Deleting outwar link threads

[Thomas Tamblyn]

I know its not forge policy to delete threads, but the outwar ones that have started to pop up are spam plain and simple and knock legitimate threads off the front page.

If anything deserves to be an exception, surely these do?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Thomas,

I see your point, but here's my current outlook: it actually sends a stronger message to Forge regulars and to new members to see these threads appear, and for no one to respond. No effort on our part, no gain on theirs - they go yank-yank-yank and get nowhere.

If that turns out to be wrong, then so be it, but so far it's worked really well.

Best,
Ron

[Jack Spencer Jr]

This sounds like a good plan. But you might want to consider adding something about blantant spamming to the ettiquette policy so that if it does become a problem in spite of non-response you can point to the Forge policy and take whatever action step you decide on.

[szilard]

My only concern is that they may not care about people replying. If what they care about is having the link accessible so that people can click on it, then they have accomplished their purpose.

Stuart

[Marco]

How about "deactivating" the link (add some garbage to it) with an EDITED/DEACTIVATED BY MODERATOR notation.

I admit it--I clicked. I wish I hadn't. It was the "do not click" mandate that got me.

Also: I would only do the editing thing the SECOND time something like that shows up. If I posted a link to my RPG (a real, indie RPG) and you warped it, I'd be real pissed--but the second or third or whatever time ... that'd be *my* fault.

Make it real clear that you'll do this in the rules and regs (Links to spam will, after one warning be "deactivated" to prevent click-through).  Betcha Clinton could even write a button to do that.

-Marco

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Marco,

Clinton and I were just talking about this today. We hit upon the three-strikes concept as well, although your edit-to-deactivate idea is a very good one. And yes, when we figure out Mr. Policy, he'll get posted in the Etiquette Sticky; good call there, too.

I hope you'll forgive me for finding your "Ron said not to, thus I must" experience very funny. Everyone? Let's all make sure never to tell Marco not to put a bean up his nose ...

Best,
Ron

[Marco]

Akk--argg--arggle *snort* *choke* *cough* ... ahhhh ...

Damn you!

-Marco

[M. J. Young]

your edit-to-deactivate idea is a very good one.

It is a good idea; although, if it's posted with the link as text and clickable (e.g., http://www.multiverser.com/">http://www.multiverser.com/), if it comes up as a 404 error many users are going to assume that it was written wrong initially and make the correction by eye.

Perhaps if you were to alter the link to connect to a one-paragraph page stating the anti-Spam policy and the reasons for it, it would be unnecessary to change the text. "The link you clicked violated The Forge's Anti-Spam policy and so has been disabled. We request that Forge members not click such links, as doing so encourages future Spam of this sort. The Forge welcomes RPG designers to present their work through our forums for discussion; we do not welcome those who would abuse our site as an advertising medium." Something like that.

--M. J. Young

[M. J. Young]

I know I just posted here, and then I left and hit another of the spam threads and didn't recognize it until I'd opened it.

Would it be too much to actually alter the title of the thread to include the word

[SPAM]

before or after the existing title, so that those of us on slower connections don't have to wait for it to load to realize we don't want to read it?

--M. J. Young

[Jack Spencer Jr]

Are you saying you can't just disable the HTML or BBCode like this:

(e.g., http://www.multiverser.com/)

I don't know what the moderators can do, but just editing the post to remove the link and the code and tags also sounds good to me:

(e.g., http //www multiverser com/)

Hey, check it out. Just posting a URL make a link. So just stick a space or two  or remove a few key pieces of punctuation like this