Franklin said:singlemaltdutch said:
Matt has moved on and we haven't so what better opportunity is there to take advantage of the situation and set things in motion? We have managed to end captcha in just a few days. Why should this not be a start?Expatica made drastic and abrupt changes to its software twice in recent memory, and are eagerly talking about the next change. This is not the way to curry favor with users. And Matt's dismissive tone in dealing with longtime members showed that Expatica wasn't all that interested in keeping us around.
If things are going to change for the better, it'll take time to convince some of us.
singlemaltdutch said:
Uhmm, this may sound weird but I think I just deleted a watch spammer topic in the humour section by just pressing "delete/the red cross". Can you guys see if it is still up in your screen?
May be someone in Expatica has taken a liking to you and given you more power... I don't see any watch spammer topic in the humour section.
Or may be your account was used to make the post! 
singlemaltdutch said:
I did it again! Some job offer from JennyEvenson in the Dutch news section...click...delete...gone. I see the same red cross in your post of june 29 2011 in the humour section. Shall I try removing it just for testing?
Um, no, I can delete it myself thank you very much!
Obviously someone at Expatica has given you moderator rights or something as I don't see the same red cross/delete in other peoples posts as you can, only my own posts.
As I have made a point of reporting spam these last few days, which no one else seems to have taken the blindest bit of notice, may be you can get rid of the crap for me?
Here it is, in the gay/lesbian section;
http://community.expatica.com/forums/topic/185026/commander-levitra-20mg-sans-ordonnance-en-france
Actually, as that poster has made a point of spamming other sections, may be you can delete their account?
http://community.expatica.com/profile/barnos
Or at least delete their other spam too?
singlemaltdutch said:
I have just unleashed my wrath upon the link you mentioned...is it gone? The red cross doesn't appear when I move to that particular spammer.
Yes, thank you. Now use your newly gained power wisely my friend... 
You still need to get rid of their other spammy post also though.
singlemaltdutch said:
@Expatica: Maybe it is a good idea to hand this power over to some of the others too? Saves you a lot of work..
Well I for one would appreciate it, the amount of times I keep reporting spam and what not, only to find it's STILL there! Why should I waste my time.
fortuner said:singlemaltdutch said:
I have just unleashed my wrath upon the link you mentioned...is it gone? The red cross doesn't appear when I move to that particular spammer.Yes, thank you. Now use your newly gained power wisely my friend...
You still need to get rid of their other spammy post also though.
Franklin said:
Gosh: you'd think they'd inform you if you'd gotten moderator powers. Clearly admin's still adrift . . .
singlemaltdutch said:
Cheer up! We have destroyed some spam today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pddW-HeHAwo&feature=related
Thanks, but as I say, I'm waiting for substantive, long-term improvement in how Expatica treats its members. Mysteriously granting one forum member powers to delete others' posts surely ain't that.
Franklin said:
Thanks, but as I say, I'm waiting for substantive, long-term improvement in how Expatica treats its members. Mysteriously granting one forum member powers to delete others' posts surely ain't that.
Yes, I have to agree with that.
Franklin said:singlemaltdutch said:
Cheer up! We have destroyed some spam today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pddW-HeHAwo&feature=relatedThanks, but as I say, I'm waiting for substantive, long-term improvement in how Expatica treats its members. Mysteriously granting one forum member powers to delete others' posts surely ain't that.
Expatica said:
Hi guys Thanks for your comments and I just want to let you know about a few things from our side. First of all, we have had major major problems with spam signups and attacks in recent months. At one point we were getting literally thousands of signups a day - the blog section is still full of spam, and this necessitated a pretty severe tightening up on the entire in terms of things like Captcha - which we know is really user unfriendly. That SEEMS to be under control now but we are still a little concerned about what else may happen and monitoring the situation day-by-day. Second - it has never been out intention to let the Forums or the Community die, but in terms of online trends there has been a mass migration over the last few years from blogs and forums onto social networks. So even without enormous spam attacks, it would have been a difficult task to keep a critical mass of users on our forums when social networks are offering a constantly-evolving user experience that due to budgets and size we will never be able to match. Third - there have been some internal changes here at Expatica, including new staff, a slightly new direction for the company, and in the short-medium term future a new site will be launched. These things take an enormous amount of time and energy from our side unfortunately and we do what we can with a limited team, and this means there is very little time to monitor the forums or contribute to discussions. Lastly, in an effort to keep the Forums alive we do regularly tweet and occasionally post on FB about forum topics initiated by our uses. It is definitely a valuably community-building tool in this way. Please be assured we are aware the forums are at a crossroads. Once the site relaunch is under way we want to spend some time improving the Community - but unfortunately I can't categorically state when that will be. Besides that, I would like to thank you for your longstanding interest in the Forums and it is really great to see such support. Please let me know if you have any further questions.
You do realize that there are actually tools available for clever forum admins to use to combat spam without annoying the heck out of active and contributing members? I'm not sure what board you're using (looks like a vbulletin bastard child with really bad custom formating). Even then, you can eliminate quite a bit just with the tools given.
On my board, nobody gets signatures, gets to post URLS or attachments until they make 5 posts. Then there's a few other things that filter spam. My board is adult content which is a lighthouse becon to spammers...oh, and I have 500k members on my board and only 6 mods. If I can do it there's no reason a board with 30 active members can't.
Then there's the adding things that will make regular members run away. The captcha was one of them, but something that drives me absolutely nutty is having to use the quick reply button as default when I reply. ONLY if I quote someone or edit my post after posting can I use the advanced editor. What's the logic on that??
ldyparadox99 said:
but something that drives me absolutely nutty is having to use the quick reply button as default when I reply. ONLY if I quote someone or edit my post after posting can I use the advanced editor. What's the logic on that??
At the top of the page is a reply button.
Did take a while before I noticed. Not the most logical place.
pepec said:
ldyparadox99 said:
but something that drives me absolutely nutty is having to use the quick reply button as default when I reply. ONLY if I quote someone or edit my post after posting can I use the advanced editor. What's the logic on that??
At the top of the page is a reply button.
Did take a while before I noticed. Not the most logical place.
Ah. I'm sure it's 100% logical in someone's world to have their users scroll all the way back up a long thread to hit the reply button.
mikeyt said:
I haven't been on here since before Christmas 2011 but, once the format changed to this crap i never felt that i was needed as a moderator any longer. The mods lost most of our powers anyway & we weren't getting any answers or help from Admin. It just became too much of a pita to show up here.... and because of that, i've given up on this site. Now where's that rock again....
Been there, done that. Were you around when Jami was here? Your last message is so much like the conversations when she announced the 'change'.
