The bot situation

[draque]

Honestly, the tarpit seems like the best solution to me. It would be clearly marked as a deathtrap, and I would rather see some bots (who don't post there) manage to get through than some legitimately interested users be turned away.

[Plasman]

I notice that a lot of the bots (if not all) do not even bother using a picture for their avatar. Maybe we could make it mandatory to set an avatar icon as a way of showing that they're a real person? It's not too hard to set one, since Jennifer has supplied some sample ones that could serve the purpose if the person doesn't want to use their own picture.

Of course, established forumites like Coda and Skatche don't need to change their settings, because they can only be either sapient lifeforms, or really good at passing the Turing test...

And Marinschild would definitely pass as human!

[Coda]

I'm "established!"

Yaaaaaaay!

[Plasman]

I'm "established!"

Yep, you've passed. Though if you suddenly start dropping ads for penile enlargement or Warcraft Gold in your posts... watch out!


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[Coda]

Pfffft. I don't have enough gold to sell the stuff; I still need to buy epic flying!

[Monocheres]

Prosthetics, on the other hand ... Yeah.... I could see a market for those ... Yeah ...

[Plasman]

Something else just occurred to me. Is there anything posted on the forum for anyone who tries to join up but gets booted by mistake? Say, a brief note explaining the weird bot situation, and that if your account gets locked out accidentally that it's not a deliberate thing?

Of course, a hume would have to be really bad at communicating if they triggered the bot alarm (cos you know, I just can't stop talking about bootleg hair restoration products - in three languages, yet). But it would be handy to have a little note somewhere (maybe during the signup) that says, "Hey, btw, if you get banned for being a bot, let us know! We're only human after all!"

Just in case we inadvertently kick out someone who really wanted to hang. And not sell stuff.

PS. this isn't a dig at any of the Moderators, who are all doing a great job at keeping the digital wolves at bay.

[Idiot Glee]

I'm working on it! I'm working on it!

Gah, I deleted some 400 inactive* members a couple days back, and we got a hundred new members since. Gotta figure that 1-2 people join a month and bother to post, at most.

I'm thinking I'll just delete anyone who's inactive* 3 days unless otherwise directed. This problem is beyond nuisance, it's affecting the quality of the forums. This must not stand!

*Inactive as in no posts or signs of life.

[arex]

3 days isn't very long.


Hnngh.

[Coda]

Yeah, I'd consider a week.

[Wizard CaT]

Lots of people lurked on the old and new forums…

[Monocheres]

What if we tolerate lurkers indefinitely so long as they don't fill in their website field with an obvious commercial site?

[Alfador]

I'm "established!"

Yep, you've passed. Though if you suddenly start dropping ads for penile enlargement or Warcraft Gold in your posts... watch out!


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I know a way you can enlarge your penis and get World of Warcraft gold at the same time!!

...masturbate while doing daily quests.

[Coda]

Have you tried some of the newer daily quests? Heck no you can't do those one-handed, especially if you've got your armor off so you have something to look at.

[Alfador]

Have you tried some of the newer daily quests? Heck no you can't do those one-handed, especially if you've got your armor off so you have something to look at.

Kill fifteen Scourge in Icecrown.
Kill ten Scourge in Icecrown.
Plant the Ebon Blade banner in fifteen vrykul in Jotunheim.

Those can all be done with the same fifteen kills. In fact, the easy Vile Like Fire! and Shoot Em Up quests from the Shadow Vault can also be done on the way there. It's not so much a matter of doing it one-handed as being able to maintain an erection during the time you're actually fighting.

Besides, I'm a feral druid. I don't need to take my armor off to see some tail. :3

[Coda]

... I don't know whether to laugh or groan. That joke was even worse than most of mine. XD

[Alfador]

Another idea: instructions in the registration as follows:

If you post a link in your first post, or have a link in your profile, you will be banned as a spambot. Once you have made ten posts without a single link, you may have a link in your profile/signature. Adding an avatar will help to convince us that you are not a spammer. We apologize for the seeming strictness, but we've had enormous problems with spammers in the past and would like to minimize that problem.

[Plasman]

I know this is only slightly off-topic (like that matters in this forum!)

...but is there any chance a forumite - with the power to do so - could either delete or merge the threads related to BotSpotting?
The entire first page of the Problems section is filled with topics that only have "OMGizaBOT!!!" "*daleet*" "LOL UGottHIM" - and the situation is so extreme now that I don't think we even bother to comment on them any more, unless they're unusually "creative"...

We could just set up a single "Bot Alert" thread for the purpose of reporting them if we need to, and leave the rest of the area clear for more relevant stuff.

Alfador's suggestion was a good one.

...I meant the no-link trial period. Though one of the recent inductees did in fact pull a swift one on us... like we didn't see that coming form a mile away.

I suspect that whatever gets implemented, the bots will still come through... though why do they bother? Have any of us ever clicked on their dirty goods?

[strange_person]

There's a nonnegligible chance that one of us might, eventually, click-through, producing upwards of a cent in real revenue for the advertiser. Bots themselves are cheap-as-free, so the expected return exceeds the cost.