Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by on Friday August 25 2017, @11:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the we're-really-big-time-now dept.

Welcome, new trolls! We're pleased as punch to have you aboard, unfortunately as you may have noticed our moderators are unable to give you the moderations you've been working so hard for. Since we can't really do much about people not moderating more, we're going to be giving out more points so that the ones that do can give you the attention you so desperately crave.

Moderators: Starting a little after midnight UTC tonight, everyone will be getting ten points a day instead of five. The threshold for a mod-bomb, however, is going to remain at five. This change is not so you can pursue an agenda against registered users more effectively but so we can collectively handle the rather large uptick in anonymous trolling recently while still being able to have points remaining for upmodding quality comments. This is not an invitation to go wild downmodding; it's helping you to be able to stick to the "concentrate more on upmodding than downmodding" bit of the guidelines.

Also, this is not a heavily thought-out or permanent change. It is a quick, dirty adjustment that will be reviewed, tweaked, and likely changed before year's end. Questions? Comments?

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Friday August 25 2017, @11:56PM (20 children)

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Friday August 25 2017, @11:56PM (#559163)

    Thanks, and just commenting on the obvious I have also gotten tired of the troll problem and I think it may be discouraging some people from visiting Soylentnews or taking part in discussions. Certianly it can be hard to take a story discussion seriously when the first several posts are about raping donkeys or whatever. Although to me the most annoying ones are the ones that look and sound perfectly intelligent but genuinely are trying to provoke unneeded responses. There are a surprising lot of those on this site.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:05AM (19 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:05AM (#559171) Homepage Journal

    If they're off-topic and garbage. Mod them Spam. And keep doing so. They'll have to go to all the trouble of keeping a running list of proxies or using ToR to post again.

    Mind you, if they're at least tangentially TFA-related, they don't qualify for Spam; even if otherwise garbage.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by SomeGuy on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:32AM (18 children)

      by SomeGuy (5632) on Saturday August 26 2017, @12:32AM (#559182)

      Since you mentioned the spam mod, I just re-read the moderation FAQ. The examples of garbage posts are the sort of thing I was in the habit of modding as just "troll". I guess I usually think of advertising as spam, and I don't recall if... that other site.. always had a spam mod. Very old habit.

      If marking as spam instead of just troll makes a difference, it might be worth it for others to re-read that section of the faq: https://soylentnews.org/meta/faq.pl?op=moderation#spam [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:04AM (10 children)

        by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 26 2017, @02:04AM (#559226) Homepage Journal

        Offtopic + Troll can equal Spam, yeah. It doesn't necessarily always though. Generally you only want to hit the one-line racist garbage under that qualification. Useful, entertaining, or interesting-content-free and not in any way relating to TFA or the current tangent. When in doubt there won't be a modban issued, just an admin to user message and an unmoderating of it.

        --
        My rights don't end where your fear begins.
        • (Score: 4, Informative) by aristarchus on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:38AM (9 children)

          by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:38AM (#559389) Journal

          Minty Brussard is talking about my posts, since he thinks that they are offtopic and trollish. But really, TMB just doesn't get satire, sarcasm, literary reference, political innuendo, or intellectual repartee. So it is not surprising he thinks this, and that poor me has had to labor under the misunderstandings of, wait, TMB is in charge of sorting out Spam mods? Is this not a clear conflict of interest, like having Jeff Sessions being attorney General and in charge of investigating Trump and making hippies stop smoking dope? My gawd, no wonder this place is so messed up, as regards the modding. Just an admin to user message, and my Spam mods rescinded? Which they have not been? Oh, the irony, the hypocrisy, the alt-right bias of the whole thing!

          • (Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:47AM (8 children)

            by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:47AM (#559394) Homepage Journal

            All senior editors and above are in charge of sorting out Spam mods, they usually just leave them to me though. Mind you, I won't be sorting out the one you just slapped on me, someone else will and I expect you'll whine incessantly about the mod-ban that will most likely result from it.

            --
            My rights don't end where your fear begins.
            • (Score: 4, Informative) by aristarchus on Saturday August 26 2017, @05:39PM

              by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday August 26 2017, @05:39PM (#559507) Journal

              What? Some slapped an unjustified Spam mod on you, TMB? I feel your pain! And, hope the back is feeling better.

            • (Score: 3, Informative) by aristarchus on Sunday August 27 2017, @01:59AM (5 children)

              by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday August 27 2017, @01:59AM (#559678) Journal

              Whine? Did it hurt, Buzzard, when they pulled the Spam mod off of you? Did you realize that me giving you a Spam mod could be nothing but symbolic and ironic? DeathMonkey nearly died in an act of civil disobedience to make this point, and this is how the staff of SN behave? Expect much more discussion.

              • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday August 27 2017, @10:31AM (3 children)

                You got the mod-ban you asked for. Stop complaining.

                --
                My rights don't end where your fear begins.
                • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday August 27 2017, @11:53AM (2 children)

                  by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday August 27 2017, @11:53AM (#559798) Journal

                  Not complaining, social justice warrioring! You cannot tell the difference, you banner of free speech? This is going to get interesting. (Get the double entendre? Banner, like a sign, and banner, as in mod-banning aristarchus? Too much to expect of you?)

                  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday August 28 2017, @12:09AM (1 child)

                    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Monday August 28 2017, @12:09AM (#559966) Journal

                    This is a losing fight. You're not going to win against someone who controls the site itself, especially not someone who claims neutrality but has also on numerous occasions admitted to trolling the site for his own political ends. No, if you actually want to do anything to him, you'll have to do something outside the site, and that can get...questionably legal.

                    --
                    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
                    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 28 2017, @01:42AM

                      A) For my own amusement. I don't have political ends because I don't have political ambitions.

                      B) Everything I do is way out in the open. Show me any line I've crossed.

                      C) I'd suggest buying me a beer. That tends to favorably dispose me towards most anyone.

                      --
                      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
              • (Score: 2) by FakeBeldin on Monday August 28 2017, @08:26AM

                by FakeBeldin (3360) on Monday August 28 2017, @08:26AM (#560100) Journal

                Nice troll! You got a thread going, and even got modded insightful!
                I'm enjoying the thread, so I'm not going to mod you troll for it, but you deserve acknowledgement. So: kudos, well played!

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @11:47PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 28 2017, @11:47PM (#560589)

              "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it..."

      • (Score: 2) by martyb on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:08PM (6 children)

        by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 26 2017, @10:08PM (#559598) Journal

        Since you mentioned the spam mod, I just re-read the moderation FAQ. The examples of garbage posts are the sort of thing I was in the habit of modding as just "troll". I guess I usually think of advertising as spam, and I don't recall if... that other site.. always had a spam mod. Very old habit.

        If marking as spam instead of just troll makes a difference, it might be worth it for others to re-read that section of the faq: " rel="url2html-15895">https://soylentnews.org/meta/faq.pl?op=moderation#spam

        Yes, I noticed that this morning when reviewing a spam mod.

        I disagreed with the spam moderation a particular comment. Wanted to point the one who did the moderation to the Spam Mod guidelines in the Moderation FAQ. So, I reread the FAQ. Saw that two of the examples given were actually pointing at comments that were not moderated as spam. :/ (Out of three: one was actually moderated as spam and two others were moderated as troll.)

        Located two other spam-modded comments and updated the FAQ to point to them.

        --
        Wit is intellect, dancing.
        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday August 27 2017, @12:33AM (5 children)

          Bytram, most of those examples were around before the Spam moderation existed. There's no error there.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.
          • (Score: 2) by NCommander on Sunday August 27 2017, @02:21PM

            by NCommander (2) Subscriber Badge <michael@casadevall.pro> on Sunday August 27 2017, @02:21PM (#559847) Homepage Journal

            To be fair, our documentation should be up to date. I don't actively check the Spam mod logs, but if I see a comment marked Spam that isn't, I'll reverse it, and check the mod history of the user to determine if it's a misclick or abuse.

            --
            Still always moving
          • (Score: 2) by martyb on Wednesday August 30 2017, @01:49PM (3 children)

            by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 30 2017, @01:49PM (#561495) Journal

            I respectfully disagree that the documentation was okay.

            I was specifically referring to the 'here' links which appear in the Examples part of the Spam Mod [soylentnews.org] section of the moderation FAQ.

            Here #1 *was* moderated as 'Troll', Here #2 *was* moderated as 'Flamebait', only the 3rd 'Here' was actually moderated as 'Spam'... not the best of examples.

            Old 1st 'here': https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?cid=123138&sid=5164 [soylentnews.org].

            Old 2nd 'here': https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?sid=11580&cid=287626 [soylentnews.org].

            Side note: I could be mistaken, but it seems like I needed to escape ampersands when providing links using the template editor '&cid=1234' now needs to be coded as '&amp;cid=1234'

            --
            Wit is intellect, dancing.
            • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday August 30 2017, @10:14PM (2 children)

              by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday August 30 2017, @10:14PM (#561780) Homepage Journal

              What I am saying is that what the examples were moderated is irrelevant. There are several reasons a piece or chain of spam could be moderated other than Spam and still be a fine example. In the case of the examples it was because they existed before anyone could moderate them Spam, unless I'm badly mistaken.

              --
              My rights don't end where your fear begins.
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 05 2017, @06:37AM (1 child)

                by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 05 2017, @06:37AM (#563672)

                If there aren't enough examples that have actually been moderated as spam, that's very telling.