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Old 03-06-13, 02:22 PM   #1
WatterBoy
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Default State of the forums

Below is a copy of the first post from this thread.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin View Post
Dear Friends,

I wanted to post and share with everyone two things...

First, I want to share and express my sincere thanks and gratitude for your loyal fellowship and support here at the BassFishin.Com Forums. We have an incredible family here. I am always in awe of the kindness and generosity that comes from our members, as fishermen, and as friends. I am in debt to the many members that call our forum "home" that have been integral in making it what it is today. I am very proud.

Secondly, as many of you are aware, we have had problems with spam bots registering and posting on the site. This has been a problem for awhile and I have taken many steps to slow the flood of posts made by these bots. However, they continue to get by all preventative measures and still are flooding the boards.

I am committed to putting a stop to this, and will do everything I can to ensure the quality of our forum is maintained, and that we continue to improve and grow together successfully.

A recent conversation with John (aka. bamabassman) has brought to light that there is potential for getting help with moderation, to help prevent spam bots from gaining access to the forums. I think this is a great idea and I know this is an option with the forum software, but will look into how exactly to implement it, since I have not done it before.

So here is what's going to happen...
1. Going to update the forums to STOP spam registrations
2. Going to implement moderators to help maintain integrity of forums
3. Kevin (me) will regularly monitor the boards
4. We will delete all existing spam accounts and posts
5. Clean up "Who's online" to not show spam bots
All the above changes are going to be my first priority this week, and I promise to fix everything. We have an incredible group of people here, and I refuse to let anything stand in the way of us being able to talk and chat freely without problems. I want to do my part and make that happen.

I am in a debt of gratitude to many members on the site, with special thanks to bamabassman (John) for staying in touch with me and always looking out for the members.

Good days are ahead. We have a new fishing season upon us, and it is my goal to bring a new sense of fun and enjoyment to the forums.

Stay tuned for these updates and upgrades. I will be sure to post back as things progress.

Thank you to everyone again for your loyal support and fellowship.

Take care,
Kevin
Bama, maybe we need you to get in touch with Kevin again and see what's up. We have seen the stoppage of spam registrations, but at the cost of not allowing *anyone* to register. It's progress, I guess, but it seems like we lose a lot by being closed to "real" new member registrations.

And what about steps 2 and 3 that were also going to happen as a "first priority" almost two months ago?

Some sort of update of where all these things stand sure would be nice.
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Old 03-06-13, 02:52 PM   #2
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Originally Posted by WatterBoy View Post
It's progress, I guess, but it seems like we lose a lot by being closed to "real" new member registrations.

And what about steps 2 and 3 that were also going to happen as a "first priority" almost two months ago?

Some sort of update of where all these things stand sure would be nice.
I'm still too new and disliked by enough of the "old timers" here to risk saying anything too hateful but.......not appointing a trusted moderator isn't making a lot of sense to me. Not to mention the site being closed to new members.
The drones referred to in this quote from Bryan in the thread you linked aren't the answer IMHO....."Kevin uses highly efficient cyborg worker drones to monitor the forums. They're kind of like a Terminator, but meaner."
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Old 03-06-13, 10:01 PM   #3
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ok dean...i'll see waht i can find out buddy.
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Old 03-07-13, 01:53 AM   #4
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Originally Posted by kennethdaysale View Post
I'm still too new and disliked by enough of the "old timers" here to risk saying anything too hateful but.......not appointing a trusted moderator isn't making a lot of sense to me. Not to mention the site being closed to new members.
The drones referred to in this quote from Bryan in the thread you linked aren't the answer IMHO....."Kevin uses highly efficient cyborg worker drones to monitor the forums. They're kind of like a Terminator, but meaner."
Kenneth, let me explain why there has never been a moderator and why Kevin is hesitant to put one in place.

His goal for the forum from the beginning was for its members to be self moderating. If there's any trouble, it runs its course or is chased off. You can go back through the archives and see this first hand in a number of incidents.

This self moderation works fairly well (at least in my opinion) for normal forum trolls and people who just love to stir up trouble. What it cannot protect us from is spam, and that's where we must rely on Kevin.

That is why many of the long timers want to put mods into place now, not to disrupt our self moderation of trouble makers, but to help control the spam problem.

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Old 03-07-13, 08:05 AM   #5
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I stumbled across this site in early 2011 6 months before I joined. As a guest I would often plunder around the forums and search topics. I already participated in a handful of other forums discussing everything from fishing to horticulture to off-roading to politics. Some of those were heavily moderated some lightly but none were self moderated. IMHO self moderating is a euphemism for not moderated. Every successful board that I know of has mods, sometimes its just 2 or 3 sometimes 3 or 4 hundred, depending on the size. Don't get me wrong the relaxed family feel of this site is one reason I joined, but I just assumed it was being moderated with a very light touch. Some of the most fun I've had here has been watching or being involved in some heated threads that wouldn't have a prayer of lasting more than a few seconds on a board with heavy handed mods. Still and with all due respect to your past ability to "let it run it's course or chase off" problems, I've got to wonder how much more vibrant, engaging, growing and relevant this forum could be with just a little control. Again this is just me but having a forum with no real moderators is like having a Bass Pro Shops run on the honor system " just take what you need then leave your money in the bucket because we don't need any cashiers"
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Old 03-07-13, 10:38 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by kennethdaysale View Post
I stumbled across this site in early 2011 6 months before I joined. As a guest I would often plunder around the forums and search topics. I already participated in a handful of other forums discussing everything from fishing to horticulture to off-roading to politics. Some of those were heavily moderated some lightly but none were self moderated. IMHO self moderating is a euphemism for not moderated. Every successful board that I know of has mods, sometimes its just 2 or 3 sometimes 3 or 4 hundred, depending on the size. Don't get me wrong the relaxed family feel of this site is one reason I joined, but I just assumed it was being moderated with a very light touch. Some of the most fun I've had here has been watching or being involved in some heated threads that wouldn't have a prayer of lasting more than a few seconds on a board with heavy handed mods. Still and with all due respect to your past ability to "let it run it's course or chase off" problems, I've got to wonder how much more vibrant, engaging, growing and relevant this forum could be with just a little control. Again this is just me but having a forum with no real moderators is like having a Bass Pro Shops run on the honor system " just take what you need then leave your money in the bucket because we don't need any cashiers"
I definitely see where you're coming from. And I cannot honestly say whether or not the forum would be better now if there had been some level of moderation present.

But I've been around a few forums myself (fishing, trucks, photography, cooking, knives, herpetoculture, and more). All have been moderated at least somewhat, except this board. I can however draw correlation to the amount of moderation at the general atmosphere of the forum. And generally, the more moderation, the "worse" the atmosphere.

I've seen again and again how excessive moderation leads to nothing but a forum full of whiny people with built up issues that never get resolved. There is an Ohio fishing forum like this. They get A LOT of exposure but it's so heavily moderated that people are constantly bickering, but nothing ever happens but threads getting closed. I get on once in a great while to sell stuff due to their high exposure.

Two of my favorite forums as far as atmosphere goes have very little moderation. The TT forums are one. I feel they do a great job of moderating over there.

I can give you multiple examples, on this forum, of how moderation could have stopped heated arguments, but would have probably caused a continued state of "sub-moderation-level bickering" between parties involved. One of the reasons so many love this site is the atmosphere. And while it is mainly due to the people, I don't think it would be possible with moderators in place to control arguments.

BB
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Old 03-07-13, 11:20 AM   #7
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I think this site does very well with "people" issues. The members do a pretty good job of self-regulating. However, it doesn't do so well with bot/spammer issues. I think that if there were a moderator or moderators on here, their job should/would be 95% dealing with bots and spammers, and only in extreme cases of abuse by or of a member would the mods get involved. It might be an option to have an anonymous moderator....one of the regular members either gets another "dummy" account with moderator access (screen name "Moderator", or something else equally nonanthropomorphic) so no one knows who the moderator is, or that member simply moderates behind the scenes, never mentioning that they're the one responsible for threads being locked, spam deleted, etc.
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Old 03-07-13, 11:49 AM   #8
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I think this site does very well with "people" issues. The members do a pretty good job of self-regulating. However, it doesn't do so well with bot/spammer issues. I think that if there were a moderator or moderators on here, their job should/would be 95% dealing with bots and spammers, and only in extreme cases of abuse by or of a member would the mods get involved. It might be an option to have an anonymous moderator....one of the regular members either gets another "dummy" account with moderator access (screen name "Moderator", or something else equally nonanthropomorphic) so no one knows who the moderator is, or that member simply moderates behind the scenes, never mentioning that they're the one responsible for threads being locked, spam deleted, etc.
I like this idea a lot. Plus, that keeps people from putting pressure on the moderators to do their bidding.
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Old 03-07-13, 11:58 AM   #9
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My understanding is that Bots and Spam are best regulated through software not moderaters.

Sometimes it's as simple as a confirmation question like 2+2 you give answer. You then allowed to post.

Another easy fix is to disallow HTML in posts.

Couple of ideas;

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum...istration-bots

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum...ms-more-secure
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Old 03-07-13, 02:38 PM   #10
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sorry i haven't had time to send kevin a message gang. i will try to send one today ok? i'll ask him to look at THIS thread ok?

actually jsut sent him a text. hopefully he will let us know something ok?
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Old 03-07-13, 03:05 PM   #11
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OK, Peanut. (see if he can figure that one out...)
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Old 03-07-13, 08:19 PM   #12
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I like this idea a lot. Plus, that keeps people from putting pressure on the moderators to do their bidding.
I've been kicking this moderator thing around in my head today and a couple of things occured to me. I too like the anonymous idea but since we're "mostly" adults here I can envision problems no matter what.
For example....let's say hypothetically that a veteran high post member here.....we'll call him bruce, is given mod powers........we've all got biases in one way or another. If again hypothetically....this mod just don't like me or whoever.....that might influence his decisions. If so I'd be understandably upset. By the same token if I was a mod I could see my own bias perhaps clouding my judgement. Case in point.....last year we had a young member.........let's call him wallywallace.....there wasn't anything really wrong with the kid, he was just the type that got under my skin with his incessant trifling posts. I could see myself being unfair to him. I've heard yall say and Sam admit that back when he joined he was the typical middle school basser and worried you guys to death. What a shame it would have been to ruin this experience for him just because he was aggravating at first. Same goes for ole wally....as time goes by he might grow into one of the sites favorite people.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's probably a bit more complicated than it might look at face value.
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Old 03-07-13, 08:50 PM   #13
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Hi Everyone,

Thought I'd write a quick note to everyone to let you know I will be reopening the boards to new registrations tomorrow.

I have eliminated the problem of all the spam bots registering and being on the boards. It was actually a pretty complex situation that took considerably longer to figure out than I had hoped. But as of now, all things are good on the spam bot front--they are not overloading the server.

So tomorrow I will be opening registrations and have some extra help to moderate all new registrations to prevent spam bots from getting through.

Thank you everyone for your continued patience and support. I very much appreciate the many kind words that have been expressed in this thread. This forum has flourished because of the self-moderation of members, which has proven to be a unique attribute of the BFC forums!

Thanks and I'll be in touch soon! Take care and good fishin'!
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Old 03-07-13, 09:43 PM   #14
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thank oyu kevin!!! once agian, i think our leader has a handle on things gang.


kevin...we look forward to seeing what is in store for our beloved site in the coming days.
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Old 03-07-13, 10:32 PM   #15
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Thank goodness. I hate mods. Ken hit it on the head. Biased, big headed, self decreeing demigods.
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Old 03-07-13, 11:28 PM   #16
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Thanks again Kevin for stepping in and taking care of things. This continues to be one of the finest sites on the internet.
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Old 03-08-13, 09:09 PM   #17
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Thank goodness. I hate mods. Ken hit it on the head. Biased, big headed, self decreeing demigods.
I don't care for the generalization because I'm a moderator on a couple of forums and am very laid back and loath to change anything unless absolutely necessary.

However, your description is spot-on with some forums. But ultimately the mods work for the owner who issues the guidelines and allows the type of moderating that you (and I) find so distasteful. So blame the owner for the majority of the situation and the mods for the rest for being so eager to over-moderate and show their muscle.
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Old 03-08-13, 09:40 PM   #18
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Marty, that's just my observation of a few different forums. Some mods seem to have their favorites. I do agree though, not all are that way. I've never had a run in with any of them. I was just giving my opinion of the kind I described in my first post. Thank you for the clarification. I think you would be a great mod if Kevin ever decides to have them.
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Old 03-13-13, 10:28 PM   #19
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Quote:
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Hi Everyone,

Thought I'd write a quick note to everyone to let you know I will be reopening the boards to new registrations tomorrow.

So tomorrow I will be opening registrations and have some extra help to moderate all new registrations to prevent spam bots from getting through.

I'll be in touch soon!
Looks like this problem is going to harder to solve than
the cold muddy water bite.
the chicken or the egg query
out of control federal spending/debt/deficit/regs
the reason why 75% of lesbians are overweight
time travel
shape shifting
casting 1/16 jigs into a 20 knot headwind
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Old 03-13-13, 10:31 PM   #20
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at least they can't post anyting kenneth. i can live them being on the bottom of the front page. as long as they can't comment or post i am fine.
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Old 03-14-13, 05:35 AM   #21
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I can live with them being on the bottom of the front page. as long as they can't comment or post i am fine.
John I understand what you're saying and all but still...why would you if you don't have to?
I can live with having to pump my brakes... as long as they eventually work
I can live with a rock in my shoe... as long as I can still manage to hobble around
I can live with four dollar gas... as long as I don't need to go very far
I can live with a decreased libido... as long as she don't wander
I can live with a leaky roof... as long as I've got enough buckets
I can live with being surrounded by mediocrity and ineptitude... as long as they've got an excuse
I can live with unrepentant sin in my life as... long as I've got hope for a death bed redemption
I can live with no teeth... as long as there's soup
I can live with diarrea... as long as I'm never more than 10 feet from the toilet
I can live with no half and half... as long as I got milk
I can live with no sausage... as long as I've got bacon
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Old 03-14-13, 12:29 PM   #22
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hahahahaha...ok kenneth....i gotcha pal. hopefully kevin can solve this too. he'll work on it i KNOW. relax my dear friend...take a deep breath, i gotcha back bro.

i htink kevin is trying his BEST to get a program together so we won't see this sort of thing. i hope he is anyway. he'll come back and explain it all i am sure.
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Old 03-19-13, 06:55 AM   #23
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I want to be as quick to acknowledge right as I am to point out wrong. Thanks Kevin for your efforts to clean up the site. I'm sure everyone here feels the same way.
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Old 03-19-13, 01:17 PM   #24
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I want to be as quick to acknowledge right as I am to point out wrong. Thanks Kevin for your efforts to clean up the site. I'm sure everyone here feels the same way.
x2.........
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Old 03-19-13, 05:32 PM   #25
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Go figure! 75%of lesbians are overweight. Who woulda thought that.
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