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After experiencing extensive spamming, ad-hominem attacks, and trolling it became necessary to protect the site by preventing all Anonymous Coward (AC) comments by anyone who was not logged in. This was a reluctant measure but it proved to be 99.9% effective. It was however, far from ideal. It partially isolated many of the responsible ACs who contribute regularly to the site and provide a valuable input to many of our discussions. They are still able to use journals for posting as the editors of SoylentNews have no control over the content of journals or the comments made in them.
I sought an alternative solution and provided access to some of the stories on the front page and marked them as AC Friendly. I had hoped by demonstrating to those abusing the site that there was a simple solution that they would perhaps cease, or at least return to previously manageable levels. Unfortunately this was not to be. The abuse restarted almost immediately and has continued in every AC Friendly story that has been published. It has clearly demonstrated that this isn't a case of the abusers defending free speech or any other laudable and justifiable aim but simply an attempt to prevent the majority of the community from holding any form of discussion at all. I am not continuing the AC Friendly stories on the main page with the sole exception of this Meta story.
I next tried to switch the attempts to include our AC community around by providing stories from the front page initially to my own journal, but subsequently to the journal of a new account named 'AC Friendly'. This was rather labour intensive and was not something that I could continue to do in the long term. These efforts have been ignored and do not seem to be of any interest to the AC community. Likewise I will not continue this effort unless there is evidence that it is wanted.
There are many perfectly understandable reasons for wishing to post comments as an Anonymous Coward. This was recognised when the original Slashdot code was written and provision was made for such individuals in the software. It is a straightforward matter to log in to the site and then automatically post as AC from then on. This both protects the site itself and those using it. If your justification is that you do not trust the staff then I must question why you would want to remain on the site.
Free speech is an essential part of our ethos but it is necessary to realise that free speech and anonymity are not necessarily related. We want people to be able to express their views without fear of harassment, abuse, or unfair moderation. Only by doing so can we truly claim to have free speech. It means that even those with whom we strongly disagree have the right to express their opinions. Subsequent attempts to argue against those views should not involve any form of harassment of the individual making them. Any attempt to prevent someone from expressing their views is directly counter to the very concept of 'free speech'.
Likewise, anonymity is something to be valued. Attempts to unmask either named or anonymous accounts is unacceptable to this site's administration and will not be tolerated. Those who publish information that appears credible to us must be deterred from continuing by whatever means are necessary. We cannot verify every claim made regarding the personal information of a community member and we must therefore assume that it is has some basis in truth and is an attempt at doxing. It does not matter where the information stated in the claim originates or whether it has been stated on this site or elsewhere previously. If it has the potential to unmask a community member it will be treated as doxing. The site will do all it can to protect community members. We are also fortunate that in the 8 years we have been operating we have only had one account that felt it was an acceptable thing to do. That account has been closed.
There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the toxic environment that has developed on the site has cost us numerous valued community members - both staff and regular contributors of submissions and comments. It cannot be allowed to continue. There is also no doubt that there is a straightforward and simple solution, and that is to prevent AC participation without the creation of an account. The software was designed to do this and it is wasted effort trying to find alternatives when it is unnecessary to do so.
There has been quite a bit of discussion over the last week or so. We have had a former community member (who was also once a member of staff) return to the site with his own story. Initially he chose to remain anonymous but subsequently decided to continue his comments under his username. I encourage you all to read the link given and the subsequent comments given in reply. I am very grateful that has taken the effort to explain why he has did what he has done and I welcome him back to our community if he choses to stay. As part of my reply to him I made the following statement:
It is vitally important that everyone is able to express their own point of view without harassment or intimidation or even unfair moderation. We do not all agree with each other. That is the same in any community. But by full, frank and honest discussion we can at least understand each others point of view and possibly identify potential solutions. The freedom of expression is still essential on the site - but it can only exist if we can ensure that it can be conducted in a suitable environment.
I stand by that statement. Since that comment was published I have received other views and experiences of the toxicity of our site from a significant number of individuals, including regular community members and both current and former staff. Quite simply, if we do not change then in all likelihood we will not survive much longer. It is not too late to make the necessary changes but time is running out.
I promised you that no changes would be made to how the site operates without first giving you all the chance to express your own opinions. But you have to decide now which path you want the site to follow. This cannot be a simple vote - as an extreme example we have no way of verifying that AC comments are not the result of a single person, or if some sock-puppets are still active on the site. Everyone has the right to be heard. However, let me point out a few rules:
- Any attempt to disrupt this Meta by spamming, ad-hominem attacks or trolling abuse will count as someone expressing an opinion that we should insist on accounts for all those wishing to post as AC. If anyone thinks that by abusing the site they will be helping their case they are mistaken. However, such actions will clearly show to the community that those who have been making the most noise about being prevented from expressing themselves are not actually fighting for free speech, but rather they are determined to prevent you from exercising your right to it.
- It will be pointless to keep repeating the same views as an AC. We cannot separate them. You want to be anonymous, you choose to have the account ID #1, and this, unfortunately, is a direct consequence to that decision.
- All views will be collated and then a decision will be made based upon them by the staff. This will include the SN Board who may accept that decision, but who have the right to choose the path that the site eventually takes. It may not be the decision that any of us want.
This is an important issue. It cannot be a simple vote but I encourage as many people as possible to express their opinions. It might be the last chance for you to do so. The Meta will stay active for several days to at least mid-week - but if it is abused excessively then it will be taken down and we will be forced to make a decision base on whatever views we already have or can get from elsewhere. I will endeavour to move the Meta in the story queue so that it remains on the front page. Many of our community log on at different times of the day or only on specific days. I would like to give everyone a chance to see the Meta story and to make their views known.
This is your opportunity - please do not waste it.
[Ed's Comment: See bold text - warning 2022-07-10 12:36 UTC]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 13 2022, @12:55AM (2 children)
Mark of the Beast! Could it be, SATAN? Why would Satan want to block AC posting?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 13 2022, @01:12AM
Everybody knows it's slashdot users with nicks suffixed by 667 that are God's special NSA psyop crew.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Thursday July 14 2022, @10:24AM
Satan's undemocratic Marxist liberal fascist Metropolitan elite, probably a lefty human rights lawyer, hates his country and wants to silence brave patriots who post as AC.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Hyper on Wednesday July 13 2022, @01:26AM
For all of your hard work and care keeping this site alive and available for us to use. I appreciate what you have done and the community we have built.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by quadrox on Wednesday July 13 2022, @09:25AM (4 children)
I dont't think that "banning" pure AC posts is a solution, those ACs who want to ruin this site will just make throwaway accounts, and it's clear that you can't prevent them from doing so, or we wouldn't have this problem to begin with.
The only solution I see is one of the following two:
1) As someone else suggested, AC posts are invisble until someone with positive karma approves them. Probably most effectice and most reliable, but also most draconic solution.
2) Introduce a "Garbage" moderation for posts that have no intent to be a real contribution to the discussion. Mods of this kind should be peer reviewed, either through meta-modding like on the green site, or in some other way, to prevent abuse. The rule should be that this moderation can ONLY be used on the pure garbage posts. Deviating from that rule should include its own penalties.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Opportunist on Wednesday July 13 2022, @09:59AM (3 children)
Sorry, but as anyone who ever tried to debate a gish-gallopping apologist will attest, it's way easier and faster to come up with bullshit than to squelch it. I just don't think it could ever get interesting to weed through 100 spam messages about someone's personal vendetta against someone else where there is no instrument on this planet sensitive enough to notice just how little I care about either of them or their vendetta.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 13 2022, @05:47PM (2 children)
I think your comment could stand to better distinguish what you mean by 'spam' vs 'vendetta'. Or rather, perhaps what you are trying to say is "lets make this site not a place to welcome people who wish to write over a hundred/N words per day on this site that the vast majority of users wouldn't be glad to have had to skim through.
But then I think it boils down to that other comment about the two site admins reading at mod>=2 vs unfiltered. It does seem like there are people advocating in this thread that wish to see the unfiltered stream be reasonably readable by ?all? users. My thinking now goes towards the question of - is the data size of this spam a threat to the system as a whole. If not, I'd like to see the relative (from dead tree perspectives) tons of crap stay, just being basically invisible to the vast majority of users whose site browsing preferences preclude them from ever seeing it.
I for one, when this site launched, valued a site where people could spout as much grief about their personal vendettas in comments as they want, knowing that the system was cool enough that the vast majority of users would never see their comments because of the available per-user site-browsing configuration settings. (and defaults for non-logged in users that made AC comments not visible without an extra click or three).
-modwotac
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Opportunist on Thursday July 14 2022, @02:06PM (1 child)
Spam, vendetta, agenda, agitation... there's more than one reason and motivation to throw garbage at people they don't want to read.
But ponder what the "mod>=2" thing would lead to. Given a flood of pointless drivel if browsed at anything below +2, it would be an experience not unlike a lack of a spam filter in your mailbox. This in turn means that everyone will eventually do it. Except for the new guy. The one who just came in for the first time and doesn't know that this is pretty much mandatory if you want to sensibly use the site.
So that new guy comes in, sees a flood of agenda spam, rolls his eyes and leaves, never to come back again.
And sooner or later, the site is dead.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 14 2022, @11:10PM
I think you misunderstood what I was suggesting. I suggest that the default mod-threshold level that new people get, is high enough they don't see the stuff that has been modded down, or freshly posted (logged in or not) AC content. Which is sort of how it is already. My impression of janrinok's issue is that they want to be able to read at a lower than new-user-default threshold, and have an experience free from racist trolling, and harassment that doesn't rise to the level of meriting police involvement, and similar spam, vendetta ranting, etc. Or perhaps along the lines of wanting to show their friends/family/colleagues this site that they help maintain, and not be woefully embarassed if the newbie friends/family/colleagues spend 10 minutes playing with the site the first time and stumple across the couple clicks it takes to be confronted with the ascii art swastikas and whatever else. And having said that, I'm now pondering if a potential solution isn't just some kind of a stronger 'are you really sure, no are you really really sure' user interface for that. Or some other way to mitigate the aforementioned embarassment (i.e. get the system so that instead of being able to stumble across the nasty cesspool of Freer Speech, it can only be accessed through a gateway with big flashing neon warning signs and links to treatises on the value of allowing free speech at the expense of the reality that some decent person might actually be confronted with its ugliest aspects).
But alas, all that probably falls back to the 'but for lack of a perl programmer'. But maybe those warning hurdles could be done without touching much or any of the perl code.
It seems perhaps a goal should be getting the system to a point where fresh-ac posts are only first seen by people who have opted in (perhaps only for 15 minutes once a month as a kind of cybercivic volunteerism/duty) to being 'fresh-ac-post initial moderators'. But again, we sort of have that already. But yeah, it would certainly help to have the ability to experiment more easily with changes to the mod/metamod system. I've mentioned in another comment I'd put up $10 for a feature bounty. I'm sure I can up that to $100 given very specific criterion.
Although separately I'll point out another thought- If the current fractional/ac-friendly thing is workable, I'm fine as a non-logged-in-ac if there is just one catch-all ac-friendly thread per day (or even just a single one re/pinned like this thread is. Sort of a non-logged-in-ac segregation thing. The Free Speech ghetto as it were, except I'd be fine with it. Just so long as I can satisfy my desire to spew a rant (without logging in) whenever I feel like it. And while satisfying people like me, it might successfully not satisfy the less-legitimate advocates that want to use it for actual traditional 'spam'.
-modwotac
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bradley13 on Wednesday July 13 2022, @09:27AM (10 children)
Ok, I wasn't going to comment, but: it's time to shut down ACs. It's not like SoylentNews is a haven for political dissidents who need total anonymity.
Every story marked "AC friendly" gets filled with idiotic and useless comments. It's tiresome and annoying, and we have no obligation to provide a platform for AC drivel. Time to shut it down.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by janrinok on Wednesday July 13 2022, @09:54AM (9 children)
To be honest - most of the AC comments today are actually reasonable apart from one, perhaps two, individuals who are intent on forcing the issue so that they can say that they caused SN's downfall. Which is, it has to be said, the stated aim of the more mentally ill of them. The fact that such an outcome would not necessarily the end result of choosing to ban ACs doesn't seem to have occurred to him/them.
The argument that by creating a false account he will defeat the ban is not accurate. Aristarchus cannot just post as AC, in his view it has to be obvious that it is him actually posting. He wants to be seen as the great hacker who cannot be stopped. But he cannot resist responding to certain usernames (mine, DannyB, khallow, Runaway (of course), and others. If we can see him, we can kill the account.
This is something in which we have quite a bit of experience - he has attempted to create numerous false accounts recently and he is still stuck posting as AC because he has to give himself away or he has failed to achieve his aim. Sometimes we kill them within minutes of them being created, other times we let him waste several days' effort establishing an account with some karma and then block them. It is only a few clicks of a mouse from this end.
The reason for the recent increase in Trolling and spamming is precisely because he cannot keep an account open for very long without compromising it. He is frustrated and now fears that his only playground will be in the journals.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by inertnet on Wednesday July 13 2022, @10:37AM
I still hope you'll find a way to keep the AC's in, but right now banning them seems to be the only way for you to get your own wasted time back. You must have been spending countless hours on the loonies, and in the end they're really not worth it. It has long been established that these two are incapable of understanding what is wrong with them. With every post they're acknowledging that they're incapable of improving their own lives.
I have no problem moderating them down to -1 whenever I see their posts as I'm sure many others will do as well, but if that's not enough then banning AC's is the way to go.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by deimtee on Wednesday July 13 2022, @05:00PM (3 children)
I don't know if it would require coding so it might not be currently feasible, but could you limit new accounts to say 3 or 5 posts per day, for maybe a week after creation?
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by janrinok on Wednesday July 13 2022, @06:18PM
I think that needs a code change, but I will have to trawl through the code to see. There are all sorts of surprises (at least to me) that we do not currently use.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 14 2022, @05:34AM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Thursday July 14 2022, @03:27PM
I said 3 to 5 as a compromise. It's to allow for follow up replies to good AC posts, but still low enough to make spam ignorable.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 13 2022, @06:54PM (3 children)
This is sooooo funny! You really think that this is how aristarchus thinks? And why are you finally resorting to death threats, janrinok?
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday July 13 2022, @07:04PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 13 2022, @10:20PM (1 child)
Killing an account = death threat?
Do you really expect to be taken seriously?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 14 2022, @02:54AM
It sounds like a desperate plea, "Don't you do it! Don't! You... I got nowhere else to go! I got nowhere else to go... I got nothin' else." The questions remain about whether he is an officer or a gentleman.
(Score: 2) by Hyper on Wednesday July 13 2022, @12:40PM (6 children)
We have a poll system, let's use it!
Should AC Posting Be Disabled?
- No
- Yes
- Maybe
- I don't care
- I refuse to acknowledge janrinok
- I would vote on this but I already left for greener pastures
- I don't post you insensitive clod
(Score: 2) by Hyper on Wednesday July 13 2022, @12:55PM
Yes, option 5 is for the one? two? ACs posting conspiracy theories and crap about j. Maybe they might engage in some ballet stuffing.. who knows.. could be a <paranoia mode=on>good honeypot for IPs</paranoia>? :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 13 2022, @12:55PM (1 child)
You forgot a vote option for Cowboy Neal, errm, wait, who's the Cowboy Neal-type here?
(Score: 2) by Hyper on Wednesday July 13 2022, @01:06PM
Well, that's the last one.
For a lot of polls - I did check - that have 'Other (please specify in comments)'. Older polls has the insensitive clod option.
I guess for SN the CBN option is "NCommander"
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 13 2022, @02:38PM
Ahhhhh, yes, the polls.
I commented once that the polls should be updated more regularly. I didn't decline, or accept the invitation at the time. But I thought about it. A few times, I've considered volunteering for the job.
Alas - in view of events over the past couple years, for me to join the staff in any capacity would be viewed horribly. I would be like a poison pill to some people.
Maybe we need a poll: Who would accept Runaway as a staff member, so long as Runaway had zero admin capability?
On second thought, let's just keep that as a mental experiment. Portions of the community would experience head assplosions if it ever happened.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday July 13 2022, @03:00PM (1 child)
How do you let ACs vote? You cannot get a fair vote with the poll system. ACs change their IPs frequently. The whole point of them doing what they do is that they hope they cannot be identified, therefore they can vote numerous times under the different IP addresses.
The poll only works for logged in members, providing that we can be reasonably sure that their aren't too many sleeping sock puppets. How many of the accounts over 10000 are genuine? I have got over 2000 which I can say categorically are NOT genuine, and they are the obvious ones that I can filter using software. If there had been an easier and fairer way then I would have chosen it in preference to what I am doing now!
I pointed this fact out in TFS.
(Score: 2) by Hyper on Thursday July 14 2022, @01:27PM
Hence why I thought it might be interest. For the humor value if nothing else.
I'm fairly certain the sock puppets would choose the troll option.. but then what a nice way to find them? :P
I can't see one either. The main issue is that you have humans dedicated to being pricks. When they find a flaw they automate it to exploit it. Other than the trusty well proven ball pein hammer approach, what can you do :(
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 13 2022, @03:34PM (1 child)
I have an account here. Created very early during the migration from the other site. I've logged in a few times. Can't remember my password any more.
I choose to post AC. For a couple reasons. One, I don't want to make it easy for my company to find comments from me that they could find "objectionable" and lead to my unemployment. Yes, a real concern; it's happened to multiple people already. And, no, I'm not an extremist. My company has developed some new restrictions over the past few years that follow the political winds in the USA. I generally like my job, other than the company's more visible politics. Two, I could find or reset my password, login and then choose to post AC. But that's a hassle. I post maybe 2-3 times a month. And I don't moderate, obviously. I like to contribute, though, when it's appropriate.
On the topic of the perl programmer needs. perl isn't that hard to learn. I did it on the job at one point - had to fake it until I made it. Like any language, there is an initial learning curve, but it's not bad. You all should be able to find a perl programmer who can volunteer some time to make changes to the codebase. If you can't, you should look at why you can't attract a perl programmer, as that may be the more important question. I'd volunteer, but I've got too many things going on now already (inside and outside work).
I hope you find a workable solution to continue AC comments. If not, I'll try to continue reading, but it's likely I'll drop off like I did at undeadly.org when they went to login only comments.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by quietus on Wednesday July 13 2022, @06:57PM
If you were a regular at undeadly.org, you have the skills to work on this site. Putting the load of all changes in the codebase onto a single Perl programmer though (ever found a Perl programmer with time on his or her hands, btw?) is, in my view, not morally right.
You're asking a single person to sacrifice time spent on family, friends, his or her life, which is short. In return, that person gets a thank-you once or twice a year, while you enjoy your career and nights-on-town. What's more, that single person has to work on an existing codebase, not a project of his own. Skim the source code, and you'll find perl files with 3000+ lines of actual code: that's look-ma-no-hands-! programming to me.
If we're going to handle this, we'll need a team, so that at least you're not alone with your hysterical laughter.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 13 2022, @04:52PM (1 child)
In the years since Soylent has started I've watched the other site decay and it wasn't because of web 2.0 stylesheets or DICE ownership. It was the stubborn way that the site operated like it was 2002 regardless of what was happening on the rest of the net. Having AC on was enough to attract trolls and shills from across the net well out of proportion to what you'd expect given the size of the userbase. For me the site became worthless and not enjoyable for its' intended purpose. It was however a great place to troll and be an asshole and given the state of the site there was little reason not to do so. I love anonymous forums but they simply dont work in an era when you can have whole cubicle farms of people essentially raiding them for hire and you're one of the most accessible and unmoderated places on the net.
The green site is making efforts to turn the site around, my own account was banned which I actually took as a good sign. Good on Soylent for not putting itself in the position the other site is in now.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 13 2022, @10:26PM
Well, most of that social media is garbage. What really has happened in the past 20 years that the site should have used?
Properly abused, every site is an anonymous forum.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by GlennC on Wednesday July 13 2022, @06:06PM
I don't think I've ever used the "AC" option, either here or on the Green Site.
That doesn't mean that I don't see a use for it. In some situations it could be potentially useful, but I don't think I've ever run into a situation where I would use it.
This reminds me of a somewhat similar discussion I contributed to on Kuro5hin.org (and yes, I am that old) where I said that while I appreciated the opportunity to give my opinion, the decision should be made by those who have more on the line than I do.
When it comes down to it this site belongs to the Soylent News staff and subscribers. While I for one appreciate the opportunity to voice my opinion, the decision is not mine to make.
I will stand by whatever the SN team decides.
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday July 13 2022, @07:56PM
Putting this here to make it official: I support continuing to allow AC only when logged in.
I see a lot of ACs here blaming the admins. My suggestion is for those ACs to take a look in a mirror to see who is at fault.
If this is no longer acceptable to you? The door's over there; don't let it hit you on the way out. I for one won't miss you.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mcgrew on Wednesday July 13 2022, @09:56PM
Thank you for posting this.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rupert Pupnick on Wednesday July 13 2022, @10:22PM
Only permit AC posting after logging in.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 14 2022, @01:24AM
GIVE IT TO ME ONE MORE TIME
ONCE IS NEVER ENOUGH
FOR A COCK LIKE YOURS
(Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 14 2022, @08:52AM (1 child)
Some may think that literature or song lyrics are spam, but when there are such uncanny parallels, it seems fit to share them.
Moby Dick, Chapter 135 - The Chase - Third Day (oh, here: https://americanliterature.com/author/herman-melville/book/moby-dick-or-the-whale/chapter-135-the-chase-third-day [americanliterature.com] [americanliterature.com] )
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 14 2022, @04:20PM
Yeah, sure. Because you could find a metaphor in classic American literature, it means that Soylent News is DOOMED unless ACs are allowed to post without accounts..
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 14 2022, @03:40PM (3 children)
I am just some random nobody who loves to read geeky stuff on the Internet and occasionally interact with people who are reading the same things.
I no longer frequent Slashdot as I had nearly since its start because I can no longer post without an account (rare as it was), and have moved to reading comments and articles on Soylentnews specifically because it is still possible to do so.
I made an account here very soon after this site went live, maybe logged in once, long ago forgot the password, and cannot be bothered to have it reset or even to just make another account for the rare time I post here.
While I understand the issues facing you folks who run the site, I really hope that banning true AC posting is not a permanent thing, and that should funding and/or a competent perl programmer comes along, that useful mitigations can be put in place to allow a return to the way things were before the spamming began, minus the majority of the disruptions.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Friday July 15 2022, @02:26PM (2 children)
I can assure you that the staff feel exactly the same way. If we can find an alternative solution that prevents the abuse then we will. But, ultimately, if that abuse continues to drive community members away then it is not a solution.
This morning (Friday 15th June), the spamming began again on AC Friendly stories. I took the only option open to me. I removed all AC Friendly story permissions. It will stay that way for at least 48 hours. I have got 805 comments to sort through and I am too busy to have to battle with protecting the site from idiots.
If a handful of ACs can't see what they are doing is preventing a lot of reasonable ACs from using the site then I am not optimistic that another solution exists. No matter what they claim, they don't care what anybody else wants. They simply don't appear to want the site to exist.
(Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Friday July 15 2022, @02:28PM (1 child)
If you give me your username I can change the password for you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 18 2022, @02:19PM
Thanks, reset it myself. 3 times (sleep deprived) :-/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 21 2022, @12:13AM
Here's an idea. Give users with high karma high or unlimited mod points.
Alternnatively, do not count spam or garbage modding from high karma users against their quota.
Crowdsource the issue.
If people are willing to put ther hand up, grant a invisible role of spam squasher to have the ability to find and demod bad comments.