Email notifying the deletion of an abusive post

[Claudio_González1]

When performing a test to try to understand how the deletion of posts reported as abusive works, I had a post deleted, and received an email stating that

The content you posted below was reported for
abuse and removed by our  moderators

Now that Zeno Bokor has explained the process for me, I would like to suggest that this text is modified so that it clearly explains that the post was not only reported for abuse, but also considered as abusive by at least one moderator.

I have opened this discussion following Zeno's suggestion.

[Captiv8r]

Hello Hunt

In the fora where I serve as moderator, I will from time to time delete posts. When I choose to do this, I always first post a reply with an explanation before the actual deletion occurs. I figure that way if they are subscribed via E-mail, they received the reply and know beforehand that the post is being deleted.

Well, I should add that this occurs for legitimate posts. If the post is nothing but SPAM, it is simply removed with no notification.

The only time I've had to delete posts is when we get a newb that begins saturating multiple older threads with things like, this happened to me too! How did you fix it? Or they repeatedly (copy/paste) the same question in multiple forum categories. In these cases all the duplicate posts are removed and we leave behind the singular question in the most appropriate category.

Fortunately it doesn't happen often.

Cheers... Rick

[the_wine_snob]

Rick,

My personal observations mirror your comments pretty closely. Obviously, I am not privy to the mechanics that have been used, or the exact timing, but I see similar. For the duplicate posts, there is usually a "Deleted because it's a duplicate post - see ________."

Either my product fora do not get much spam, or the MOD's are just too quick, so it's gone, before I ever see it. Looking at the "Spam" thread, it appears that it does happen a lot, but even in the fora, that I follow closely, I never see any - maybe a questionable link, but I'm talking about 1:10,000.

Thanks for the response and the "behind-the-scenes" look into how you moderate.

Hunt

[Jochem van Dieten]

the_wine_snob wrote on 11/29/2009 9:05 PM:

Either my product fora do not get much spam, or the MOD's are just too quick, so it's gone, before I ever see it. Looking at the "Spam" thread, it appears that it does happen a lot, but even in the fora, that I follow closely, I never see any - maybe a questionable link, but I'm talking about 1:10,000.

Quite a bit more actually. The forums handle about 75000 messages per

month. I would guess that on an average week close to 500 spam messages

get deleted. For this month my personal statistics are 2000+ spam, 100+

user ban enforcement and 7 moderation. With what other people deleted it

was a bad month for spam, probably because some people including me were

away for most of October.

The problem is that spammers have developed an MO where they

specifically target low volume forums with just one message and then

back off for a week. Then, when that message is still there a week

later, they conclude the forum is not maintained and start overrunning

it with spam. Since nobody ever visits the LiveCycle 6 forums or the

JRun forums anyway, that doesn't get reported and by the time you see

something the spam to messages ratio can be more then a 100 to 1. But

since that happens in low traffic forums most users never see how bad

the spam problem really is.

But Adobe is getting more proactive about making forums read-only and

that helps. And I am getting more proactive about nominating forums to

be closed. As far as I am concerned, every forum where the natives don't

care enough to report blatant spam within a week deserves to be closed.

So yes, please report spam. If we catch it during the back off period

spammers never switch to all out flooding of forums. And it may help

keep your favorite forum open

[the_wine_snob]

Jochem,

Interesting. I was unaware that there were inactive fora in the Adobe family, but then I don't get out much!

I can see where poorly-maintained fora could be a target, but from a spammer's perspective, I wonder what they think the payout would be. We I to spam, I'd look for active fora, rather than backwater ones. After all, the purpose would be to sell something - whether a product, a service or to "sell" an idea. Still, over the decades, I have to admit that spammers, as a species, do not seem too bright.

I do agree that if no one in a forum will take the responsibility to report spam, there isn't much worthwhile activity there.

Thanks,

Hunt

[Guest]

"

But Adobe is getting more proactive about making forums read-only and

that helps. And I am getting more proactive about nominating forums to

be closed. As far as I am concerned, every forum where the natives don't

care enough to report blatant spam within a week deserves to be closed."

and what if spam doesn't bother the natives?  maybe it's not annoying enough to bother with reporting it.  "proactively" suggesting to close the forum without first asking the natives what they think is simply a power trip and nothing more.

[Captiv8r]

Hi Hopper

If a forum were closed/deleted/whatever, I would think it would only be under consideration for such action if it were seeing no activity. So I'm a bit confused as to which natives one would ask in these cases?

I guess I consider it akin to noticing nobody is in a room and deciding to close the door. Why ask if nobody is in the room?

Just sorta musing out loud... Rick

[Guest]

Rick,

I am specifically addressing Jochem's comment  "As far as I am concerned, every forum where the natives don'tcare enough to report blatant spam within a week deserves to be closed".  This implies there *are* natives there that could be asked.

[Captiv8r]

Ahhh, mea culpa! I missed that.

[Jochem van Dieten]

greenjumpyone wrote on 11/30/2009 1:01 AM:

I am specifically addressing Jochem's comment "As far as I am concerned, every forum where the natives don'tcare enough to report blatant spam within a week deserves to be closed". This implies there are natives there that could be asked.

Said natives typically being the internal Adobe product group who asked

for the forum in the first place. Take something like the LiveCycle Café

groups: http://forums.adobe.com/community/livecycle/cafe

We have 3 groups there, the Café, Feedback and Support. This subdivided

hierarchy exists to support a grand total of 4 messages (after I removed

the spam). And if you look closer you will see that 3 of those are

product announcements from some Adobe employee. So essentially those 3

forum exists because some employee wanted to do a product announcement.

And as you can see from the fourth message anybody who ends up there by

accident will not get any response directing him to the right place.

[Phillip_M_Jones]

In case like that, I could see getting rid of a Group. If the people looking at a group look at its History and see 8-10 in a Year's time and the last time was say 6 months ago. Then that  Group should be a candidate for removal.

On the other hand, there are some popular groups that have lower traffic But have post every day. For example I read, and often post comments in Acrobat Mac. And for what ever reason traffic is lower compared to say this group. Yet if the powers that be would look, they would see post there almost every day of the year if not everyday. I am sure the most popular by far group on the system is PhotoShop.  In both these cases, these groups should not be considered.

If this Forum had all the bugs worked out hummed along like a welled oiled machine. You would still have to have have this forum up for complaints. Because even a well oiled machine need attention now and then. So the powers that be should not just delete forums willy-nilly.

[Curt Wrigley]

PjonesCET wrote:

So the powers that be should not just delete forums willy-nilly.

Nobody has suggested that active forums be willy-nilly deleted.  You can relax.

[Phillip_M_Jones]

The comment I made was in reference to this:

"I am specifically addressing Jochem's comment  "As far as I am concerned, every forum where the natives don'tcare enough to report blatant spam within a week deserves to be closed".  This implies there are natives there that could be asked."

There is an implied implication, threat that regardless of activity if spam isn't reported, it should happen. All I was pointing out was if there was no recent Traffic go ahead. But not all Popular Forums have a lot of traffic for whatever reason. And if forums(groups) are going to be whacked it should be based on whether its being posted to almost daily and not necessarily the amount (how recent). I am sure I will get a tongue lashing or something because of my comments. So be it.

I'm not overly concerned, as , were it to happen, I as an individual could do nothing to stop it. Therefore it wouldn't do me any good to be concerned. It useless to be concerned about something I have no control over. I might not like. But pointless to be concerned.

[Phillip_M_Jones]

Or what isf one doesn't want to risk retribution for reporting an item.

[the_wine_snob]

Phillip,

Just a guess, but I think that any retribution would be slow to come, if at all. However, there were comments in the Report Abuse thread, so maybe I am wrong.

Now, I would imagine that Adobe would put one into a "witness protection program." I worried that this was what happened to me, as of the update, when I lost my log-in?!?!?

Hunt

[Phillip_M_Jones]

It no big deal other than I know this one particular one strictly was done for spite. I admit I am not perfect. If I come across someone that claims absolute perfection, I want to run away from that person as fast as I can. No one is perfect or even close.

I've only had two on the new forum, one was approved and put back. This one not. And between the Macromedia (DreamWeaver) and Adobe, I've had two-three others. 5 since 2003 is not bad.

Don't use the abuse button myself even to report spam.

[David_Powers]

PjonesCET wrote:

Don't use the abuse button myself even to report spam.

You should use it to report spam. It's the fastest way of dealing with it. Moderators live in different parts of the world, so spam reported through the abuse button is often removed within minutes of being posted.

[Guest]

It is a joke right? If we natives don't report spam in the let's say for example photoshop windows forum, for 7 days in a row, it will be closed down. Nobody in their right mind would have the pelotas to do such a absurb thing. I will believe it when I see it.