Topic report limitation

[Rundvleeskroket]

Right now a spammer is polluting the forum. I reported one of the threads. When I however tried reporting a second thread, I got an error that my last report was less than 40 seconds ago.

I really can't imagine hammering the report system is a bigger issue than the spam. That 40 second limit should be 10 seconds at best, if at all.

It feels wrong to be rejected when trying to help the forum to be a better place. Why even bother then?

[CraigB]

The forum behaves strange sometimes, I still see excessive loading times periodically when there is no one on the forum, it's been a mess since 2014.

The SMF forum software 2.0.18 is also years out of date, current is 2.1.3 released November 2022, with the amount of Avast team and Admin staff on this forum surely one of them is able to implement the new software

[rocksteady]

If a spammer is reported once, then there should be no need to report the same spammer again.

[CraigB]

If a spammer is reported once, then there should be no need to report the same spammer again.

This is true

[DavidR]

If a spammer is reported once, then there should be no need to report the same spammer again.

This is true

Totally agree as it generates multiple emails to those who have permissions to deal with spam.  Almost gets to the degree of spam emails, just use the report to moderator the report and simply say 'multiple spam posts' in the first report and not send a report for every one

[Rundvleeskroket]

Well, it would be nice if the report page actually said that it sends an email for every report. Because it doesn't.

When I tried to report there were 2 threads. By the time I made this topic there were about 20 or 30.

[DavidR]

Well, it would be nice if the report page actually said that it sends an email for every report. Because it doesn't.

When I tried to report there were 2 threads. By the time I made this topic there were about 20 or 30.

It doesn't only send an email for every report, it sends one for every report to everyone that has moderator status to be able to deal with this.

So it isn't just one for every report, for a multi-post spammer sending just one works as not only would the spammer be banned their multiple spam posts would be deleted also.

What would be nice would be that the forum software be brought fully up to date and there are tools that can make it more difficult for spammers.  This new hassle with Akamai distributed network, also makes it easy for spammers as IPs can't be used to block frequent spammers and the IPs used.  But I'm not going to hold my breath.

[Rundvleeskroket]

I understand it'll send many emails. But that's only something that becomes clear after you realize it will send emails at all. And the report page, again, does not say that!

[DavidR]

I understand it'll send many emails. But that's only something that becomes clear after you realize it will send emails at all. And the report page, again, does not say that!

What did you think happened when you actually Report a post, it has to take some action. The forum software isn't a piece of Avast software, but by SMF so there are limitations.

But now you know what happens from those who see what the action does.

[Rundvleeskroket]

I understand it'll send many emails. But that's only something that becomes clear after you realize it will send emails at all. And the report page, again, does not say that!

What did you think happened when you actually Report a post, it has to take some action. The forum software isn't a piece of Avast software, but by SMF so there are limitations.

But now you know what happens from those who see what the action does.

These days that could be many things. Doesn't have to be email. Could be an instant message (Whatsapp, Signal, Telegram, whatever). Could just be a direct message on the forum itself. Doesn't have to be to everyone, but smart based on who is reporting as available at the time. Many things are possible. Blasting emails to every moderator is the very dumb and very old way of going about things. It must be the Avast way.

Edit: I've been a global moderator on a huge board for years. This was many moons ago and even then a report didn't mean everyone was sent an email. It went via a DM system and not on blast. So it's pretty sad to see two decades pass and come across this ancient method.

[DavidR]

I understand it'll send many emails. But that's only something that becomes clear after you realize it will send emails at all. And the report page, again, does not say that!

What did you think happened when you actually Report a post, it has to take some action. The forum software isn't a piece of Avast software, but by SMF so there are limitations.

But now you know what happens from those who see what the action does.

These days that could be many things. Doesn't have to be email. Could be an instant message (Whatsapp, Signal, Telegram, whatever). Could just be a direct message on the forum itself. Doesn't have to be to everyone, but smart based on who is reporting as available at the time. Many things are possible. Blasting emails to every moderator is the very dumb and very old way of going about things. It must be the Avast way.

Edit: I've been a global moderator on a huge board for years. This was many moons ago and even then a report didn't mean everyone was sent an email. It went via a DM system and not on blast. So it's pretty sad to see two decades pass and come across this ancient method.

The problem is the forum software SFS, by Simple Machines, it controls who gets notified and by the Report to moderator and emails to all those moderators. That said, if sent by DM/PMs would just be shoving it out by a different means unless it it somehow restricted.

There are no less than 9 Avast Team members that have Administrator status, I have no idea if any have done anything administrative in relation to the forum software.

We have been banging on for ages to have this software updated and it appears to fall on deaf ears.