Topic: Abuse of Moderated Threads (Read 640 times)

This has been discussed before also.I am also of opinion that newbies should not be allowed to post moderated threads.There must be a rank restrictions to create self-moderated threads and only Sr.members or up be allowed

But legitimate people can't protect their threads from all the garbage posts that are going to pile up in literally no time by all the illiterate sig spammers doing their daily rounds around the marketplace forum sections. If people don't use self-moderation how could they delete all the shitposters' brainfarts diluting the topic of the thread and making it hard for prospective buyers to find out relevant info by the OP? I am talking about the Services section for example because most of the threads in there are self-moderated for a reason.

AN idea i got some time ago was, instead, to set trust depth to 4 for everyone as default value (instead of 2), so no need to go tru untrusted feedbacks.
I dunno how good is this idea but when i need to investigate over a user trust, i ALWAYS check untrusted feedback (and i'm sure you do too).
~Gun

True, but it's everyone's responsibility to vet deals on their own, and learn the various functions of the forum. Even if a member is new to this forum, a responsible member would at least check the post history and previous dealings of a person who he/she wants to engage any type of business with. We (well, the more patient members mostly) already coddle newbies beyond the point of just giving them fish. This is a discussion board where conversations oftentimes deal with real financial implications -- learning how to make use of the Trust system on their own should at least be something that a newbie is capable of. Otherwise, regardless of whichever forum that member joins, he/she would prolly be trading a car for a smelly old sock without a pair anyway. Sometimes, there comes a point when you should stop being a parent and just admit that a child is a lost cause, and let him/her fend for himself/herself.




That happens a lot of times even now. If you see abuse, then report it to the staff. If it's deemed by them as abuse, then it will be dealt with. Abuse will always be an issue in everything.




I would actually prefer a system where the staff would manually disable the self-moderation of a thread on a case-by-case basis. I've never had to use self-moderated threads, but I can understand why some newbies would legitimately need them. And who's to say that higher ranks are more trustworthy anyway?




Like I said above, I'm more for a case-by-case disabling rather than a blanket system.

Well firstly most accounts are set on default trust.
If a member with little to no trust were to leave negative feedback then that in itself wouldn't be enough to warn others as they wouldn't see the negative trust on the OP's profile unless they look at the untrusted feedback.

In terms of the abuse, I was referring to any and every member leaving negative trust on any suspicious account without allowing the OP to answer the questions first. I could be wrong but I'd think that people would be much more 'eager' to leave negative trust in such a case even though it may not be fully justified.

Again, that could be an option but if this is a feature that SMF provides then surely it would make more sense to disable self moderated threads for new members rather than just relying on the trust system. I don't see the harm in doing so but feel free to correct me

Seeing a self moderated thread in a marketplace section in the first place should be a warning flag. On top of that, feedback can be left on the trust system to try and warn people, or you can create your own thread to warn people about a self moderated scam topic.

Could you explain what you mean by it would lead to abuse of the trust system? Flagging shady dealers seems like its the perfect use for the trust system.

Indeed. The concept is similar but I'm not highlighting any specific example. There have been a fair few recently and I don't see any benefit in allowing new members to have this feature.
It should be something a member has to earn to be able to use after contributing to the forum. Not a tool that's accessible to new members looking to delete comments on their thread that's calling out their scam attempt.

A similar thread here.

I think it's a good idea. I've seen few scam accusations against fairly new users who sells digital goods in self-moderated threads. They're increasing.

Hey,
I've noticed that a lot of new members are making self-moderated threads in the marketplace section.
It seems as if these new members are looking to make a quick buck by offering a non existent good or service. In other words they're trying to pull off a feeble scam attempt.
The biggest issue with this is that every time you post to alert others of the possibil scam (without making an accusation thread as there is no evidence) the OP just deletes your post.
Leaving negative feedback isn't the best of ideas either as it'll ultimately lead to abuse of the trust system.

Having worked with SMF in the past I know that certain restrictions can be placed on user groups and boards. What do you think about the idea of disabling the self moderated thread option for new members? Even if this wasn't just limited to the marketplace section I think it could be beneficial overall.

What are your thoughts?