Spam-reducing idea

[aweitzman]

For the first two weeks after registration, or until the user posts their first question (whichever is longer) require all posts by new users to be moderated.

Because this is getting ridiculous.

[piebob]

thanks, Aweitzman. i know it's frustrating to see the spam come in. however, we've got a good group of moderators around, and most spam posts are removed quickly.

unfortunately, we do not want to simply hold up posts by every new user--the great majority of new users are real, new Splunk users, and need to get their question posted, and fast--holding that up as their first experience with the site would be really bad, and they probably wouldn't come back. one of the best things about Answers is that quick response--25% of all questions asked are answered within an hour, and another 25% are answered within 12 hours.

however, we used to allow new users to post only twice before achieving a given karma level, and for some reason, this was rolled back--i'm going to look into getting that set up again.

thanks for your patience--we are paying attention, and we are trying to make it better.

[acharlieh]

@piebob to moderators: "It's dangerous to go alone, take this"

[aweitzman]

I appreciate that, but just as I was posting that, more than half of the "recent badges" were "validated emails" that had been crossed-out, presumably because the users were removed for spamming. And very few of those post more than twice, so that doesn't seem like much of a barrier.

Just trying to make this a less spammy place.

[piebob]

they're only posting twice or less because i'm watching the log in realtime and smacking them down before they can post more.