My game thread still shows MJ as the last poster, even though I just posted. It didn't move it up.
Problem
(21 posts) (5 voices)-
Problem has been fixed. It seems it thought your last post might be Spam, and flagged it. Thanks for calling my attention to it, though, because I would not have found it had I not been seeking it.
--M. J. Young
Wed Feb 18 2009 1:07 am # -
The Spam filter doesn't work that way. I don't know exactly how it does work, but I cannot clear any poster--it works by posts, not posters.
--M. J. Young
Wed Feb 18 2009 2:42 am # -
Is this happening in other threads? There could be something that got screwed up in the database for that single thread. If it's never happened before, then my guess is its an anomaly, one that'd likely be very difficult to track down a solution for. So if this is the only time it's happened, I'd suggest just starting a new thread and not worrying about it.
Wed Feb 18 2009 3:02 pm # -
Actually, BBPress is open source with contributors worldwide. That it's run as well as it has for as long as it has on GO makes me think it's pretty well put together. But if you'd like to suggest an alternative...
Wed Feb 18 2009 5:47 pm # -
This has happened before in other threads and to other posters. It's a rare glitch but hard to spot when it occurs--the post gets registered as Spam and the thread does not show that there are new posts, so I have to be alerted to the fact that it's there in order to click the button to see the excluded posts (which includes posts I have deleted, such as double posts and empty posts).
And John, it has not happened to me, but I think that's because I have administrator status so the system assumes that if I want to post Spam to the board I'm authorized to do so. (That, too, is supposed to be funny.)
--M. J. Young
Thu Feb 19 2009 1:44 am # -
Sorry for misreading your message, John.
I'll see if there's an upgrade I can install for the forums. I seem to remember one of those took care of a different problem in the past.
Thu Feb 19 2009 1:49 am # -
I upgraded the forums to the latest release. Let me know if the problem continues.
Sat Feb 21 2009 5:52 pm # -
JTM
MemberIf it doesn't work that way it doesn't work that way.
Mind, it might be getting flagged as spam because it detects repeated patterns from a single ID, though i don't know what exactly it'd key off of. Possibly somthing in your thread looks like a common filter avoidence tactic or spam topic it's designed to recognize. Last time i glanced at your thread it did involve quite a lot of discussions of cost, which seems like somthing that would lead to spam-lookalike messages and be localized only to you and MJ, who is exempt as an admin.
Thu Feb 26 2009 1:58 am # -
JTM
MemberI suppose it might be possible to perform some sort of workaround with a script that automatically looks through and clears excluded posts from your username, but it seems that the spamfilter is self-contained and not easily reprogrammable
Also, i was looking it up on wikipedia, and if it's the standard software that comes with bbpress, it might have flagged you as a spammer and decided everything you post is likely spam, as it has been accused of doing so on occasion.
Making things potentially worse is that the bundled software is an adaptive filter, so the more posts of yours it flags as spam the more likely it is that any post you make will be flagged as spam.
If it's a different software it probably has some variation of those problems.
Thu Feb 26 2009 3:55 am # -
Possibility:
It could be that it's because you keep copying information from one post to another to keep it somewhat current and available. I noticed when I went to approve your recent posts that the first one marked as Spam was a list of equipment copied from the other thread--a list which you post with minor variations fairly frequently, and which might look very similar (to the software) to lists of drug or porn web sites that are often posted by Spambots.
Try keeping that stuff in a text file on your desktop or something, and not posting it very often unless there's a clear question. Same with the lists of things you want to remember to ask/do. There's no reason why everything you're thinking about the game needs to be in the thread, and certainly no reason for you to repeat it so often.
--M. J. Young
Thu Feb 26 2009 8:09 am # -
Not all forums permit you to delete your posts. Some do not permit you to edit them for any reason.
Years ago here at Gaming Outpost there were often discussions which moved toward what are called flame wars. Today if you go to the Forge, there is a fixed policy there that no one can change what they have posted once they have posted it. This is an outgrowth of those wars. One person would say something, let's say, offensive and of no probative value, and another would react, and a fight would erupt. Then, a few weeks later after it had blown over, the first person would go back and edit all his own posts so that they sounded reasonable, and the second person would wind up looking like a complete unreasonable jerk in his posts which remained unaltered. (Those threads are here, in the archives, but I would not even know how to begin hunting for an example other than to say that they would include some in the huge Critical Hit subforum.) Thus sites like the Forge decided that no one should be able to edit or delete anything he said once it was said. Others do the more complicated thing of preventing anyone from changing a post once there is a reply to it or another post on the thread, but that is much more difficult to code.
Here there is no preview mode, but there is a window of opportunity for editing. I think it's a few days (we discussed it and Aaron set it to a length with which we were comfortable). After that, your words are written in electronic stone--only a moderator can change them, and generally we won't, because what you have said you have said. The process is supposed to make you think twice before posting something, and to prevent you from pretending you never said whatever you said.
For what it's worth, deleted posts here are never really gone. They go into a file of deleted posts, and for those with moderator privileges there is always a flag on the threads or boards saying that there are additional posts not shown. These include those which the software marked as Spam along with those which have been deleted. Thus the fewer posts have been deleted (and the fewer people who are deleting them) the easier it is to spot when problems arise such as your posts being marked as Spam, and the easier it is to find the problems.
You can edit your posts for a limited time. If you're not happy with that, don't make posts you don't want posted.
--M. J. Young
Sun Mar 1 2009 11:18 pm #
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