Anti-Spam Methods

Hi,

Right now I'm working on the Anti-Spam Work Group. (One of the work groups headed by Dalimar)

As we're getting started, we need to send out some "feelers" for information.

Please in this thread, (or a PM to me) post anything pertaining to spam control be it past methods attempted or other things that other regions are doing.

It doesn't seem like one can really do much about spam--as feederites, our only recourse seems to be bumping such spam off. This can be done in primarily two ways:

1) Getting more of our forum members active on the RMB. Talk to newbies, make idle conversation, heckle the egregious spammers, and occasionally question Dalimbar's competence ().

2) Getting more non-forum members to start talking on the RMB. This basically entails us being helpful and keeping our RMB conversations open enough as to let someone new join in at any one time. I guess this means that we should all occasionally go onto the RMB and write something silly (i.e. haikus) or relevant (i.e. NationStates UN or real-life political discussions) to the greater portion of the population.

As far as enforcing spam policy, that's pretty dependent on the diligence of the MiniCommers and the leniency of the Delegate. *shrug* Not quite sure how the MoC is doing nowadays, nor what Dali's take on the spam policy is.

It would be excellent if you managed to persuade all the forum members to post at least one or two messages on the RMB before they login to the forums.

I've heard of other feeders having their own enforcement groups. (CommRangers I think... I'm not sure)

Does anyone know anything about those?

The West Pacific and The Pacific both encourage members to clean their RMBs. The Pacific has an extremely dedicated group of players to help to keep their board free of spam for large amounts of the time. The West trys to have its Forum members posting on the RMB as well, they also have TAO who is fanactical about keeping the RMB clean.

The South Pacific makes some effort, The East Pacific and The Rejected Realms make little or no effort to keep their boards clean.

Occasionally, we'll have CommRanger Alpha helping out on our RMB, but it's pretty much just a few of us talking about random shit on there. For example, there is actually a bit of RP going on the RMB right now.

Hey, it's long, but it's better than spam, no?

MO:

As far as enforcing spam policy, that's pretty dependent on the diligence of the MiniCommers and the leniency of the Delegate. *shrug* Not quite sure how the MoC is doing nowadays, nor what Dali's take on the spam policy is.

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TAO disagrees, MO. The CommRangers can and do make difference in TWP, TP and Lazarus without the delegates' help. We have our little "protocol" book for how to handle violators and the Mods are quick to respond to CommRanger reports. But TAO will agree that if your delegate doesn't give a rat's ascii code, then very few will either.

NS/Jolt Game Rules violators are a problem for EVERYONE IN THE GAME. And illegal spammers are second on the list (after UN multis). AdSpamming is something feeders have to endure but we can endure it our own way and make it go away FAST. Eventually, AdSpammers will develop their own posting schedule so you know when to get busy and spambust.

TAO:

MO:

As far as enforcing spam policy, that's pretty dependent on the diligence of the MiniCommers and the leniency of the Delegate. *shrug* Not quite sure how the MoC is doing nowadays, nor what Dali's take on the spam policy is.

Click to expand...

TAO disagrees, MO. The CommRangers can and do make difference in TWP, TP and Lazarus without the delegates' help. We have our little "protocol" book for how to handle violators and the Mods are quick to respond to CommRanger reports. But TAO will agree that if your delegate doesn't give a rat's ascii code, then very few will either.

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That's exactly what I mean. Spam rule enforcement is done by two parties--the MiniCommers (or the informal TNP equivalent of it) and the delegate. If neither party is diligent, then enforcement simply falls by the wayside.

The lack of organization in TNP in this task is greatly detrimental to this, as without some sort of procedure to determine, record, and report spam violators, enforcement will be difficult. I know that although I try to be fairly active on the RMB (whether on MO or on some other puppet), I don't really keep an active log of spammers. I've personally pretty much just tried to bump off the spam with conversation and advice (and the occasional mini-RP!).

TAO sees what what you are saying. My apologies.

Yes, the lack of TNP concern for the RMB and the lack of organization for clearing the RMB are having negative effects on this region. If the RMB is thought to be nothing more than an advertising venue for userites, then new players will obviously leave TNP for userite regions. But if TNP were to maintain an active and healthy use of its RMB, players would be attracted to stay, to join the forum, and to participate.

TAO thinks that someone in your RA should make it part of the RA requirements to me active on the RMB. You have too many do-nothing people around here.

The attitude of The North Pacific towards the RMB has been, for as long as I've been here, shameful.

Firstly, its always about the spam. If we are not using the RMB for anything constructive, then we have no right the dictate to recruiters what they can and can't do on there. We gave that right away when we stopped seeing the RMB as part of this region. Its the equivalent of a child not playing with a toy, but not letting anyone else play with it either.

Secondly, the political system works against any progress on the RMB. This is a prime example. We can sit around of weeks discussing what to do, we can even start on making a difference on the RMB. But once the elections are over, its forgotten, it dwindles into the past.

And thirdly, stop talking about it and do it. It doesn't really matter what is done on the RMB, because any activity, no matter how poorly co-ordinated is better than what is going on now. Early on last year, the RMB was the best I have ever seen it, not because of careful planned RMB usage, but because a group of us just got out their and posted. Its all that is needed. And, although I disagree with a solitary ambition of reducing spam, it will slowly dry up if the RMB moves fast enough.

TAO:

TAO thinks that someone in your RA should make it part of the RA requirements to me active on the RMB. You have too many do-nothing people around here.

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A while back I might have disagreed with that, now I'd tend to go along with it. I would certainly say that if there is a government official, be they delegate, PM, minister or deputy that isn't posting on the RMB at least as often as they log onto the forum, they aren't doing their job properly.

The real problem with the RMB is that it doesn't encourage viewers to look into the region. When I see a dead RMB, my first thought is "what a boring-looking region". Obviously, it's harder to make our RMB look good in-between the adspam, but it should be possible. Lazarus seems to do a pretty good job of it.

I agree.

for Namyeknown, let's go and fix this!

Has anything come of this? I know that I read something in an NPA news article that the NPA has a section to handle adspam. Can you only be involved in it if you are NPA? If so why not have a group of Commrangers for TNP? Something that can be open for anyone that wants to help get rid of adspam?

I apologize if I am offbase or stating things that have already been said.