Frustrated with "New Member" Treatment «12...Next Go

thesimsisepic

As many of you know this past week numerous spam posts made by computer automated accounts had led to the inability of "new members" of these forums to post. We now fortunately have the ability to post again, but as far as I've seen there has been no new measure to prevent thse spambot attacks so whose to say we won't have our privilege to post revoked again. This may seem like a first world problem, but I am fed up with how the "new member" system works. I have been logged in as an EA user for almost 5 years, I am %99.9999999999... sure that I am not a computer automated account, but because I have never posted until recently I am about as new as someone whose first The Sims game was 4 with the most recent Movie Stuff pack. Needless to say, I am fed up, even with my ability to post back, again, what's to prevent another spambot attack and then what? Revoking "new members" privilege to post was an absolutely horrible action to take. Why not create a spam checker like google annoyingly does, but only when you create a full account, with a bunch of security questions. There are absolutely different alternatives available for true new members, but whoever moderates these forums needs to make use of them.

Romire

It happpens sadly

MissBirdie

I am also a new member but I'm sure they're doing everything they can to prevent this happening again :)

Inna Minnit

Would you rather have spam?

thesimsisepic

[quote="Inna Minnit;14533379"]Would you rather have spam?[/quote]
If there was spam it wouldn't matter to me much anyway cause I wouldn't be able to post on these forums. I'd rather have different more reliable preventative measures than just taking an easy way out by revoking posting priveliges. Might as well take everybody's privileges away if they're so worried about spam.

itsug

Well, to get member ranked, you need to be active on these forums, which spambots would never be.
So there is no reason to block all ranks.
I would have done the same or just prevent new members from starting new threads if it was me.

thesimsisepic

[quote="itsug;14533674"]Well, to get member ranked, you need to be active on these forums, which spambots would never be.
So there is no reason to block all ranks.
I would have done the same or just prevent new members from starting new threads if it was me.[/quote]
There's is no reason to prevent any members from posting, PERIOD. Otherwise there is no point in having a forum. That action was just taking the easy way out, which may have been less irritating for a bit if they had at some point added a way to prevent spam from creating accounts and posting, but nope. So far nothing, and there has already been reports of more spam :unamused:

lisasc360

I know it is frustrating for the New Members not being able to post when the Gurus disable posting for them but they want to do whatever it takes to keep these spambots away from the forums. They even put had it for New Members to verify their e-mail address before they could post but the spambots found a way around that. So using the e-mail verification didn't work. People have suggested having New Members register a TS3/TS4 game to be able to comment but the Gurus don't believe in doing that as it would keep people that don't have either TS3 or TS4 from posting since this forum is set up for all Sims games. So it wouldn't be fair to the TS, TS2, TSM, Sims Stories and other Sims players if they can't have access to the forums if they don't own any TS3 or TS4 games. And it wouldn't be fair for any people who haven't played any of the TS games as they may want to come and ask questions about a game before they decide to buy anything.

Then others have suggested using the ReCaptcha option where someone has to type in whatever word that pops up and then check the "I'm not a robot" box before clicking enter. But the thing is is that since this is a Vanilla forum, we really don't know what kind of security options they have in place for the Gurus/Mods to use. EA is still trying to work out the kinks and doing what they can to make this a safe place to come to.

Back when this forum first started up in August 2014, everyone could post pictures, add links to a post, have a signature, have an avatar until we had a rash of trolls that wanted to post unwanted, nasty and illegal pictures as their avatars and in post. So EA had disabled posting for a bit until they could figure out what to do. So they came up with the system that we have in place where New Members need 50 points, 30 posts and an account older than 24 hours and that had helped for the past year and a half until the spambots came along. When the spambots came along, they found a way around the "No posting links for New Members" rule. If they found a way around that, then they can find a way around anything that the Gurus/Mods put in place.

I'm not sure how spambots work but I'm thinking that there has to be someone who searches for websites, set up an account and then have the computer program take over and do what it does, which is spamming the site with God knows whatever program that they have programed into their PC. And I would think that they would have whatever type of program in place that would be able to crack any type of security measures that a website has in place as any website can be hacked into. No website is safe no matter how much protection they have in place for these type of people who have nothing better to do than to hack into other peoples PC's or websites.

itsug

lisasc360 wrote: »

I know it is frustrating for the New Members not being able to post when the Gurus disable posting for them but they want to do whatever it takes to keep these spambots away from the forums. They even put had it for New Members to verify their e-mail address before they could post but the spambots found a way around that. So using the e-mail verification didn't work. People have suggested having New Members register a TS3/TS4 game to be able to comment but the Gurus don't believe in doing that as it would keep people that don't have either TS3 or TS4 from posting since this forum is set up for all Sims games. So it wouldn't be fair to the TS, TS2, TSM, Sims Stories and other Sims players if they can't have access to the forums if they don't own any TS3 or TS4 games. And it wouldn't be fair for any people who haven't played any of the TS games as they may want to come and ask questions about a game before they decide to buy anything.

Then others have suggested using the ReCaptcha option where someone has to type in whatever word that pops up and then check the "I'm not a robot" box before clicking enter. But the thing is is that since this is a Vanilla forum, we really don't know what kind of security options they have in place for the Gurus/Mods to use. EA is still trying to work out the kinks and doing what they can to make this a safe place to come to.

Back when this forum first started up in August 2014, everyone could post pictures, add links to a post, have a signature, have an avatar until we had a rash of trolls that wanted to post unwanted, nasty and illegal pictures as their avatars and in post. So EA had disabled posting for a bit until they could figure out what to do. So they came up with the system that we have in place where New Members need 50 points, 30 posts and an account older than 24 hours and that had helped for the past year and a half until the spambots came along. When the spambots came along, they found a way around the "No posting links for New Members" rule. If they found a way around that, then they can find a way around anything that the Gurus/Mods put in place.

I'm not sure how spambots work but I'm thinking that there has to be someone who searches for websites, set up an account and then have the computer program take over and do what it does, which is spamming the site with God knows whatever program that they have programed into their PC. And I would think that they would have whatever type of program in place that would be able to crack any type of security measures that a website has in place as any website can be hacked into. No website is safe no matter how much protection they have in place for these type of people who have nothing better to do than to hack into other peoples PC's or websites.

I really couldnt have said it better myself.

thesimsisepic wrote: »

itsug wrote: »

Well, to get member ranked, you need to be active on these forums, which spambots would never be.
So there is no reason to block all ranks.
I would have done the same or just prevent new members from starting new threads if it was me.

There's is no reason to prevent any members from posting, PERIOD. Otherwise there is no point in having a forum. That action was just taking the easy way out, which may have been less irritating for a bit if they had at some point added a way to prevent spam from creating accounts and posting, but nope. So far nothing, and there has already been reports of more spam

Well, to prevent any further spam, locking out the rank that the spammers are, would be the most sufficient way.
There is no way you can deny that.
Other ways to prevent it would be unplugging the forums machine (we dont want that, now do we?) or as you said yourself, locking out everyone, which is the main purpose of spammers, and they would win.

So my statement stands, they are doing everything in their power to get rid of spammers.

Miki

I know that many who have come aboard recently wouldn't necessarily know about it, but late 2014 the forums were "attacked", so to speak, not by spambots but by humans who decided to troll the forums. Of course, spam-bot prevention won't stop these.

Now it wasn't just the "usual" kind of trolling -- starting arguments, posting junk, etc--that brought about the "New Member" policy to begin with, these were vile people posting very offensive, even gross content as their profile pic and/or signatures.


Because of this activity, the new Member policies will not change.

Of course it's a shame to have to resort to this, but it's the nature of the online beast. There are always people with too much time on their hands who get their kicks out of ruining things for others.

thesimsisepic

I actually vaguely remember looking through these forums when those vile pics were being posted and I thought maybe these new member policies may work (still do, but it should change for members who have had an EA account for years, i mean seriously) but if revoking their ability to post is the best option they have, they might as well not have anymore new users post at all from this point foward, because it can just happen again. What i am really trying to get at is they need to create new and creative security measures, if that's the best solution they have right now.

Miki

I know, I hear ya.

Actually the "restrictions" put in place after that troll attack extended to everyone. I became a full member shortly after opening my account and even as a "full" member I couldn't change my avatar away from that boring plumbob for a number of weeks afterwards while they worked out this system as it is.

I guess the best "solution" is to stop being a New Member as quickly as possible by racking up the 30 posts and 50 points-- and after having been a New Member at least 24 hours.

The thinking behind that "formula" being that the sort of trolls, let alone spambots-- who do what happened that time is that people who do that kind of stuff don't have the patience or inclination to go to the trouble of achieving those statistics. They're much happier with the raunchy hit-and-run, content to sit back and get their jollies out of watching people react to their foul posts.

thesimsisepic

[quote="Miki;14535768"]

[color=green]I guess the best "solution" is to stop being a New Member as quickly as possible by racking up the 30 posts and 50 points-- and after having been a New Member at least 24 hours.[/color]

Lol it's like a game they want us to play. If only I had that much interesting stuff to say in a day. But then again.., i'd most likely be accused of spamming :open_mouth:

In all seriousness, all that needs to change is that a user should be automatically ranked a full member IF they have been a user for 6 months-1 year which ever is more reasonable, and has at least say 1 or 2 registered games. Additionally more restrictive and perhaps creative security measures to prevent automated spam accounts, whatever they may be. They for sure exist, otherwise every other type of discussion/forum board that exist would be nothing but spam, the forum gurus just need to look for them.

lisasc360

The problem with what you siad about making someone a member if they've been a user for 6 months or more is that some of those accounts was made to be used as troll accounts back in they day on the old TS3 site. What the user would do is register the base game on their main account that they would use to talk about the game with, then when they would get an EP/SP, they would use each one of them to make several accounts with so that they could troll on. Then they would move to the next account if their other troll account got banned and so forth while their main account remains safe since they won't use that one to troll with. So EA really wouldn't know if the account of the "New Member" is going to be an actual account that the user plans on using for discussing the Sims with or if it's going to be used to troll with.

Movotti

thesimsisepic wrote: »

Miki wrote: »

I guess the best "solution" is to stop being a New Member as quickly as possible by racking up the 30 posts and 50 points-- and after having been a New Member at least 24 hours.

Lol it's like a game they want us to play. If only I had that much interesting stuff to say in a day. But then again.., i'd most likely be accused of spamming

I managed to do it within a couple of days, without spamming. It's easy, if you have at least half a brain.
I only wanted to be a member to get my avatar (and who wouldn't want a pic of the wonderful Mr Movotti?)
Seriously, just play a few of the games, engage in a bit of discussion here and there. With a bit of wit, and a bit of wisdom, you're there in no time.

Personally, I think you shouldn't be able to make a new discussion right away, that would kill the bots. 5 replies before you get to make new topics, it might work.

AtomicSimmer

I personally think they should make the forum only to only allow people that have actually registered the sims 4 game or any of the other sims games to be able to post here.

thesimsisepic

[quote="lisasc360;14536078"]The problem with what you siad about making someone a member if they've been a user for 6 months or more is that some of those accounts was made to be used as troll accounts back in they day on the old TS3 site. What the user would do is register the base game on their main account that they would use to talk about the game with, then when they would get an EP/SP, they would use each one of them to make several accounts with so that they could troll on. Then they would move to the next account if their other troll account got banned and so forth while their main account remains safe since they won't use that one to troll with. So EA really wouldn't know if the account of the "New Member" is going to be an actual account that the user plans on using for discussing the Sims with or if it's going to be used to troll with.

[/quote]

They would run out eventually. While yes TS3 had over 20 packs released, those people who made those accounts have only a matter of time before they use them all up, if they are that committed. Realistically it's impossible stop the people with that much time on their hands but they tend to get caught early on. And that's the reason why i don't mind the new member restrtiction as they help deter simple posting spam by real life people.

AtomicSimmer

What I'm trying to say is that the staff of the forum should make it so you can have only one name per forum account or something and also make it so theres a time limit between posts before you can post again.

thesimsisepic

[quote="AtomicSimmer;14536208"]What I'm trying to say is that the staff of the forum should make it so you can have only one name per forum account or something and also make it so theres a time limit between posts before you can post again.[/quote]

I'm not sure if that would work. You could still make other accounts with different names. I mean they could try doing by IP address, but even I think that's too much a stretch :sweat_smile:

EvermoreRocks

been on for 4 years and still have it though i cant even upload an avatar as a new member too Dx

blunote00

thesimsisepic wrote: »

As many of you know this past week numerous spam posts made by computer automated accounts had led to the inability of "new members" of these forums to post. We now fortunately have the ability to post again, but as far as I've seen there has been no new measure to prevent thse spambot attacks so whose to say we won't have our privilege to post revoked again. This may seem like a first world problem, but I am fed up with how the "new member" system works. I have been logged in as an EA user for almost 5 years, I am %99.9999999999... sure that I am not a computer automated account, but because I have never posted until recently I am about as new as someone whose first The Sims game was 4 with the most recent Movie Stuff pack. Needless to say, I am fed up, even with my ability to post back, again, what's to prevent another spambot attack and then what? Revoking "new members" privilege to post was an absolutely horrible action to take. Why not create a spam checker like google annoyingly does, but only when you create a full account, with a bunch of security questions. There are absolutely different alternatives available for true new members, but whoever moderates these forums needs to make use of them.

Sorry you're frustrated. However, it's very easy to criticize when one has no idea of everything that actually happens on the backend.

itsug

EvermoreRocks wrote: »

been on for 4 years and still have it though i cant even upload an avatar as a new member too Dx

OT but now you can, welcome to the group of members.

corvelobeatriz

sad I can't do like nothing

Ianamus

It was incredibly annoying to be blocked from posting for about 5 days just after I created my account, but I can't think of a better way they could have handled last weeks spam issue.

thesimsisepic

[quote="blunote00;14537055"]

Sorry you're frustrated. However, it's very easy to criticize when one has no idea of everything that actually happens on the backend. :/ [/quote]
I'm sure i don't but considering EA's track record of taking the easy way out on EVERYTHING (games, origin, CS, forums, etc) i just know there has to be something they're missing. Maybe my rant thread won't do plum, but sometimes EA learns, sometimes not. Have to try and get it out there.

itsug

Hopefully there wont be a next time, but if there will be, you should be member ranked by then.