Opinion! Enjoyment of reading the esoteric reasons people are banned in the banned thread is dulled these days since 90% of them are spambots. Since they aren't actual people, I vote that they stop being added to the Banned thread.
Yeah, a few mods are of the same opinion. I don't bother to report it in the Monkey Den.
Neither do I.
I am of the same opinion.
fourth'd
you aren't a mod.
And this thread isn't limited to mods' input. :P
Yes, but everyone else who was talking about adding spambots to the banned thread was a mod. it ruined the symmetry.
Awesome, I made mod? Now where's the ban button. Time to go on a bloody rampage.
Like what? We've been hitting spam threads within minutes of them appearing, thanks to people PMing us.
(Which is totally awesome.)
Is there a more immediate way to contact the mods (MSN, AIM) that is guaranteed to get their attention?
edit: Totally serious with this one. I hate to be a party pooper, but I PM'd three different mods yesterday about a thread that was being derailed in D&D. I made sure that they were online first before attempting to contact them, but no one ever opened my mail; they just sat there in my outbox, waiting like children at a bus stop in winter. Unfortunately, the derailing continued for about 7 pages before ElJeffe locked that shit up.
FYI, most of the time, unless it's truly egregious, we won't cross-mod for that sort of stuff. Last weekend was an exception because we had all three D&D mods out of town/without access/busy, so I was playing mod over there.
Munkus BeaverYou don't have to attend every argument you are invited to.Philosophy: Stoicism. Politics: Democratic SocialistRegistered User, ClubPAregular
edited December 2006
I was woken up once by an IM fowarded to my phone to clean up a goatse attack.
That's what I get for listing my my info and fowarding my AIM when I'm not online
Munkus Beaver on
Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but dies in the process.
Is there a more immediate way to contact the mods (MSN, AIM) that is guaranteed to get their attention?
Most mods have various IM information in their profiles.
While I may not refresh the forums every five minutes, I do spend (way too) much time at a computer and can be reached on IRC or via IM.
I keep my AIM handle hidden, because I post mostly from work, and having people bugging me to handle forum stuff while I'm busy, or while my boss is staring over my shoulder, would be an unwise career move. I usually keep a PA window open, and I get alerted via email when I get a PM, so if there's an emergency I can usually be summoned quickly. If I get PMed for something important and I don't respond, it means that something more pressing is going on in Work Land.
ElJeffe on
I submitted an entry to Lego Ideas, and if 10,000 people support me, it'll be turned into an actual Lego set!If you'd like to see and support my submission, follow this link.
Opinion! Enjoyment of reading the esoteric reasons people are banned in the banned thread is dulled these days since 90% of them are spambots. Since they aren't actual people, I vote that they stop being added to the Banned thread.
Yeah, a few mods are of the same opinion. I don't bother to report it in the Monkey Den.
Neither do I.
I am of the same opinion.
fourth'd
you aren't a mod.
And this thread isn't limited to mods' input. :P
Yes, but everyone else who was talking about adding spambots to the banned thread was a mod. it ruined the symmetry.
Awesome, I made mod? Now where's the ban button. Time to go on a bloody rampage.
For the former: Eh. Too much trouble constantly updating it. If you have something to say, just jump in.
For the latter: Start your own wiki if you think your sub forum needs one to track things. Guess what? The software is free, customizable, and the sort of webspace you need can be free or nearly free.
It's a lot more realistic than expecting anyone with PA to fill the gap for you.
This sounds harsher than I meant it to.
I want to say that I'm not chiding anyone for making requests, that's the point of this thread. But looking for an official wiki to be handed to you, as fantastic as it could be, is not realistic for a number of reasons, most of which revolve around lack of interest in having one more official thing to worry about the administration of while having no immediate, positive bottom line impact for Robert Khoo.
If you look around though, you'll see that there have been and are forumer initiatives similar to what you think would be good, and occasionally they flourish. The Ventrilo server was Captain K's initiative and he did a fantastic fucking job with it. There's a wiki that was set up by a bunch of guys from G&T for game recommendations and forumer reviewing that's also doing very well.
If you see a need, go out and take it on. If you find that you can't, see if you can get some help from your friends you've made here and get it going. If there really is a need, and you really do satisfy it, you will find that people will take advantage of your solution and will often be quite grateful. Their children may even bear your name.
So my point here is, don't ask when you can do. Because you're more likely to see the results you're looking for if you take matters into your own hands.
Pheezer on
IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
edit: Totally serious with this one. I hate to be a party pooper, but I PM'd three different mods yesterday about a thread that was being derailed in D&D. I made sure that they were online first before attempting to contact them, but no one ever opened my mail; they just sat there in my outbox, waiting like children at a bus stop in winter. Unfortunately, the derailing continued for about 7 pages before ElJeffe locked that shit up.
That's interesting, because I have no pms in my box from you, and there's only two other official DD mods... sure you were pm'ing the right people?
As for the spam bot issue, how difficult is it to open and deny registration?
I mean I don't mind ignoring them outright but, if it's a concern, what about closing registration on every day save, say Thursday?
It'd be overkill for such a small problem. It would greatly reduce new members and the forums would stagnate. And in general, it just creates a bad atmosphere; that PA is an insular community that doesn't need anymore people.
As for the spam bot issue, how difficult is it to open and deny registration?
I mean I don't mind ignoring them outright but, if it's a concern, what about closing registration on every day save, say Thursday?
It'd be overkill for such a small problem. It would greatly reduce new members and the forums would stagnate. And in general, it just creates a bad atmosphere; that PA is an insular community that doesn't need anymore people.
Plus it would just make Thursday spambot day.
Also, it assumes we'd actually remember to ever bother opening registration again. We're not so good on that.
Requiring manual account authorization on our part might not be so impossible to get implemented and we could probably keep up with the load of legitimate new users. But then they'd need to give all of us access to the forumadmin inbox and I don't see that happening nor do I see Whippy hand processing the registrations.
But if you had to send in an actual e-mail in addition to signing up, and we had to flip a switch, that'd cut the spam volume. It's just whether or not that's worth the effort (for new users and for us) and whether or not we can even get someone with the capability to sit down and disable auto-registration and put up a different message for people who finish filling out the registration form.
Pheezer on
IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
That's interesting, because I have no pms in my box from you, and there's only two other official DD mods... sure you were pm'ing the right people?
I deleted them after the thread got locked. I didn't think there was a need to whip a dead horse by saying, "Hey! Listen!" to three mods at the same time after said lockenation. In retrospect, it kind of makes me look hypersensitive, but I like D&D and I like SE++; I just don't think that they should have a love child.
I propose that a viewing of the Mr. Period comics should be part of the registration process, just so new users get the point that we actually care about grammar a little.
I propose that a viewing of the Mr. Period comics should be part of the registration process, just so new users get the point that we actually care about grammar a little.
I propose that a viewing of the Mr. Period comics should be part of the registration process, just so new users get the point that we actually care about grammar a little.
waht are u talkin about!!!!!!
Exactly.
On a more serious note, that proposal was inspired by a certain new user posting in the PS3 thread.
Look, we're trying not to be cliquish here, but when somebody comes along looking like he got banned from Gamespot for posting incoherently, well, what do you expect of us?
Daedalus on
0
Options
ZephosClimbin in yo ski lifts, snatchin your people up.MichiganRegistered Userregular
edited December 2006
you are overreacting the guy posted with shitty grammar, yes, but its no worse than a lot of regular posters.
I propose that a viewing of the Mr. Period comics should be part of the registration process, just so new users get the point that we actually care about grammar a little.
waht are u talkin about!!!!!!
Exactly.
On a more serious note, that proposal was inspired by a certain new user posting in the PS3 thread.
Look, we're trying not to be cliquish here, but when somebody comes along looking like he got banned from Gamespot for posting incoherently, well, what do you expect of us?
I don't think English is his first language. He's in Belfast. That's Germany, right?
I propose that a viewing of the Mr. Period comics should be part of the registration process, just so new users get the point that we actually care about grammar a little.
I agree with you about the grammar issue. I'm not Webster by any stretch of the imagination, but I swear that some of these people were raised by IM wolves. However, I think that the problem has a tendency to correct itself over time; at the very least, it remains a problem only amongst the very, very new posters. A few responses of we-can't-understand-your-devil-typing is enough to get most folks to spend an extra moment typing and proof-reading a post (in my experience). I will say that I find it curious that for all the folks who say they don't care about who you are and what you say, they tend to clean up their posting habits or get the hell out.
I propose that a viewing of the Mr. Period comics should be part of the registration process, just so new users get the point that we actually care about grammar a little.
waht are u talkin about!!!!!!
Exactly.
On a more serious note, that proposal was inspired by a certain new user posting in the PS3 thread.
Look, we're trying not to be cliquish here, but when somebody comes along looking like he got banned from Gamespot for posting incoherently, well, what do you expect of us?
I don't think English is his first language. He's in Belfast. That's Germany, right?
I propose that a viewing of the Mr. Period comics should be part of the registration process, just so new users get the point that we actually care about grammar a little.
waht are u talkin about!!!!!!
Exactly.
On a more serious note, that proposal was inspired by a certain new user posting in the PS3 thread.
Look, we're trying not to be cliquish here, but when somebody comes along looking like he got banned from Gamespot for posting incoherently, well, what do you expect of us?
I don't think English is his first language. He's in Belfast. That's Germany, right?
I find that pretty much every time, if you politely tell someone that correct grammar, spelling and punctuation are the norm at the PA boards, they make an effort to clean it up.
So is there a way that we could keep religious discussion confined to D&D or SE?
Discussing Left Behind: The Game is fine and dandy for G&T, but going off on tangents on why Christians are/aren't retarded assholes and defining the different groups within Christianity really isn't on the level for appropreate G&T discussion. Sure, I could just stay away from the thread, but if I'm interested on why a game may or may not be banned or taken down from store shelves, I don't want to have to wade through bigotry and ignorance to get to the information.
I find that pretty much every time, if you politely tell someone that correct grammar, spelling and punctuation are the norm at the PA boards, they make an effort to clean it up.
oh sorry, if i type fast, would you also like me to clean the window and the bathroom and maybe the olde Durango 95 as it purrs in the night, oh what wonderful fun i shall have doing that eh old chums!!!!! no i dont think so!!!!
Unless it's like an official rule (instead of a long-standing custom that, to be honest, has more weight than some of the official rules here), some new posters simply don't care.
I propose that a viewing of the Mr. Period comics should be part of the registration process, just so new users get the point that we actually care about grammar a little.
waht are u talkin about!!!!!!
Exactly.
On a more serious note, that proposal was inspired by a certain new user posting in the PS3 thread.
Look, we're trying not to be cliquish here, but when somebody comes along looking like he got banned from Gamespot for posting incoherently, well, what do you expect of us?
I don't think English is his first language. He's in Belfast. That's Germany, right?
We are so not getting in a debate over whether it's Ulster, Northern Ireland, The Six Counties, or whatever the hell else people want to call it in this thread. :arrow:
I think that sometimes when we get threads created by plants we can still have interesting conversations, and that instead of necessarily locking the thread, that the mods should just edit the first post, kill the spammer and let the conversation go on. I could point to a few threads in G&T along these lines.
Pheezer on
IT'S GOT ME REACHING IN MY POCKET IT'S GOT ME FORKING OVER CASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
Posts
Most mods have various IM information in their profiles.
While I may not refresh the forums every five minutes, I do spend (way too) much time at a computer and can be reached on IRC or via IM.
Awesome, I made mod? Now where's the ban button. Time to go on a bloody rampage.
I don't make my AIM or MSN available, because I don't want to be contacted about forum stuff when I"m not actually at the forum.
However, if I'm near the computer then I've usually got the forum up and refreshing.
That's what I get for listing my my info and fowarding my AIM when I'm not online
I was thinking more along the lines of
"STEVE! DEPLOY THE PHONE SPIDERS!"
I keep my AIM handle hidden, because I post mostly from work, and having people bugging me to handle forum stuff while I'm busy, or while my boss is staring over my shoulder, would be an unwise career move. I usually keep a PA window open, and I get alerted via email when I get a PM, so if there's an emergency I can usually be summoned quickly. If I get PMed for something important and I don't respond, it means that something more pressing is going on in Work Land.
Don't you just hate it when a paying job interferes when you're babysitting internet peoples? :P
This sounds harsher than I meant it to.
I want to say that I'm not chiding anyone for making requests, that's the point of this thread. But looking for an official wiki to be handed to you, as fantastic as it could be, is not realistic for a number of reasons, most of which revolve around lack of interest in having one more official thing to worry about the administration of while having no immediate, positive bottom line impact for Robert Khoo.
If you look around though, you'll see that there have been and are forumer initiatives similar to what you think would be good, and occasionally they flourish. The Ventrilo server was Captain K's initiative and he did a fantastic fucking job with it. There's a wiki that was set up by a bunch of guys from G&T for game recommendations and forumer reviewing that's also doing very well.
If you see a need, go out and take it on. If you find that you can't, see if you can get some help from your friends you've made here and get it going. If there really is a need, and you really do satisfy it, you will find that people will take advantage of your solution and will often be quite grateful. Their children may even bear your name.
So my point here is, don't ask when you can do. Because you're more likely to see the results you're looking for if you take matters into your own hands.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I mean I don't mind ignoring them outright but, if it's a concern, what about closing registration on every day save, say Thursday?
It'd be overkill for such a small problem. It would greatly reduce new members and the forums would stagnate. And in general, it just creates a bad atmosphere; that PA is an insular community that doesn't need anymore people.
Plus it would just make Thursday spambot day.
Also, it assumes we'd actually remember to ever bother opening registration again. We're not so good on that.
Requiring manual account authorization on our part might not be so impossible to get implemented and we could probably keep up with the load of legitimate new users. But then they'd need to give all of us access to the forumadmin inbox and I don't see that happening nor do I see Whippy hand processing the registrations.
But if you had to send in an actual e-mail in addition to signing up, and we had to flip a switch, that'd cut the spam volume. It's just whether or not that's worth the effort (for new users and for us) and whether or not we can even get someone with the capability to sit down and disable auto-registration and put up a different message for people who finish filling out the registration form.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
I deleted them after the thread got locked. I didn't think there was a need to whip a dead horse by saying, "Hey! Listen!" to three mods at the same time after said lockenation. In retrospect, it kind of makes me look hypersensitive, but I like D&D and I like SE++; I just don't think that they should have a love child.
Exactly.
On a more serious note, that proposal was inspired by a certain new user posting in the PS3 thread.
Look, we're trying not to be cliquish here, but when somebody comes along looking like he got banned from Gamespot for posting incoherently, well, what do you expect of us?
I agree with you about the grammar issue. I'm not Webster by any stretch of the imagination, but I swear that some of these people were raised by IM wolves. However, I think that the problem has a tendency to correct itself over time; at the very least, it remains a problem only amongst the very, very new posters. A few responses of we-can't-understand-your-devil-typing is enough to get most folks to spend an extra moment typing and proof-reading a post (in my experience). I will say that I find it curious that for all the folks who say they don't care about who you are and what you say, they tend to clean up their posting habits or get the hell out.
If by Germany you mean Ireland.
Edit - did I miss a joke somewhere?
Fuck!
But uh yeah the forums are alright.
Discussing Left Behind: The Game is fine and dandy for G&T, but going off on tangents on why Christians are/aren't retarded assholes and defining the different groups within Christianity really isn't on the level for appropreate G&T discussion. Sure, I could just stay away from the thread, but if I'm interested on why a game may or may not be banned or taken down from store shelves, I don't want to have to wade through bigotry and ignorance to get to the information.
I tried, but he flamed me instead.
Unless it's like an official rule (instead of a long-standing custom that, to be honest, has more weight than some of the official rules here), some new posters simply don't care.
Ok, not really, but it can be really annoying/ugly.
OH SHI-
If by Ireland you mean the UK.
It's unlikely that it's even something that's an option at this point anyhow.
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH
CUZ THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE AND IT'S GIVING ME A RASH