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posted by martyb on Sunday September 05 2021, @08:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the See-dick-mod.-See-dick-sock-mod.-See-dick-get-banned.-Don't-be-a-dick dept.

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These volunteers give selflessly of their spare time to try and make sure we keep the stories coming. Please join me in thanking them for their generous sacrifice of spare time and experience to keep those stories coming!

Tor:
(short for The Onion Router) is in the process of rolling out an updated protocol. ThIs update is NOT compatible with prior versions. SoylentNews has had support from the early days of the site (thanks to NCommander, IIRC). As nobody on staff has experience in this area, our support will cease at any time - the TOR site is saying October. It was laudable at the time. Unfortunately, its more recent use seems to have been primarily by spammers. As such, we could lose access to Tor at anytime as our network "neighbors" either upgrade or find themselves no longer "adjacent" to back-level versions like ours is. You can still access this site using TOR with our normal URL.

Sock Mods
We have been methodically identifying and shutting down sockpuppet accounts. These are NOT allowed. Attempts to bypass the will of the community by controlling multiple accounts is forbidden. One user, one account. Do NOT use another account (or accounts) to upmod one-or-more accounts that you control. If you do not like getting downmods, take a look at the comments you post. Sure, occasionally, someone might mis-moderate a comment by accident (heck, *I* have done it!) In our experience, such errors are generally rare and are frequently followed at some point by others, offsetting moderations.

So: "Sock mods" are being tracked. We are methodically investigating cases. Accounts are being disabled, and never in isolation. It takes agreement by at least two admins, and usually more, for any action to be taken.

If you are generally a positive contributor to the site, such impacts to your karma are usually just "line noise" in the grand scheme of things.

Mod bombs:
In a similar vein, if you disagree with someone, do not attempt to silence them by using multiple accounts to mod their comments down.

We have seen cases of both "mod bombs" and "sock mods". We have held back on taking action until we are certain. Any action taken is first confirmed by at least one other staff member. Complaining about moderation is OFF TOPIC and tends to get moderated as such.

Limits
We've previously tried to set concrete limits. "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile." I have personally witnessed cases where one account downmodded another account 4 times in one day. For ten days in a row! That was just enough to avoid getting moderations reversed, but certainly enough to show a concerted effort to moderate the commenter rather than just the comment.

This will no longer be tolerated.

Admins can see who has moderated whom. We talk among ourselves. We discuss cases that come up. It's pretty simple, really: "Don't be a jerk!"

 
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by janrinok on Sunday September 05 2021, @12:51PM (8 children)

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 05 2021, @12:51PM (#1174691) Journal

    We cannot compromise everyone's privacy without changing the entire feel of the site - not that we wish to do so. But dealing with moderation abuse it is fairly simple. They have to log in to moderate. They have told us who they are. There is no deduction involved in identifying the accounts responsible.

    everyone can see who the jerks are.

    As one of the jerks in question is responsible for most of the noise on the subject, I don't think that we need to do that in this case. They were all given the opportunity to contact us directly and privately.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=1, Touché=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 05 2021, @01:00PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 05 2021, @01:00PM (#1174693)

    You say in one breath that they have to log in to moderate, but the article says they're ysing sock puppets. How do you identify sock puppets?

    Also, this, "turn yourself in to us privately!", is some KGB-level stuff. No, this is why the US Constitution provides so many protections for due process in an open court, with the right to see the evidence, confront accusers, pull in experts, etc..

    • (Score: 2) by martyb on Sunday September 05 2021, @02:26PM (6 children)

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 05 2021, @02:26PM (#1174704) Journal

      You say in one breath that they have to log in to moderate, but the article says they're ysing[sic] sock puppets. How do you identify sock puppets?

      Only logged-in users can moderate. We can see the userid of every moderation.

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 05 2021, @02:55PM (5 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 05 2021, @02:55PM (#1174711)

        Whoosh. Sock puppets don't have the same UID. Durr..

        How do you identify sock puppets?

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 05 2021, @04:01PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 05 2021, @04:01PM (#1174722)

          I think it has been explained in rather explicit detail. Users A, B, C, D, E, F, and G all log in about the same time every day. All 7 of them mod the same posts down. All 7 of them mod the same posts up. Since there are not 750,000 users all logging in every day, this block of 7 users are quite visible. Week after week, they establish a clear pattern of log on times, week after week they mod enemies down, and mod each other up. Week after week, they establish a clear pattern of either logging out about the same time and/or simply ceasing activity on the site at the same times. And, it goes on for months. And, months. And months. Worse, some or all of those accounts share the same IP address(es).

          It's not exactly rocket science. It isn't even computer science. A computer nerd could set up a program to graph and chart the stuff, to verify his suspicions, but it doesn't take a genius to recognize such glaring patterns.

          I have to conclude that you are rather dense, or you are phishing for details of admin's methods so you can try to get around admin scrutiny. Dunning-Kruger, much?

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Sunday September 05 2021, @04:37PM (1 child)

          by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Sunday September 05 2021, @04:37PM (#1174733) Journal

          The compromises were all human errors, and we have seen a whole range of them. Despite their claims, they are not always as bright as they think that they are.

          • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 06 2021, @09:07AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 06 2021, @09:07AM (#1174902)

            Despite their claims

            Oh wise and omnipotent janrinok, what claims were those? I don't think I have seen any.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 06 2021, @04:14PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 06 2021, @04:14PM (#1175012)

          > How do you identify sock puppets?

          AI.

        • (Score: 2) by Fnord666 on Monday September 06 2021, @05:44PM

          by Fnord666 (652) on Monday September 06 2021, @05:44PM (#1175046) Homepage

          How do you identify sock puppets?

          Failures in basic operational security.