Cleaning up the spam, you need a moderator?

#1 Thank you Jason for bringing this up because I did not know how to do this without offending someone. This issue has been bothering me for awhile and I personally feel that it is currently superseding any progress made by the great staff engaged in the current efforts for continuing the Torque Engine. It just doesn't look good. I actually have never seen it anywhere else on any website before. So I would greatly appreciate it if someone gave you the power to do this clean up. I would love to be apart of this as well if available.

#2 This has already been discussed. This forum is provided as a service by Garagegames to the community. It is moderated but it is also older software and subject to spambots etc. You make the assumption that it is not being moderated because of some spam. However, as there is no automated spam system when the guy doing the moderation is away, because he is sleeping, spam gets through. Most likely this is the tip of the iceberg and the body of the iceberg of spam is being deleted as it arrives because this forum is being moderated and cleaned of spam on a daily basis, I know this for a fact because there is so little activity that one sees the spam posts disappear from the 'what's new section'. Given the system I can't really see how additional moderators could help unless they were in other time zones than the states. Besides a company can't just open up the backend of a forum to just anyone no matter how well intentioned that person may be, its a security issue. The spam is the least of the problems.

#3 I certainly didn't mean to offend anyone and I hope I didn't come across as ungrateful for the work of mods. I was just offering some extra help if for instance, the weekends are busy or nights. It seems in three days these people can really make a mess of the most important sections of the forums for newcomers. I completely understand if they don't want just anyone. Anyway, I was just offering to help.

#4 @Jason I think others have offered the same help, but there's some responsibility issues that prevents GG from promoting community members to moderator afaik. I think it all boils down to the old software the website is running on, but iirc they are working on updating the website with better spam prevention. Some time ago they talked about hiring a webdeveloper to fix things, things just move a bit slow on the webdev-front here :P

#5 @Jason - no-one is offended. It was not my intention to seem so blunt and rude - limitations of the written word. This is old forum software that the community has no access to. It's really a matter for Garagegames to decide on that. So far the situation has not changed so one assumes there are reasons for that.

#6 I guess I should have dug deeper. Thanks guys, for clearing that up. :)

#7 The others are correct in stating that moderation is a manual process right now. One person is handling every day issues, like spam cleanup, issues regarding keys, disputes, and so on. The worst spam occurs when that person is sleeping, on weekends, and holidays.

The ability to moderate the website is as simple as upgrading a user's account. Unfortunately, that will also give said person the ability to "nuke" accounts...which is extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. It's simply a risk we can't take.

We are currently exploring options to block or slow down the constant spam attacks, but it's lower priority compared to our other projects and may not happen immediately. For now, it's just gonna be a daily battle between myself and the spammers =/

#8 Thanks, Michael. I wish I could help but understand. I remember the constant battle against spammers. It was like the saddest game of wack a mole. I was the sole mod towards the end so I feel your pain.

#9 We just had a meeting yesterday to discuss the spam issue and are now taking steps to make it possible for volunteers to aid in the spammer destruction. Essentially, approved volunteers will have access to a new button. As I've mentioned before, moderators/admins have access to a "Nuke" button. This button will disable an account, remove all posts, and wipe the user. It's dangerous and risky to put in the hands of any user outside of GG.

What our web team is going to work on is a "soft nuke" or "drone strike" button, which will be safer than my nuke. It will still disable an account and hide the posts, but should hopefully also notify me of these strikes. I can then quickly perform a final nuke. There are more details being worked out and the final result may change. As soon as we have something ready, I'll provide the ability to any and all volunteers.

#10 Richard Ranft and Nathan Martin are now moderators. They cleaned up the spam just now and will be able to from here on. I will also help. So at any point if Richard, Nathan, or I see spam, it will be nuked.