Author Topic: [WEBSITE v2] MusicBee website and forum redesign  (Read 551906 times)

hiccup

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It may be due to the limited number of moderators and/or due to the lenient and friendly basic attitude of the current ones, but there seems to be some increase of posts from spambots.
Especially spambots copying and pasting posts from other fora are slightly difficult to immediately recognize as such.

Plainly deleting and banning these at first sight is a bit tricky, since misjudgements may occur.

Is there perhaps some forum mechanism available/implementable so that a mod that spots such a suspect post (or is alerted to one) can hide that post from the forum—so that valid forum members don't get lured, and waste their time in having a discussion with a bot—and have some standardized PM sent to the new member/bot, saying something like:
"We are very sorry, but since this is your very first post on the forum, please reply to this PM so that your posting will be visible to other members".

And when there is no response within seven days, auto-delete?

phred

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Is there perhaps some forum mechanism available/implementable so that a mod that spots such a suspect post (or is alerted to one) can hide that post from the forum—so that valid forum members don't get lured, and waste their time in having a discussion with a bot—and have some standardized PM sent to the new member/bot, saying something like:
"We are very sorry, but since this is your very first post on the forum, please reply to this PM so that your posting will be visible to other members".

And when there is no response within seven days, auto-delete?
Yes, that would be a good way to handle some of these tricky first posts. I would be very much in favor of something like this.
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sveakul

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+1    I got "tagged" by a spambot just recently in Beyond MusicBee.  Maybe it would be a good idea to extend hiccup's standardized first-post reply to ALL new registrant's first post, as it can be very hard to spot these after the fact.  Serious contributors shouldn't have a problem with the request.

hiccup

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Also, especially a member's signature seems to be a desired location to populate with commercial or malicious weblinks.

It would probably be a good idea to only show signatures from members after a certain amount of posts?


My strictly personal opinion:
I hardly ever see signatures from forum members (I am not specifically talking about MusicBee here) that I find interesting or useful.
Most are plain annoying, and I wouldn't oppose to having the option removed completely.

phred

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I hardly ever see signatures from forum members (I am not specifically talking about MusicBee here) that I find interesting or useful.
Most are plain annoying, and I wouldn't oppose to having the option removed completely.
But there are some that serve a good purpose. And help cut down on needless questions.
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

----------
The FAQ
The Wiki
Posting screenshots is here
Searching the forum with Google is  here

hiccup

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But there are some that serve a good purpose. And help cut down on needless questions.

You are probably talking about yours and psychoadepts?

But the ones that normal users use are in 99% of the cases an attempt to be witty or funny, a line that my grandmother has on a tile above the fireplace, or some 'bragging list' about stuff they own.
Or they mention software versions they are using, but forget to update their sig when they update the software.
Am I forgetting some other common examples of wasting that space?

Again, I am not targeting the MusicBee forum here.
It's a general observation on signatures and their—usually lack of—practical benefit.

And since spambots seem to have more fun with them than humans, it seems defensible to reconsider their use and availability for new members at least.
Last Edit: September 25, 2019, 09:00:21 PM by hiccup

phred

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You are probably talking about yours and psychoadepts?
Do you know anyone else with a sig that's helpful and kind? :-)


Quote
But the ones that normal users use are in 99% of the cases an attempt to be witty or funny, a line that my grandmother has on a tile above the fireplace, or some 'bragging list' about stuff they own.
Or they mention software versions they are using, but forget to update their sig when they update the software.
Am I forgetting some other common examples of wasting that space?
Not at all. Your last example is the one the irks me the most. If you're going to provide your version, keep it current.

Quote
Again, I am not targeting the MusicBee forum here.
It's a general observation on signatures and their—usually lack of—practical benefit.
I see them just about everywhere I go. And I feel the same way about them as you do.
Download the latest MusicBee v3.5 or 3.6 patch from here.
Unzip into your MusicBee directory and overwrite existing files.

----------
The FAQ
The Wiki
Posting screenshots is here
Searching the forum with Google is  here

psychoadept

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Same. I'd be ok with disabling them, even if we do have to copy and paste a little more.
MusicBee Wiki
Use & improve MusicBee's documentation!

Latest beta patch (3.5)
(Unzip and overwrite existing program files)

psychoadept

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I've observed that this rash of copy-spam seems to often use the screaming caps in the subject line. Not sure why, but it's helpful as a "fingerprint". I deleted and banned two this morning, which oddly were both using names based on The Blacklist.
MusicBee Wiki
Use & improve MusicBee's documentation!

Latest beta patch (3.5)
(Unzip and overwrite existing program files)

hiccup

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I believe MusicBee's community is already quite formidable in respect to answering questions from users posted on the forum.
But it occurs to me that for whatever reason, answers are usually coming from a quite select group of 'usual suspects' forum members.

I have a suggestion that may perhaps improve on this a bit.
As other contributing members probably also do, once in a while I check the 'Questions' board to see if there are questions with zero replies that I may perhaps have something to contribute to.

Perhaps adding a button to the 'Questions' board on the forum front page would trigger more users to take a look and contribute with their knowledge and answers?


AvikB

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I believe MusicBee's community is already quite formidable in respect to answering questions from users posted on the forum. But it occurs to me that for whatever reason, answers are usually coming from a quite select group of 'usual suspects' forum members. I have a suggestion that may perhaps improve on this a bit. As other contributing members probably also do, once in a while I check the 'Questions' board to see if there are questions with zero replies that I may perhaps have something to contribute to. Perhaps adding a button to the 'Questions' board on the forum front page would trigger more users to take a look and contribute with their knowledge and answers?

I am not sure how that would work, just because a question has more than 1 reply does not mean it has been answered. Infact people who will use this link, will miss any questions or discussions that has more than 1 reply.

SMF forum does not have an official way of adding a "accept as solution" button.

hiccup

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I was afraid of that.
My first idea was to throw the basic idea in the open to see if it would get any support.

If so, indeed a second phase would to see if there could be not only a mechanism to display questions with zero replies, but also allow to flag 'solved' questions.

Thanks for your crazy fast response and explanation, and thanks for nipping it in the bud ;-)

AvikB

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I was afraid of that. My first idea was to throw the basic idea in the open to see if it would get any support. If so, indeed a second phase would to see if there could be not only a mechanism to display questions with zero replies, but also allow to flag 'solved' questions. Thanks for your crazy fast response and explanation, and thanks for nipping it in the bud ;-)

No problem.  8)

hiccup

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Just a thought: when viewing and sorting the forum on recent posts, obviously the posts gets sorted on date of creation.
Would it be possible (a good idea?) if they would get sorted on latest edit date? (if edits to the post where made o.c.)

Currently it's easy to miss it when somebody made an edit to an existing post, and this could make that a little easier.