Spam: Input requested

Kind of an oxymoron, really, because I am NOT requesting spam in this thread.

Moderator discussion of late has turned to the subject of spam on the boards. Most internet message boards range from frowning on it to blatantly not permitting it. The Mod Squad is seriously considering a policy change on allowing spam on TCS.

What are your thoughts?

what do you mean by spam? Most other boards I visted consider spam nonmembers or members advertising on the board to either get people to go to there site or to try to sell something.
if you are talking spam like the spam thread, I don't see what one thread really hurts anything. There is alot of nonsense in there but that is also a great place to go and chat about stuff that isn't important enough to start a whole thread about.

I'm kind of confused by what you mean exactly Deb, but I agree with Princess Purr.

Most boards I use are very stringently moderated, with topics being very narrowly defined and closely adhered to. They do not permit spam at all. And it is appreciated by the users of the board, who do not like clicking through lots of pointless (?) messages. I don't see that as as much of a problem on this board, because its a very informal atmosphere here. However, the "me too" kind of posts we see here are not allowed on many other boards. The ones that say, "congratulations _____" (for example), over and over again with lots of emoticons are not allowed.

The other big reason spam is frowned upon are that these messages take up huge bandwidth. This costs a lot of money. If the advertising and sponsorship money on this board can be put to a better use, I would be in support of limiting spam. People probably do not realize how much bandwidth is eaten up with these kinds of messages. And, for that matter, adding graphics also eats up money. Most boards I go to do not allow signature lines, and frown upon emoticons to a large extent.

The bandwidth also makes the board slow. I have seen some days more recently that the TCS has trouble loading, and don't know if this is a bandwidth problem. I would also support a limit on spam if it meant that more people could visit more reliably.

Overall, however, I am amazed that a board with this many members and daily posts runs so smoothly. And it would be very very difficult for all of the moderators to enforce a "no spam" policy, at the outset, I would imagine.

I mean the spam thread. Not in the way of chit chat. We have the DT for that. But more for people running up their post count by posting one word or letter time after time.

Val, we really have 2 definitions of spam. One is what you stated in your post - people coming in just to hype their site or try to sell their wares without being contributing members of the site. That is already banned within the rules.

The one we want the feedback on is posting just to bump up post counts. The one word posts, or just a smilie, or making one sentence into 10 posts - with the sole purpose of racking up the post count.

I don't know, I think it is all in good fun and the people that use the spam thread are people that post alot anyway. I go in there once in awhile when I get board. It is more just a fun thing. Like the letter games and ask a question anwser a question.
I think tooooo many rules make for a dull board. People need to be able to have some sort of fun.
I know when I post pics on here I love to get responses if it is just pages of awww how cute. But then atleast i feel like people are paying attention to me
It doesn't really matter to me if the spam thread stays or goes, maybe there can just be a rule that the thread can be used for chit chat but not for just raising you post count

I don't see the harm in the spam thread. I went there on and off when I was a new member. Haven't been in there lately! It was kind of a huge stress reliever for me when I was first going through my seperation. I could be silly and laugh and forget about what was going on for a few minutes. I guess it would be kind of hard to just set up some rules for it?

I was going to throw my 2 cents in eventually, so it might as well be now. As a moderator, a thread like the spam thread is really hard to monitor, mostly because I don't care to participate or weed through it to make sure it's all appropriate.

I do have a beef with people posting just to run their post count up. This is a pretty well-established community, and most people with 1000 or more posts got them the legimate way - by being contributing members to the community. If I am a new member, I am going to naturally assume that a 1000+ member is someone who has been here awhile and knows the ropes, and not that they threw up one word at a time to get a big number. To me, the practice taints those of us who have earned a place here by really being a part of our community.

now after looking at the thread I kinda see what you guys are talking about. Maybe there needs to be some kind of rule to govern it.

also throwing in here, we have several options being weighed now. One is to make the posts under a specific number of characters, simply not count. It won't register on your post count unless it is a substantial statement you are making.

I know every time I bump up a game to be tested by going bump I feel like I am spamming the board.

Sammie, since we are on our own Dedicated Server now, the signature lines are not much of a problem unless the graphics are huge. We do like to keep them to business card size, as that helps.

I never thought about having to mod that spam thread. That would be a really hard job because so many posts go in there so quickly you could never keep up. Maybe the big thread should be closed and maybe there should be a chit chat theard for meaningful friendly chats, but more then one word smily posts unless it is to something funny

One question for all of you....

Would you still post the "Congrats", "Happy Birthday", "Welcome to TCS" and "Cute Kitty!" if they didn't count toward post counts?

I would have to echo Deb25, in that, I too believe that there are those who "boost" their post count by using the spam thread. I whole heartedly support a specific character count in order for a post to count. What that would be would have to be determined, but I think it will do the trick.

I don't like the spam thread just because it raises the post count which around here and on other boards does mean alot to everyone. we celebrate people's 100th post, 1000th post, even 10,000th post. In order to celebrate significant contributions to the board, the posting made by that individual should have some meaning.

On the other hand, instead of just spamming, maybe more people will use the DT threads to talk about non-sense and have daily fun threads instead of posting in an on-going spam thread. More people will be motivated to jump in on the conversations and not feel like they are contributing to "spam" just to fun

About the character counting...I don't really want this to happen. This post is one of my longest post ever I usually post short to the point posts. Character counting would descriminate, for lack of a better word, against us who are not so "long-winded"

Originally posted by Deb25
I was going to throw my 2 cents in eventually, so it might as well be now. As a moderator, a thread like the spam thread is really hard to monitor, mostly because I don't care to participate or weed through it to make sure it's all appropriate.

I do have a beef with people posting just to run their post count up. This is a pretty well-established community, and most people with 1000 or more posts got them the legimate way - by being contributing members to the community. If I am a new member, I am going to naturally assume that a 1000+ member is someone who has been here awhile and knows the ropes, and not that they threw up one word at a time to get a big number. To me, the practice taints those of us who have earned a place here by really being a part of our community.

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I have to admit that I agree with you, even though it's not in popular opinion. I've never posted in that thread and I never will. I'd rather see cute kitty photos and stories. I can't even read them all as it is. I also think there's plenty of other threads that are plenty of fun with an actual purpose besides spamming up your post count.

I agree, Ginger. Our DT, which was a staple for so long seems to have gone by the wayside as people turn to the Spam thread instead. I really liked the new thread everyday in which people just checked in with each other.

Originally posted by valanhb
One question for all of you....

Would you still post the "Congrats", "Happy Birthday", "Welcome to TCS" and "Cute Kitty!" if they didn't count toward post counts?

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I would, because i know it means alot to me when people post that stuff

I would still want to post "cute Kitty", Happy Birthday", etc...that is fun stuff and it does mean alot to people and it is sincere.

Hmm well the spam thread doesnt really bother me either way. If its gone I wont care, if it stays I wont care. One one hand I think its nice that that kind of stuff is all in one thread.. I have seen threads like this on other boards. For instance on my board its called "Randomdomdodoooemem" or something like that.. meaning its a random thread to post random thoughts etc. I think right now it has over 20,000 replies or something. There was discussion about whether we leave it or take it away and there were some arguments. So I understand where the moderators are coming from.

I would understand if there were no more spam threads.. but I think not counting people's post counts just because they only say one word reply or smilie to a thread is kind of pushing it I dunno.. I could go either way really. I dont care much about my post count. I would still post happy birthday or whatever...