Moderators

[LevelUP]

I've reported hundreds, maybe thousands, of spam posts over the years. Though I'm not as active here as I used to be after finishing my degrees, I'm willing to help out as well.  
Perhaps the biggest thing this community could do though is change forum settings to deter or prevent spam. In other online forums, I've seen restrictions like preventing new users from posting links, or requiring mod approval on posts by new users. Seems like most of the spammers here are freshly created accounts, so one or both of these controls would stop them.

That's a great idea! If new members can't post links until they've made 10 posts (or some other number) then that would automatically reduce the number of awful links they post since almost all of them are brand new users.

This is kind of funny because I was thinking the exact same thing about new users being the main source of the problem.

I spent an afternoon creating a custom ChatGPT plugin for MyBB and have a working version that has been tested on real DF spam posts. It caught nearly 100% of the spam and flagged it for moderation. The ChatGPT plugin could be configured to only check posts from new users with fewer than 10 posts. While being stricter on posts containing links, it could still allow legitimate links, such as those from the DegreeForum Wiki.

There are also other ways to prevent spam, such as:

1. Moderating first posts (as already discussed)
   
   
2. Google's reCAPTCHA
   
   
3. Stop Forum Spam (This is a default MyBB feature, though I'm not sure if they’ve enabled it. However, I did notice that some spammers are listed in the SFS database.)
   

MyBB Documentation Regarding Spam
https://docs.mybb.com/1.8/administration/spam/

There needs to be a balance between stopping spam and not creating unnecessary obstacles for users. Adding plugins can introduce stability, performance, and security issues. Custom plugins also require ongoing code maintenance. I suppose there are pros and cons to everything.

[ss20ts]

Google reCAPTCHA has to be one of the most frustrating things ever invented. It does not work for me at least 80% of the time. Even when using the audio feature it doesn't agree with what I type quite often. I understand why it exists, but man does it need a lot of work. Some websites I frequent had it installed and removed it because of complaints. Many of use couldn't login to our accounts because of it. Cost them a lot of business.

[bluebooger]

I think i should be all powerful and should get an email for EVERY post and have to approve the post before it gets ... you know ... posted

[bjcheung77]

Let me ask our admin/webmaster to make bluebooger that powerful... oh wait, I should do that first for myself beforehand...

[LevelUP]

Let me ask our admin/webmaster to make bluebooger that powerful... oh wait, I should do that first for myself beforehand...

I already reserved that title for myself. 

[bjcheung77]

Forgot to update everyone, I guess you all may already know by, the newest moderator is Jonathan Whatley

[ShotoJuku]

Been a member and moderator here from 2006 (18 years). When items are reported I take action just as soon as I see it.