How do we reduce spam on PG.com ??

[QuintEssence]

i was just wondering..after seeing the incredible increase in the number of inane posts during the last month or so, is there an official PG policy vis-a-vis spamming ?? (ofcourse, i do not refer to promotional campaigns, or ads etc.).

since i started posting, i was under the impression that spamming is severely discouraged. i was kinda semi-warned by anil himself on some occasions when he felt that i had posted crap (about him )

but seeing the latest burst of addiction is, literally, taking my breath away. for the first time, i've had to resort to "ignore lists" to preserve my senses against the thoughts of some posters...whom i know to be too thick to stich two decent words together.

now...this might be true about me too. i might be guilty of being offensive on the senses of PGites.

but still..regarding all such ppl, i do not have any right to question their posts; freedom of expression and all, but still, i just wanted to enquire..what is our status on spam posting ??

[uRmad]

Originally Posted by QuintEssence

i was just wondering..after seeing the incredible increase in the number of inane posts during the last month or so, is there an official PG policy vis-a-vis spamming ?? (ofcourse, i do not refer to promotional campaigns, or ads etc.).

since i started posting, i was under the impression that spamming is severely discouraged. i was kinda semi-warned by anil himself on some occasions when he felt that i had posted crap (about him )

but seeing the latest burst of addiction is, literally, taking my breath away. for the first time, i've had to resort to "ignore lists" to preserve my senses against the thoughts of some posters...whom i know to be too thick to stich two decent words together.

now...this might be true about me too. i might be guilty of being offensive on the senses of PGites.

but still..regarding all such ppl, i do not have any right to question their posts; freedom of expression and all, but still, i just wanted to enquire..what is our status on spam posting ??

Aah....Very good point there !! I was considering starting an entire discussion on this to frame up our new anti-spam guidelines (phew...sounds big ) ..But yes, last few months have been an explosion !! Times were when all of us used to personally know every triple-digit poster...But now, i see ppl with multiple hundreds of posts, and many without adding ANY kinda value !! But the issue lies intertwined with the HUGE number of posts that we are doing everyday !! Humanly, its impossible for the mods to be going thro' every post !! And this is where the senior members would have to step in....In most cases a slight nudge is enough to stop the spam-spree of any individual...Believe me when i say, ppl are extremely picky abt what is said of them in a public forum. I've learnt that the hard way ...Anyways...Yes, we've seen a huge rise in spamming...But again, to give the devil its due, spamming, to a certain extent, is very much required in maintaining a community... I've made many friends that way , and so have many others... That doesn't legitimate spam in any manner...But yea, when threads are time-bound, we *occassionally* turn the other side in face of spam...Something like when we had betting last year on ppl getting a call, or the avtar thread...They are bound to die after the date for which they were put up....But threads such as insomnia, are, imnsho, spam.period.

Another issue i wanted to bring forth is, of late, there has been a drop in the number of bad post reports (not that i miss 'em !!) That can mean two things...Ppl have been posting very good posts (very unlikely in a crowd of 21k) or, more dangerously, many of the other posters/readers are not bothered abt the occassional spam !! Occassional spam is fine if it were a crowd of a few thousand....But in a place like this where we are seeing an avg of close to 100 registrations a day, it just isn't welcome

Lookin forward to suggestions/feedback from others on what to do of this issue .

Cheers

ps: on second thoughts, mebbe a separate thread is better for this...

[estranged_gnrs]

Hi,
well sometimes am too in party with spamming but i think the main reason for spamming is to light up the fire beside one's pagalguy id.Noone wants to be a newbie pagal or just a trainee pagal.everyone wants to be a hardcore or expert pagal..certified by who else but pagalguy.com!! and the only way to rise up in the hierarchy is to post more...so thats the catch...i think it is one of the major reason of spamming..any ideas on how to resolve it???
karma points? or votes based on each post which count?
lets see what mods bring out to cure this insanity..
Me.

[akhil_agrawal]

i think the xclusive club(i.e. people more than 1000 posts) is adding to the spam in PG...
everybody should b trying 2 post more and more...and Spam has improve..
I would request to change the criteria of the exclusive club...
May be we can choose a person of our own choice by vote and make him a month's PAAGAL..or something like that..that would enable PGites more involved...
i mean the motive of exclusive club can be fulfilled by some other way..
(PS:its my personal viewpoint)

and also...most important imposing some strict guidelines need to be there...
Hopin PG becomes a Spam-free site so that the server space so available can be used for the best possible way...

(Akhil)

[jas_maverick]

Hmm... i was waiting for this to come. i was initially of view that any one liners saying i agree, me too etc are discouraged, any kinda vulgar thingie is discouraged, personal cuff pulling is discouraged and the senior PGs gotta tell the newbies in bit harsh tone the PG Etiquettes. but do we really see all this?
estranged is right in saying that the PG are all out to get the 'flames' added up to get the higher status, which is quite human, so whats it ? PG created a Frankenstein?
In some threads u cant wrench the spamming, as its required there, say quizzes etc. Then come opinion threads, it'll b there too. Where it really seems ugly is the real discussion thread.
but QE/uRmad, then do we tell any new PGite how he/she needs to behave? Probably u knew coz there were less ppl and mods were active, & like QE said he got pulled. Frankly i may also have done it at some time, but then cudnt see any 1 being pulled since i joined!! & as uRmad quoted, it cant b there arent such posts. i guess we need some discipline.

Originally Posted by QE

but still..regarding all such ppl, i do not have any right to question their posts; freedom of expression and all

Cmmon QE, u sure know which nerve to pick even when u just comment on a post

PS: Time for some 'Goodfellas'?

[supervish]

Originally Posted by estranged_gnrs

i think the main reason for spamming is to light up the fire beside one's pagalguy id.Noone wants to be a newbie pagal or just a trainee pagal.everyone wants to be a hardcore or expert pagal..certified by who else but pagalguy.com!! and the only way to rise up in the hierarchy is to post more...so thats the catch...i think it is one of the major reason of spamming..any ideas on how to resolve it???

@ pagalguy I told you so

Allwin, back me up

[mik]

Originally Posted by akhil_agrawal

i think the xclusive club(i.e. people more than 1000 posts) is adding to the spam in PG...
(Akhil)

Good one....here are some 'spammers' according to u-
Pagalguy
Maverick
Chandoo
Subbu
Shub
Simba
Spiderman
Zarine
Mike
Mik
Buck_was et all


Spamming is not about more no. of posts...its about the quality of posts.

Having some fun by positng a few insane posts is fine....Everyone does so...dats not spammin...

This is a FORUM...we can have fun...but maintaining a sanity level(differs from person to person) is important.

So actually there cant be any guidelines unless the MODS list them down...even in that case i guess the PERSPECTIVE thing will emerge

Keep posting....

[mik]

Originally Posted by supervish

Allwin, back me up

Can I???

If YES...then i do..

[rajsher]

When i came here and was a newbie here, i came across smthing known as "karma points".

I guess ppl shud be awarded karma points, by the mods, on the basis of quality of the posts.

And those 'karma points' shud decide the rise in the heirarchy of achieving the pagalhood.

I mean a sort of rating points shud be given to a post(these pointa may be set to 0 by default). and those rating points shud decide the rank.


what say???????

[eddy]

Originally Posted by uRmad

Another issue i wanted to bring forth is, of late, there has been a drop in the number of bad post reports (not that i miss 'em !!) That can mean two things...Ppl have been posting very good posts (very unlikely in a crowd of 21k) or, more dangerously, many of the other posters/readers are not bothered abt the occassional spam !! Occassional spam is fine if it were a crowd of a few thousand....But in a place like this where we are seeing an avg of close to 100 registrations a day, it just isn't welcome

Lookin forward to suggestions/feedback from others on what to do of this

Regarding this issue of "Bad Posts", I am still not very clear about how to define a bad post. I know that any ad or a personal attack on any community etc or something non-parliamentary is BAD , but are one line posts like "i agree" "very funny" "i second that" also considered bad and should they too be reported ?

Secondly, if a thread like insomnia is an obvious spammers paradise then why not nip such threads in the bud ? Either dont allow such threads to start or lock them when the spam becomes too much.

And since most spam comes in the Chit Chat or My Interests sections then can there be a procedure to limit the no of posts in these sections per user per day?

PS: If pagalguy, PG, Allwyn reveal their/his identity then a major spamming session can be avoided on the who is pagalguy thread