“Which is the middle number?”

[Michael]

Going to edit some profile details just now, I see this “Which is the middle number?” field, filled that in, and saved my changes; I assumed it was some recent measure at curtailing forum spam, which is fine and all, just that: Why the hell does it appear on my profile?

[Bubulus]

Yeah. Maybe somebody could make it so that everybody above 200 posts or so doesn't get that message anymore.

[kibo]

Yes, it's a spam measure, just ignore it.

[Abavagada]

Yes, it's a spam measure, just ignore it.

Just ignore it meaning you don't have to answer it, or you still need to answer it?

Erik / Aba

[kibo]

You have to answer if you want to update your profile. New members who want to register must answer it, and it seems that the forum doesn't make a difference between registering and updating an existing profile.

By ignoring it I mean ignore that it's displayed on your profile. We'll see if there is a possibility of hiding it.

So far it's effective. The spam activity (that went to extremes these last few weeks) dropped to a reasonable amount.

[Abavagada]

You have to answer if you want to update your profile. New members who want to register must answer it, and it seems that the forum doesn't make a difference between registering and updating an existing profile.

By ignoring it I mean ignore that it's displayed on your profile. We'll see if there is a possibility of hiding it.

So far it's effective. The spam activity (that went to extremes these last few weeks) dropped to a reasonable amount.

The spam activity should be done at the basic registration level. Stop Forum Spam is specifically set up for that. Here is a mod for phpBB3 that implements it:
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... &t=1349145

It prevents known spam bots from registering. It should also provide a way to check existing members so you can identify and remove spam bots from the member database.

Erik / Aba

[kibo]

Surely, but this was what we able to do quickly without mod-ing the forum. We'll look into this.

[Abavagada]

Surely, but this was what we able to do quickly without mod-ing the forum. We'll look into this.

Is there a problem with mod-ing a forum?

This would also cut back heavily on the number of false accounts: the bots that register but never post, so are never identified and deleted, but artificially inflate the members count.

Erik / Aba

[Bubulus]

You could do a general useless account deletion again like the one sjheiss and phaed underwent in 2009. They deleted every single account that had never made a post and had been registered six months ago. I can't remember how many were deleted but it was a very significant number (we're talking about accounts made even in June 2002 that had never been used, after all!)

(Part of the reasoning is that even supposing if some of those accounts logged in, you don't really need an account to just browse the forum. The Wiki, which you also need to use the same account for, is highly neglected with few edits. The UL IRC doesn't even require you to use your account, just choose whatever nickname you want.)

[Abavagada]

You could do a general useless account deletion again like the one sjheiss and phaed underwent in 2009. They deleted every single account that had never made a post and had been registered six months ago. I can't remember how many were deleted but it was a very significant number (we're talking about accounts made even in June 2002 that had never been used, after all!)

(Part of the reasoning is that even supposing if some of those accounts logged in, you don't really need an account to just browse the forum. The Wiki, which you also need to use the same account for, is highly neglected with few edits. The UL IRC doesn't even require you to use your account, just choose whatever nickname you want.)

Sure. But..
1) that also wiped out people that simply hadn't posted. They come and find their accounts were deleted. I know of someone this happened to.

2) that doesn't get all the bots, since a bot could still post and not be noticed.

3) it doesn't prevent bots from registering again.

The point of Stop Forum Spam is to get rid of an prevent most registrations by bots, without getting rid of people.

Erik / Aba

[MillMaths]

that also wiped out people that simply hadn't posted. They come and find their accounts were deleted. I know of someone this happened to.

If people only come here to read posts, they don't really have to register. You only register if you want to post something – you don't need an account to be a lurker. Thus someone who registers but doesn't post anything, only to come back six months later to find their account deleted, shouldn't really have any grounds for complaint. Six months is a reasonable time gap anyway. I'd say the member list can be purged by removing members with zero posts who registered at least six months ago. If any one of them wants to come back and post, it won't take them long to re-register, will it?

[Bubulus]

1) that also wiped out people that simply hadn't posted. They come and find their accounts were deleted. I know of someone this happened to.

What Sophie said.

2) that doesn't get all the bots, since a bot could still post and not be noticed.

3) it doesn't prevent bots from registering again.

My comment was a little off-topic as in it wasn't really about the spam but about getting rid of useless MBs in the database...

[zeme]

I definitely support deleting unused accounts. They add clutter to the database, falsify statistics, and create false expectations when searching for speakers. 6 months is a reasonable amount of time for post-less accounts, and those with one post or more can stay.

Hopefully, the Which is the middle number? field will be removed from profiles soon.

And while you're at it, would you mind adding a field that would make it possible for users to write a little paragraph about themselves? (study plans, etc.)

[Abavagada]

And while you're at it, would you mind adding a field that would make it possible for users to write a little paragraph about themselves? (study plans, etc.)

Aren't you a developer zeme? You could make this change yourself.

Erik / Aba

[Bubulus]

Since hardly anybody voices their opinion around 'ere:

And while you're at it, would you mind adding a field that would make it possible for users to write a little paragraph about themselves? (study plans, etc.)

Nope, that'd be perfectly fine.

[Car]

Actually, us forum admins can't really do much about such things, unlike the developers.

[zeme]

Actually, us forum admins can't really do much about such things, unlike the developers.

Here's the problem: Forum administrators have administrative privileges allowing them to install modules and configure the forum's functions, but they cannot access the source code. On the other hand, that's the only thing developers can modify. They cannot see UniLang's modules from the perspective of an administrator, and modifying the code of modules installed by an administrator is bound to be risky. As a dev, I don't even know which administrator installed what.

There should be more shared rights and notifications between administrators and developers, because both groups are often mutually dependent when it comes to modifying UniLang's functionality. Development is crawling because of this. Some sort of mod similar Abavagada's proposal should be considered as soon as possible, because “Which is the middle number?” doesn't belong on profiles and there's a lot cleaning up to be done to get rid of all those fake and inactive accounts.

[Car]

I wasn't aware of that. I think we'd best discuss this further in the developer's forum. We admins also realised some of the problems, so it's time to finally get together to find a solution.

[Michael]

Well, this was managing to patch up the problem, up until now. I'm starting to see a bunch of hit-and-run users soliciting advertisement links in their signatures again.

[Abavagada]

If the only person that can make this happen is proycon... why hasn't anyone contacted him?
He is on FaceBook and MSN Messenger, and occasionally on the irc.freenode.net chat server.
He isn't likely to read his emails or this forum, so someone will have to make further attempts to reach him.