1 year, 5 months ago
What are the pros and cons for requiring a New User's first question to be screened by Mahalo before opening up their ability to post more?
More spam these days. Some forums require a mandatory "lurk" period before posting or being limited to one question (aka post) per day until they are properly vetted.
Would Mahalo benefit from this practice? If not making the first question private, perhaps limiting a new user to one question or answer until they are verified?
Or has this already been discussed and what we're seeing from spammers is the consequence (good or bad) from an already well though out policy?
Would Mahalo benefit from this practice? If not making the first question private, perhaps limiting a new user to one question or answer until they are verified?
Or has this already been discussed and what we're seeing from spammers is the consequence (good or bad) from an already well though out policy?
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$3 Answers
One huge con of requiring a lurk period is that sites like Mahalo are fun to participate in, and creating a lurk period can be an enormous buzz kill. One counterexample is, I still post on DigitalPoint, which requires a lurk period. However, I joined DigitalPoint to sell and advertise, so there was a very apparent financial benefit to posting there. Though that benefit also exists here through the gift cards and such that are available through the Mahalo Store, the products I am personally interested in only begin become available at around the M$75 mark, which can be pretty far away for a new user.
I am sure there are many methods of potentially getting around the buzz kill effect of the lurk period. My first thought is, make it so that new answers from new users are emailed and/or are visible only to the person who asked the question (and possibly power users and admin). Then, make a request to the person who asked the question (and possibly power users and admin who happen to come across the answer) to simply click on a link stating whether the answer given by the new user is spam, inappropriate, or offensive. If the answer given is not spam, inappropriate, or offensive, then the answer gets posted into the string of answers to the original question. If the new user gets three or so answers that are not spam, inappropriate, or offensive, then the new user becomes a full user who is free to post however (s)he wants.
The same thing can be done with questions, i.e. making it so that the first three or so question need to be approved by power users first.
In my experience with spam, spammers are like bacteria, and sites are like people. Sites are under the impression that whenever the site puts a roadblock to the spammer, the spammer will adapt. But just like antibiotics work very effectively on individuals while bacteria actually are adapting slowly in the global sense, every single block a site puts to spammers tends to have a huge effect against spammers, while spammers are slowly adapting globally, not just to an individual site.
I am surprised that Mahalo doesn't have anyone working as a spam filterer or person who creates a list of words or phrases that spammers use. If I were Mahalo admin, I would at least create a very weak Bayesian filter that has the ability to accept human input, like allowing admin or users to manually entering keywords into the Bayesian filter. This filter could be especially effective since you don't seem to have a great deal of individuals spamming your forum, based on my personal observations on the keywords and phrases used in spam posts on this site. However, see the previous paragraph where I compare spammers to bacteria.
It also surprises me that Mahalo doesn't have a weak buffer on how often questions can be answered. I am a member of some very small forums, and even those forums have buffers on how long users have to wait between posts. Smaller forums tend to have a longer buffers of up to 60 seconds, while other forums have delays in the order of 15 seconds. But however long the delay is, this delay effectively disables the ability to post ten times in a minute, as certain spammers on this site have done. The workaround to this method is, obviously, taking your time between posts. However, spammers are analogically equivalent to bacteria, as I've said twice above.
I am sure there are many methods of potentially getting around the buzz kill effect of the lurk period. My first thought is, make it so that new answers from new users are emailed and/or are visible only to the person who asked the question (and possibly power users and admin). Then, make a request to the person who asked the question (and possibly power users and admin who happen to come across the answer) to simply click on a link stating whether the answer given by the new user is spam, inappropriate, or offensive. If the answer given is not spam, inappropriate, or offensive, then the answer gets posted into the string of answers to the original question. If the new user gets three or so answers that are not spam, inappropriate, or offensive, then the new user becomes a full user who is free to post however (s)he wants.
The same thing can be done with questions, i.e. making it so that the first three or so question need to be approved by power users first.
In my experience with spam, spammers are like bacteria, and sites are like people. Sites are under the impression that whenever the site puts a roadblock to the spammer, the spammer will adapt. But just like antibiotics work very effectively on individuals while bacteria actually are adapting slowly in the global sense, every single block a site puts to spammers tends to have a huge effect against spammers, while spammers are slowly adapting globally, not just to an individual site.
I am surprised that Mahalo doesn't have anyone working as a spam filterer or person who creates a list of words or phrases that spammers use. If I were Mahalo admin, I would at least create a very weak Bayesian filter that has the ability to accept human input, like allowing admin or users to manually entering keywords into the Bayesian filter. This filter could be especially effective since you don't seem to have a great deal of individuals spamming your forum, based on my personal observations on the keywords and phrases used in spam posts on this site. However, see the previous paragraph where I compare spammers to bacteria.
It also surprises me that Mahalo doesn't have a weak buffer on how often questions can be answered. I am a member of some very small forums, and even those forums have buffers on how long users have to wait between posts. Smaller forums tend to have a longer buffers of up to 60 seconds, while other forums have delays in the order of 15 seconds. But however long the delay is, this delay effectively disables the ability to post ten times in a minute, as certain spammers on this site have done. The workaround to this method is, obviously, taking your time between posts. However, spammers are analogically equivalent to bacteria, as I've said twice above.
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M$
Unlike Mith and dome i disagree that their should be a lurk period.
The best thing about mahalo is its uniqueness of being open to everyone and we all can participate and bring contributions and tangible things to the table.
I dare say even spammers. I agree however there should be tighter restrictions for first time users.
A 10-20 question limit simply isn't tight enough, this should be lowered to about 3-5 questions and allow them to answer slightly more.
The best thing about mahalo is its uniqueness of being open to everyone and we all can participate and bring contributions and tangible things to the table.
I dare say even spammers. I agree however there should be tighter restrictions for first time users.
A 10-20 question limit simply isn't tight enough, this should be lowered to about 3-5 questions and allow them to answer slightly more.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I tend to agree with this. Most forums I've worked on ( and I've been an administrator of a few) had such a 'grace period', or even a manual admission procedure in place.
Mahalo doesn't have one, and the reason is that Mahalo wants to be as 'open' to new members as possible.
Problem is, when the front door is as open as it is with Mahalo, all kinds of creeps are attracted, who mis-use the Mahalo friendliness to post a LOT of spam on the site. I've been 'blessed' with the ability to vanish spam posts, but it currently takes me at least an hour a day to remove as much spam as I can find, and it appears to become a bigger problem each month.
I know that Mahalo doesn't want to put any restrictions on the ability of new user to become really active right away, but it is my personal opinion that 'too much faith' in the good nature of human beings isn't healthy for a site either.
I really like your suggesstion. Let a new member ask 2-3 questions a day, answer a few questions a day, and let that be it for that period.
Actually, Mahalo already HAS these limits, only they are relatively high.
A white belter can ask up to two questions a day, but you can answer up to 20.
A White-Yellow belt your answer limit is still 20, but you can now ask 3 questions a day.
I'm not sure these limits are still in effect, as I think I see many of the spammers post more 'questions' than 2-3... Woudl be a good thing to re-introduce those limits.
Source: Mahalo Belts
Mahalo doesn't have one, and the reason is that Mahalo wants to be as 'open' to new members as possible.
Problem is, when the front door is as open as it is with Mahalo, all kinds of creeps are attracted, who mis-use the Mahalo friendliness to post a LOT of spam on the site. I've been 'blessed' with the ability to vanish spam posts, but it currently takes me at least an hour a day to remove as much spam as I can find, and it appears to become a bigger problem each month.
I know that Mahalo doesn't want to put any restrictions on the ability of new user to become really active right away, but it is my personal opinion that 'too much faith' in the good nature of human beings isn't healthy for a site either.
I really like your suggesstion. Let a new member ask 2-3 questions a day, answer a few questions a day, and let that be it for that period.
Actually, Mahalo already HAS these limits, only they are relatively high.
A white belter can ask up to two questions a day, but you can answer up to 20.
A White-Yellow belt your answer limit is still 20, but you can now ask 3 questions a day.
I'm not sure these limits are still in effect, as I think I see many of the spammers post more 'questions' than 2-3... Woudl be a good thing to re-introduce those limits.
Source: Mahalo Belts
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
I sensed that someone was working hard to make them disappear. I hope there are wages involved.
It would take less time for an Admin to review/approve a single New question from each New User than to manually track down each spam post (even if limited to 20 answers per day they just make new new users and start over).
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Limiting usernames from the same IP address, or at least requiring Mahalo review first, might also help.