As we all know. Spam is a huge issue in our forums. It has gotten so bad that some people are considering getting rid of offtopic, but with all of the commotion over offtopic spam, I have noticed an influx of an even worse kind of spam, Map Post Spam. Now, you might be saying, "But Jelleh, offtopic spam is terrible, it is bumped constantly and floods the forums." While this is true, map post spam is bad in its own right. For example, when someone posts, "good job, but needs better interlocks, kinda messy, 5/5" or the ever famous and even simpler, "Needz moar interlocking 5/5", the map poster really isn't getting much feedback. This problem seemed to be contained for a good amount of time, but recently, the influx of new members from Sandbox and the lack of some of our old members has brought many "newbies" to our site without much leadership to help them out. In addition, I have noticed that new members around here are becoming gradually ruder and mean spirited to both other new members and the seasoned veterans of Forge Hub. I think that the decline of our map forum through spam is being caused by some major new factors that are coming into play. Here is a list of the contributing factors. New members coming in because of Sandbox/Mythic maps Old members retiring, leaving site, and becoming less active Promoted members spending much of their time in Offtopic (guilty as charged) and the Pub Hub Offtopic spam taking over other kinds of spam as a threat Demotion of Moderators and Addition of Guardians Here's my explanation of how this all works to be true. New members come in when they hear about the new maps and when we get featured on Bungie.net. They lack leadership due to decreased veteran member activity or activity in less important forums, therefore feel like they can do whatever they want, causing the mean spiritedness and low quality posting that I have noticed. When reported, if they are, the few moderators left after the major changes as of late are not able to handle all of the infractions, and the Guardians only have power in Offtopic. This is what is propelling the Map Post Spam. What is the solution? I think that the veteran members around here, colored and uncolored have to come together to better instruct the new members on how we act around here and our standards. Retired members should start becoming a bit more active and loyals and premiums who post only in the Pub Hub need to start making their ways back over to what Forge is really about, the maps. Finally, I think that the addition of one or two new moderators should help. The best choice would to just promote the Guardians who are doing the best job. Discuss please.
Thank God I'm not the only one that noticed. I saw this race map thread a few minutes ago that had 10 replies in 1 hour. About 7 of the replies were from one person asking what spam was after he spammed... IN THE FREAKING THREAD! It's been getting so annoying. Another factor I think that added to this stampede of new members is FH getting featured on Bungie Favs. All the publicity that FH has been getting recently I think is decreasing the quality of this site.
The staff agree, strongly, and we're discussing a new system to combat this rise of spam, hopefully before it kicks up a gear (which it will, once mythic hits). A softer, lead by example approach would be great, and always something we'd want to encourage, but some of our plans are more strict because we feel that that level of response is needed in order to actually make a tangible difference in the boards.
Idea: Could you make it so when replying to a thread, you have to make your post X amount of characters long? The character count could be different for different forums and sub-forums.
Currently that minimum is set at 5 characters, and can't be altered for specific boards. We could increase it, but people can easily include filler text to get around the restriction.
I definitely agree. Do to the impact of people wanting to post maps or even just making maps for the Mythic DLC Pack, Forgehub will be thworted with newer members which comes with spam. This is inevitible because it comes with an immediate chance of many demotions/promotions and/or banned/warned members. But first staff has to take care of the members that we have now. You need to ease up on the harsh infractions, if they are necessary or not. I was infracted and warned awhile back, not pointing out anybody at all) for Rick Roll. Which definitely is not in the Infraction System. SOOOOOOO... I am going to input the link to the Rick Roll back into my signature and have it for evidence. If any of you see me warned, thats why.
Granted you're just noticing this, I reprimand what you said about you being in off-topic 90% of your time here. This dilemma has been an on-going factor since Forgehub was created. It became more notifiable in late August and early September. When I joined in April there were roughly 15,000 members, now we're about to surpass 30,000. That's more than 100% in 10 months. Now, the constant features on Bungie.net, and the simultaneous maps most bring new members here, as it brought myself. Upon joining the most crucial thing they are aware of is maps, and dis-regard the rules, and posting standards. They came here for the maps, and want to get straight to them. Now we get the illiterate, useless, contradicting, repetitive comments like "5/5 nice interlocks". New users don't want to take time fully-reviewing a map, and like to comment on their personal opinion, which in most cases is bias. No solutions have been debated about redirecting new members to the rules page upon registering, or having every map thread posted by a new user checked by a moderator, etc. But all seem to prove trivial, and futile measures. Its inevitable the spam we encounter. If say Nemihara, an out-lying member who's been here for over a year, were to post a page long review, do you think that would seriously encourage newer members? I'd feel they'd get the impression they're being belittled, and actually leave the thread, rather then be motivated. So far, Forgehub's punishment system has seemed to work. Warnings and infractions teach people what to do, but not necessarily teach them a lesson. You also say the Pub-Hub is a huge distraction from colored members, and should be rejected when upon a community interface. Well, I found out today there is under 800 treads in the pub-hub. Yes, smaller then even our in-active forums. And better yet, the Pub-hub discusses changes to the site, and topics colored members feel they need to adress privately, which all in all fortune's the site. The pub-hub is many things, but definitely not a distraction. Furthermore, there are about 90 members who have access to the pub. When usually there are only 5-20 online. Now that seems like a minuscule problem. A join date does not permit intelligence and maturity, or obedience. Take HaloGoddes for example. She joined this week, and seems to even be more mature and obedient then some of our members that joined in March. While old members are usually more accustomed to the site, and have more social bonds, its ultimately the old members fault for making the new members feel uncomfortable and out of place. Seeing we know a lot of people, and have many friendships it isn't surprising we're hypnotically belittling the newer members. Needless to say, I've seen some far more Mature, and intelligent members then myself that have one or two posts. Not onto the Demotions of Moderators which happened sometime in October. Well needless to say, it didn't change much, besides giving those members less power. You're basically saying let an in-active moderator be a mod while he/she is gone for an extended period of time, and doesn't take full responsibility? That seems elitist. Moderators/Guardians/Journalists take high priorities. While we most see nothing besides an infraction or two, the deeds they complete behind the scenes are of high magnitude. And, your information is invalid pertaining to Guardians. Guardians have authority in Off-topic and the map forums, hence the early foreseeing that spam was rising back in October. All in all spam is inevitable. Whether it be in the map forum, or off-topic we can't deem how informative, and long someones post is, or this wouldn't be a public forum. The staff's decisions are wise, and needed, and always fortunate the site. Edit: Most recently I find this problem occurring in members reputation. while people are flaming/telling them what to post an dhow to post, no one takes the time to friendly/politely explain it to the. I found myself do this to many members recently, in Visitor Messages. Giving them that comfort definitely gives them a new outlook, and motivation. If you see a member spamming, or breaking the rules, politely exfoliate they're mistake, and tell them how they could re-vamp it so it is more logical. People seem to report, but then don't actually try to manipulate the person to what they're trying to do. Even as I say this, an infraction obviously won't stop a new member from breaking the rules. But asking them friendly, and comfortably, is the best way to at least attempt to intervene. I use the above paragraph to alibi the rest. being featured on B.net, accompanies publicity as we all know. But it is natural progression, something that is inevitable also. Most members register to download, share, and comment. While that being the purpose of Forgehub, they seem to fail at commenting, and even sharing. But, if you listen to what I said in the previous paragraph, I feel we could prevail, and hopefully make FH spam free.
Thanks for taking time to seriously read everybody. I'm sorry you don't totally agree with me playerhater, but it was very thoughtful to write that monster of a post. I read it all, so don't feel like I forgot about you. =P
Everyone is entitled to their beliefs. I acually don't mind off topic being gone. If anything make real strict. Admins should make it that if you have 1+ piont of infractions, you are not allowed in.
What if we took like 5 - 10 more people into mods? Then there would be many mods and they could be assigned to different forums.
Ace he means active or perma because if you got and infraction when new (like I did) almost everyone would get banned eventually. i do agree with no more spam though because it ruins serious talks on how to improve maps or screenshots( which is what i do) Forge Hub should be maps and screenshots (maybe announcements on bungie) when you do these things it gives people who like halo for halo a chance to take it serious Even though I'm new, I've been on Forge hub a lot and find it to be spammed occasionally, but mainly i get to find maps and opinions on maps If spam does eventually spread on March 3, when the mythic maps come out then you should make a separate section on that so it isn't spammed in with everything else like good old foundry maps. every one on forge hub should use forge hub as a source on halo not pointless other things. When people get to pointless you should give them a ban for a while and not perma you will learn your leason
We could have 2 grades of spam: "Nice map I'll DL" spam (only for use on spam in the map forums), and the regular spam infraction. The new spam type would be worth two points, not one. Spam is inevitable, but the one place we don't want it is in the map forums. A crackdown is needed.
Nick i think that may be a bit too strict. maybe i could understand like 2 ACTIVE infractions could get you warned and then mayb 3 or 4 active would get yourself banned. When I post I try to get my post AT LEAST 1-2 lines long, which means when im actually typing it, it turns out to be like 3-5 lines in the little box. and especially in the maps forum i try to make at least 4 lines, if not usually i will edit in later after i have played the map. For all my posts (even some in off topic) i try to make intlectual posts or remarks. I also believe that when gardians were first put in place that they were doing fairly well. but now i find a couple slacking off. But i do agree with you jelleh on the most part.
Is it weird that i don't currently see spam as a problem? it was a problem when the map forums were a **** hole, but it's turned around quite a bit since. i dont see a problem. when i see a spam post, which is relatively rare, there is always a warning or infraction tagged onto it. I just see a nice little community, going offtopic happens from time to time. flowing conversations are normal.
Yeah, Nick your right, I think if you have more than 1 infraction you shouldnt be allowed in the off topic section. Spam gets old
It's good that warned people aren't allowed in, but that's a bit too far. What do you guys think of my previous idea (a few posts back)? Good idea or bad idea?