Reporting a Post or Thread? Here's What NOT to Do....

[SettingSun77]

So, you're browsing BHW and you happen across a topic or a reply that you think might break one of our rules. You then decide to report it - and you should! Your reports are the most important part of staff's work in keeping the community free of rule-breaking and junk.

But what should you NOT do in these circumstances? Well, we would ask you to not engage with whatever it is you're reporting.

Why? Because it gives staff members even more to look at and clean up - but that's not the only reason.

For example, if you see someone who is clearly spamming the forum with ChatGPT posts to inflate their post counts, replying to them with something like "Hey bot! I'm going to report you!" doesn't really help. If anything, it actually draws more attention to what they're doing.

If you see something that's not right, don't engage with it - just report it. We'll do the rest!

 

[Vynith]

That makes sense but the urge to absolutely destroy them before their spammy post gets removed is strong.

 

[Salamouna]

Sometimes you are not sure so you just want to push them little more to see ...

 

[SettingSun77]

Sometimes you are not sure so you just want to push them little more to see ...

We don't want people doing this. Just report them.

 

[Starblazer]

The primary purpose of reporting is to bring something to the attention of mods. The mods have a better understanding of the rules, so they can decide what to do with the post. So, I encourage people to report even if they are not sure (but avoid report spamming).

It's better to avoid posting in threads that will probably get deleted. I believe that it's okay to post comments in a thread that'll be moved to a different forum (unless you're non-upgraded member while the thread gets moved to restricted forums like HAF/WTB).

Pointing out, mocking, abusing, and humiliating bots is not necessary. Bots follow instructions but they don't have feelings or emotions. Just report the content and move on to something productive.

 

[PetraAnn]

I encourage people to report even if they are not sure (but avoid report spamming).

I just wanted to address report spamming.

We generally don't mind the reporting of the same type of spam several times across the forum. If it's in the same thread, 1 or 2 will do since we do physically go to the thread to check things out. We will do all of the moderatery stuff that will typically lead us down the rabbit hole to discover more of the same bot or bad behaviour.

I had a project that I've been working on and had my team time themselves so I could see where we were spending our time. They complained that going through reports is more general moderation because we read the report. We go to the post or thread reported. We start looking into the user that was reported. Then we jump into the rabbit hole feet first without so much as an umbrella to slow us down. 40 minutes later we go and hit approved on that report and go to the next one.

So yea, reporting a few of the same thing is helpful to help us see a pattern but no need to report the entire thread or every thread a spammer hit. We will see it. If we don't after the last reported one was dealt with, then report what we missed (because undo popular belief, we're human).

 

[Starblazer]

I just wanted to address report spamming.

We generally don't mind the reporting of the same type of spam several times across the forum. If it's in the same thread, 1 or 2 will do since we do physically go to the thread to check things out. We will do all of the moderatery stuff that will typically lead us down the rabbit hole to discover more of the same bot or bad behaviour.

I had a project that I've been working on and had my team time themselves so I could see where we were spending our time. They complained that going through reports is more general moderation because we read the report. We go to the post or thread reported. We start looking into the user that was reported. Then we jump into the rabbit hole feet first without so much as an umbrella to slow us down. 40 minutes later we go and hit approved on that report and go to the next one.

So yea, reporting a few of the same thing is helpful to help us see a pattern but no need to report the entire thread or every thread a spammer hit. We will see it. If we don't after the last reported one was dealt with, then report what we missed (because undo popular belief, we're human).

That's an interesting approach. Bing follows a similar approach in fighting spam. As you're developing anti-spam filters, you may find it interesting.

I was following a discussion on X about a black hat strategy. Glenn Gabe and Lily Ray spotted sites spamming Bing and also doing well in ChatGPT as a result. A site that was nuked on Google has around 90k URLs indexed on ChatGPT as it ranked well on Bing. They pointed out this loophole since several weeks.

Krishna Madhavan, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft Bing, said that Bing does not do one-off search penalties because it is not scalable. Instead, they identify patterns and build a spam algorithm to detect all such sites. And then it takes action on all those sites, not just one, at scale.

I guess anti-spam system in BHW won't be a one-off thing and it must keep evolving hand in hand with the developments in AI.

 

[PetraAnn]

That's an interesting approach. Bing follows a similar approach in fighting spam. As you're developing anti-spam filters, you may find it interesting.

I was following a discussion on X about a black hat strategy. Glenn Gabe and Lily Ray spotted sites spamming Bing and also doing well in ChatGPT as a result. A site that was nuked on Google has around 90k URLs indexed on ChatGPT as it ranked well on Bing. They pointed out this loophole since several weeks.

Krishna Madhavan, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft Bing, said that Bing does not do one-off search penalties because it is not scalable. Instead, they identify patterns and build a spam algorithm to detect all such sites. And then it takes action on all those sites, not just one, at scale.

I guess anti-spam system in BHW won't be a one-off thing and it must keep evolving hand in hand with the developments in AI.

Honestly, I think this is the approach anyone dealing with large amounts of traffic/spam has to do it.

I work closely with a gaming company who has a player focus group. From time to time we get presentations from their security team to see what new tools they're using and how they're finding and eliminating accounts that are breaking the rules. While they do use a hefty piece of security software that allows them to collect data points, they don't actually terminate anything automatically. They gather the data, spot the patterns and then determine the point they are going to ban accounts. Sometimes they let it go for months and do it all in one big batch because those months allow them to see a much bigger picture than in the day to day.

We do a lot of the same. Sometimes we can ban/delete immediately. Sometimes the farms try to be smart and act like real users so we just watch to see what they do. At some point they'll either make a mistake or just hand us a piece of the missing puzzle. OR, more often than not, someone reports something that seems completely unrelated and suddenly the picture is clear as day. This is why encouraging users to report things is so important. You never know when something is going to be an "ahha!" moment to take down an entire farm vs. just a spam account here or there.

 

[rkgchpc]

I understand the guideline but lately I have noticed that many posts on BHW are being deleted even though they do not appear to be spam. It seems that some users are reporting legitimate posts as well. Even WTB and Marketplace posts from what appear to be genuine buyers are being reported and removed. The situation has become quite concerning. My request is that reports be reviewed carefully so that legitimate posts and genuine users are not affected.

 

[SettingSun77]

I understand the guideline but lately I have noticed that many posts on BHW are being deleted even though they do not appear to be spam. It seems that some users are reporting legitimate posts as well. Even WTB and Marketplace posts from what appear to be genuine buyers are being reported and removed. The situation has become quite concerning. My request is that reports be reviewed carefully so that legitimate posts and genuine users are not affected.

How would you know any of this, even if it were true?

 

[rkgchpc]

How would you know any of this, even if it were true?

That's exactly my question to you.

 

[Venusaur]

You guys could allow pink members to report without waiting 1 minute between reports. Sometimes it delays me. Or makes me lazy.

Or allow some kind of multiple report

 

[SettingSun77]

That's exactly my question to you.

How do you think I'd know? I'm an admin. You're not. So everything you just said is, at best, speculation and, at worst, plain wrong.

 

[PetraAnn]

How do you think I'd know? I'm an admin. You're not. So everything you just said is, at best, speculation and, at worst, plain wrong.

Or they're part of one of the farms doing it... hmmmm................

You guys could allow pink members to report without waiting 1 minute between reports. Sometimes it delays me. Or makes me lazy.

Or allow some kind of multiple report

Unfortunately the rate limit is hard coded in the software, it's not something we can influence within group permissions.

 

[Venusaur]

It will be funny if those guys start to appear with their real accounts to create a lobby to protect spammers and defend the right to spread garbage on BHW

Or they're part of one of the farms doing it... hmmmm................

 

[Puynox]

Or they're part of one of the farms doing it... hmmmm................

This is my farm sir