The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[Bigtone53]

Could the Patterns Game enthusiasts in the General/puzzle section have their own section to play in? The speed of their game means that other items never seem to hit the light of day as a new item and hence as a practical matter lose out.

[udosuk]

I second that. It could be appropriate to create a new section called "Interactive Games" etc for these threads. However it requires the adminstrators (realsudoku) to do it so perhaps it'd be nice if one of us send a PM to them.

We're also in need of a new moderator with all those latest spamming issues. Any volunteering? (I couldn't handle it with my increasing workload in the upcoming months.)

[gsf]

I second that. It could be appropriate to create a new section called "Interactive Games" etc for these threads. However it requires the adminstrators (realsudoku) to do it so perhaps it'd be nice if one of us send a PM to them.

good idea

[Glyn]

Shame that g.r.emlin can't take on the moderator job, perhaps with some training.

[Bigtone53]

PM done, but not the g.r.emlin recommendation

[gsf]

Shame that g.r.emlin can't take on the moderator job, perhaps with some training.

so lets list what a player's forum moderator does
it might be possible to combine a group of humans with an automaton to capture most of the duties

e.g., for reporting and eliminating spam
a group of trusted forum users post "post nnn is spam" to a thread
monitored by the automaton
a quorum for a particular post triggers the anti-spam action by the automaton

[Bigtone53]

gsf,

What would s.on of g.r.emlin do when the required feedback is reached? Delete the original and all follow-up? Warn the offender?
Perhaps udosuk can comment on what really happens as a past real moderator (at least I assume that he is real )

A simple cut-off for 'trusted forum users' would be the number of postings. We are lucky here that we do not have endless posters just trying to reach the next level of membership (preferred, senior, elite etc)

[udosuk]

What would s.on of g.r.emlin do when the required feedback is reached? Delete the original and all follow-up? Warn the offender?
Perhaps udosuk can comment on what really happens as a past real moderator (at least I assume that he is real )

The rule (established by Wayne Gould) here was allowing each new member a post to promote his own site, provided it's Sudoku related.

So when we saw 2 or more spam posts from a user we'd send a warning PM to them advising them to remove the extra posts.

If they repeatedly post ads/spams the only thing a moderator could do was deleting the posts, but not much could be done to their account status. The best we could do was sending a PM to the administrator listing the offenders' usernames, and then let him do the required actions.

The most tricky for a program/robot to perform this job is to determine whether a post is a spam. Sometimes veteran members might like to post some off-topic stuffs with links provided but that wasn't anything commercially related. At the end of the day I still think a logical human mind works best for this job.

Also, elsewhere I've seen measures such as only allowing members with 5/10 posts or more to include url links in their posts. That would be quite effective to remove direct linking but still they can get around by promoting their addresses in text format.

[gsf]

The most tricky for a program/robot to perform this job is to determine whether a post is a spam. Sometimes veteran members might like to post some off-topic stuffs with links provided but that wasn't anything commercially related. At the end of the day I still think a logical human mind works best for this job.

I was thinking of an automaton that let the decision making to
a group of trusted users

the automaton could monitor its mailbox or one particular thread;
trusted users could make pm's/posts that would say something like
"post nnn looks like spam" (a vote)
once a particular post reaches some-threshold votes the automaton would take action

the action could mimic the human guidelines, and be stepped,
like pm warning(s) first, then actual post deletion as last resort

post delettion would require admin-like privileges -- don;t know if the current owners would go for that
if not then the last resort could be a pm to realsudoku
is that a bit bucket these days?

[Pat]

elsewhere I've seen measures such as only allowing members with 5/10 posts or more to include url links in their posts.

That would be quite effective to remove direct linking
but still they can get around by promoting their addresses in text format.

hardly effective -- merely forces the spammer to post 5 extra messages---

and a great annoyance to non-spammers,
who are also thus required to post 5 extra messages
( we've seen several examples in the SuDoku Programmers Forum )

[Bigtone53]

I suspect that gsf was suggesting that if a sufficient number of 'OK guys and gals' (perhaps people with more than 20/50/100/250 posts) called in to say that it was spam, it would be treated a such.

I am all for the human element if someone is volunteering; just playing along with the s.on of g.r.emlin concept.

[ab]

how about stopping people from posting links in their first 10 posts, say. So any message in a posters first 10 posts which includes a link is automatically assumed to be spam. Then the automaton would easily catch the spam without any human guidance. When people sign up this is made clear in the terms, so people genuinely wanting to post useful links could establish themselves in the forum first. The only problem here would be catching repeat offenders, but the spam problem doesn't seem to have got that bad yet.

[Mauricio]

Could the Patterns Game enthusiasts in the General/puzzle section have their own section to play in? The speed of their game means that other items never seem to hit the light of day as a new item and hence as a practical matter lose out.

I second that. It could be appropriate to create a new section called "Interactive Games" etc for these threads. However it requires the adminstrators (realsudoku) to do it so perhaps it'd be nice if one of us send a PM to them.

The section "Interactive Games" is a nice idea, however, IMHO I don't think the speed of the patterns game is a problem, I returned today after a 2 weeks absence, and only half of the threads in the first page of the General/puzzle section had a new post, so I do not think that the patterns game hides other threads, at most it hides it as much as a sticky thread.

[Pat]

I do not think that the patterns game hides other threads,
at most it hides it as much as a sticky thread

exactly,
the Patterns Game is often active
but it is only one Topic
and can only "hide" one Topic

[Pat]

the last resort could be a PM to realsudoku

is that a bit bucket these days?

the list of Moderators has recently been reduced from 2 to 1

udosuk, how did your name get removed from the list --
did you do that yourself?

if not, you have proof that realsudoku remains active---