[Suggestion] Restricting forumposting to older nations

[Luziyca]

Uh no.

The Reason why Roblox shut down their Forums is it becomes Harder to Moderate the Forums, remember (if you have your own Roblox Account from 2010-2016) that you would see Roblox users Breaking the Rules like Cursing, since it is illegal to swear (or curse) in Roblox according to their Community Guidelines. Since NS Forums is Totally hard to Moderate, I think NS should do the same as Roblox did.

If you get rid of the NS forums altogether, I reckon that most of NS' userbase will leave, and most of the rest who stay would likely retreat into their own regional forums or their own Discords. As I'm sure you are very well aware by now, NS is not Roblox, and so unlike Roblox, where you can interact with people from all over the site on their client, with NS, the forums are basically an obligatory part of the user experience, save for those with either their own regional forums (and thus don't tend to interact much with the greater NS world anyway), those who rarely spend much time on this site in the first place, or those who just are in it for the R&D shtick.

Plus, even though it may be hard to moderate this site, and even though sometimes it feels the current measures are not enough (as evidenced by my suggestion that triggered this whole discussion), this is not a reason to just throw it all away and destroy the NS community the way you are suggesting, because unlike Roblox, you can't really meaningfully interact with people across NS outside your region if the forums closed down without telegramming people or being on a Discord server that multiple NSers all use. Simply put, implementing that suggestion is tantamount to suicide.

And that's not mentioning your other ideas that you've posted recently like IDs and face recognition, which are just as bad and unworkable as your idea to shutter the forums altogether. At least my original idea at the start of the thread could in theory be workable, assuming that the forum software is updated or replaced altogether, whereas yours... it's simply either infeasible and/or impractical to implement them.

I agree with your nation's population reaching 10 million, but half a year is kinda long, maybe 25 days?

I had suggested maybe reducing it to one month as a compromise, but barring major changes in the forum software (updates or a full-on replacement, per Fris), it's pretty clear that this idea, or others like shielding the site behind a paywall is not going to happen.

[Valentine Z]

As I believe we have suggested and actually implemented before, I think it's paramount and known at this point that any kind of blanket banning or restrictions will not work. Any solution or suggestion in particular would restrict and hurt everyone, and it's quite a loss and frustration for genuine new players.

With that said, why not simply increase posting limit to 1-2 mins just like we did, and then when the spammer is away, or when the Moderation teams that they might not be coming back, reduce back that restriction? I think it worked in the sense that it limits the rate of damage that spammer can do.

My personal suggestion is to increase this restriction to Dispatch, a "You cannot make a Dispatch so soon after your last" because if we learned recently, that spammer definitely found a loophole and we should try to do that, if we technically can, of course.

In short: We can only minimize the temporary damage and outage they cause, in my opinion, and the rate limit should apply to a dispatch.

[Mekanikus]

I would agree, but not using the Captcha that Cloudfare already Provided. I would Recommend ReCAPTCHA or hCaptcha Internally to verify without using that Cloudfare already Provided.

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But during the N-Day, I see the Game Side uses ReCAPTCHA rather than hCaptcha, however, I do not know if ReCAPTCHA is more Effective than hCAPTCHA's. And Also, why not Allowing only Verified Users to use the Forums just like the Roblox Forums Did? It is not just to Mitigate DDOSes, but to Claim that your Email is yours, even you lost your Password.

Currently there are a mere 70 registered users online, considering the huge amount of forum users that aren't, I simply thing having registered only would be catastrophic.

I think it would be better to use hCAPTCHA since it's harder for bypass bots and a post cooldown to prevent massive amount of threads per minute.

[The Python]

This would be fine as long as it is not too long. About 1 or 2 weeks would be prefferible in my opinion.

Scissors go "snip"

Oh no, not a Captcha.

[Indo States]

I would agree, but not using the Captcha that Cloudfare already Provided. I would Recommend ReCAPTCHA or hCaptcha Internally to verify without using that Cloudfare already Provided.

---

But during the N-Day, I see the Game Side uses ReCAPTCHA rather than hCaptcha, however, I do not know if ReCAPTCHA is more Effective than hCAPTCHA's. And Also, why not Allowing only Verified Users to use the Forums just like the Roblox Forums Did? It is not just to Mitigate DDOSes, but to Claim that your Email is yours, even you lost your Password.

Currently there are a mere 70 registered users online, considering the huge amount of forum users that aren't, I simply thing having registered only would be catastrophic.

I think it would be better to use hCAPTCHA since it's harder for bypass bots and a post cooldown to prevent massive amount of threads per minute.

They should put it on the Forums and also in Dispatches mainly, not Redirecting them to this:



It totally shouldn't be like this, because they believe that they are being Redirected to Other Sites Without knowing. It should still Redirect you to the NationStates Forums (If you're posting a Forum Post) or in the Main NationStates Site (If you're making an dispatch) but with the Captcha Check Itself rather than using the Cloudfare Ones.

[Reploid Productions]

Some tweaks have been made backstage that should make it considerably more tedious for spam attackers like that in the future, without massively inconveniencing routine players going about their business. It won't entirely stop somebody who is absolutely hell-bent on putting their lack of a life on blast for all the world to see, but it will slow down the spam and speed up our ability to wipe away their garbage once we're aware such an attack is in progress. Should also reduce forum breakage.

The big thing to remember is that ultimately, spam attacks like this are only a temporary problem. Sometimes takes some of our disgruntled ex-users awhile to faff off and find something more constructive to do with their time, but they all eventually do so. We don't want to indiscriminately punish the overwhelming majority of perfectly innocent, rule-abiding players just to inconvenience a single attacker. Many of the suggestions in this thread are either impractical, wildly unfair to honest players, or just flat-out ineffective at accomplishing the goal of stopping such spammers.

As always, if you come across such content, shoot us a line either through the NSFW reports thread or the Getting Help page. Wigging out about your eyes, needing bleach, and unseeing that doesn't really help anything other than encourage the spammer. Just report and move on.

[Indo States]

Some tweaks have been made backstage that should make it considerably more tedious for spam attackers like that in the future, without massively inconveniencing routine players going about their business. It won't entirely stop somebody who is absolutely hell-bent on putting their lack of a life on blast for all the world to see, but it will slow down the spam and speed up our ability to wipe away their garbage once we're aware such an attack is in progress. Should also reduce forum breakage.

The big thing to remember is that ultimately, spam attacks like this are only a temporary problem. Sometimes takes some of our disgruntled ex-users awhile to faff off and find something more constructive to do with their time, but they all eventually do so. We don't want to indiscriminately punish the overwhelming majority of perfectly innocent, rule-abiding players just to inconvenience a single attacker. Many of the suggestions in this thread are either impractical, wildly unfair to honest players, or just flat-out ineffective at accomplishing the goal of stopping such spammers.

As always, if you come across such content, shoot us a line either through the NSFW reports thread or the Getting Help page. Wigging out about your eyes, needing bleach, and unseeing that doesn't really help anything other than encourage the spammer. Just report and move on.

I have a Question, Reppy, what kind of tweaks that have been made in the Forums? I need to know about it.

[Luziyca]

Some tweaks have been made backstage that should make it considerably more tedious for spam attackers like that in the future, without massively inconveniencing routine players going about their business. It won't entirely stop somebody who is absolutely hell-bent on putting their lack of a life on blast for all the world to see, but it will slow down the spam and speed up our ability to wipe away their garbage once we're aware such an attack is in progress. Should also reduce forum breakage.

The big thing to remember is that ultimately, spam attacks like this are only a temporary problem. Sometimes takes some of our disgruntled ex-users awhile to faff off and find something more constructive to do with their time, but they all eventually do so. We don't want to indiscriminately punish the overwhelming majority of perfectly innocent, rule-abiding players just to inconvenience a single attacker. Many of the suggestions in this thread are either impractical, wildly unfair to honest players, or just flat-out ineffective at accomplishing the goal of stopping such spammers.

As always, if you come across such content, shoot us a line either through the NSFW reports thread or the Getting Help page. Wigging out about your eyes, needing bleach, and unseeing that doesn't really help anything other than encourage the spammer. Just report and move on.

Thank you, Reppy for your hard work.

I have a Question, Reppy, what kind of tweaks that have been made in the Forums? I need to know about it.

Why would the mod team reveal their exact tweaks just so some spammer can have an easy to know information of the site's weak points?

[Indo States]

I have a Question, Reppy, what kind of tweaks that have been made in the Forums? I need to know about it.

Why would the mod team reveal their exact tweaks just so some spammer can have an easy to know information of the site's weak points?

I am just asking but nevermind.

[Reploid Productions]

Thank you, Reppy for your hard work.

[violet] is the one who deserves all the thanks; the mod team made suggestions but ultimately she was the one to implement 'em! ^^;

[Valentine Z]

Thank you, Reppy for your hard work.

[violet] is the one who deserves all the thanks; the mod team made suggestions but ultimately she was the one to implement 'em! ^^;

All Hail to the One in Purple Robes! And with a nice little purple-colored desktop.

[Danoxzoyan]

I do not agree with forum restriction, these attacks rarely occur and the good nations shouldn't lose their run cuz of this.

I was posting a game and I wanted to put an image of a role play map but couldn't as it said that my account is too new, the restriction of image posting absolutely defeats the fun especially nation based posts will often include MAPS, no maps, no fun.

Please remove the image posting restriction, don't pull us all down because of one or two spammer.

Besides if they do spam, just ban 'em.

[Indo States]

I do not agree with forum restriction, these attacks rarely occur and the good nations shouldn't lose their run cuz of this.

I was posting a game and I wanted to put an image of a role play map but couldn't as it said that my account is too new, the restriction of image posting absolutely defeats the fun especially nation based posts will often include MAPS, no maps, no fun.

Please remove the image posting restriction, don't pull us all down because of one or two spammer.

Besides if they do spam, just ban 'em.

I do not agree with your Statements, since we want Spammers to be Away from the Forums and not Corrupting the Image of the Forums. But, if you don't like it, just wait ffs.

[Danoxzoyan]

I do not agree with forum restriction, these attacks rarely occur and the good nations shouldn't lose their run cuz of this.

I was posting a game and I wanted to put an image of a role play map but couldn't as it said that my account is too new, the restriction of image posting absolutely defeats the fun especially nation based posts will often include MAPS, no maps, no fun.

Please remove the image posting restriction, don't pull us all down because of one or two spammer.

Besides if they do spam, just ban 'em.

I do not agree with your Statements, since we want Spammers to be Away from the Forums and not Corrupting the Image of the Forums. But, if you don't like it, just wait ffs.

How long are we supposed to wait? 3 months to post an image? Ridiculous.

You don't see the spammers spamming every day and every second right? And when they do spam, they were easily *taken care of* in an instant, boom and ban, gone.

They ain't that much of a fuss they can be dealt with easily, why ruin the function for other nations?

[Valentine Z]

I do not agree with your Statements, since we want Spammers to be Away from the Forums and not Corrupting the Image of the Forums. But, if you don't like it, just wait ffs.

How long are we supposed to wait? 3 months to post an image? Ridiculous.

You don't see the spammers spamming every day and every second right? And when they do spam, they were easily *taken care of* in an instant, boom and ban, gone.

They ain't that much of a fuss they can be dealt with easily, why ruin the function for other nations?

I think you're a little lost, in all honesty.

If you read Reploid's message as it is and between the lines, she only indicates that it will make it difficult for the spammers, while sacrificing *some* convenience for the regular users; it's not a flat out impossibility, or suggestions of banning new nations from posting images for 3 months.

For obvious reasons, the methods are not highlighted, but it's most definitely not banning Image posting for month-old accounts. It could have been simple rate restrictions, or some other methods, which we are not obligated to know.

/ Obligatory not a mod.

[Reploid Productions]

I do not agree with your Statements, since we want Spammers to be Away from the Forums and not Corrupting the Image of the Forums. But, if you don't like it, just wait ffs.

How long are we supposed to wait? 3 months to post an image? Ridiculous.

You don't see the spammers spamming every day and every second right? And when they do spam, they were easily *taken care of* in an instant, boom and ban, gone.

They ain't that much of a fuss they can be dealt with easily, why ruin the function for other nations?

Banning spammers are sometimes Very Difficult, and they could also Bypass it with the Help of VPN and DDOSing Tools. That's why Mods and Admins are doing it's Best to Fix the Forums after the Spam Incident and Create Restrictions to Prevent Spam Incidents to be Reported Again, and "Again". Since my Nation is almost Older alongside my Puppets, it is still Find for me to Post here in Forums. However, it is too very late for you to Join the Forum Community since the Mods has Put an Restrictions on it.

[MODEDIT]Adspam removed[/MODEDIT] Meanwhile in NationStates, you could chat in the RMB or Make your Own Discord Account (If you are over 13) to join Regional Discord Servers to talk. If you want to Roleplay, I think Dispatches is the Best while you wait 3 Months until you are allowed to make a Forum Post with a Image.

[Mallorea and Riva]

How long are we supposed to wait? 3 months to post an image? Ridiculous.

You don't see the spammers spamming every day and every second right? And when they do spam, they were easily *taken care of* in an instant, boom and ban, gone.

They ain't that much of a fuss they can be dealt with easily, why ruin the function for other nations?

Banning spammers are sometimes Very Difficult, and they could also Bypass it with the Help of VPN and DDOSing Tools. That's why Mods and Admins are doing it's Best to Fix the Forums after the Spam Incident and Create Restrictions to Prevent Spam Incidents to be Reported Again, and "Again". Since my Nation is almost Older alongside my Puppets, it is still Find for me to Post here in Forums. However, it is too very late for you to Join the Forum Community since the Mods has Put an Restrictions on it.

[ADSPAM REMOVED]. Meanwhile in NationStates, you could chat in the RMB or Make your Own Discord Account (If you are over 13) to join Regional Discord Servers to talk. If you want to Roleplay, I think Dispatches is the Best while you wait 3 Months until you are allowed to make a Forum Post with a Image.

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