Limit the number of brandnew posts per user per 24hrs in Agora?

Sep 5 15:52 UTC 2000

Summer agora this year was a mess.  A couple of users who could care less
about who actually reads agora, had their own little contest to see who
could enter the most items.  

Im wondering if, to protect users from effectively disrupting a conf for
their personal amusement, staff ought to consider putting in programming
to limit any one user id from entering more than say two brandnew items in
Agora during any one twenty-four hour period.  I have seen this done in
other conferencing environments to prevent confs from being used as chat
programs or prevent users from going crazy and entering fifty brandnew
items in a day.

If users are allowed to flood a conf with new itemswith little or no
purpose, it will drive people away.

Maybe such a block could apply only to the agora conf, but if fall agora
is going to end up like summer agora, it seems like its needed.

response 2 of 157:

Sep 5 17:48 UTC 2000

well obviously this would discourage such mass postings, but could
not eliminate the possibility.  if a user has to create numerous new
ids to keep posting, they will tire of that after a while

response 4 of 157:

Sep 5 18:23 UTC 2000

Vandals will tire of their pranks after a while, anyway.  It's a classic 
"ignore it and it will go away" problem.

response 6 of 157:

Sep 6 02:00 UTC 2000

I have to say that if it could be implemented easily enough, it's 
probably a nice idea.  However, I don't see any easy way to do this.  As 
Kevin points out, we can't do an internal mod to picospan. I can see a 
way around this, but not being a programmer I don't know if it's 
feasible.  Find a way to put picospan in a 'wrapper' that will intercept 
posts before they actually get posted.  The wrapper could check to see 
if <USER> has posted more than 1 other item (arbitrary number) in the 
past 24 hours, and if no then allow the post, while bouncing it if the 
poster has posted too much.

Again, I don't know how easy this would be to do, nor do I know if it 
would even be possible (both technically or in light of Grex's status as 
an open system)

response 8 of 157:

Sep 6 02:47 UTC 2000

I'm against the idea.  Unless the limit was so high that it wouldn't matter
anyway, it would be bound to catch at least one person just brimming with
good ideas to share.  (I've seen this happen with message limits on mailing
lists.)

response 10 of 157:

Sep 6 04:03 UTC 2000

Only if they can remember them that long.  (That's why some writers carry
notebooks: write it while it's hot.)

response 12 of 157:

Sep 6 05:45 UTC 2000

Admittedly, I've caught only glimpses of this summer's agora mess.  Agora
in its *normal* state overwhelms me, so I've been hitting it only on
occasion.  That said, I think this is a bad idea, simply because placing
such restrictions seems to interfere with the free speech aspect of Grex's
mission.  I *do* think that what I saw of this phenomenon was extremely
annoying, but I think barring people from being annoying isn't necessarily
the best solution.  (Besides which, those determined to be annoying will
simply find another way to do so...)

response 14 of 157:

Sep 6 12:01 UTC 2000

Between forget and the twit filter users are given control 
over what they have to read for the most part.  I see no 
reason to go the extra step and control what others post.

response 16 of 157:

Sep 7 03:01 UTC 2000

Yeah, but the point Richard was making was that this kind of immature, 
outlandish behaviour dis-attracts new users from the conferences.  New
users do not know about twit filters and other advanced features.  Maybe
we need better documentation.

response 18 of 157:

Sep 7 04:53 UTC 2000

spooked is exactly-- those of us who've been here will just use "forget" or
whatever, but new users wont know those commands, what they will see is some
conference with so many brandnew items that they will throw their hands up
in despair and leave.  What has always made Agora better than mnet's general
is that the numbers of items have been manageable and it doesnt need to
be restarted every month.  I am convinced that confs like summer agora that
get out of control causes grex to lose users.  And since any user can
use an alternate login to enter items, restricting any one ID to two new
brandnew items per day isnt a restriction of speech at all.  The point is
to simply discourage all the mass postings.

I cant believe that grex staff's approach would be so liberterian that it
would decline any attempt at all to protect its own confs.  Why should one
user be so easily able to take over a conf, or two users.  

I am also of the belief that mnet went downhill back when this sort of 
postings-mania became rampant on general.  With its main conf being one that
is filled with useless posts, fewer users read the conf and the place lost
its sense of community.  That will happen to grex?  So why let it-- even
if this doesnt do any good in the long run, its worth a try.  It doesnt
restrict freedom of speech, and it *would* discourage twittish behaviour

response 20 of 157:

Sep 7 06:08 UTC 2000

yes it would, becuase willard only posts so many items becuase he can see
his name, willard, so many times.  if he has to use twenty different logins
to post his fifty items a day, then he wont do it, it would be too onorous.
it would be too much work.  Therefore restricting the number of posts any
one ID, not any one user, can post, would be an effective deterrent.

response 22 of 157:

Sep 7 13:26 UTC 2000

I am concerned about the number of items in agora this season.. it
has caused me to not read it.  I'm only hoping that with m-net back
around that the various twits will not continue to plague agora with
their items.  I'm not sure how the item mess has been
since then, but it seems like a lot still..  Sounds like it's
time to vote the user off the system if it's one person..

(No, i didn't watch a single episode of survivor either).

response 24 of 157:

Sep 7 14:17 UTC 2000

I'm flattered.  *blush*

But I still don't see how I've done anything wrong.  Could someone
please direct me to the Agora "FAQ" or "Conference Participation
Guidelines"?  I must've missed them.  My sincerest apologies.