Recommending Feature of Post and Thread Checking

[Boomwebsearch]

I have been a member of the Linus Tech Tips forum for around a year now and I can say that it is awesome and that there are a lot of good replies and questions asked and solved by the members. I would like to suggest adding a feature which could maybe consist of algorithms which would check all posts before they are published to make sure that they do not go against the community guidelines, I know that this is why moderators are there for, although with the high volume of posts I would imagine that not all posts get scanned and potentially some could still be out there which go against the community guidelines for this site. Is there anything like this concept already implemented or is the concept reasonable enough to be implemented sometime in the future and if not then please let me know why it would not be implemented or if it does not make sense to do so?

[Raudi_]

It might be a little to complex server side to run an algorithm set to check every single post and thread that gets made daily on the forums. But it could be possibly implemented but maybe not with the forums current set up as they did change it a few years ago. 

[lewdicrous]

If you're talking about the recent influx of bots, then there's already a system implemented to combat that and the few we see here and there are nothing compared to what has been blocked.

However, if your suggestion is to scan every post before it's posted then @colonel_mortis mentioned it in the thread below (it's about spam bots, but I think it's also relevant in this situation)

 

Suggestion:

Quote

i dont know how many users register and post daily, but making moderators approve first post of a new user would probably eliminate it (obviously only check the posts that arent on banlist from other protections already, and add option to add that post to banlist)

Response:

Quote

The volume of content would make that unmanageable, and having a delay before your post is visible is not great for engagement. We have considered it, but it's not on the cards at the moment.

[LogicalDrm]

You should watch some videos or read articles on making swear filters and other black lists. Thats essentially what you are suggesting. It would be nearly impossible to create fool proof system. Or even system which would flag those kinds of posts. The bot prevention already does that, and we are getting much less bot activity than few years ago. Also the current automatic filtering when reported using radio selector works fairly well. It takes 3-4 reports and flags post for moderator review. So bigger issue is that many people just whine and backseat moderate when they could report and move on.

[Boomwebsearch]

4 hours ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

You should watch some videos or read articles on making swear filters and other black lists. Thats essentially what you are suggesting. It would be nearly impossible to create fool proof system. Or even system which would flag those kinds of posts. The bot prevention already does that, and we are getting much less bot activity than few years ago. Also the current automatic filtering when reported using radio selector works fairly well. It takes 3-4 reports and flags post for moderator review. So bigger issue is that many people just whine and backseat moderate when they could report and move on.

 

21 hours ago, KingCry said:

It might be a little to complex server side to run an algorithm set to check every single post and thread that gets made daily on the forums. But it could be possibly implemented but maybe not with the forums current set up as they did change it a few years ago. 

This is not necessarily what I am suggesting, I am suggesting some implementation feature which is beyond that and could detect and automatically handle postings which go against the community guidelines. Such as this set of algorithms would be able to detect offenses of the CS such as backseat moderation and assign warning points or even better would be to prevent that post from being added. I think that this would make it a lot easier for the moderators and they would be able to have more time to handle site development aspect of the forum rather than having to sort through large-scale posts which has the potential that some posts will go missed that are against the CS. I imagine that it would take a long time to develop software which would be intelligent enough to thoroughly analyze all posts on this forum although I think that it potentially could be worth it due to the increasing posts and members which is awesome towards this community forum and many maybe something simple like a warning message before you post something that would potentially get deleted, get you banned, have your account or that thread locked, etc so that users would think before they post something which could potentially be harming other users. Maybe have it so that it will display a warning before that user posts it, if the user still decides to post then it will be published and then sent to moderation or automatically blocked and have consequences provided to the writer of that harmful post. I really think that this would improve this amazing community forum and would like to see it be implemented in some way in the future.

 

15 hours ago, lewdicrous said:

If you're talking about the recent influx of bots, then there's already a system implemented to combat that and the few we see here and there are nothing compared to what has been blocked.

However, if your suggestion is to scan every post before it's posted then @colonel_mortis mentioned it in the thread below (it's about spam bots, but I think it's also relevant in this situation)

I am not as concerned towards spam bots as I would think that it would be getting more and more difficult for spam bots to get accounts as time progresses and software evolves and am more concerned towards potential community standards which are been violated and which will not even get dealt with in the chance that it does not get seen by someone who would be able to reported.

 

I know that this feature which I am suggesting seems to be a lot of possible work needed in the design and implementation category, although I am predicting that it will be implemented in some way in the future as since of post volume the issue gets larger and larger. Please let me know what your thoughts are towards this concept, do you think that it would be beneficial, do you think that it would be beneficial, anything similar planned to be implemented, etc and am very excited to see what Linus Media Group does to transform this forum to remain and more be being of the best place for sharing information towards technology and other topics. Thank you to all of the wonderful members, staff, moderators, administrators, retired staff members, etc which have helped to make this forum and awesome community possible.

[colonel_mortis]

On 11/28/2018 at 3:14 AM, Boomwebsearch said:

which could maybe consist of algorithms which would check all posts before they are published to make sure that they do not go against the community guidelines

Implementing a system that can usefully (result in less work for moderators) differentiate between acceptable and unacceptable posts would take a full time development team a long time, let alone what I can do in a couple of weekends.

If you come across a post that violates the Community Standards, please just report it and a moderator will take care of it.

[Syntaxvgm]

I can make something like this that catches 100% of offenses and spam with very little effort.
Similarly, I can kill 100% of abductors in a hostage situation with explosives.

The hostages may not make it either, is what I'm saying.