What happened to all the Moderators?

Am I the only one curious of what happened to all of the moderators (mods) on this site?

From what I have seen there are none other than Wizard and OnceDear (who are technically admins I suppose).

It appears all of the routinely active mods (Face, Mission, BeachBumb, maybe one or two others that I cannot recall offhand) are no longer mods on this site?

For example today not a single "green" (mod or admin) has visited the site all day (at least not according to the metric at the bottom).

And, I have been also noticing an uptick in pure spam posts (usually nonsense selling some currency or something to some online game) being posted more and more frequently? Surely I cannot be the only one who is noticing all of these posts that usually remain long after being flagged?

I understand that this site is not OD or Wizard's priority. But, why were all of the mods that were active here and effective removed from being mods?

There seems to be a direct correlation of lack of green presence and blatant spam posts (not even going into posts that potentially break some other forum rules or common decency etc....)

Quote: Gandler

Am I the only one curious of what happened to all of the moderators (mods) on this site?

From what I have seen there are none other than Wizard and OnceDear (who are technically admins I suppose).

It appears all of the routinely active mods (Face, Mission, BeachBumb, maybe one or two others that I cannot recall offhand) are no longer mods on this site?

For example today not a single "green" (mod or admin) has visited the site all day (at least not according to the metric at the bottom).

And, I have been also noticing an uptick in pure spam posts (usually nonsense selling some currency or something to some online game) being posted more and more frequently? Surely I cannot be the only one who is noticing all of these posts that usually remain long after being flagged?

I understand that this site is not OD or Wizard's priority. But, why were all of the mods that were active here and effective removed from being mods?

There seems to be a direct correlation of lack of green presence and blatant spam posts (not even going into posts that potentially break some other forum rules or common decency etc....)

BBB hasn't been posting anywhere lately.
Mission got himself busted by the Wizard with an outburst.
I think Face resigned after going on meds. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Someone feel free to correct what I said.

What was said above but also the site does not need as much babysitting as the other side. Wizard kind of treats this site as both a hobby but also an "honor dorm" of sorts. In college or prison, the honor dorm is made of people who show they can behave with minimal supervision.

There are occasional suspensions here, but the suspension list itself seems to have been forgotten long ago. The worst problem here in years was Nathan, whom was shunned to the point of not being able to interact because most everyone was ignoring her the way you ignore the annoying guy at the bar. You give that guy short answers until he realizes to move on and hope he eventually annoys the owner to the point of getting booted.

When Mike does suspend someone here he has more of a, "for crying out loud you know better!" tone most of the time.

The spam is going to happen because of crawler bots. We both self police it as well as the site has a built in fuse to limit posts by new members to limit the damage.

Quote: AZDuffman

What was said above but also the site does not need as much babysitting as the other side. Wizard kind of treats this site as both a hobby but also an "honor dorm" of sorts. In college or prison, the honor dorm is made of people who show they can behave with minimal supervision.

There are occasional suspensions here, but the suspension list itself seems to have been forgotten long ago. The worst problem here in years was Nathan, whom was shunned to the point of not being able to interact because most everyone was ignoring her the way you ignore the annoying guy at the bar. You give that guy short answers until he realizes to move on and hope he eventually annoys the owner to the point of getting booted.

When Mike does suspend someone here he has more of a, "for crying out loud you know better!" tone most of the time.

The spam is going to happen because of crawler bots. We both self police it as well as the site has a built in fuse to limit posts by new members to limit the damage.

I don't disagree. But a good way to prevent spam bots would be to require similar certification before starting "new threads" like WOV now has, such as requiring some number of days as an email confirmed member and a certain number of nonflagged "replies" before the ability to start a new thread. I am sure there are ways around this for bots, but I suspect it would curtail the problem in the short term.

Quote: Gandler

I don't disagree. But a good way to prevent spam bots would be to require similar certification before starting "new threads" like WOV now has, such as requiring some number of days as an email confirmed member and a certain number of nonflagged "replies" before the ability to start a new thread. I am sure there are ways around this for bots, but I suspect it would curtail the problem in the short term.

The fuses do some of this. The problem is the software for this site is from about 2008 before the bots were what they are now. Mike is not about to pay $1000+ to fix what is a minor problem on a site that gives near zero revenue. He has stated that he likes the site the size it is for the most part which means no real revenue is coming.

We get spambots only once every few months and they are shut off by mid morning with posts removed later the same day.

NOTE TO MIKE--hope you do not feel my answers are encroaching on your place here. If they are delete.

Quote: AZDuffman

The fuses do some of this. The problem is the software for this site is from about 2008 before the bots were what they are now. Mike is not about to pay $1000+ to fix what is a minor problem on a site that gives near zero revenue. He has stated that he likes the site the size it is for the most part which means no real revenue is coming.

We get spambots only once every few months and they are shut off by mid morning with posts removed later the same day.

NOTE TO MIKE--hope you do not feel my answers are encroaching on your place here. If they are delete.

This is the same format as the old WOV. I actually prefer it.

But, I am sure there are easy ways to restrict and require certain "attributes" before posting without any kind of major overhaul.

I can't speak to the revenue other than speculation, but this site does have two steady sponsors (that appear to be somewhat large business) so its safe to assume it at least pays for itself. But, even if it loses him money (as many forums do, though I am skeptical that this one does), there can be some simple tweaks to at least hinder spam that I doubt would increase any costs. Also, it (probably more importantly) allows WOV members to spar political debates here to keep the more profitable forum (WOV) free from political threads and random rants. So the revenue that it directly makes may not be the most important aspect of this site's existence (again I have not been a member since the founding, I only joined after WOV enacted the political / non-gambling threads ban, so I am new in that regard).

I am not active on social media, and I am not a member of many forums (really only this and WOV as far as being active), I love this forum because it is a small, but diverse group that can debate issues in a civil manner (the vast majority of the time), and even the people with whom I vehemently disagree with politically, I am sure I would get along with on a social level (for common interests if nothing else), so I like when I see the forum in a stable state (free of blatant spam and nonsense), because this forum is a fantastic outlet for debate and learning new ideas with people who I likely would never cross paths with in the real world.

However, I think your "one every few months" assertion is not accurate. Its hard to tabulate as they are eventually deleted, but I think at least one a week is a fair, conservative, offhand average (some weeks I see multiple).

Quote: Gandler

I can't speak to the revenue other than speculation, but this site does have two steady sponsors (that appear to be somewhat large business) so its safe to assume it at least pays for itself.

I would guess that your assumption is wrong.

Quote: DRich

I would guess that your assumption is wrong.

Quite possibly, but not my primary point.

Mods? We ain't got no mods, we don't need no stinking mods.

Love that movie.

Quote: DRich

Quote: Gandler

I can't speak to the revenue other than speculation, but this site does have two steady sponsors (that appear to be somewhat large business) so its safe to assume it at least pays for itself

This is further proof that this guy has no idea what he's talking about if he seriously believes that 1-2 ads will cover all business expenses.