Forum SPAM seems to be getting worse. I think it might help if new user posts were hidden by default. Once an account has been verified as genuine, those posts can be unhidden, but until then they wouldn’t bother anyone.
Obviously, since a simple strategy won’t catch everything. But it would be better than nothing.
Alternatively, to prevent something like today's downpour from happening, perhaps there could be a limit of posts/X minutes, at least for accounts up to level 2?
If it was a level 1 going rogue, the easiest solution would be to disable Forum access (posting) until X level (or another straightforward trigger). The only real downside is preventing users with technical issues from posting, but I guess they can just go through "Help and Support". Surely people can wait a day or two before posting.
Anything else requires actual development time, and I'm not sure how Michael feels about that.
Re: how bad: it pretty much flooded the forum. New, almost identical spam threads at a rate of several a minute, for about 10 minutes (or at least I stopped watching after that). From a level 1 account, yes. As far as I remember, anyone who is here to actually study will gain a few levels fast enough that early restriction wouldn't be a problem.
I’m all for making Michael’s job easier. The trouble with level-based access is twofold. It’s relatively easy for an AI to circumvent, and it penalizes the clueless newbie.
It seems to me that the number of new users who actually post is still small enough that a manual verification step wouldn’t be too onerous.
I don't think it's getting worse - it was one user, in fact, the first time I believe that a user has posted more than a single spam message. There is already a few things that are in place to avoid certain situations, and if the frequency of issues increases, then I'll consider additional changes.
At this point, I do think the current frequency of bad actors warrants restricting those that come in with questions. It may be rare, but something that effectively says "you are new, and you're making an earnest effort to understand the system by asking a question, but we're going to make it harder for you" is a step am not yet willing to take.
Reporting is extremely helpful, as it alerts me (and a helper who handles most of the reports) via a message, and guarantees that we see the potentially offending issue.
