- Oct 27, 2005
- 85,976
- 22,169
Working on it at the moment.
-
Please take a moment to look over the Suggestions & Feedback rules before making a post: READ RULES HERE
This is precisely why I won't be renewing my VIP subscription (and you can remove my Executive VIP condition too). - It's a waste of time.
- Thread starter RichMedusa
- Start date
- Oct 27, 2005
- 85,976
- 22,169
It’s been 13 days instead of the promised 7. Sorry about the extra time; I wanted to take care over this.
This thread has opened up some interesting discussion points about the BHW community and provided an opportunity to reflect on where we can make things better as well as to share much of what we already cover internally. Much of the content below comes from data we review internally on a daily or weekly basis.
It's important that we look at this in context:
62,000,000 page views, over 1,288,000 posts and exactly 155,181 new members in the last 12 months.
We need to share the scale that we're working at more often.
I’ve taken a good long look at all the posts, ideas and thoughts I’ve received in this thread and from the wider community because we’re always looking to improve and benefit the community.
I’m going to say the BHW team does an amazing job. I’m biased. However it’s always good to be held to account and review one’s assumptions. The one big thing that’s come out of this for me is, ironically as a communication platform, we need to communicate better with you the BHW community about what’s going on in-house.
As with any engaged and popular forum, there are all sorts of accounts. We have those who are truly engaged, users who are just browsing before their next big project and of course those who are here to try and game the system.
We put significant resources into addressing the issue of community quality already. For example:
We have performed 650,603 moderation actions, an average of 1,782 actions per day, with a median of 1,103, based on the high volume of actions around specific dates as we develop our processes.
Some specific highlights:
We can improve how we use the existing AI content checker to draw that balance between the use of AI in a positive way. We want members to be able to use true assistive AI such as translation tools and writing assistants like Grammarly but stop copy-paste from a question asked to an LLM delivering low-value content. In my book, original thought reasoned through LLM's is fine - copy-paste low value content isn't.
We need to Improve onboarding reviews of new accounts using verification tools and more frequent manual account reviews.
There's the revamped Exec program that actively encourages quality threads, focused on successful members and engagement.
We shall provide stats to back up why we’re considering the changes we make and look forward to hearing from you about what you think of them and how they impact your experience on BHW. BEFORE we set them live.
In the next 30 days we will update you on the changes we will make to the AI content checker and the onboarding process behind the new accounts.
Encouraging more quality content through ideas like the revamped Exec program will take longer, but we aim to have it live by the end of Q1 2027.
To address the concerns about how we review disputes we’ve recently added a change to the process where we will collect even more information about disputes from a wider range of users (Change log: behind the scenes at BHW (page 7)).
This doesn’t mean we’ll be handing out more bans, we still need proof that a transaction actually happened on BHW between those 2 members. However, if it did and you follow the dispute resolution guide, then it will get a clear review.
What we can’t do is accept baseless claims without any proof. To this end we’ve added a note to make it clear to all on the marketplace; you’ll see the following text at the bottom of every page on the marketplace:
Now, over the same 12 month period we've had 516 disputes recorded.
Of which 110 disputes resulted in a ban.
Why not 516 bans you ask? This reflects that, in the vast majority of cases, we are able to reach a resolution between the parties. However, sadly, sometimes members commit more than 1 case of fraud before we’re able to address it. This is why it’s so important to engage with the seller on BHW first and then report if you think something is going wrong.
Repeat offenders are rare – this is where we give a merchant a second chance after they have done the right thing and recompensed the buyer, only to go on to commit further fraud. Are there offenders that try and come back after being banned? Yes, of course. In the vast majority of cases, we’re able to find them before they make it through onto the marketplace, where they are posting in other areas. We’re not reviewing every post, so for extra protection, the BHW marketplace is where you should buy.
All this in an average resolution time of just 3 days.
It’s worth drilling down those dispute numbers even further.
Dispute stats September 2026
Total number of valid disputes submitted in September 2026 = 19, of which, based on the evidence provided, we ended up putting 5 through.
Why not all 19?
Of the 19 submitted last month:
14 failed due to no engagement in the process or no supporting evidence. If I raise a dispute against another member of the community but can’t provide proof that I’ve sent any money or placed an order (for example), we can’t move forward with the dispute. When you’re buying something, make sure you engage with the seller on BHW first as per the guide here.
That leaves 5 disputes, all of which were resolved: 1 was resolved via our initial DMs and 4 went public.
Note: A failed dispute doesn't necessarily mean the end of the line. Whilst we can't disclose everything, the information provided in the dispute is never wasted.
We have broader data since the start of 2025
We’ve had a total of 488 valid disputes submitted since January 2025.
Of the 488 valid disputes we received, the outcomes were as follows:
Whilst it’s not acceptable to have anyone lose out from a transaction in the community, when looking at the numbers (516 disputes from 7,200,000 active users – GA stats) please remember in the vast majority of cases on BHW (as you can see from the stats above) the sellers on the marketplace are solid business people. They're making a living from their threads and have no reason to commit fraud on any scale. Whilst we’re actively removing those that are attempting to game the system, you can help protect yourself by always doing your own due diligence.
We receive many great ideas from the community; they drive our future planning, and we really appreciate them. Over the last 12 months, we reviewed 270 threads.
As many threads contained many posts relating to similar topics we were able to collate them into broad topic groups as below. These neatly reflect the main concerns in this thread:
We will review the best way to collate the feedback from the community and update that process in the next 60 days.
) and was instrumental in delivering ideas such as upvote processes (more on that below) and clarity for the community team where it was lacking before.
In response specifically to:
As I state just about every time the subject of a member’s account comes up, the value of the business as a whole isn’t worth devaluing over a single membership payment. It’s not how we do things. But we can see how this could be perceived. but if this is a perception, it's something we need to listen to and address as best we can.
Going forward:
It’s been a long journey as described in other posts on this topic. We took a number of wrong steps but I currently can log into the beta of MP2. We have many of the typical hurdles covered, from FCA legal reviews, to finance providers.
We will continue to update the community as the work progresses with updates here: BlackHat World News & Updates.
Our goal is to make BHW even more useful, more trustworthy, and to provide a better membership experience for all who choose to make this their digital home.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, the team works hard on all your suggestions and feedback. This specific one was a summary of all we're seeing in the suggestions and feedback and the perfect focus point for a fuller response and update to where we are currently.
This thread has opened up some interesting discussion points about the BHW community and provided an opportunity to reflect on where we can make things better as well as to share much of what we already cover internally. Much of the content below comes from data we review internally on a daily or weekly basis.
It's important that we look at this in context:
62,000,000 page views, over 1,288,000 posts and exactly 155,181 new members in the last 12 months.
We need to share the scale that we're working at more often.
I’ve taken a good long look at all the posts, ideas and thoughts I’ve received in this thread and from the wider community because we’re always looking to improve and benefit the community.
I’m going to say the BHW team does an amazing job. I’m biased. However it’s always good to be held to account and review one’s assumptions. The one big thing that’s come out of this for me is, ironically as a communication platform, we need to communicate better with you the BHW community about what’s going on in-house.
Since my last post, we have revisited our work in five areas:
- Reviewing AI/bot and low-value posting patterns.
- Pulling recent spam and dispute related data.
- Member feedback.
- Checking the specific moderation examples raised.
- Reviewing what we can credibly share about MP2.
Reviewing AI/bot and low-value posting patterns
Our core forum stats can always be found at the bottom of the forums page. We run a deeper dive into the data behind those stats in our weekly reviews on the platform and we’ve adjusted that review to address concerns about AI, bots, and low-value content.As with any engaged and popular forum, there are all sorts of accounts. We have those who are truly engaged, users who are just browsing before their next big project and of course those who are here to try and game the system.
We put significant resources into addressing the issue of community quality already. For example:
- Marketplace bump reduction – ref: Change log: behind the scenes at BHW (page 4)
- AI scanner – ref: Beta testing AI detection for unwanted AI content
- Custom Home page – if you simply don’t want to see a specific type of thread then there is always the custom homepage option
Moderation highlights over the past 12 months
Whilst some of this is automated, much still requires manual review – the use of AI and humanity in balance, as it should be.We have performed 650,603 moderation actions, an average of 1,782 actions per day, with a median of 1,103, based on the high volume of actions around specific dates as we develop our processes.
Some specific highlights:
- Deleted 200,304 posts.
- Locked 199,115 threads.
- Given 45,435 warnings.
- Spam cleaned 38,481 accounts.
- Moved 17,470 threads into the correct forums.
- And approved over 11,000 accounts, threads and posts.
- Identified 95,377 posts requiring scanning
- Deleted 22,524 posts
- Sent 6,403 further posts for moderation
How we will address this going forward?
We’re always looking to improve the quality of the content posted on BHW and what reaches your screen. From the stats above, you can see how much you never get to see. There's moderation actions to marketplace bumps that don’t make the homepage to AI spam that’s reviewed and stopped before it reaches the feed. As you can see we already do a lot. Of course, we can and need to do more.We can improve how we use the existing AI content checker to draw that balance between the use of AI in a positive way. We want members to be able to use true assistive AI such as translation tools and writing assistants like Grammarly but stop copy-paste from a question asked to an LLM delivering low-value content. In my book, original thought reasoned through LLM's is fine - copy-paste low value content isn't.
We need to Improve onboarding reviews of new accounts using verification tools and more frequent manual account reviews.
There's the revamped Exec program that actively encourages quality threads, focused on successful members and engagement.
When will the next update come?
Going forward, we'll share updates like the ones listed above more frequently and clearly, without giving away the secret sauce.We shall provide stats to back up why we’re considering the changes we make and look forward to hearing from you about what you think of them and how they impact your experience on BHW. BEFORE we set them live.
In the next 30 days we will update you on the changes we will make to the AI content checker and the onboarding process behind the new accounts.
Encouraging more quality content through ideas like the revamped Exec program will take longer, but we aim to have it live by the end of Q1 2027.
Pulling recent dispute and scam-related data
This is a little harder to go into detail on; obviously we don’t want to give away how we’re identifying those who try to commit fraud. But, we can of course give some stats.
To address the concerns about how we review disputes we’ve recently added a change to the process where we will collect even more information about disputes from a wider range of users (Change log: behind the scenes at BHW (page 7)).
This doesn’t mean we’ll be handing out more bans, we still need proof that a transaction actually happened on BHW between those 2 members. However, if it did and you follow the dispute resolution guide, then it will get a clear review.
What we can’t do is accept baseless claims without any proof. To this end we’ve added a note to make it clear to all on the marketplace; you’ll see the following text at the bottom of every page on the marketplace:
Dispute highlights over the past 12 months:
For some context before getting into the actual dispute numbers, here's some related stats.- 7,200,000 active users delivering 62,000,000 page views*
- 1,288,000 new posts – excluding those that are removed in moderation
- 1,219,000 outbound clicks* from the platform, with an additional 385,000 clicks from banners
- 155,181 new members – excluding those that get banned or blocked in spam traps
- 6,795 submitted marketplace threads
Now, over the same 12 month period we've had 516 disputes recorded.
Of which 110 disputes resulted in a ban.
Why not 516 bans you ask? This reflects that, in the vast majority of cases, we are able to reach a resolution between the parties. However, sadly, sometimes members commit more than 1 case of fraud before we’re able to address it. This is why it’s so important to engage with the seller on BHW first and then report if you think something is going wrong.
Repeat offenders are rare – this is where we give a merchant a second chance after they have done the right thing and recompensed the buyer, only to go on to commit further fraud. Are there offenders that try and come back after being banned? Yes, of course. In the vast majority of cases, we’re able to find them before they make it through onto the marketplace, where they are posting in other areas. We’re not reviewing every post, so for extra protection, the BHW marketplace is where you should buy.
All this in an average resolution time of just 3 days.
It’s worth drilling down those dispute numbers even further.
Dispute stats September 2026
Total number of valid disputes submitted in September 2026 = 19, of which, based on the evidence provided, we ended up putting 5 through.
Why not all 19?
Of the 19 submitted last month:
14 failed due to no engagement in the process or no supporting evidence. If I raise a dispute against another member of the community but can’t provide proof that I’ve sent any money or placed an order (for example), we can’t move forward with the dispute. When you’re buying something, make sure you engage with the seller on BHW first as per the guide here.
That leaves 5 disputes, all of which were resolved: 1 was resolved via our initial DMs and 4 went public.
Note: A failed dispute doesn't necessarily mean the end of the line. Whilst we can't disclose everything, the information provided in the dispute is never wasted.
We have broader data since the start of 2025
We’ve had a total of 488 valid disputes submitted since January 2025.
Of the 488 valid disputes we received, the outcomes were as follows:
- 331 disputes were processed and resolved. (264 publicly and 67 were resolved amicably before they went public via our dispute process DM mediation).
- 157 failed due to no engagement in the process or no supporting evidence.
How we will address this going forward?
We’re always looking at ways of reducing fraud. Of course, with more visibility over the transaction in MP2, we will be able to see the issues sooner and deal with bad actors faster.Whilst it’s not acceptable to have anyone lose out from a transaction in the community, when looking at the numbers (516 disputes from 7,200,000 active users – GA stats) please remember in the vast majority of cases on BHW (as you can see from the stats above) the sellers on the marketplace are solid business people. They're making a living from their threads and have no reason to commit fraud on any scale. Whilst we’re actively removing those that are attempting to game the system, you can help protect yourself by always doing your own due diligence.
- Check a seller's post history.
- Have a conversation with them via DM, in their thread, or ask them to message you in their thread/on their user profile if you aren't able to contact them directly.
- Read industry specific articles sellers may have posted on the forum and engage with them on those threads.
When will the next update come?
We will continue to update the stats on disputes, scams and enforcement data each month in the news section of BHW: BlackHat World News & Updates. Actions that need to come out of that will include enforcement data but we won't be sharing full details of how we engage with these members for obvious reasons.BlackHat World Member feedback
We receive many great ideas from the community; they drive our future planning, and we really appreciate them. Over the last 12 months, we reviewed 270 threads.
- About 55% of threads already had a solution or something had been implemented within 48 hours of it being reported, and we were able to point the member towards that solution and close the suggestion as it had already been addressed.
- 27% have no clear outcome – which we can improve on.
- About 12% of threads we explain what we’re currently working on, but we don’t always revert back to the thread once that idea has been delivered.
- We only decline about 6% of suggestions in the last 12 months.
Feedback and Suggestions stats highlights over the past 12 months
We had 270 threads with 1,715 posts collectively over the last 12 months in suggestions and feedback.As many threads contained many posts relating to similar topics we were able to collate them into broad topic groups as below. These neatly reflect the main concerns in this thread:
- Forum Features & Usability – 147 threads (54%)
- Content Quality, Spam & AI Content – 128 threads (47%)
- Marketplace Safety & Trust – 111 threads (41%)
- Moderation & Enforcement – 90 threads (33%)
- New Member Experience & Access – 86 threads (32%)
How we will address this going forward?
We will improve our communication with the community, we love your ideas, but I don’t always share that with you. It can be better:- Where we provide a solution already and people don’t appear to know about it we can signpost you to it so members can get more information.
- Where we take an idea on board we will update threads with outcomes.
- We will review the best ways to get feedback on the feedback from the wider community (up votes on the platform for example?)
- Where it’s simply not something we can handle at the time, we will be upfront and honest with you and keep it under review, explaining why and our future considerations and roadblocks.
- Where it’s not the right idea for the business we will explain why in the post and leave it open for 7 days for further comments, to make sure we’ve understood the ask correctly.
When we’ll next update?
This reflects a change in process and will start with future suggestions and feedback posts delivering more detailed responses as outlined above.We will review the best way to collate the feedback from the community and update that process in the next 60 days.
Checking the specific moderation examples raised
Our moderation team are top class, some coming through our MIT Program such as @Gogol who started as an MIT (welcome post) and then recently took on an in-house role (staff welcome post). Some bring in a wealth of experience from running other communities and bring that broader community experience to play, such as our very own head of community @PetraAnn , who started her IM career as a user on BHW before returning years later (with another account – not gaming the system
) and was instrumental in delivering ideas such as upvote processes (more on that below) and clarity for the community team where it was lacking before.In response specifically to:
As I state just about every time the subject of a member’s account comes up, the value of the business as a whole isn’t worth devaluing over a single membership payment. It’s not how we do things. But we can see how this could be perceived. but if this is a perception, it's something we need to listen to and address as best we can.
How we will address this going forward?
We’re only human folks, so mistakes can be made. We have internal policies to make sure that we’re holding ourselves to account. Each time you receive a warning, you have the opportunity to raise a ticket with support for another set of eyes to review any warnings you’ve received.Going forward:
- A clearer process behind policy changes with pre- and post-analysis shared around changes. Further amplifying the changes that will be made here: BlackHat World News & Updates
- We will share policy changes and the data behind the reasons why we’re making the changes (i.e., allowing a perceived increase in low-value content – not AI, where it’s been used for translations, for example).
When will we next update?
In the next 45 days we will update BlackHat World News & Updates with:- More moderator stats,
- Difficult decisions and changes we made to the moderation team.
- And our clearer policy change process.
Reviewing what we can credibly share on Marketplace 2
It’s been a long journey as described in other posts on this topic. We took a number of wrong steps but I currently can log into the beta of MP2. We have many of the typical hurdles covered, from FCA legal reviews, to finance providers.
What is the next real milestone?
The team have a collection of tidy-up tasks to complete, finance integration, reports for merchants. We then go into an intense period of internal testing and bug fixing. Depending on the outcome of this, but based on our current position and work rate, we expect to launch to a select Beta of merchants in Q2 of 2027. Full onboarding, country by country, will then come over the following months.How we will address this going forward?
As we progress to going live, we will provide simple and clear monthly updates here in our news section: BlackHat World News & UpdatesWhen will we next update?
There will be a 30 day update here: BlackHat World News & UpdatesSummary
Let me know your thoughts on the above, both the good and bad. We're always learning and listening. Going forward, where we can act straight away, we will. Where the issue is more complex, we will explain what we are reviewing rather than pretending any one issue can be solved overnight.We will continue to update the community as the work progresses with updates here: BlackHat World News & Updates.
Our goal is to make BHW even more useful, more trustworthy, and to provide a better membership experience for all who choose to make this their digital home.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, the team works hard on all your suggestions and feedback. This specific one was a summary of all we're seeing in the suggestions and feedback and the perfect focus point for a fuller response and update to where we are currently.
Rufai
Supreme Member
- May 23, 2020
- 1,406
- 1,223
- Jan 22, 2008
- 5,811
- 7,925
I've been wondering for a long time whether to write a 1000-word post, but honestly, I don't feel like writing too much while I'm in the internet graveyard xD
I'll just say that I agree.
xD lol
- Jan 22, 2008
- 5,811
- 7,925
Example of "great thread"
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/why-we-leaen-c-language-first.1790589/
WTF is that except total garbage? Looks like some qween AI, because even chatgpt write you more about it xD
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/why-we-leaen-c-language-first.1790589/
WTF is that except total garbage? Looks like some qween AI, because even chatgpt write you more about it xD