Double Posting

[Weregoose]

With the recent surge of newcomers, there was evidently a greater likelihood that the forum rules were going to be disregarded (and thus broken). Is it possible to immediately redirect newly-registered users to the forum rules, or perhaps have them answer a ridiculously-simple test consisting of four questions before they are even allowed to post? They'd be forced to look at the rules then, at least. Maybe I'm in over my head, but this is coming from someone who has spent a lot of time moderating the TI-Basic section, and who also believes that an IQ test should be passed before someone is even allowed on the Internet. :P

To support my reasoning, here are some specifics regarding the above six posts:

Time between each double post (in minutes):

• 1 min.
  
• 3 min.
  
• 29 min.
  
• 4 min.
  
• 6 min.
  
• 2 min.
  

Initial words in each second post:

• Oh!
  
• [response to a different person per post]
  
• By the way
  
• Nevermind
  
• please try to keep comments
  
• OOOOOO and
  

Number of posts by the author at the time the second post was made:

• 15 posts
  
• 20 posts
  
• 8 posts
  
• 8 posts
  
• 4 posts
  
• 3 posts
  

Number of days since the author's "Joined" date at the time the second post was made:

• 4 days
  
• 3 days
  
• 2 days
  
• 3 days
  
• 0 days
  
• 0 days
  

Final note: These are all within the month of May, and are
the last ones to remain as I don't have control over them.

:lol:

[EDIT]

Agh, it looks like another one showed up while I was writing this.

[DigiTan]

I've also had to edit one of negativezero48's double-posts today with his messages being something like 6 minutes apart. Has anyone warned negativezero48 and antifaith about the multiposting problem?

[Weregoose]

Oh, there were more double-posters. In fact, I have reason to believe that several of them came from the same circle of friends... Anyway, as for contacting the people who don't follow the rules, I figured that merging and editing their posts with a message and a link would actually get the point across. As it turns out, they probably never go back to the old posts they've made—either that, or they blatantly don't care.

Regardless, there's a gap somewhere along the line of someone joining the forums and his knowing how to properly behave in the forums, which is something I feel needs to be mended before an outbreak occurs and the activity should get out of hand. What frightens me is that such a thing might be looming around the corner... I'm being overly-dramatic with this, but emphasizing how I feel might better get the intended point across.

[DigiTan]

I used to throw around my "no multi-posting" sign. The problem is getting kind of widespead (actually it was a 3rd person I corrected and not antifaith or negativezero48). I think we should reply with one warning each (or better yet, PM) and either edit or WarnLevel++ next time it happens. I really don't expect it to go that far though.

I might make a version of this that's wide instead of tall...

[Weregoose]

I found out recently that I can't increase warn levels. :|

At any rate, here is what I'm sending out:

[Brazucs]

Oh man.... I feel bad for not being so active lately and missing all of this.

Perhaps bringing back the warn system is in order?

[Arcane Wizard]

Enforcing good behaviour on forums with large userbases:

Make a brief summary of the posting issues: (no more than 6 or so points)

- double posting
- vague topic titles
- single/few-word-replies
- etc..

Place it in the top of a stickied rules/readthisbeforeposting/READFFS topic in each subforum, where applicable. In bold. With no more than a single sentence detailing each point. ("Welcome newcomers" isn't urging enough imho)

Ideals are broken:

- close topic/delete post
- warning message (in topic or pm or both because they may not read either)
- if too often -> (temp) ban or require mod approval for posting

How often you allow it and how quick the consequences are (edit takes longer than delete) depend on how huge the userbase is. With thousand+/thousands of users it's usually a delete+warning the first time, temp ban the second.

---

The test could take the form of a <form> in the forum rules page (the one that is already shown when you register). The submit button could have a javascript inserted (onClick) that simply checks all the following questions are answered with "no":

- Are you going to double post?
[] Yes [] No
- Are you going to spam?
[] Yes [] No
- Are you going to use vague topic titles?
[] Yes [] No
- Are you going to reply with single word posts?
[] Yes [] No

if( yes_answer_found() ) {
alert( "You should revise your stance on the rules before you can finish your registration" );
return 0;
} else {
form.submit;
}

[programmer_to_be]

I agree with what you did Goose. And yes, negativezero was warned by IAmACalculator in this post right here:
http://www.unitedti.org/index.php?showtopi...indpost&p=80287


Edit: I have also noticed that negativezero didn't even say anything regarding that post. It seems like he just doesn't care. Have you warned them?

[Arcane Wizard]

[leofox]

its there allright, but mods can't change warning levels. Back in the days we were able to change peoples warning levels in the blink of an eye.

[Brazucs]

[Arcane Wizard]

Not harsh enough in my honest opinion.

Warnings before warnings before increasing wanring levels before more warnings before action?

"Are you going to behave? Yes/No. No? OK, goodbye."

Sure if they show willingness to improve, but from what I gather they don't really do that.

edit:assuming a well established system of order is in noticable effect. While that is being fixed, give them all the second chances you want, sure. But from the moment a lot of effort has been put in to make it as easy and obvious as possible what the rules are it is no longer subject to discussing during issues. Most of us can remember several times where that wasn't very usefull.

[Brazucs]

I'll monitor his actions carefully and wait for a PM. One more and it's warninglevel++. There hasn't been a warning since, what, agility?

[programmer_to_be]

[DarkerLine]

Consider this: your warning level is a warning. It's meant as a visible indicator that someone's doing something wrong, before they get suspended or banned. Warning level by itself doesn't seem like something to threaten with to me, especially considering no one else except mods/staff can see it, so I think it's okay to use it even without prior notice.

The warning system is in fact enabled, and all Staff, Super Moderators, and forum moderators should be able to warn people.

[elfprince13]

I like Arcane Wizards idea for how the quiz should work.

I dont mind occasionally requesting that people use the Edit button, but that gets annoying after a while.

[Weregoose]

Without much more on my mind to address, I'll conclude by saying
I, too, advocate Arcane Wizard's rendition of the registration test.
At what point (and in what fashion) should it be brought to them?

[Brazucs]

Along with accepting the general rules and stating that you're over 13, perhaps?

Btw, negativezero48 PMed me back and said that he didn't see any of the warnings until this morning, that he's sorry, he's never gonna do it again, blablabla...

[Arcane Wizard]

[IAmACalculator]

Isn't there an IPB mod that automatically merges double posts? The Vera forums seem to do this.