Discussion -- 300 Word Challenge #2

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Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

UG Spammers! I too Mod on another forum. Its the worlds 3rd or 4th largest paintball forum and to top it off its privately owned without corporate sponsors. Some days we get hit with upwards to 2 to 3 hundred or more spambots. Sometimes 30 or 40 will hit in the matter of a couple of minutes. We are constantly updating our countermeasures and even IP banned whole countries.

Then you have the back-end work, Mod & Admin discussions, reported posts to wade threw on a daily basis. Lets not forget that every time Firefox, IE, GoogleCrome or whatever major browser updates sometimes the Admins need to update the site. Plus if the Chrons is like our site a ton of other related matters to make it a better place that members may or may not see.

I for one Thank You guys and understand where you are coming from. Its hard putting in all the effort, for free, and understandable that when it all appears to work seamlessly on the surface that others might not see all the trouble you go to. Keep up the good work we all enjoy the community you have helped to create.
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

I think that's maybe the issue -- that those of us who aren't moderators anywhere simply don't know all the things that moderators do. I must confess until I read this thread, I had no idea.

Coming from my perspective -- without this knowledge -- I didn't read Spurring Platty's remark as a negative comment on the mods. In the context as explained by Teresa and others, I now understand why it maybe came across that way, but I don't think it was intended to be understood in that context (which is easier said than done, of course, when that's your context). I hope that makes some sense in any context at all :s

Like everyone else, I really appreciate what the moderators do. Even more now I've read about *what* they do.
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

It's not quite as bad as that, MstrTal. Some of what you mention is handled by the administrators here not the moderators. (And Brian and Dave do a lot of work!) But certainly there are a lot of jobs that nobody ever sees, or if they see them they probably don't notice. (Which is as it should be.)

And then there are the discussions, so that we are acting in concert when certain issues come up. Putting in the rule about not expanding the 75 word story for the 300 word competition is going to require exactly the right wording, to cover all contingencies and yet not make it all sound too complicated. Someone has to draft it and then we all have to discuss it, and it's not like we're all in the same time zone, or that all of us are here every day, so discussions can take several days, and sometimes get pushed aside when more pressing matters intervene.

In this case, we were discussing it, but other things came up and it dropped to the bottom of our list of priorities. Now that it's come up, we're discussing it again.
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

Damn, but the voting's going to be hard this time. (Yeah, I know, I always say that!) Initially, one story impressed me so much that it was going to be easy - one vote allocated, and then two more to share around for the second places. Hell and botheration, thereare now five stories vying for my three votes, and entries to come... Could we have five votes this time, please? In view of the five days the US administration has, to stop the world's financial system going into meltdown... oooh... damn... there was a good story...:eek:
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

I agree. The Mods definitely do a very good job here. Like Hex, I wasn't aware of all the things that go into moderating a forum (particularly one as popular as The Chrons). So thanks for that MstrTal.

And also like Hex, I didn't think Platty's remarks were meant to be a criticism. Perhaps it came out that way, but I'm pretty sure he was just wondering out loud. (Is he a he? Or a she? I'm sorry, but both the name and the avatar are quite gender ambiguous.)

And now that we know a bit more about Mod duties, I can't help but feel a sense of gratitude for the spammers. Think about it - without them, the Mods would have all this free time on their hands that they would not know what to do with.

So everyone, raise your glass, and let's hear it for the SpamBots!



;)
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

Yup, there are many days when there is nothing to do but check out a few new members, keep an eye on topics that look like they are going to become contentious, maybe do a couple of routine tasks, and banning a couple of spammers each enlivens an otherwise dull day.

The Challenges take up a fair amount of time, but the work is divided between several moderators and stretched out over the course of the month. (When the polls were offsite and Culhwch was doing them all, he carried most of the burden.)

But then there are times when routine tasks suddenly accumulate, things that need to be handled in a timely fashion come up for discussion, and times that are frantically busy, when spammers are attacking the forums twenty-four hours a day for several days in a row (these things come in waves), and it's during the busy times that discussions that don't need immediate action die and no one thinks to revive them when things settle down.

And that's what happened to the discussion about changing the rules.
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

nixie said:
Yes but it if it wasn't for the spammers we'd have to look for other means to feed Wally fresh meat, he can't live on apples alone.
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I've got plenty of meat on my skinny bones, if that's a help:)
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

Boneman said:
Could we have five votes this time, please?
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If Boneman gets five votes can I have eight? Actually I'm not sure eight is going to help that much - I maybe need twelve or so. Sigh so many good stories. I'm going to put all the names into a hat and draw three out. It's the only way.
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

Teresa Edgerton said:
Yup, there are many days when there is nothing to do but check out a few new members, keep an eye on topics that look like they are going to become contentious, maybe do a couple of routine tasks, and banning a couple of spammers each enlivens an otherwise dull day.
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Do you ban spammers rather than delete them?
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

We don't delete anything. We ban spammers and bin their posts. Brian blocks IPs from time to time.

If we deleted them, we wouldn't know when they came back with a new account. Which a lot of them do.
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

Hex said:
If Boneman gets five votes can I have eight? Actually I'm not sure eight is going to help that much - I maybe need twelve or so. Sigh so many good stories. I'm going to put all the names into a hat and draw three out. It's the only way.
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How about we have as many votes as there are entries, minus one. Then you just need to work out which story doesn't deserve a vote! Easy!
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

Teresa Edgerton said:
We don't delete anything. We ban spammers and bin their posts. Brian blocks IPs from time to time.

If we deleted them, we wouldn't know when they came back with a new account. Which a lot of them do.
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Thats maybe where I'm going wrong. I delete them and ban their IP which seems a waste of time.

Had 40 odd today, am sick of them:mad:
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

Some of them are on dynamic IPs, Gary, so the IP is not always enough.
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

Teresa Edgerton said:
Some of them are on dynamic IPs, Gary, so the IP is not always enough.
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I think I'm going to live in a tent, where there's no internet connections.

I'm not even going to ask what a dynamic IP is.

By the way I see IBrian is 89 today. he looks good for his age.:eek:
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

A dynamic IP is a range of IP addresses shared between many users so that practically every time someone with a dynamic IP goes online there's a different IP number. Very often this is quite innocent, for some users it's a security measure, but where spammers are concerned it can help them cover their tracks.

But to return to the topic. There are so many great stories already, it's going to be hard to choose, even with three votes to bestow. And there may be more wonderful stories yet to come.

Which brings us to: For those who haven't submitted anything yet, there are still three whole days to write and post stories. Or, depending on how you look at it, there are only three days left to post your stories.
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

Glad I already submitted my story. :)

It is going to be a hard month to choose three entries. Its usually hard to just choose one but this month seems unusually hard!

Oh and while dynamic IPs are a pain if you really want to scare him tell him about IP Proxies and 4Chan Raids. :mad:
 
Re: Discussion 300 Word Challenge #2

MstrTal said:
Glad I already submitted my story. :)

It is going to be a hard month to choose three entries. Its usually hard to just choose one but this month seems unusually hard!

Oh and while dynamic IPs are a pain if you really want to scare him tell him about IP Proxies and 4Chan Raids. :mad:
Click to expand...

Howay MstrTal, I'm as thick as a castle wall. What are you on about?:)
 
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