The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[Son of Pappocom]

Okay, this place seems as good as any... as many will notice, at the best of times and certainly at the worst (like the past three days, when I've been travelling and/or sick as a dog) the spam isn't cleared up as often as anyone would like.

Unfortunately there's nothing I'm aware of that solves this problem preemptively; these are real people fully expecting to get their posts and accounts deleted, and it's still worth it for them. No tricks or verification steps we can put in the way would change the fact that they are able to proceed through them as well as any of you.

Please nominate moderators here. We'll be looking at three or four. Feel free to nominate yourself, but we will only be taking people we recognise (with a history on the forums, who isn't likely to disappear soon, etc.).

I nominate luna.

[Hud]

That sounds like a good idea. I would think it would be wise to have a moderator in each quarter of the earth; like maybe Europe, The Americas, Australia, and Asia.

[Ruud]

Being a forum moderator is more than just removing spam and offensive posts.

It should also include helping new members find their way, keep an eye on cross-posting and posting in the wrong forum, have a polite response to a newcomer whose question remains unanswered for days, etc. etc.

The one person I've seen doing this a lot without even being a moderator, is my nominee, tso.

Ruud.

[lunababy_moonchild]

I nominate luna.

I'll be glad to

The one person I've seen doing this a lot without even being a moderator, is my nominee, tso.

Second this nomination too.

Luna

[Ruud]

Let's hurry. The insulting moron is back already!

Ruud.

[Pi]

I would like to nominate myself as a moderator.

I am based in the UK and can offer my services in GMT. I think that it is useful to have moderators across the globe so that we can have 24 hour protection.

I pledge my commitment, effort and time towards the effective moderation of these forums.

I promise continued and reliable service and would be honoured to participate in the upkeep of this forum.

[Son of Pappocom]

Welcome luna, our first non-Pappocom moderator!

[tarek]

I can see luna's user name as moderator.... congrats... or should i say good luck

tarek

[lunababy_moonchild]

Thank you.

I'm looking forward to my duties as Moderator (and deleting all those offensive posts, ASAP).

Luna

[ronk]

Unfortunately there's nothing I'm aware of that solves this problem preemptively; these are real people fully expecting to get their posts and accounts deleted, and it's still worth it for them.

But it appears more than just a few of the spammers were repeat offenders, and they might not be as willing to "lose" an email address each time.

If the procedure mailed an initial password to a registrant, that email address would be "validated". Then if the member turns spammer, that address can be added to a Blacklist, with any address in the Blacklist never again usable (on your site).

Ron

[Pi]

One other thing you could do is an IP ban. with a MySQL database of banned IP's you can put a PHP condition on the hemepage whichdoesn't echo the frame if the users IP is banned.

This is suprisingly easy to set up.

[vidarino]

One other thing you could do is an IP ban. with a MySQL database of banned IP's you can put a PHP condition on the hemepage whichdoesn't echo the frame if the users IP is banned.

This is suprisingly easy to set up.

Unfortunately IP banning isn't very effective either. I recently added some anti-spam measures to my blog (which was getting a fair amout of comment- and trackback-spam), and only very few of the spams came from unique IP addresses, despite promoting the same crappy sites.

In the end I added a keyword blacklist, so that all comments or URLs that contained one of the listed words got blocked. And now, after having gathered a number of useful block-words, almost all the spams are being trapped. Perhaps this is the way to go here as well? (E.g. posts that contain a block-word are put into quarantine until a moderator can approve or reject it?)

Vidar

[Ruud]

I had expected a few more people to come forward.

Since I'm already moderating the Sudoku Programmers forum, I can also check up on this forum when I'm doing my rounds.

I other words: I volunteer for the job. Somebody has to do it.

Ruud.

[emm]

No-one has responded to the offers made by Pi and Ruud to moderate the forum. Perhaps they are still under consideration – I can’t imagine they are just going to be left hanging. In case you are waiting for feedback - here's some from me.

Pi sounds very committed and I'm sure would do a good job but am I correct in having picked up that he/she is still a student? I would probably expect a moderator to be a more senior person. Forgive me, Pi, if I have underestimated you.

Ruud impresses me as someone with an understanding of Sudoku and of the forum that would make him an excellent moderator.

[Son of Pappocom]

Sorry to leave you hanging, Pi and Ruud. I'll get back to this in a few days.