Forum software is rude

Posts: 14 · root 11 Nov 2019, 16:29

I tried including links to Wikipedia to make my post clearer, and the preview button reacted very slowly and yielded the following message:

New here and already posting links and email addresses? Listen, Spammer, this forum is actively moderated: If you think your crap will go unnoticed you must be delusional.

PS: The server just wasted 30 seconds of your life to give you time to rethink your life choices. You're welcome.

Admin,

listen,

if you think that I will accept

your crap

then

you must be delusional.

In other words: Your forum has an unnecessarily rude interface.

Posts: 309 · bgstack15 13 Nov 2019, 13:16

The message scares away folks who have thin skin. Thank you for surviving the verbal onslaught to share your message. Only people like us who can handle it actually get to participate in conversation here. Spammers, do not.

Posts: 4056 · xCSxXenon 13 Nov 2019, 22:56

Ouch, words hurt
It's not a forum with a full team to peruse the forum. It's something that was probably done a while ago and never changed because it doesn't matter.

Posts: 7211 · Zenju 14 Nov 2019, 09:18

There are plenty of spammers who make it past the forum registration. This is the second line of defense targetted at human spammers (posting external links in your first post is relatively rare; happens in about 4% of cases last time I checked). In combination these measures are very effective, so it's easy to to forget that the forum spam issue is very real, especially for a phpBB board.

Posts: 14 · root 14 Nov 2019, 10:47

What about a less offending formulation, and no waiting time? The waiting time makes it seem like the button isn't working.

Posts: 7211 · Zenju 14 Nov 2019, 11:04

The waiting time and offending formulation is the whole point of the ordeal. It's difficult to distinguish spam from legitimate interaction in an automated fashion.

Posts: 14 · root 14 Nov 2019, 11:15

The waiting time makes it seem to the user like the button isn't working. No page nowadays takes 30 seconds to load.

How exactly does the offending formulation help to prevent spam, as opposed to a neutral formulation?

Posts: 4056 · xCSxXenon 17 Nov 2019, 15:55

They're more likely to just quit the site if it hasn't responded after 30 seconds. It's a barrier to entry. If it said "Hey, we don't allow links to be posted for 30 minutes.", they would just wait and come back to spam.

Posts: 28 · huuurz 26 Nov 2019, 19:42

they would just wait and come back

So what else is a regular user supposed to do?
After this gratuitous offense and waste of time, I as a regular user wouldn't come back. As a spammer/troll I probably would, this looks like a challenge and chance for revenge. Non-automated spamming is done for fun!

Why not something like "Sorry, you are not allowed to post external links yet. You need at least three posts approved by moderators".
--> Too much effort for a spammer.
But someone with a help request will probably just remove the link and accept the waiting time until the post is approved.

No need to be offensive if you don't even know who you deal with.

Posts: 4056 · xCSxXenon 1 Dec 2019, 15:41

Judging by lack of spam, it's working so far. I can't tell on the back-end how many attempts are thwarted, but if that is offensive enough to the point of never coming back, good riddance and have a nice day. It is so inconsequential that the only good thing that would come out of changing it would be stopping this stupid thread and making a few people "feel better".