bots

[Doom]

By the way I'm surprised Arseen isn't a forum admin yet. If one of us don't catch a post when it goes up, Arseen's email is usually the first in my inbox

Done.

[shenske]

By the way I'm surprised Arseen isn't a forum admin yet. If one of us don't catch a post when it goes up, Arseen's email is usually the first in my inbox

Done.

Doom, i think we (admins) should talk first and come to a common consensus before appointing forum admins.  While i don't disagree with appointing Arseen it should be talked about first.

[Doom]

He has 800 posts and plenty of reports. I'm sure he knows what spam is. He's also too invested into the site to cause any forum-related harm. His different time zone makes him a great asset for stopping spam.

I will consult with others on issues such as guru promotions or promoting a user with 3 posts to a position of power, but in this case, I really don't think it was necessary.

To Arseen and other admins: Make sure to go to your profile -> look and layout -> quick-moderation on message index. Checkboxes seem the most helpful. Then when you see spam, open a new tab for the topic creator. Once you have their profile open, delete their topics using the checkboxes. Then ban them.

[AppleQueso]

Now that's helpful. Wish I would've known about it before.

[shenske]

Like I said before, i don't disagree with the promotion.  I do feel that it is very important to console the other admins/gurus before making any promotions now or in the future. 

[tiktektak]

I agree with shenske absolutely. Promotions should always be agreed by all available admins.

Never forget we got a democracy here or sth like that. Except for our absolute leader snowcone. May god bless our dignified Führer!

[juan0tron]

Wow I can't believe I didn't notice what some of those look and layout settings were before. The almighty quick reply box is now in use!

I do agree that we should come to some sort of agreement beforehand too. Last time we made new forum admins (me included) I assumed it was a bigger process.

[Doom]

Oops. Emphasis added. I guess I'll play by my own rules in the future.

As I posted in the thread I'd suggest to put them in the Global moderator group and just give them access to post/thread editing and ban stuff....

A yes and only seasoned users I suppose would be good.

By the way I just looked through our member groups and saw that of our almost 4000 users only around 25 have more than 250 posts and only 85 have more then 50 posts. Talking about regular users....

EDIT: I still think a redone activation process (security questions and stuff) would keep most bots away...

We all know how busy Snowcone is, and we don't know how much effort it takes to implement additional security. For new (forum only) admins, the only thing it takes is Snowcone's approval, and perhaps a rule that nobody goes to forum admin without 3 existing mods supporting their promotion. This will be a voluntary position obviously, with no requirements for anything else.

Should they be a full forum admin (I think that would be equal to all non-cover posting admins we have right now)? We could make a new group that can't do the more major things like edit permissions for added security with this new idea. Also, if they don't already, all current Gurus should probably have the ability to ban people.

[Arseen]

Oops. Emphasis added. I guess I'll play by my own rules in the future.

As I posted in the thread I'd suggest to put them in the Global moderator group and just give them access to post/thread editing and ban stuff....

A yes and only seasoned users I suppose would be good.

By the way I just looked through our member groups and saw that of our almost 4000 users only around 25 have more than 250 posts and only 85 have more then 50 posts. Talking about regular users....

EDIT: I still think a redone activation process (security questions and stuff) would keep most bots away...

We all know how busy Snowcone is, and we don't know how much effort it takes to implement additional security. For new (forum only) admins, the only thing it takes is Snowcone's approval, and perhaps a rule that nobody goes to forum admin without 3 existing mods supporting their promotion. This will be a voluntary position obviously, with no requirements for anything else.

Should they be a full forum admin (I think that would be equal to all non-cover posting admins we have right now)? We could make a new group that can't do the more major things like edit permissions for added security with this new idea. Also, if they don't already, all current Gurus should probably have the ability to ban people.

Well technically I did meet the requirement of three admins supporting me, although one them came afterwards.

Lets count:
1 z0mbiew0lf suggested
2 Doom promoted
3 Shenke didn't disagree

 

I'll promise to behave well.

[Arseen]

Shenke and Grumbleduke, I PM'ed you question that I don't want to ask publicly.

[juan0tron]

I agree, 3 admins' approval would be a good rule of thumb.

[Snowcone]

Those of you that were appointed forum admin status are people I consider trustworthy enough to determine who/when we need additional admins.

On the topic of spammers, unfortunately it's a common problem and my guess is that we are in fact dealing with real people here. Once they've registered manually, they can use their script to auto-post whatever they want.

Let me look and see if there are any anti-spam plugins out there that we can leverage.