Moderation

[Cookster15]

Remember you can report, posts, threds and users for spam.

Or once per day you can simply access the forum and skim read the new threads. Not hard to spot spam, and pretty sure even easier to lock or delete it. Zero tolerance policy?

 

[RedheadDane]

All this just makes it even sadder KB quit. He seemed like one of the few mods who did actually modding, and was willing to - as much as he was allowed - to explain decisions made.

 

[King Boonen]

Or once per day you can simply access the forum and skim read the new threads. Not hard to spot spam, and pretty sure even easier to lock or delete it. Zero tolerance policy?

Maybe tag a mod..?

 

[RedheadDane]

Maybe tag a mod..?

But who are still frequently active? Oi, @Red Rick, might be time you start doing more than just playing with glue. @Eshnar? @Pricey_sky?
Guess we shouldn't expect anything from the so-called "administrators"...

 

[PeterB]

Or once per day you can simply access the forum and skim read the new threads. Not hard to spot spam, and pretty sure even easier to lock or delete it. Zero tolerance policy?

This is exactly what I don't understand. I'm far from being the most active member on this forum but even I can notice plenty of spam posts or even the whole threads at just a quick look so can't believe that someone as active as RedRick is not aware of them and needs us to report it in order to remove it.

Is it because it's considered minor problem so not worth the extra effort? Any legal issues in the background? Or are the mods just getting tired of this never-ending fight against spam which I appreciate can make you frustrated very quickly? If so then why ignoring offer for help from such a popular and highly regarded user like BR who seems eager to keep spammers on a tight leash, at least for a while?

 

[Red Rick]

Not gonna lie more mods wouldnt hurt. Nor would the old restriction on new users

 

[BR2]

This is exactly what I don't understand. I'm far from being the most active member on this forum but even I can notice plenty of spam posts or even the whole threads at just a quick look so can't believe that someone as active as RedRick is not aware of them and needs us to report it in order to remove it.

Is it because it's considered minor problem so not worth the extra effort? Any legal issues in the background? Or are the mods just getting tired of this never-ending fight against spam which I appreciate can make you frustrated very quickly? If so then why ignoring offer for help from such a popular and highly regarded user like BR who seems eager to keep spammers on a tight leash, at least for a while?

Ooh, those are nice words from you. I didn't behave so well in some matters, though, so I could understand if there were some doubts about me as a mod, even if just meant for spam. What I don't understand is that there is no search for more mods in general and it certainly raises questions about the future of the forum.

 

[Cookster15]

What I don't understand is that there is no search for more mods in general and it certainly raises questions about the future of the forum.

I wonder if those who fund this website realize or care who accesses it and why? Perhaps they should be aware?

Personally, I have been a member since 2011 but have lurked in the forum since 2006 as I recall following the controversy when Floyd Landis was caught. For me it is a daily habit to access the forum early in my mornings as I wake up over coffee, usually before I go out training.

I know the entire site is about making money but isn't there a social license too? Red Rick says more help moderating is needed but if it was me, I'd make two people responsible for policing obvious Spam and leave it to the existing moderators to moderate comments.

On the main page advertising has exploded so surely revenue has as well hence the economic support for the forum is stronger than ever?

Plus, if we use the report button is anything ever done?

 

[King Boonen]

What I don't understand is that there is no search for more mods in general and it certainly raises questions about the future of the forum.

Admin had very little involvement with running the forum and when I was a mod the only time we really had any interaction with them was when one of us contacted them. Red Rick has mentioned looking for more mods, probably getting a 1 or 2 willing people on board will solve the spam issue.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Well there was a brief hiatus, but the weird spam Posts are back...

 

[tobydawq]

Not gonna lie more mods wouldnt hurt. Nor would the old restriction on new users

Can't you contact the admins? They're not reading the forum, so it seems like you're the only one who can facilitate contact.

I don't want to be a normal mod but I would be quite efficient at deleting spam posts, I guess.

 

[Potomac]

Reporting spam doesn't seem to accomplish anything.

 

[BR2]

Can't you contact the admins? They're not reading the forum, so it seems like you're the only one who can facilitate contact.

I don't want to be a normal mod but I would be quite efficient at deleting spam posts, I guess.

The way I understood it, he did contact the admins.

 

[Cookster15]

Well there was a brief hiatus, but the weird spam Posts are back...

Which forum? Is it removed now?

 

[RedheadDane]

Which forum? Is it removed now?

There is one in the "Books on Cycling" thread.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Which forum? Is it removed now?

Most go eventually, but I had to do 2 or 3 reports on a couple in the road racing forum the other week. I'd guess others also reported them as well, so that's probably quite a few reports and a good couple of days before the removal.

 

[BR2]

Which forum? Is it removed now?

I think the worst is gone at the moment. It's still a bit of a problem, though.

 

[SHaines]

Hey folks,

I'm one of the Community Managers working at Future, publishers of Cycling News. Moderation has been a big part of my role as a CM for over a decade now and I thought this might be a good place to reach some folks who are concerned about how it works here, given the issues with spam and the like.

Our forums have tools to help combat spam built in, but those tools aren't "smart" so dedicated folks can try all sorts of new methods to try to bypass it. As they do, we strengthen the defenses and do it all again tomorrow. Eliminating spam is only easy in an environment where there is a prohibitive cost to creating accounts. Forums only serve as a great place for communities to gather if they are open and inviting to new people, so we won't be locking down who can access them.

While we won't go into specifics on what tools are being used exactly, we can say that if you see a spam post make it live, we do have tools to prevent that link from making it live again, as long as a Community Manager is able to get them blocked. I spend part of my day doing just that very thing across several forums.

As indicated above by King Boonen, moderators weren't given great access to best practices for moderation, so I've been trying to fix that myself. I am getting closer to opening things up to more moderators, but it's not an easy process. King Boonen mentioned above his belief that people who really want to be moderators aren't always a great fit for the role, which has proven largely accurate (though definitely not in some cases), from our experiences in the past.

Instead of asking broadly for volunteers, we tend to watch ongoing threads and look for folks who have historically been helpful. Being helpful is the absolute best indicator to who would make a great mod. Essentially, people who care about a place will treat it well, so when folks are kind and inviting to other users, it means they want to see the forum succeed.

I've been spending more of my time focused on ways to help the community here by getting the spam better controlled and it seems to be working. Some spam will always appear eventually, but if folks can use the Report option anytime they see a spam post, it will flag it for Moderators and Community Managers so it can be found and removed as quickly as possible.

We're grateful to everyone who takes time out of their days to hang out with us here in this community. You deserve to have the best experience possible and I'm going to do what I can to help make improvements where possible. Folks are encouraged to use the Forum Feedback subforum to post their questions/suggestions and we'll be able to read through those and help shape how the forum evolves down the road.

I hope everyone has an incredible weekend and a fantastic upcoming holiday season!

 

[Cookster15]

Hey folks,

I'm one of the Community Managers working at Future, publishers of Cycling News. Moderation has been a big part of my role as a CM for over a decade now and I thought this might be a good place to reach some folks who are concerned about how it works here, given the issues with spam and the like.

Our forums have tools to help combat spam built in, but those tools aren't "smart" so dedicated folks can try all sorts of new methods to try to bypass it. As they do, we strengthen the defenses and do it all again tomorrow. Eliminating spam is only easy in an environment where there is a prohibitive cost to creating accounts. Forums only serve as a great place for communities to gather if they are open and inviting to new people, so we won't be locking down who can access them.

While we won't go into specifics on what tools are being used exactly, we can say that if you see a spam post make it live, we do have tools to prevent that link from making it live again, as long as a Community Manager is able to get them blocked. I spend part of my day doing just that very thing across several forums.

As indicated above by King Boonen, moderators weren't given great access to best practices for moderation, so I've been trying to fix that myself. I am getting closer to opening things up to more moderators, but it's not an easy process. King Boonen mentioned above his belief that people who really want to be moderators aren't always a great fit for the role, which has proven largely accurate (though definitely not in some cases), from our experiences in the past.

Instead of asking broadly for volunteers, we tend to watch ongoing threads and look for folks who have historically been helpful. Being helpful is the absolute best indicator to who would make a great mod. Essentially, people who care about a place will treat it well, so when folks are kind and inviting to other users, it means they want to see the forum succeed.

I've been spending more of my time focused on ways to help the community here by getting the spam better controlled and it seems to be working. Some spam will always appear eventually, but if folks can use the Report option anytime they see a spam post, it will flag it for Moderators and Community Managers so it can be found and removed as quickly as possible.

We're grateful to everyone who takes time out of their days to hang out with us here in this community. You deserve to have the best experience possible and I'm going to do what I can to help make improvements where possible. Folks are encouraged to use the Forum Feedback subforum to post their questions/suggestions and we'll be able to read through those and help shape how the forum evolves down the road.

I hope everyone has an incredible weekend and a fantastic upcoming holiday season!

Thank you, very informative. What constitutes "being helpful"?

In relation to spam, I use the report button, but I think some members are concerned nothing happens? If I see spam, I will use the report button. But I think it has been noticed that spam has reduced lately so maybe that is thanks to the new tools and awareness of users?

 

[SHaines]

Thank you, very informative. What constitutes "being helpful"?

This will be a judgment call on my part. Essentially, folks on the Internet often prefer being terse to being open to longer discussions. What I used to see a lot in gaming forums would be someone coming to ask a question and a reply telling them to Google it as the first response. That's not remotely helpful to anyone.

So, if someone is active in the forums, responds to questions with accurate information, and avoids getting pulled into personal conflicts with other users, they would be a good candidate.

In relation to spam, I use the report button, but I think some members are concerned nothing happens? If I see spam, I will use the report button. But I think it has been noticed that spam has reduced lately so maybe that is thanks to the new tools and awareness of users?

I think users on many forums have the concern that no one is listening to them. It's often a fair concern, but that's absolutely not the case here. Our team is small and covers a lot of ground, but I come through here and address new reports as they come in, while clearing older backlogs.

Just before replying here I did another cleaning and blocked a bunch of links that had been posted previously, so things should continue to improve. This improvement is down to all of you who use the Report feature.

Thanks again for being here, folks! We'll keep working on making the best experience possible for you.

 

[BR2]

This will be a judgment call on my part. Essentially, folks on the Internet often prefer being terse to being open to longer discussions. What I used to see a lot in gaming forums would be someone coming to ask a question and a reply telling them to Google it as the first response. That's not remotely helpful to anyone.

So, if someone is active in the forums, responds to questions with accurate information, and avoids getting pulled into personal conflicts with other users, they would be a good candidate.



I think users on many forums have the concern that no one is listening to them. It's often a fair concern, but that's absolutely not the case here. Our team is small and covers a lot of ground, but I come through here and address new reports as they come in, while clearing older backlogs.

Just before replying here I did another cleaning and blocked a bunch of links that had been posted previously, so things should continue to improve. This improvement is down to all of you who use the Report feature.

Thanks again for being here, folks! We'll keep working on making the best experience possible for you.

I don't want to be ungrateful, but over time there have been quite a few cases, like, pretty much, each time when I was asking something a mod couldn't help with, that the required admin was not available/didn't answer. It's a free forum I never paid for, so I guess one must take that, but the fair concern is indeed nothing but fair.

And I get that looking for a good mod is always difficult - the people most engaged are often not the most neutral ones, the most neutral ones often don't want to be mods. But it seems to me that often looking for the perfect mod leads to not enough mods at all, which, in my opinion, is ultimately worse. After all it's not a decision about life or death and can be reversed if it doesn't work out.

 

[SHaines]

I don't want to be ungrateful, but over time there have been quite a few cases, like, pretty much, each time when I was asking something a mod couldn't help with, that the required admin was not available/didn't answer. It's a free forum I never paid for, so I guess one must take that, but the fair concern is indeed nothing but fair.

And I get that looking for a good mod is always difficult - the people most engaged are often not the most neutral ones, the most neutral ones often don't want to be mods. But it seems to me that often looking for the perfect mod leads to not enough mods at all, which, in my opinion, is ultimately worse. After all it's not a decision about life or death and can be reversed if it doesn't work out.

I'm sorry to hear you've run into issues with getting problems resolved. To avoid anyone running into these types of concerns, please make use of our Community Team email if there are issues not addressed directly via the forums. This email address goes to our full team, so there's no bottleneck issues with pinging one person and hoping they are available.

The email address for our team is community@futurenet.com.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

What @SHaines describes is indeed important for a moderator with full rights of intervention, dispute resolution etc.

But what this thread has pointed out, and also has seen many offers of, is people willing to do a very limited, spam focussed, administrative (but not Administrator) role. That need not require the same depth of vetting judgement, does not describe a role for which those who would volunteer are less likely to be suitable that the less pushy.

Indeed, I would suggest that anypne with more than about 1000 posts to their name who is still active is not only almost certainly suitable for such a role, but also ought to be willing to take it on as as a gratitude for a service that they obviously engage with frequently that has been given to them freely.

Is there no consideration of a limited moderator role?

 

[fmk_RoI]

As I understand what has been said, it ain't just about squashing spam, it's about understanding it, spotting the patterns, and building better spam-traps. So spam-only mods not really a help.

Also, the day anyone proposes a +1,000 post regular like me as a mod, even one with just spam squishing permissions, I'm gonna laugh like a loon.

 

[Cookster15]

As I understand what has been said, it ain't just about squashing spam, it's about understanding it, spotting the patterns, and building better spam-traps. So spam-only mods not really a help.

Also, the day anyone proposes a +1,000 post regular like me as a mod, even one with just spam squishing permissions, I'm gonna laugh like a loon.

No doubt the spam traps have helped but I don't think anyone was suggesting that mods be selected from high post regulars. We were suggesting volunteers. If you don't volunteer no need to laugh. An experienced mod and former mod suggested having one or two spam mods would be a big help. They should know better than anyone.