45 replies to this topic

[Flop]

Mdag, on Jun 15 2005, 06:37 AM, said:

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.

Or better yet, just remove the post count all together. It's not as if it really serves a purpose anyway (other than to tell new people who have made the most posts).

[a1s]

Indignus IV, on Jun 15 2005, 01:15 PM, said:

P.S> Beef, sorry about naming the spam after you

hm... I allways thought spam was pork.

anyway, I think that a little spam is allways fun and lightens up a thread, but large quantaties of it kill the thereads original meaning.

[Indignus IV]

I think auhsors ideas were pretty good. but only remove the post count for people who constantly spam. Leave it on the good people (it gives us a reason to keep on posting, I think!)

[OvErLoRd]

taikara, on Jun 15 2005, 04:16 AM, said:

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.

I second that opinion of yours, Tai. It just became a bit too hard to keep record of every topic made at Abandonia. Especially when there are more and more pointless posts, pages and pages of members' conflicts which even get carried on to some other topic because one member can't stand the other guy...Some of those reasons made me to restrain myself from posting too much there.  Doesn't really make sense, but maybe it's the price that forum has to pay to becoming more and more popular.

Therefore, I think that admins have to be given great credit because their job gets harder to cope with every day now, with every spam post, every topic gone wrong, every warn which has to be given away... And not to forget moderators, also!

So, I guess it's hail to you, guys!  

[Fawfulhasfury]

I HATE SPAM! HATE! HATE! HATE IT! HATE IT! I hate things that are pointless and are just a waste of time to those who write it. It just addings less meaning to society and takes away from everything. In my opinion, Titan should hunt the spammers down like the slime of the earth they are. I used to be one, but I changed. Pointless and stupid=spam. It also equals the spammers.

[Einherjar]

I think the word "spam" is somewhat abused in Abandonia.  The slightest tangents from the topic at hand are classified as spam, and often anything someone says that the majority disagrees with is also considered spam.

[Tom Henrik]

Einherjar, on Jun 15 2005, 02:05 PM, said:

I think the word "spam" is somewhat abused in Abandonia.  The slightest tangents from the topic at hand are classified as spam, and often anything someone says that the majority disagrees with is also considered spam.

True.

But that is because it is hard to create a line that says "this is spam, this is not". On Abandonia the amount of useless posts have reached an all time high, and this means that the admins and moderators have to work double shifts in order to deal with the amount. And when you have a large amount of useless posts, you also get all the different gradients between Spam and Not Spam. So we regard them all as spam, to make our jobs easier.

Little spam = easier to spot the real culprits and to warn correctly.
Plenty spam = just got to regard everything as bad, and warn everyone.


We don't want to see this happening here, and have made really clear rules regarding behavious on this forum. Rules that we are enforcing as strictly as possible.

[Einherjar]

Well, tangents are good in conversations once in a while, but they really should try to make some kind of return at one point.  Posts that have absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand, or really simple posts (saying "I agree" and not explaining why, for example) are spam.

[Indignus IV]

Einherjar is completely correct. That is what I mean to say. Tom: you are right also, but Spam is such a silly little thing. It doesn't bother me AT ALL. I'll say it there. I think you are all overblowing a bit too much. Just because you guys want to talk about Ultima Online all day long and nothing else, and then a newbie comes on and asks a quick question about dosbox compability, or talks about Morrowind instead of Ultima, everybody is "filthy spammer! get him out of here, the jerkoff!"

Sometimes we don't want to talk about crazy frog all day long

[DeathDude]

Yeah like some of the earlier posts mentioned and such, it just gets really annoying when you start to see the posts that are just one liners or whatnot or the double posting, or heck even bringing up an old thread really gets annoying, especially if it's been on the backburner for say 8 months.

Abandonia has gotten to really an all time high of spam like Tom has said, if I honestly go to the site and come back 3 hours later it's gotten crazy with the amount of posting, some of it's legit but the majority is spam, that's one reason I don't head there as much with that going on. But it's good to see the admins and mods there really nailing down those useless topics, so all the more power to them.

[Kon-Tiki]

Call me uptight, or anything else you want, but I don't like spam. At all. To me, spam is posting something that doesn't contribute anything to the thread at hand, thread hijacking, either by posting something that's only remotely 'bout the topic at hand and then keeping conversation 'bout that going instead of 'bout the initial thread (That should be split), if it's a worthy discussion, or by misunderstanding the initial purpose of a thread (Like in the English Gentlemen's Club). Maybe the worst type of spam is the kind of people going on 'bout how somebody's spamming and how they shouldn't do that. That's spam just as well, plus it's hypocritic, which makes it worse. Best's to ignore it instead of going off 'bout it. Even better's if everybody knows not to do it.

I'm a big fan of conversations... and a big fan of utter nonsense, but it both has to be done well. A conversation that's not done well simply doesn't have any meaning. You can have a handful of people discussing something, but all talking besides each other, only seeing their point of view and only looking in the other posts for things that either agree or disagree with that. That's spam too. Too bad you've got it in meetings and such too alot of times. It's not really avoidable. Utter nonsense, if not done well, would just be dumb, mindless lipflapping. *glares at the English Gentlemen's Club* Such threads're only funny for those that post in it, and even then. Now if somebody would walk in with their pants on their ankles for no apparant reason (and which's never explained at all why), started making English Breakfast while asking 'bout the headlines of the newspaper, all in an English fashion, and others'd play along with that, setting the table and going over it, dryly saying the Tower of London has safely arrived on Mars and is preparing to fight off the evil invader MIR, that in Wales, there's been a grainplague on the grasshopperfields and that the Scottish changed their national plant to camperfuly "Cause it smells nice and is pretty when put in your hair", it would be different.

Back when I started out on Abandonia, it was pretty fun there, too. Small community, everybody knew everybody and it was fun to post there, all by all. There were the occasional spammers, and some were cracked down upon, but others were left to grow. I've seen the community grow and expand to what seems like three or four times what it used to be, and those that come, check for what's common behaviour, and start acting like that. Unfortunately, that common behaviour didn't show what it really was, but showed useless junk all over the place, which we used to just ignore (as it just came from Wormpaul, but not from anybody else). Those new people seemed to take that behaviour up, though, or part of it, and before you know it, it's spamfest. If we crack down on all spammers equally and consequently now, it won't go like that over there. I still blame letting Wormpaul run loose back in the days that caused the crap that's going on over there now. It's a matter of showing the right example, and making sure the wrong one won't mistakingly be taken.

[Indignus IV]

I really don't mean to oppose everything you guys say, but recently, I think the spam has completely gone down. In fact, the site(s) have gotten boring. I don't post very often anymore, because of lack of anything interesting to talk about. The shoutbox will often remain empty for 12+ hours at a time. I think Abandonia needs a little JOLT to get them back to reality

[Tulac]

For people who say that they can't catch up with the forum, it isn't just because of the spam, there are non-spam topics too but because of not visiting abandonia that often, I know by myself that if I don't go to abandonia for 3-4 days, I won't be able to catch up or should say I won't feel like posting for a next day or two...

IMO the postcount(under the avatar and the title) shouldn't be disabled because it's a part of every forum, I guess it's not really that useful, it may give you the info on members activity and such, but a forum without postcount isn't a forum, i'd rather call it a BBS...
Also it would be good to give the creator of a topic, the power to close it(I thinks it's possible), because most of the time the creator is there to spot the spam before mods and admins, but then again it could be misused...