I have made a decision to alter and/or remove various restrictions on Voat. I’ve thought a lot about this and it’s something both @Atko and I believe needs to be reevaluated.
Voat has always had a problem with spam. @Amalek would spam posts and hijack the new queue making it unusable. MH101 and then later @SaneGoatiSwear would hijack comment pages making them unusable. The rules Voat uses were put in place in to combat this behavior. They are old rules, mostly remaining unchanged from the initial versions of this site. Most, if not all, of the rules were in direct response to spam attacks. It was never Voat’s intention to limit non-spam accounts, but this is what has happened as an indirect result of these rules.
Voat will not keep in place a system that permanently limits a segment of users from debating and conversing. This isn’t Free Speech as I see it or as I want it.
Voat will shortly be going live with a new code base, and I want to have a new system designed and ready for when this happens, so I am posting this announcement to get feedback from the community.
The main areas of concern:
- Commenting restrictions on negative CCP accounts that aren't spamming their comments
- Limiting any account that spam comments
TL;DR
We need to allow unpopular opinions while preventing comment spam.
How do we do it?
All options are on the table
https://voat.co/v/announcements/1330806
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KingoftheMolePeople ago
Remove restrictions from Negative accts. Put in place a Spam button. Once an account has X number of Spam button reports, acct restrictions go into effect. To prevent abuse, if the restrictions are refuted("I am not spamming"), upon investigation, anyone found to be abusing the Spam button faces consequences, from restrictions themselves to a full on site ban.
PuttItOut ago
We should discuss this option in detail.
KosherHiveKicker ago
Such an option could easily be exploited by people known to have multiple alt / burner accounts, which could be used to easily hit "the X number of Spam button reports"
CrustyBeaver52 ago
Perhaps it can be altered to tag the spam report with the name of the reporter as well.
As in User X reports User Y for spam. Repeat abuse by multiple alt/burner accounts would show up here.
Also, just clicking a button - like the downvoat, is supper easy, perhaps a spam form that requires some interaction, like the mods have when they ban somebody, so at least if you report for spam, you probably really mean it because you have to make a partial effort. Not something of major inconvenience - but I have noticed some of the ban messages are quite creative and entertaining in their own right.
AssFaceSandwich2 ago
Also, form a list of improperly-accused-for-spam to be on an permanent-not-spam setting. Earned status.
SotiCoto ago
Permanent? NOT a good idea.
Maybe temporary though... until stuff dies down.
Pattoe ago
Create account, use it normally, create a bunch of alts, report it for spam. When restricted, refute the restrictions. Get put on "permanent not spam" setting, start spamming.
This is bound to happen.
AssFaceSandwich2 ago
Yeah, people fucking suck.
jeremiahk ago
The spam button still works, but when the status is set, it goes to manual review before the account is permanently banned.