Spam
#1
Posted 14 June 2005 - 06:04 AM
To celebrate my return, I bring you the topic of spam, whee.
This is actually an issue I feel pretty strongly about, though I typically tend to be able to ignore my personal opinions on the matter.
I completely understand that spam can be fun. The problem I have with it is that while it may be fun for those involved in the actual spamming, it's rarely fun for people who are on the "outside," especially when the outsiders have to dig through a few pages of spam to find a few posts they can actually comment on. It's really discouraging to me to have to do that, in any case.
And it may be okay when you've got a smallish forum, and can keep track of the the personal foibles of each member individually, but on larger forums (such as Abandonia), it tends to get waaay out of hand, imho.
I personally see spam as pointless posts that only serve to continue a personal conversation between a few members (which we have a PM system for), and pointless, random posts that have little to do with the actual topic, and serve only to boost the poster's post count.
Overall, I think spamming (to an extreme) is just not good for a forum as a community. Actual content and discussion should be what's emphasized, in my book.
So, I suppose the questions are...
Do you like spam, or hate it, and why? and... What is your definition of spam?
doodoodoo!!!
#2
Posted 14 June 2005 - 06:18 AM
I see spam as the pointless posts that really add nothing to a topic, like mentioning something like oh yeah that's true, and then giving no reason, that just seems pointless imo. Once it really starts to get all over the place, then it becomes a problem as others may feel compelled to do what they see others doing, not always but in most cases.
I'd rather see a nice discussion and such that reveals peoples opinions on the topic, not little quickish posts and such that do nothing for the topic but quickly make it go off topic in a hurry and then bam the topic is lost and it'll probably get closed later on.
http://www.last.fm/user/DeathDude/Upcoming Concerts will be attending, 5/10/08: Dream Theater, 5/12/08: Gigantour, 5/16/08: Nightwish, 5/27/08: Rush, 6/5/08 and 6/6/08: Iron Maiden, 7/27/08: Judas Priest,
#3
Posted 14 June 2005 - 08:54 AM
QUOTE (gregor)
also consider this - the turkey *male genital*ula is called little asia on some geographical maps maps.
I'm your solar-powered princess/Your technological soulmate.
#4
Posted 14 June 2005 - 09:13 AM
However I once joined a forum where every topic got spammed sooner or later, and admins not only approve of it, but joined the spamming, and every other topic was a spam topic by nature(Now playing, forum games and such), so while that might have been entertaining for older members, there were no discussion that a newbie like me could've join in, so I left...
DakaSha:if you go into a kindergarden and give all the kids rubber schlongs they will prob just hit each other over the head with them
DakaSha:and you have a class of little kids hitting eachother with rubber dongs which must be quite funny (also Picklweasel knight I am)
#5
Posted 14 June 2005 - 11:29 AM
But yeah, doubleposting and one-sentence irrelevant posts are the worst kind of spam, and those kinds of posts always clutter up topics, never adding to them in any way.
So to summarize: spam can be all right, even good, but it can also be destructive to a forum if not kept in check.
#6
Posted 14 June 2005 - 01:53 PM
Spam, to me, are useless posts. Either because they are completely irrelevant to the current discussion, or because they would serve a better purpose as a PM.
Spam in small dozes in special topics is ok, BUT....
Even though I approve of the occational spam topic that is used to talk jibberish and whatnot, I really hate when only two member use that spam topic and post every 2 seconds. That always make me close the topic.
I feel that spam should be controlled by the person. If you want to spam a "spam" topic, then you should also wait a long while before posting in the same topic again. Spam is for fun, not for increasing the post count.
Anyways... enough rambling from me.
#7
Posted 14 June 2005 - 02:25 PM
Tom Henrik, on Jun 14 2005, 02:53 PM, said:
#8
Posted 15 June 2005 - 02:02 AM
#9
Posted 15 June 2005 - 04:16 AM
It's a lot different over there now than it was when I joined about 5 months ago.
Honestly, it seems that at least 70% of what's posted over there is just spam. It's really frustrating going there once a day and seeing about 10 new topics each with about 3-5 new pages, most of which don't really seem to mean much of anything, quite a few of which are filled with petty arguments, and many of which are just resurrections of old topics.
It seemed to happen overnight, and personally, I never want to see that happen here at AR. I love the people at Abandonia, but it's completely lost the sense of community it once had. Now, it's more like little enclaves of personalities all clashing at each other.
Spam can be fun, but it also can cause extreme annoyance, misunderstandings, and it can exclude people.
So where is the line drawn?
Unfortunately, it's difficult to make that decision. In the smaller scheme of things, spam is fine. If it gets out of control, however, you no longer have a cohesive environment.
The problem is, it can get out of control all too easily.
doodoodoo!!!
#10
Posted 15 June 2005 - 05:37 AM
*edit*
Maybe the "blah blah blah"-topics could have something like "no post increment"? Even remove all post counts retroactively. For example if I have a postcount of 800 where 780 of those is due to posting in "Blah blah blah". Then I suddenly get a postcount of 20 and no more increments in "Blah blah blah"... Just a thought.
#11
Posted 15 June 2005 - 07:48 AM
Indignus IV, on Jun 15 2005, 03:02 AM, said:
QUOTE (gregor)
also consider this - the turkey *male genital*ula is called little asia on some geographical maps maps.
I'm your solar-powered princess/Your technological soulmate.
#12
Posted 15 June 2005 - 09:17 AM
DakaSha:if you go into a kindergarden and give all the kids rubber schlongs they will prob just hit each other over the head with them
DakaSha:and you have a class of little kids hitting eachother with rubber dongs which must be quite funny (also Picklweasel knight I am)
#13
Posted 15 June 2005 - 10:14 AM
I don't mind people saying something like "I agree" so much, as long as they add to it and contribute something to the discussion. Or as my teacher used to say "Show your work"
Double and Triple posting with little responses could earn a pistol whipping.
Advertising post spam, definatly annoys me.
And referencing Abandonia forums, I wish somehow we could get the rest of the world to figure out what the ESA stands for, so we don't have to explain every other game post.
I do enjoy the conversational threads overall though.
another great Signature and Avatar by Taikara -Thanks Tai
#14
Posted 15 June 2005 - 01:15 PM
But yeah, spam is annoying. I just wish people would stop talking about it so much, and there would be less spam!
P.S> Beef, sorry about naming the spam after you
#15
Posted 15 June 2005 - 01:17 PM
My suggestion would be to disable post count increment in the Blah Blah forum as well as removing the posts text below peoples avatars. That makes increasing ones post count seem less meaningful and would encourage more meaningful discussion.