Advice or Spam?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ViXeN
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ViXeN

ViXeN

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Dear Moderators.

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, if not can you move it?

I've noticed that a lot of people post things in the wrong forums on this site, what I also notice is that in those posts there's normally about 5 or 6 people telling the poster the exact same thing... "Wrong forum buddy", "do a search buddy", "your sig is too long buddy".

I mean, how many moderators do we have here? Are they all under cover? Because the people I see replying with these corrective remarks do not have Moderator under their names!!!

What I'm trying to get at is this; When people post in the wrong forums the topic will generally get locked, but I see nothing done about any of the spam in the topics. I moderate on another forum, http://forums.valhallgames.net, which is for an online game and we take spam quiet seriously there for the following reasons:

1. Post count does count, it shows your skill level at the game and your experience on the forums.
2. Many people spam in the forums to increase their post counts.
3. Spam clogs up actual topics and can lead to deviation from the topics.
4. We mods just don't like it!

So here is my question to the moderators of GT Planet:
Who is more WRONG, the people posting in the wrong forum or those who spam that thread up with the same advise the second poster gave???

P.S. You'll probably find a few examples of the "advise" I speak of in this thread, as I'm sure this will attract many remarks from these people.

Yours Faithfully

ViXeN
 
There are only a few mods on, and they are on for limited times. Users telling people to "search" or otherwise clarifying the rules once or twice is one thing, but then the next 20000 people provide their input, and it is just annoying and redundant at that point.

I understand your point, as I mod 7 forums, but people will always do this, and initially it is not a bad thing.

Now, if only people could find the ^Report^ button...
 
Both are "more" wrong.

But the worst offenders are people who use the word "buddy".
 
gt_masta
I think you can't post another forum link... but I don't have moderator under my name so ignore me
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She's not advertising that forum or recruiting members, so it's fine. She's offering it as an example.

As Famine says, they're both more wrong. But in fact, wrong-forum threads usually only get locked if they are also topics that have been covered already. If it seems like a new topic, we'll simply move the thread to the correct spot.

While you are correct that there may be half a dozen posters saying the same thing, there's just not physical time for us to deal with each one. There are 75,000 members here, of which maybe 10,000 are active, and 300-600 online at any given time. It may be time for a general pep talk from the staff, but there is just not time to make that many individual corrections over a minor infraction like that. If we see a pattern from a given user they will receive a PM warning and we log offenses for repeat problems. But if the staff took the time to delete all the redundant posts and warn all the posters it would literally be a full-time job. I spend more time here than I can afford as it is.

The problem really boils down to one of size. Jordan likes to keep an active, coordinated staff made up of contributing members he knows and trusts. Although we've lost a few great moderators, for the most part we've got a fairly cohesive mod staff. In order to get much deeper into enforcement and maintenance, we'd have to add a lot of new faces to the mod list. Jordan prefers to have fewer folks on board, but ones who are more well-known and contributory in the community in general.

Thanks for your message. This technically should go on the Site Feedback board, but it will get needed attention here, so I'll leave it.
 
Famine
But the worst offenders are people who use the word "buddy".
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Hey buddy, what d'ya have against that word? :p

As far as the thread topic is concerned: I made a thread regarding this exact same topic. (And over a year ago! I didn't realize it was that long.)

What it comes down to is this: As I mentioned in that thread, yes, only one person should tell the thread-starter their error, then report the thread. However, as Duke mentioned, this is a ginormous forum equipped with a relatively small staff (many of them doing their moderating from their deskjob), so we can't afford time to warn every single person who does that. If one person is repeatedly obnoxious about it, we'll usually notice and give that person a warning, but if someone just does it once or twice, it, for practicality's sake, has to slip under the radar.

But yes, I'll say it again, to everybody: Only one person is needed to tell somebody about a mistake. Fifty people telling somebody about a mistake is no more effective than one, but definitely more obnoxious.
 
The issue with that is you'll have several people telling the thread starter to search/post elsewhere, and each of them will think they ARE the first, because they're slow-ass typers, or take some time to think of a response - or just plain have a slow connection.
 
Well, I mean, if a few people overlap, that's perfectly understandable. When people go yammering for days though, then I think it's fair to say it's not because of slow typing. ;)
 
Sage
Well, I mean, if a few people overlap, that's perfectly understandable. When people go yammering for days though, then I think it's fair to say it's not because of slow typing. ;)
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Thats right. Its because they're just slow in general. ;)
 
I've done it myself with other mods. I'm literally 10 seconds behind them in posting or or locking/moving a thread. That's understandable. But coming in 30 mins after the thread is started and saying "Wrong Forum!" is rather useless. This happens quite often in the Drift forum...Or at least it used to. ;)
 
Sage, I see you share the same view point as I do, I just read your topic from a year ago and noticed it conveys exactly the same message as mine.

Thanks to all the mods here who have answered me and I do understand what it is you go through. It's not easy and takes time to mod forums, and with the low mod count here, must make it vertually impossible.

And Duke, You're right, I wasn't advertising but using it as reference for myself should any of you need to validate my statement about being a mod on another forum.

Swift, I spend most of my time in the drift forum too and that's why I posted this thread, because it does happen there a lot... But there was one particular thread that sparked me off; I believe it was in the Race Reports forum where one member insulted the posters english in his race report... Now I consider that major spammage and I in fact replied and basically told that person to get lost (in a nice way). I must add that I also added on topic comments in my post...

Perhaps, as most of you have said, I should have used the "report thread" button, but I was still new here and wasn't too sure how it worked... In future though, I will.

Thanks again for all who have responded and unless you feel further discussion is necessary, I recommend a lock? (I know I would :))
 
ViXeN
<snip>... But there was one particular thread that sparked me off; I believe it was in the Race Reports forum where one member insulted the posters english in his race report...<snip>Thanks again for all who have responded and unless you feel further discussion is necessary, I recommend a lock? (I know I would :))
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WAIT!

I just want to reply to this particular part of your post.

I've only recently joined, but for whatever reason, whether it is the Moderartors/Administrators or the Members themselves - one thing I see *very* little of is flaming/spaming for bad spelling/grammar/etc.

(though I did get a minor flame about my lack of using the edit button the other night on a thread, I was too tired and responded to 3 posts in a row...sorry!)

I have really enjoyed reading and responding on this site simply because even if someone asks (what may seem like) a stupid question, they are usually just pointed in the right direction or given a straight answer.

So my deepest thanks to ALL of you for making this such a pleasant part of my day, not having to worry about silly things like flaming/spaming - because while it may occur from time to time, for the most part it's not something I even see, which is unusual in my experience as far as forums are concerned. (Though I don't spend much time in the drift forum, maybe that's a unique example)

:cheers: 👍

UMP
 
i tend to think this is one of the worst forums for getting 'flamed' for minor speeling errors. People seem to think that its a reason to gain kudos during arguments.
 
~Sp33~
I tend to think this is one of the worst forums for getting 'flamed' for minor spelling errors. People seem to think that it's a reason to gain kudos during arguments.
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zOMfG! n00b!
 
Famine
zOMfG! n00b!
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LOL, precisely. :dopey:

But people could be more civil. Problem is, this board is so big, that most people only spend time in certain areas. On my old forums, we had Off-Topic to bash, insult, fight, wheedle, abuse and ignore each other. Everything else was strictly business.

But then, this is a videogame forum, so hardly anything is business to some people, while the rest of us are serious as hell about it. :indiff:
 
UrsaMajorPrime
WAIT!

I just want to reply to this particular part of your post.

I've only recently joined, but for whatever reason, whether it is the Moderartors/Administrators or the Members themselves - one thing I see *very* little of is flaming/spaming for bad spelling/grammar/etc.

(though I did get a minor flame about my lack of using the edit button the other night on a thread, I was too tired and responded to 3 posts in a row...sorry!)

I have really enjoyed reading and responding on this site simply because even if someone asks (what may seem like) a stupid question, they are usually just pointed in the right direction or given a straight answer.

So my deepest thanks to ALL of you for making this such a pleasant part of my day, not having to worry about silly things like flaming/spaming - because while it may occur from time to time, for the most part it's not something I even see, which is unusual in my experience as far as forums are concerned. (Though I don't spend much time in the drift forum, maybe that's a unique example)

:cheers: 👍

UMP
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Ok, I'll clear this up, take a look at https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=67256 post 8 from me... Although I've just had a look at the thread again and it seems as if the persons posts were deleted by one of the mods... But his post was something in the line of "LMFAO @ MADJT, such bad english, bla bla bla bla bla".

Get my drift...
 
Yeah, and the user in question got a warning for it, too.
 
futuredrifter
How the heck do u become a moderator anyway
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You have to have skills... :dunce:

Just playin. It's be invite only.
 
ViXeN
1. Post count does count, it shows your skill level at the game and your experience on the forums.
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Post count is not related in any way to skill level nor experience on the forum, it's nothing more than someone's number of posts.

ViXeN
2. Many people spam in the forums to increase their post counts.
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This shows that, as I said, the post count is nothing more than someone's number of posts. You spam and your post count increases :indiff: , while your skill level at the game does not :( . You beat a couple of hard missions and your skill level at the game increases :) , while your post count does not :indiff: .

Of course if having a high post count is considered as being skilled and experienced :confused: , then I understand why some people are spamming. Personaly I prefer to switch on the PS2 and go for a couple of laps whenever I can :) .

PhM
 
R5Turbo2
Post count is not related in any way to skill level nor experience on the forum, it's nothing more than someone's number of posts.
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I think that what ViXeN meant was that post count and skill level should be correlated - the more skilled you are at a given game then, presumably, the more knowledge you have. More knowledge should allow you to answer more questions, contribute to more debates, etc. Oh wouldn't it be nice to live in my ideal world :dunce:

However, I agree that as things currently stand the only way to judge skill level is by the quality of the posts. Spam is epidemic and contageous. When you see post counts into the several thousands in just one or two months (thanksfully not here at GTP that I have noticed) then caution would be advised.
 
futuredrifter
oh so if i have a certain post count ill be invited
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Not in the slightest. It's by personal invite and the need for a moderater. I dont' make the decisions. But it DOES NOT depend on post count. If it did, we'd have at least 100 mods. :dopey:
 
futuredrifter
oh so if i have a certain post count ill be invited
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Well, if you asked to be one, then you could forget your chances, but you didn't.

It all depends on the Admins and Moderators of GTPlanet.net. You really have to contribute to GTPlanet before even thinking of becoming a mod.
 
Moloch_horridus
I think that what ViXeN meant was that post count and skill level should be correlated - the more skilled you are at a given game then, presumably, the more knowledge you have.
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I agree with that. Like you said "should" be correlated.

Moloch_horridus
However, I agree that as things currently stand the only way to judge skill level is by the quality of the posts.
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That's absolutely true, again I agree.

PhM
 
it would be nice if R5turbo and moloch horrid had read vixen's original post which had stated that the post count was important on his seperate forum - not here at GTplanet
 
Intresting discussion.
I try to help new members that appear to have tried to search and have failed if I know the answer or the link to that thread disussing that answer as others also do.
If the thread is in need of being reported I will do that. Depending on the thread I will post a reply stating I have reported the thread and sugest nicely to fix your ways.
If the thread is a lost cause I will just bring it to the attention of the Mods and leave it to them.
The mods do a good job 👍
and if Kent is reading this, no worries about moving my New York mission write up.
It only took me till yesterday to notice you moved it.
 

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