Bots self defence

[Chris]

Is there a forum addon that would allow deleting (by regular users) users and all their posts that meet all conditions below:
- have negative karma (or negative karma given by 2 different users)
- registered within last week
- signature exists

This would let us handle like 90% of bots without the admin's intervention...

If this power given to everyone is too much how about only to those with 5 karma + 100 posts + registered 3 months ago?

[JGadrow]

I think that ability is called "moderators." Nyx does a good job, IMO, of clearing the spam out.

[Chris]

Yes, but moderators are troublesome. They have badges, people don't like them or like them, you have to select them, appoint them, supervise them, people will discuss if they abuse power or not abuse...

Just a "democratic" tool to kill obvious bots by regulars would reduce the strain on admins.
(well, maybe that's just me; the whole structure of my games staff is build to reduce stress on my tasks so I can waste my time on coding or typing lenghty and pointless posts in forums like this one )

[JGadrow]

But then, instead of a public forum with a handful of moderators to keep out unwanted items, you end up with something quite different. A semi-exclusive forum where members are able to determine who can and who can not join their community. Essentially, it would allow voting out members by the older, more established members.

Which is kind of an interesting system if you ask me... but I don't think that's the goal here. Maybe I'll add a community such as that to one of my sites in the future. That way the community kind of collectively decides in what direction it grows.

[Chris]

Take a note that the community can vote out a new member ONLY if they have a signature filled

Calling it self deciding who is allowed and who is not is too far stretched

[JGadrow]

Using the conditions you posted, old users could effectively stop new users from accessing the community. If two established users arbitrarily decide to, they could karma-smite a new user and then - as long as the user has a signature which almost every user that I see has one - remove them from the site and any evidence that they had ever been there.

Honestly, I don't think we have anyone here who'd really do that, but it becomes possible. That's why the moderator system has been in place for so long and hasn't changed: The site admin picks only users that they trust enough to police their community. And if something does happen that is out of hand, there are a limited number of people to blame. Rather than it possibly being any member of the community.

[Barrikor]

I have to admit, the idea is interesting... although I'm sure it'd be a bit time-consuming to add it to an existing forum.

Maybe if posts were hidden instead of deleted, maybe with a hide/show? Also removed from the recent posts list?..

(Also I just noticed that I need a signature...)

[Murzim]

Add a cron Chris, should be easy for a programmer like yourself
Or edit the script right below karma adjustment to check for the parameters for less cpu consumption and immediate effect.

I am sure you will consume less time to put either of the above in compare for the time you will to search for one, with non-certain result.