[Robin Hickman]

I wonder if it would be possible to use CAPTCHA imaging software to help "limit" some of the SPAM we sometimes have to "wade through"?

[ NOTE : "The term CAPTCHA (for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas Hopper and John Langford of Carnegie Mellon University." ]

The idea would be to perhaps slow down or discourage would-be spammers by having new members use the CAPTCHA test to make their first FIVE posts or so. Or maybe have new members go throught the CAPTCHA vetting process only once or twice so as to ascertain if they REAL people visiting here with REAL Flag-related questions or issues.


http://www.captcha.net/

http://www.captcha.net/captchas/


Anyway, it's just a thought.....

Robin Hickman

[Peter Ansoff]

Hi, Robin and all!

Actually, we already have a "moderator," built in to the forum software, that does exactly this. It screens out obvious references to drugs, pornography, and other inappropriate things, as well as general incoherent garbage. It also screens new posters (I'm not sure what the magic number of posts is, but it's probably around 5). In particular, it snags items from new posters that contain links.

Posts that are flagged for review don't show up in the forum, but are kept in a moderation list. Periodically, Amanda and I go through the list and approve or delete each one. The vast majority are obvious spam. Occasionally a "real" post gets flagged for some weird reason, and we have to manually approve it. If you've ever had a post that didn't show up in the forum for a day or two, this is probably what happened.

Generally, the moderation software works very well. The forum gets *tons* of spam, and very little of it leaks through. When it does (like the ones from "Jenny"), we delete them as soon as we can. Every so often, we get a post that is in a "grey area" -- it isn't spam, but it is overtly political, inflammatory, or inappropriate for some other reason. When this happens, Amanda and I discuss it offline, and we've always been able to agree on whether to kill it or not. If you see a post that looks questionable, please let me or Amanda (american_flag_uk) know in a private message, and we'll take a look at it as soon as possible.

Thanks to the moderation software, we're able to keep the spam problem under pretty good control. Also, I think that we've managed to strike the right balance here between civility and free discourse. Comments on this subject are always welcome, of course.

Peter Ansoff