Block a fellow forum user?

I will admit, it's a little troublesome to see 11 reviews go up in one day (literally, I counted today) and have each of them say virtually nothing about the product that even indicates the author has ever seen it, much less used it. It's an abuse of the points system, and while 98% of the rest of us contributing fairly and reaping modest rewards proportionate to what we do, there are disingenuous people that are dishonestly earning about $5.50 a day on phony reviews. Factor in dozens of sentence long posts and oodles of other abuses, and you can get $10 a day easily, or $70 a week, and that's not chump change.

It's really discouraging for the rest of us to watch this, but even more so than just feeling that it's wrong, it clogs up the forums and the reviews with junk. The reviews are supposed to help customers make informed choices about products, and none of these spam reviews going up are doing that. The forum is supposed to facilitate meaningful and relevant discussions and answer genuine questions, and none of these forum posts are doing that.

For a while I've been biting my tongue, but it's really starting to be upsetting for a lot of people. Kristi, I don't know if this is a problem that you alone would be able to fix although I think we're all really, really grateful that you are working so hard for us. I think maybe the other EF admins might need to also moderate this somehow, because it's getting a little silly. less

I hate being odd man out, but here goes nothing.

While I'll agree that it's annoying to see so much abuse of the point system, and to watch the quality of reviews, comments and forum threads going down in favor of higher ranking and more gift cards, we have sort of facilitated it with our Quickdraw McGraw response to someone applying for advanced reviewing, our insistence on constantly voting "Extremely Useful" on reviews that suck, and our seemingly desperate need to not make people "feel bad" for their obvious lack of ability (because heaven forbid someone be forced to face their own limitations).

But with regard to this person spamming all over the forums, isn't that what alerts and categories are for? I mean, really. Since when did it become EF's staff's responsibility to keep the threads you want to read on the front page?

Set your alerts. Write down what category it was in. Hell, bookmark the damn thing. But we're all adults here, and for most of us, this is just an extracurricular activity. If you're that interested in keeping up with the good stuff, do the legwork. EF's staff is busy enough without having to keep up with your forum threads for you, too. less

I hate being odd man out, but here goes nothing.

While I'll agree that it's annoying to see so much abuse of the point system, and to watch the quality of reviews, comments and forum threads going down in favor of higher ranking and more gift cards, we have sort of facilitated it with our Quickdraw McGraw response to someone applying for advanced reviewing, our insistence on constantly voting "Extremely Useful" on reviews that suck, and our seemingly desperate need to not make people "feel bad" for their obvious lack of ability (because heaven forbid someone be forced to face their own limitations).

But with regard to this person spamming all over the forums, isn't that what alerts and categories are for? I mean, really. Since when did it become EF's staff's responsibility to keep the threads you want to read on the front page?

Set your alerts. Write down what category it was in. Hell, bookmark the damn thing. But we're all adults here, and for most of us, this is just an extracurricular activity. If you're that interested in keeping up with the good stuff, do the legwork. EF's staff is busy enough without having to keep up with your forum threads for you, too. less

I noticed that most of them were not sponsored reviews. Much like my Gold laced G review, thus they get published right away. If I remember right you can write a review on something you have bought, whether from Eden or somewhere else. Unfortunately we have no way of knowing if they have the product or not.

Either way I feel that the community and Eden is being taken advantaged of.

It is good to know that administration is on it. less

I hate being odd man out, but here goes nothing.

While I'll agree that it's annoying to see so much abuse of the point system, and to watch the quality of reviews, comments and forum threads going down in favor of higher ranking and more gift cards, we have sort of facilitated it with our Quickdraw McGraw response to someone applying for advanced reviewing, our insistence on constantly voting "Extremely Useful" on reviews that suck, and our seemingly desperate need to not make people "feel bad" for their obvious lack of ability (because heaven forbid someone be forced to face their own limitations).

But with regard to this person spamming all over the forums, isn't that what alerts and categories are for? I mean, really. Since when did it become EF's staff's responsibility to keep the threads you want to read on the front page?

Set your alerts. Write down what category it was in. Hell, bookmark the damn thing. But we're all adults here, and for most of us, this is just an extracurricular activity. If you're that interested in keeping up with the good stuff, do the legwork. EF's staff is busy enough without having to keep up with your forum threads for you, too. less

I will admit, it's a little troublesome to see 11 reviews go up in one day (literally, I counted today) and have each of them say virtually nothing about the product that even indicates the author has ever seen it, much less used it. It's an abuse of the points system, and while 98% of the rest of us contributing fairly and reaping modest rewards proportionate to what we do, there are disingenuous people that are dishonestly earning about $5.50 a day on phony reviews. Factor in dozens of sentence long posts and oodles of other abuses, and you can get $10 a day easily, or $70 a week, and that's not chump change.

It's really discouraging for the rest of us to watch this, but even more so than just feeling that it's wrong, it clogs up the forums and the reviews with junk. The reviews are supposed to help customers make informed choices about products, and none of these spam reviews going up are doing that. The forum is supposed to facilitate meaningful and relevant discussions and answer genuine questions, and none of these forum posts are doing that.

For a while I've been biting my tongue, but it's really starting to be upsetting for a lot of people. Kristi, I don't know if this is a problem that you alone would be able to fix although I think we're all really, really grateful that you are working so hard for us. I think maybe the other EF admins might need to also moderate this somehow, because it's getting a little silly. less

We all meet, as a team, every day about this stuff. It just... takes time, we have to work within our system and prove infractions, wait for people to get back to us on their warnings and emails. Nothing is clear cut, especially when we face huge amounts of drama whenever we DO suspend or ban someone.

Rest assured, though, we're all working hard on this. Too hard, some days, as it cuts into time to do our actual jobs. less

Thanks for keeping us in the loop, Carrie Ann! It's easy to take for granted everything you guys have to do.. you have a job aside from the drama in the community, and this kind of stuff definitely makes it harder for you guys to pay attention to other pressing tasks.

I'm confident the issues will be attended to in a timely manner, and until then, we all just have to be patient, and put our blinders on as best as possible.

Thanks to everyone at EF for all your hard work, we appreciate it! less

We all meet, as a team, every day about this stuff. It just... takes time, we have to work within our system and prove infractions, wait for people to get back to us on their warnings and emails. Nothing is clear cut, especially when we face huge amounts of drama whenever we DO suspend or ban someone.

Rest assured, though, we're all working hard on this. Too hard, some days, as it cuts into time to do our actual jobs. less

Blocking IPs can be VERY effective, if a user who was abusing the forums refuses to stay away.

When I Moderated an other board a few years ago, we used Z Bulletin and it was easy to find IP numbers, and block the entire number, if necessary. We didn't block entire IPs often only if someone was really abusing the forums. But, even when they came back (and you can usually tell when that happens, their styles are easy to see) we'd just block that IP.

This strategy is used for the worst of the worst. When people have been spoken to, given the chance to explain themselves, given a short ban and then allowed to come back and "play nice" and they still kept abusing the forum. It can be done, it isn't pleasant, but it takes some time.

And, no it isn't invading anyone's "privacy." When one signs the user agreement (or clicks "I Agree") they agree to play by the rules. Those rules include the Moderators being able to use the tools at hand, including IP number traces, to keep the forum working and safe for the rest of the users.

IP traces can also let you know if someone has more than one identity. less