Moderator’s Discussion

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

Let’s use this thread topic to discuss events, suggestions, and policies related to moderating the antiX Forum.

In particular, if we have any difficult situations where topics escalate into an argument, at what point to we take action?

My initial thought is this: if we detect an event, comment, individual, or situation that directly conflicts with the policies that have been established, that’s the number one criteria for taking action.

Does anyone need to see the specific forum policy listed again?

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Brian Masinick

[Forum Admin rokytnji]

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I just play it by ear Brian. I take each case individual like.

I stayed out of the Skidoo and Xsecure posts and comments because I noticed most disgruntled members posts come from the EU presently.

Stress country. And folks think Tx is stressful. 😀

So I just watch. If things get personal. I will edit and make a mention from me in that post because PM lately on this site gets me no contact back when I PM a member. That is why my PM section is empty. I deleted all my sent PM’s . You know me. When I decide to warn somebody. I will hurt their feelings.
So I am extra careful because of the PM situation here lately. Damn if I know how to fix it either. I rely on folks like you to who have more knowledge than me when it comes to forum tweaking.

This is stressful time in our planets history between climate change, war, economic inflation, shortage of water coming soon.
Being a pessimist by birth. I see things only getting worse.

So. Better if I play it by ear. Cuz I can be bear in China cabinet when someone winds me up like a two dollar watch.

Sometimes I drive a crooked road to get my mind straight.
Not all who Wander are Lost.
I'm not outa place. I'm from outer space.

Linux Registered User # 475019
How to Search for AntiX solutions to your problems

[Moderator christophe]

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Does anyone need to see the specific forum policy listed again?

Yes. Let’s see it, especially since this discussion is public, as a reminder for everyone.

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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@rokytnji: I think highly of “bears” like you!

@christophe: I’ll retrieve the policy, and I may add to it if necessary, but for now we’ll keep it simple as it currently stands.

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Brian Masinick

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/general-forum-conduct/ is a direct link to the Forum Conduct thread.

Here is the text of the original forum conduct

In recent years we have not had to say much, if anything at all about general forum conduct.
We have allowed discussions on most topics.

Recently however there have been multiple instances of angry discussions between users, comments that are at the very least impolite, and sometimes completely unacceptable.

Here are some common forum rules that have been published on various sites that provide general, reasonable guidelines for forum conduct:

What are the rules for a forum?
No spam. All automated messages, advertisements, and links to competitor websites will be deleted immediately.

Post in relevant sub-forums only. Messages posted in the wrong topic area will be removed and placed in the correct sub-forum by moderators.

Respect other users. No

flaming

or

abusing

fellow forum members.

If one or more of these guidelines are ignored, comments may be deleted. Repeated instances of abusive language or impolite behavior may result in not only message removal. Blatant abuse will result in forum account suspension or removal.

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Brian Masinick

[Member ModdIt]

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Thanks Brian, I think the thread will be a big help and openly show we do work together.
Also for sure useful to newer or new moderators.

Had to grin at Mr Bear: Roki calling EU a country, at present 27 member states and in total about
200 Languages, not dialects. He is right Europe is anything but relaxed, it got worse when covid hit,
now that is overshadowed by more serious troubles.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Notice that our policy is simple and high level. So far, we’ve been doing precisely what the policy says. We have moved comments, deleted a few comments and/or threads, and we’ve on rare occasions given warnings. I have never deleted anyone’s account, though we’ve seen a few accounts “mysteriously disappear”; I think the people owning those accounts may have deleted those themselves, because even logs going back 45 days were not helpful in determining the cause of account removals. The only post or topic removals I’m aware of are better explained than the changes and disappearances of user accounts.

Anyway, the policy as it stands appears to be doing it’s job. If we ever have to change it, I think any changes should be done only after considering the consequences (and responsibilities) created by changes. The recent conflicts appear to have “calmed down”, just as they did around the time that forum policy was created. Maybe that’s all we need – occasional reminders of appropriate forum behavior.

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Brian Masinick

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Incidentally, if there are any moderators who have been trained in the use of the Spam Filter, it’s OK to remove any denied registrations.
I’ll take care of any other denied posts or any spam event other than Registration denied.
I’ll also keep an eye on registrations at least a few days a week myself, unless nobody chooses to continue helping out in this work. Thanks!

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Brian Masinick

[Moderator BobC]

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I’ve been checking when I’m on. Its not often the errors are something other than registration denied.

I guess that’s a good thing 🙂

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Yeah, we’re finally cutting down on them. We had a few invalid spam searches. Ironically the search string itself was “valid”, but the searches were somehow performed by spammers trying to “get in”, possibly without being properly registered.

Anyway, I’ve been getting most of them; I always check first to see if they are ALL “Registration denied”. If yes, then I do a very quick check just to make sure nobody we already know is trying to “register again” after a change of Email, location, or accidental removal. If that check passes and everything else is just a “Registration denied”, then it’s easy, because I can click the first box and then just select denied or remove. The reason I do a few checks is that in the first few weeks, the spam filter was marking too many VALID members and I think I removed one or two entries; I quickly learned that it’s very important to still review the list and possibly do them a few at a time until the correct stuff is being filtered.

Now that we’ve got the software “understanding” and agreeing, about the only thing it’s still occasionally capturing are when valid posters add a few attachments, it is still a bit too sensitive about pretty benign, harmless attachments – and I’ve looked at them. The most recent example was Marcelo Crepe simply attempting to show us a text log of an attempt to install a well-known game package that wasn’t working right.

He finally got it installed, but because he’s using old hardware the game isn’t working very well for him. The attempts to document the problems were completely reasonable; these are the things we have to continue to monitor. When people can’t post, sometimes I can grab what they were TRYING to post from the spam filter log, and then put it in for them, but in a few cases we’ve ended up with duplicates – IF we can tell the filter it’s NOT spam, and then get the specific message posted. So these are a few of the very minor remaining issues. I’d rather risk duplication, which we can either leave in place, or if people get aggravated, moderators can later remove anything extraneous. In any event, it’s all going MUCH BETTER, now that the filter is recognizing and automatically handling the behaviors we allow or reject, and it’s doing quite well.

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Brian Masinick

[Member ModdIt]

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In case of questions, this morning I deleted 3 posts which were not in thread context and not at all helpful.
I have sent a very gentle PM to the poster who is fairly new in the forum. I think the member just wants to participate, may be using a translation service and will soon get used to rules and forum decorum. Not always easy.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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You did well. Hopefully we can coach this person so that there will not be any more issues. Thank you for sharing this with us.

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Brian Masinick

[Moderator BobC]

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I deleted user tt140411. Just a spammer

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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Thanks @BobC: ! Feel free to look at the Spam Filter; if you know how to use it properly, make any necessary removals, whitelist or blacklist entries, etc.
The tool has already improved it’s learning quite a bit since we started; if we continue to use it properly it will not take much effort to maintain; it’s been getting progressively better at the job.

If any mod needs assistance in using or adjusting the Spam Filter tool, please contact me. I’ve been working with it since the beginning and I’ve corrected both my mistakes and it’s mistakes to turn it into the tool we had hoped and expected, and it’s been delivering. So if you need guidance, reach out and I’ll be glad to help.

If you didn’t get training, we do have 5 people capable of doing the job, that should be sufficient, but if anyone on our original list wants to trade responsibilities with anyone else, let me know and I’ll help both people adjust their roles accordingly.

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Brian Masinick

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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For those of you who have been “trained” in the proper use of the CleanTalk anti spam filter software, which has been working much better, now that it has become familiar with our typical users and the posts we tend to accept or delete, I’m going to be traveling over the next week. I will have a phone, so I can review our forum, but I won’t have any antiX computer systems with me, nor do I plan to administrate anything, though I may “check in” once or twice.

If those of you who are trained can take care of things, that would be helpful. I’ll be busy for most of the first week in April, and preparing for departure tomorrow. Thanks for helping out.

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Brian Masinick

[Author]

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