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Since the level of toxic posts in the community has sadly risen, I have now rolled out the moderation queue approvals process that was in place on the forum into article comments too.
If you have seen a message above the comments box about being in the list, you can mostly ignore it. A side-effect of it, was that if you hadn't posted in the forum 3+ times (and the posts were approved), but you did make plenty of article comments, it would see you as having to go through the approvals process. I have since adjusted it to remove any older users from the mod queue who made at least 3 article comments.
It's in place for all new users, so we catch spam (and stupid troll accounts) and remove/ban before it hits live and annoys us and you.
I've also made it so I can force naughty users into an "always on" mod queue, so we can remove completely idiotic and toxic comments before they are posted. Hopefully this will make a few users re-think their attitude, rather than us having to outright ban people.
Does this affect your freedom of speech if I think you're being naughty and idiotic and force the queue to always be on for you? No. Very few sites don't moderate comments, don't be silly.
Part of my commitment to keeping this community as fun as possible for all. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
If you have seen a message above the comments box about being in the list, you can mostly ignore it. A side-effect of it, was that if you hadn't posted in the forum 3+ times (and the posts were approved), but you did make plenty of article comments, it would see you as having to go through the approvals process. I have since adjusted it to remove any older users from the mod queue who made at least 3 article comments.
It's in place for all new users, so we catch spam (and stupid troll accounts) and remove/ban before it hits live and annoys us and you.
I've also made it so I can force naughty users into an "always on" mod queue, so we can remove completely idiotic and toxic comments before they are posted. Hopefully this will make a few users re-think their attitude, rather than us having to outright ban people.
Does this affect your freedom of speech if I think you're being naughty and idiotic and force the queue to always be on for you? No. Very few sites don't moderate comments, don't be silly.
Part of my commitment to keeping this community as fun as possible for all. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Sucks it has to happen, but I'm personally glad you're proactive about it. Thank you.
Side note, I just heard about Trollbots on the radio. Trollbots?!?! I knew about spambots, but a forum/comment bot to troll ppl?!?!? Wow!
Side note, I just heard about Trollbots on the radio. Trollbots?!?! I knew about spambots, but a forum/comment bot to troll ppl?!?!? Wow!
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Ideally you need a way to sort comments (imho a new intelligent formula that balances putting good comments (enabling up and down votes) and putting new comments at the top since, at the moment, comment systems that sort according to score are biased towards older comments) instead of subjectively restricting 'toxic' comments they could simply be downvoted by the community so that less people see them.
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Also, making someone's Gravatar their avatar by default instead of the blankish one would be nice (just enabled it manually, but many sites do it by default, would be nice if this site did too!)
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Same, want current order kept or at the very least make it an option, plus folks end up gaming the system to get there comments higher vote wise anyways in communities like that.
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Agreed. In my experience opening up moderation to the community like that does not end well, and I like being able to follow the conversation from the very beginning rather than out of order.
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Honestly i think you can be a bit thin skinned at times, i do. However, Toxic comments are a different bag altogether and I don't see any need for them, all sites have moderation or they turn into a complete shit show.
After all the effort that has gone into GOL over the years I think its easily the best Linux gaming community on the web now, it would be a shame if trolls and toxic comments ruined that. So yea, im on board with this.
After all the effort that has gone into GOL over the years I think its easily the best Linux gaming community on the web now, it would be a shame if trolls and toxic comments ruined that. So yea, im on board with this.
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Honestly i think you can be a bit thin skinned at times, i do.I've been called that numerous times and I couldn't care less.
I will look to enable sorting by newest first for those that want it :)
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I've been called that numerous times and I couldn't care less.
Clearly :D
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Hey, great you care! And no, passing moderation to the community is no real option. The solution you found is .. well, annoying for new users probably, but well thought. I hope it does not disencourage new users, but thats pretty much all of my concern.
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Mountain Man 21 May 2017
Does this affect your freedom of speech if I think you're being naughty and idiotic and force the queue to always be on for you? No. Very few sites don't moderate comments, don't be silly.Too many people misunderstood what freedom of speech is anyway. You have the right to say whatever you want within the law, but nobody is obligated to grant you a platform from which to say it. Don't want to be moderated? Then start your own website where you will be able to exercise freedom of speech to your heart's content.
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Hey, great you care! And no, passing moderation to the community is no real option. The solution you found is .. well, annoying for new users probably, but well thought. I hope it does not disencourage new users, but thats pretty much all of my concern.But that's how reddit works and it works great IMO.
That said for a small community like ours it's probably not needed.
I'm a bit surprised though to hear about toxicity and problems like that as I've never really experienced it on the comments. Or it was so minor that I don't even remember about it.
But maybe it IS because it's been tackled early on that I didn't see it ;)
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GustyGhost 21 May 2017
To moderate unwanted comments or to shut down opposition?
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One can fairly easily pay to have a reddit bot net upvote specific content/comments up. How often does it happen, hard to say...
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To moderate unwanted comments or to shut down opposition?
In this regard its a lose lose situaton, some people will always view moderation as just someone shutting down opnions they dont like, but it you dont moderate the toxic stuff then the comments become a hate filled battleground.
I guess we will have to trust Liam and the moderators who manage this to be fair. What would perhaps be a nice halfway house would be if the comments moderates where instead of deleted where 'hidden' with the option for users to enable themif they really wanted to.
Last edited by Cmdr_Iras on 21 May 2017 at 6:38 am UTC
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I totally prefer moderation to a toxic environment. Reading GoL should be fun and at least my fun is spoiled by some kinds of behaviour. That said, I'm a regular reader for quite some time now and didn't notice anything. What has happened? Did I miss the right articles?
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I read the comments pretty often, and I cannot remember the last time I saw anything toxic. I am not against moderation as such, but is there really a problem that needs solving?
I still fondly remember the days when you didn't even have to login to comment.
I still fondly remember the days when you didn't even have to login to comment.
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