the garbage to a landfill (Or, in our case, the spam thread).

If we remove the landfill, it'll just pile up again.

Unless... Unless you can change the mindset of the population to promote recycling, re-using, composting, etc... Then perhaps you can limit the amount of garbage/spam at the source and clean things up that way.

So, you either keep the spam thread or the community has to make a full-fronted effort to combat spam. I'm sure this thread has been a slap of awakening for some of us, but it'd have to be a long, enduring process to make MLR as productive and helping as it used to be.

Like I said before, give back! I remember my first song I posted on here, I had Versilaryan and Bartekko post multiple times in response to my questions after I reviewed their critique. I've made it a goal to post on a music thread or two a day, which, I don't see what's so hard to do.

[Navron]

I don't think anybody's recommending to shut down the spam thread. This is more about people who post replies on as many topics as possible with little to no contribution to the actual topic.

[Watashig]

Small correction. It was indeed recommended, and I'd like to vouch for it staying active.

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?

[EnnervateIndustries]

Should I just...leave?

I feel like a lot of this is my fault, most of the issues started right after I joined and woke up old threads.


EDIT: On reflection, I think I will leave, I have nothing helpful to contribute outside critiques nobody asks for.

Oh, and I whole-heartedly bump the need to have this stickied or put in a forum-wide announcement, everyone needs to see this and I don't think the Community forum is as visited as the others.

I've posted a link to this thread on Rainbow Dash Network and to my Skype contacts. I figure I should make up for the damage I've caused.

[zorg]

continuing habanc's analogy, but with my own view on it:
if mlr is a city, then the problem is the following:
- it has a big area, too many suburbs, and too many houses in those burbs.
- it has a low pop/km^2 (or mi^2, whatever)

the population started to make their houses into "open establishments" like small pubs or big multiplexes.
and with so few people, it's just not working out. People get lost, the only map is convoluted and people mostly tend to their own establishments or the big multiplexes where everyone is.

demolish the "harlems", regroup people into... okay i'm gonna just stop the analogy before anyone thinks of godwin's law.

do point out where i'm wrong with this please, i love being proven wrong.

[MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN]

geez, this is the first I've heard of "CRISIS ON INFINITE MLRs" :\

compared to other forums I visit I feel this one has been fairly tame

Yeah. I can't help but get a 1st-World-Problems vibe from all this. I really didn't notice anything wrong with MLR lol.

Honestly? My opinion? If you really wanna refocus everybody like a laser beam on the music.......don't just DELETE the Spam thread. Trash the whole "General Discussion" sector of the forum. Seriously. If you guys wanna be Bad Cop about this and send a message, then go all the way imho. We don't need a subforum for discussing the show or video games or the NFL or ppl's art/fanfic. We really don't.

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

Yeah. Plz don't do that.

I've always hated forums that frown on necroposting cuz they never look at the context. Randomly bumping a old thread for lulz is *NOT* the same as bumping an old thread because there's something new and relevant to add to it. Granted the latter is relatively rare but that's what moderator discretion is for. Implementing a blanket policy takes that away. Same reason mandatory fixed sentences for certain crimes often turns out bad in practice - it takes away the trial judges ability to modify sentences when appropriate. Or something. I always gotta bring some srs socio-political analogy into everything.

[Freewave]

There really is 4 ways to crack down on spam. 1. Have very clear rules communicated (and modify them if they need it) that people need to follow or just make a thread like this VERY visible to new members, 2. Have mods around who will see when a rule break occurs and be able to step in when it happens (proactively), 3. Make sure every mlr member knows to flag a thread get massivley derailed and mods will step in quickly (reactively), 4. Get rid of people who break the rules constantly. I know i mentioned to Makkon on whether if he's looking to see if they're NEEDING more mods as that may be part of the issue. I know Jeff is now part of the mod team now which is a great step. With 2 admins and 5 mods on the roster that may sound like a lot but it all depends on how many of those people are on mlr currently and on a constant basis and whether they need more. I think there's plenty of mature veteran members who still frequent mlr, who regularly help out, and who could step in when things get severely off-topic to what mlr standards are. More "cops" or "hall guards" if you will.

On some of the discussion in this thread: Necromancy is only a problem when people are posting to a subject that is long dead or answering someone from months ago. It's not really a problem when someone is doing new replies for an old topic if there are new questions (such as in a technique thread) on a previous topic that were unanswered. There are good threads in here that answer current questions so that we don't need 4 threads on the same subject (how i get that Tombstone sound or where can i get MLP samples w/o BGM). In those cases necromancy is a good thing if it stops new threads on the same subject when an older and longer thread clearly already exists and explains everything. Likewise "spam" threads that ARE intentionally non-musical already exist that don't really have to pose a risk to more serious threads (like in technique). It's when serious / musical threads are derailed or people forget that it's about the music first and foremost that it really impacts mlr. Again MLR needs be more like a musical college and less like a high school and that really has less to do with people's ages (even if a good chunk of community are young) but more on the maturity shown or expected. .

Also the music section has been in bad shape for a long time. A lot of new people really post on there expecting to get a few responses and get help on how they need to improve. Other people dump tracks in there to get people to listen to finished tracks in a way to promote them which really isn't helping the situation if they aren't looking for constructive criticism and often aren't listening and helping out anyone else in the music section. It just adds to the glut. I don't have a good answer on how this needs to change but MLR won't function well if people expect help but don't give help back, want people to listen to their tracks but won't listen to other people's tracks, want to complian about their lives but don't want to help console people who are having a low of their own (its venting AND hugging). Most people have moved to getting help on WIP's from friends and chat groups and that's working better but it would be nice to see the music section get closer to what it's intended to be like. It would be nice to hear any ideas on how to change that other than simply abandoning that subforum like many people have.

Again it's clear by Makkon's announcement that people were aware of the problem and are glad that the problem is being addressed but I really hope it doesn't just stop there. If we don't actively fix anything or make any changes that are needed we're right back to some of the same problems.

[Evine]

Should I just...leave?

I feel like a lot of this is my fault, most of the issues started right after I joined and woke up old threads.


EDIT: On reflection, I think I will leave, I have nothing helpful to contribute outside critiques nobody asks for.

Oh, and I whole-heartedly bump the need to have this stickied or put in a forum-wide announcement, everyone needs to see this and I don't think the Community forum is as visited as the others.

I've posted a link to this thread on Rainbow Dash Network and to my Skype contacts. I figure I should make up for the damage I've caused.

Don't leave, post when you have something to say. Look at my impressive post count.


And for Makkon/mods, you have a ban button, give people 24hour bans for clear spamming posts just make it clear that it's not a personal ban, just the rules. I've been on a lot of forums up the years and they have very different ban policies, The Escapist forums for example regularly bans old times members with extremely high post count only for minor offences.