Moderator approval

BirdingNZ.net problems, tips, feature suggestions etc.
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az kiwi
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed May 20, 2009 4:19 pm

Moderator approval

Postby az kiwi » Sat Jun 27, 2009 4:22 pm

Waiting for moderator approval seems unnecessarily restrictive - I suggest you allow posts to immediately be read. Birders are a pretty courteous lot, and its pretty uncommon to have even heated flame-wars turned actually uncouth.

Better to open the gates wide and then fix a problem when it occurs than go all Chinese on us :lol:
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Neil Fitzgerald
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Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 10:20 am
Location: Hamilton, New Zealand
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Re: Moderator approval

Postby Neil Fitzgerald » Sun Jun 28, 2009 10:24 am

Thanks for the feedback. I agree with you in principal. At this early stage we are trying a few different things to try to limit the amount of spam. It didn't take long for a bot to circumvent the basic antispam measures put in place and there was some rather unsavoury material being posted. Setting a users first post to require moderator was enough to separate legit from spammers. I have since added a new step in the registration process which seems to have knocked it on the head, so I guess we could remove the first post moderation restriction and see what happens. Do you think having just the first post require mod approval is too heavy handed? I could (should) make it clear somehow to new posters that once their first post is approved that restriction automatically vanishes.
Thanks,
Neil.
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az kiwi
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed May 20, 2009 4:19 pm

Re: Moderator approval

Postby az kiwi » Sun Jun 28, 2009 12:18 pm

First off I'm surprised a bot got through your Captcha filter - that alone is usually 99% effective. I found that automatic deletion of new registrations if not confirmed within 24 hours by a login, eliminated almost all the spammers on my forums (300 members and 7000 posts). However, I'm not using phpBB and its possible that more bots have been designed specifically for that software too.

Second, my own point of view is that at least at the outset, I would prefer to police the board intensively in person for a while and have a loose filter than the other way around. Moderator approval feels like personal scrutiny to people who aren't used to bulletin boards (and to some who are) and may chase some folks away.

I do think your automatic subscription to threads you have posted in is a good feature. Though there are personal preferences for 'push' technology over "pull" technology, at least until the board gets busy, I think new members need the reminder.

The real value in BBs is creating a community - like minded folks who help each other out and don't leech without giving back. To that end, think about making the interface as friendly and personable as possible. Life's a picnic - if you don't mind the ants. :D
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Neil Fitzgerald
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Posts: 3637
Joined: Mon May 18, 2009 10:20 am
Location: Hamilton, New Zealand
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Re: Moderator approval

Postby Neil Fitzgerald » Sun Jun 28, 2009 2:50 pm

az kiwi wrote:Second, my own point of view is that at least at the outset, I would prefer to police the board intensively in person for a while and have a loose filter than the other way around. Moderator approval feels like personal scrutiny to people who aren't used to bulletin boards (and to some who are) and may chase some folks away.

Yes, this is the way I'd like to handle it initially. It was a bit hard to ploice by myself while away from home a lot. Brent is back from holiday now, so we hope to kick it into play properly very soon. When we do that, I'll drop the first post moderation and simplify the captcha for a while.
Cheers mate,
Neil.

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