More Moderators?

[Elzaim]

Just a suggestion, but does anyone think that maybe there should be a few more moderators on the forums? I'm only saying this because of the amount of spammers that has seemed to hit the forums lately, and really aweful topics that are left to sit around in the forums until a mod comes around (sometimes it's a long time).

Again, just a simple suggestion. I just really dislike seeing some of the deragatory threads left up for some time when they should be taken immediatley down.

[Figment]

I think part of the problem is that several of the moderators have been moving or have been on vacation, so we don't have the coverage that we usually do. I have noticed slightly higher than usual amounts of spam, but only in the past few days. Unless it keeps up at this rate, I don't know that it will be a problem... Even adding more moderators might not mean that spam posts aren't still left up for long stretches. There are times when all of our schedules simply have us away from the internet, times when the forum is empty, or nearly empty, for long stretches, and adding more moderators wouldn't make a whit of difference there.

[adi_gallia]

I don't know about more moderators, but it isn't up to me anyway. I just thought that since Trick has decided not to post anymore and I believe she has been removed from the User Group there has been a "vacancy" so to speak. I don't know if there needs to be any more moderators, but I see quite a lot of spam too, but that could be because I lurk on these forums and the internet for so long it is unhealthy and that means I would see more spam than others. xD

But yeah, Jazzy is away for a while longer I believe? Figment was/is halfway through moving? Ty was away a few days ago, maybe it's just because the mods have been busy like Figment said.

[Jessi]

I personally think the amount of moderators we have is fine. Figment left for a while back when Trick was still here, and we were fine; she came back, Trick left, and I think we're still fine. Between two admins and a bunch of mods, I don't see how much more well-covered it could be. It's always likely a few pieces of spam might be hanging around for a while. But it's also summer, and like Figgy said, people are moving or on vacation - honestly, I haven't noticed any more spam than usual. I barely notice it in the first place.

[Joey]

I'll just note that I haven't actually caught any spam in awhile because the other mods are getting to it before me. So we can't be at that big a shortage.

Though it may also have something to do with Figment and I being in the same time zone.

[Figment]

Also, I think I should note, the majority of the spam is not so blatantly disgusting and offensive in title as one of the ones I moved this morning, which is, I presume, the one that understandably bothered you, El. We rarely get anything that virulent -- skimming the oubliette, it seems that most are for car insurance, prescription drugs, and random robot hellos...

I personally don't go into the neopets forums much anymore, though, so if there's spam in one of those that needs to be dealt with and I'm online, feel free to shoot me a PM and I'll take care of it, as I might not see it otherwise. Which is a bit moot, as subeta seems to be taking the brunt of it ever since it became the forum with the most posts.

[Slugawoo]

I don't think we need more, yet. I have noticed an increase in bot posts, but they're deleted pretty quickly from what I've seen. Then again, I don't even look in the Neopets-related areas anymore, so I probably only ever see a fraction of them.

Maybe when we get more active members or if the forums start getting overwhelmed with bot posts. But at the moment, I think the mods are doing a good job taking care of it.

[AngharadTy]

I usually delete spammers once a day, or more, and ban their email addresses (when they end in .info or .biz, or if they're Russian domains, because for some reason, Russia allows a lot of spam). And after that, I go over the "recently registered" list to see if any other spammers managed to enable their accounts--if they haven't enabled their accounts, I don't tend to waste time on it. But I was gone for a few days, and I've been sick after, so they didn't get deleted/banned. We had a whole nest of spammers using the same email domain. If I were around, that wouldn't get through.

And, indeed, it's mostly loan spam, and prescription drug spam; only about a tenth are porn spam. Also, you guys are usually smart enough not to click on those. They only have a few hits by the time they're moved to the Oubliette. So I think we're doing okay, really.

[Cranberry]

Is there any kind of board update that can stop some of the spam?

[AngharadTy]

That's Jazzy's realm, not mine, but I <i>think</i> that the last I heard was we were waiting for the next version to have the bugs worked out before we updated. If we could ban every email from .info or .biz, that would cut down on it some--though I don't suppose we can ban .ru, because hey, some Russians aren't bots. ;D

[Huggles]

I do read all of the Neopets boards, even if I don't post much.

[bonecrivain]

I always click on the "new posts" or whatever link, so I see everything in all forums. Well, other than the WW one, since I don't moderate that one. You know.

I don't necessarily read every topic, but I do keep an eye on every forum when I'm online. I think any time we *do* miss a spam post for an extended period of time, it's just because all of us are off-line for whatever reason (which is impossible to predict, really). It would be difficult to add another moderator to fill a specific time slot that's left vacant by the rest of us (I'm not sure any such gap exists on a regular basis).

I think we have a sufficient number of moderators at the moment. If things start getting significantly harder to moderate, I'm sure the suggestion will be brought up again. =)

[Iggy]

Trick is unreplacable. If we do get a new mod, I'm pretty sure it's going to be becuase we need one, not because we HAVE to replace Trick.

So, I don't think we need more mods. At all.

[adi_gallia]

I don't know this for a fact, but until tonight, when Jazzy gets back, aren't all the mods from outside the UK? That could be the problem, the people in the UK time zone are more likely to see spam...then again Elzaim looks to be from Canada so that probably isn't it.

[gomababe]

Adi, Canada is North of the USA, virtually the same time zones are applicable to Canada as they are to the US so there's a huge difference in time between the UK and Canada. Just a quick geography reminder .