Are patrollers still a thing?

[pugman]

Patrollers are those staff members who can only moderate newbies. Correct?

But I haven't heard anything about the patrollers in a while now. Do they still act as a role in the moderation staff?

If new global mods can't be hired, patrollers can be of a major help, to handle the newbie spam problem. And there's nothing to lose for the forum and staff worthy users can help the forum. Its a Win-win scenario. Thoughts?

Edit:

Seems like patrollers still are a thing. theymos,can you explain more on this patroller thing?

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[bitmover]

There is a button on the upper left corner called patrol.(it can be activated in settings)
I thought it was for everyone to take a look at newbies posts and report them freely if they are spam.

 I didn't knew about those "patrollers"...

Personally, I think this patrol button is an interesting idea, and who is willing to help can just report there.

[pugman]

There is a button on the upper left corner called patrol.(it can be activated in settings)
I thought it was for everyone to take a look at newbies posts and report them freely if they are spam.

 I didn't knew about those "patrollers"...

Personally, I think this patrol button is an interesting idea, and who is willing to help can just report there.

Yeah I know about the patrol, I believe it only shows posts made by newbies.

Patrollers were(?) a thing from the early days, and I read somewhere that it was no longer available due to some reason. I don't have a link for it,it'd be great if someone could find it.

Edit:

I found a few :

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3323623.msg34734013#msg34734013
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=928613.0

[theymos]

Yes, it's the same as always. Currently there are 3 patrollers and 20 non-patroller local moderators. (I saw someone say elsewhere that all mods have jurisdiction over newbies, but this isn't true.) At some points in the past there have been more patrollers, but that's not necessarily indicative of a shortage.

[charlzyeby]

I understand there was a newbie jail that only allowed newbies to post in the "Begginers & Help" section until they had made 5 posts and stayed logged in or browsed the forum for some specified amount of time. This might help reduce newbie spamming spree when reinstalled(or given a little tweak).
link to the post by hilariousandco : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=879237.msg9707641#msg9707641

[pugman]

Yes, it's the same as always. Currently there are 3 patrollers and 20 non-patroller local moderators. (I saw someone say elsewhere that all mods have jurisdiction over newbies, but this isn't true.) At some points in the past there have been more patrollers, but that's not necessarily indicative of a shortage.

Thanks. Are you going to add any more patrollers in the future?

I understand there was a newbie jail that only allowed newbies to post in the "Begginers & Help" section until they had made 5 posts and stayed logged in or browsed the forum for some specified amount of time. This might help reduce newbie spamming spree when reinstalled(or given a little tweak).
link to the post by hilariousandco : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=879237.msg9707641#msg9707641

Newbie jail is entirely different to what is being asked here, and newbie jail is never coming back:

Limiting newbie participation is very harmful for a community. Newbie jail will never return: I consider the newbie-jail period to have been extremely damaging to the forum. When barriers to participation are too high, then the best people often just won't go to the trouble of joining, and the people who are willing to jump through the hoops are often people who aren't good for the community: people with nothing better to do, scammers, get-rick-quickers, etc. Having a permanent newbie jail policy would improve things a lot in the short-term, but would end up being a fatal poison to the community.

The low signal-to-noise is a real issue which seriously annoys me and is often on my mind. But as you mention, fixing it non-destructively is difficult.

[LoyceV]

(I saw someone say elsewhere that all mods have jurisdiction over newbies, but this isn't true.)

That might have been me, I thought this too.

[digaran]

@theymos, please review the reports and activity of LoyceV, they are actively reporting so many newbies and bots. what you could at least do would be to grant them access to independently deal with these bots and newbie spammers. if they are doing it voluntarily then there is no harm in making them a temporary staff until you are satisfied with their performance. IMO these kind of members are an asset for this forum and you should try them out.

[TheQuin]

(I saw someone say elsewhere that all mods have jurisdiction over newbies, but this isn't true.)

That might have been me, I thought this too.

Add me to the list, I thought that and I've probably said it a few times.

[Welsh]

Thanks. Are you going to add any more patrollers in the future?

Honestly I'm a little surprised that there was only a 3 patrollers. I never really looked into it, but just assumed that there would be more. Even if we had 30 patrollers I think theymos would be willing to add more as long as there was a need. Really only he knows that because he has access to the statistics.

[Thekool1s]

Newbie jail is entirely different to what is being asked here, and newbie jail is never coming back:

Quote from: theymos on June 25, 2018, 08:16:59 AM
Limiting newbie participation is very harmful for a community. Newbie jail will never return: I consider the newbie-jail period to have been extremely damaging to the forum. When barriers to participation are too high, then the best people often just won't go to the trouble of joining, and the people who are willing to jump through the hoops are often people who aren't good for the community: people with nothing better to do, scammers, get-rick-quickers, etc. Having a permanent newbie jail policy would improve things a lot in the short-term, but would end up being a fatal poison to the community.

The low signal-to-noise is a real issue which seriously annoys me and is often on my mind. But as you mention, fixing it non-destructively is difficult.

Hmm, interesting. I dunno know if this has been suggested before or not. What about a system for approving new threads? Any new thread from a newbie should be approved by either a moderator or a Patroller. I believe this might be a "non-destructive" way to achieve the goal of fighting spam. From what I have in mind is to introduce a "merit" like system for patrollers. Patrollers who are above senior rank will be able to approve the new threads. If the topic already exists they could simply send a message with a link to that topic to the user who created the new thread and they will be rewarded by patrolling points. A user who has successfully earned 20,000 patrol points could become a moderator or could earn a special rank.

This idea literally came to me when I saw the thread. A ranking system for patrollers could be introduced just to make the job more interesting for them. Would love to hear community's opinion on this.

[hilariousetc]

Hmm, interesting. I dunno know if this has been suggested before or not. What about a system for approving new threads? Any new thread from a newbie should be approved by either a moderator or a Patroller. I believe this might be a "non-destructive" way to achieve the goal of fighting spam. From what I have in mind is to introduce a "merit" like system for patrollers. Patrollers who are above senior rank will be able to approve the new threads. If the topic already exists they could simply send a message with a link to that topic to the user who created the new thread and they will be rewarded by patrolling points. A user who has successfully earned 20,000 patrol points could become a moderator or could earn a special rank.

This idea literally came to me when I saw the thread. A ranking system for patrollers could be introduced just to make the job more interesting for them. Would love to hear community's opinion on this.

I've previously suggested something like this. What I proposed is that all new users are essentially shadow-banned until a staff member checks their posts and either approves and white-lists them if they're fine or nuke them if they're a bot or whatever. Genuine users will be none the wiser as to them their posts would still show up but wouldn't publicly until they've been approved which shouldn't take long. It would stop spambots from being an eyesore as they would never appear and the people who just sign up just to write exclusively 'good project' etc can be nuked on sight instead of cluttering up the ICO threads with pure spam. 

[TheQuin]

I've previously suggested something like this. What I proposed is that all new users are essentially shadow-banned until a staff member checks their posts and either approves and white-lists them if they're fine or nuke them if they're a bot or whatever.

I've seen similar on other forums. Not shadow banned but simply that for every user their first post has to be manually approved. It is effective against spambots and only a minor inconvenience to genuine users.

[The Cryptovator]

@theymos, please review the reports and activity of LoyceV, they are actively reporting so many newbies and bots. what you could at least do would be to grant them access to independently deal with these bots and newbie spammers. if they are doing it voluntarily then there is no harm in making them a temporary staff until you are satisfied with their performance. IMO these kind of members are an asset for this forum and you should try them out.

Wow !!! What a reply , There are some members we can call them assets for this forum. LoyceV is one of them & most effective. Digaran , this is your best comment for me ever I have seen. Admin should consider LoyceV as staff. Since he had mad many useful tools and post for forum. I think it's not very hard decision for admin. As well you can mark for temporary staff as digaran suggested. You have right remove any time if activity isn't appropiate.

Digaran you deserve 50 merit from me but I don't have . I send 1 just for appriceate.

[Thekool1s]

I've previously suggested something like this. What I proposed is that all new users are essentially shadow-banned until a staff member checks their posts and either approves and white-lists them if they're fine or nuke them if they're a bot or whatever. Genuine users will be none the wiser as to them their posts would still show up but wouldn't publicly until they've been approved which shouldn't take long. It would stop spambots from being an eyesore as they would never appear and the people who just sign up just to write exclusively 'good project' etc can be nuked on sight instead of cluttering up the ICO threads with pure spam.

This just hits the nail on its head! I couldn't agree more. Sent some merit your way.

It is effective against spambots and only a minor inconvenience to genuine users.

It won't be an inconvenience at all IMO. Imagine 20-30 users patrolling at all times. Their posts would get approved in minutes instead of hours which isn't the case with other forums.

[LoyceV]

It won't be an inconvenience at all IMO. Imagine 20-30 users patrolling at all times. Their posts would get approved in minutes instead of hours which isn't the case with other forums.

If I look at patrol, I'd reject (almost) all of them. I've never been able to read that page long enough to find a post worth meriting, I usually give up when I find one worth banning.
There are enough Newbie posts to fill several full-time jobs, working in shifts around the clock. I don't think that's something anyone would want to do for long.

[Thekool1s]

It won't be an inconvenience at all IMO. Imagine 20-30 users patrolling at all times. Their posts would get approved in minutes instead of hours which isn't the case with other forums.

If I look at patrol, I'd reject (almost) all of them. I've never been able to read that page long enough to find a post worth meriting, I usually give up when I find one worth banning.
There are enough Newbie posts to fill several full-time jobs, working in shifts around the clock. I don't think that's something anyone would want to do for long.

Reward the process it's that simple. Not by BTCs or tokens. Just introduce a ranking system. I would do it all day long if you ask me... 

[hilariousetc]

I've previously suggested something like this. What I proposed is that all new users are essentially shadow-banned until a staff member checks their posts and either approves and white-lists them if they're fine or nuke them if they're a bot or whatever.

I've seen similar on other forums. Not shadow banned but simply that for every user their first post has to be manually approved. It is effective against spambots and only a minor inconvenience to genuine users.

Same. I guess it's effectively a shadowban though, but it usually tells you that your post is waiting for approval by a moderator. You could either have that or not. Don't suppose it matters either way. I've also been on forums where they require a captcha for the first post or so. That would be another layer for bots to jump through. Purchasing a copper membership could get rid of this.

I've previously suggested something like this. What I proposed is that all new users are essentially shadow-banned until a staff member checks their posts and either approves and white-lists them if they're fine or nuke them if they're a bot or whatever. Genuine users will be none the wiser as to them their posts would still show up but wouldn't publicly until they've been approved which shouldn't take long. It would stop spambots from being an eyesore as they would never appear and the people who just sign up just to write exclusively 'good project' etc can be nuked on sight instead of cluttering up the ICO threads with pure spam.

This just hits the nail on its head! I couldn't agree more. Sent some merit your way.

It is effective against spambots and only a minor inconvenience to genuine users.

It won't be an inconvenience at all IMO. Imagine 20-30 users patrolling at all times. Their posts would get approved in minutes instead of hours which isn't the case with other forums.

Well it's a minor inconvenience if you want to post or get an answer straight away. This is why I suggest the shadowbanning because people will be non the wiser to it and just assume their question hasn't been answered yet.

It won't be an inconvenience at all IMO. Imagine 20-30 users patrolling at all times. Their posts would get approved in minutes instead of hours which isn't the case with other forums.

If I look at patrol, I'd reject (almost) all of them. I've never been able to read that page long enough to find a post worth meriting, I usually give up when I find one worth banning.
There are enough Newbie posts to fill several full-time jobs, working in shifts around the clock. I don't think that's something anyone would want to do for long.

There could be dedicated patrollers for this. I don't think we would need that many to be honest. A handful or so.

Reward the process it's that simple. Not by BTCs or tokens. Just introduce a ranking system. I would do it all day long if you ask me...  

If you're on forum staff then you will get paid. It wouldn't be anywhere near a full time wage but a very active patroller can expect around $550. theymos is also thinking about badges as a reward for high reporters though.

[Thekool1s]

If you're on forum staff then you will get paid. It's wouldn't be anywhere near a full time wage but a very active patroller can expect around $550. theymos is also thinking about badges as a reward for high reporters though.

That can be the end goal for the Patrollers, Just like I suggested after a specific amount of approvals/reports theymos should consider them adding on the forum staff. This will serve as a monetary incentive they could have one day. Talking about $550 it's still more than any campaign except for chip mixer and I imagine the campaign rates will only go down further. Also, 550$ is still more than a salary of a teacher in Developing countries so that's that.

[pugman]

If you're on forum staff then you will get paid. It's wouldn't be anywhere near a full time wage but a very active patroller can expect around $550. theymos is also thinking about badges as a reward for high reporters though.

That can be the end goal for the Patrollers, Just like I suggested after a specific amount of approvals/reports theymos should consider them adding on the forum staff. This will serve as a monetary incentive they could have one day. Talking about $550 it's still more than any campaign except for chip mixer and I imagine the campaign rates will only go down further. Also, 550$ is still more than a salary of a teacher in Developing countries so that's that.

550$ is also less than a average rent rate for a studio flat in the US. Also theymos doesn't care a lot about money, he could actually increase the salary/wage of the staff. Mods deserve more than just 500-1000$ per month.

Patrollers are enough for now I guess, reports are usually handled quickly. Some staff might be required in un modded boards. Otherwise for now we are good.