What is SPAM when it comes to the Fiverr Forums?

[vibronx]

2 hours ago, mjensen415 said:

I know you're being sarcastic, but sometimes it doesn't come across to everyone as amusement. Someone who comes from a different culture or where English isn't their first language could misinterpret with out knowing the context.  Personally, I try to steer clear of sarcasm in a written format, unless I can be 100% clear in my inclination or tone. 

Also, if I may add, it is quite rude to dismiss @mariashtelle1in this way and criticize her communication without trying to understand why she said what she did. Then again, we can go in a circle, and you can criticize my communication, too, but I am done being vague and subtle, so I will be totally direct and honest with my feedback as that is the only way to be heard here.

The fact is that I have never seen a forum in my 15+ years of being active online where spam is allowed to run this rampant. On any other site, the problem would have been dealt with. Not here.

A kind of related thing, since I have your attention: I have mentioned this many times in feedback, a video call with someone working on your team, and a CS ticket, but we have a number of moderators who still have the badge and sometimes take actions in silence although they have not posted anything on the forum in years. Is forum moderator supposed to be an eternal position? Since you talked about transparency in communication, do you think it is very transparent to moderate in complete silence without letting us know what is being done or why?

 

Edited July 1, 2021 by vibronx

[vickiespencer]

1 hour ago, mjensen415 said:

don't consider acknowledgement of a reply or a post to be "spam".

I do! Especially when the same message is posted verbatim of the previous post! Plus the posters are Not replying to the OP. They are merely typing the same message over and over and over without regard to the content of the original post and in many different threads! . 

 

7 hours ago, shadiya646 said:

If you check all the categories post then you will understand why she said this.

"Bananas." Next, if I ask them how many oceans there are, they reply, (you guessed it), "Bananas!" 

The point is if it were not for the Forum members who genuinely contribute to the Forum and who are now getting upset with this cow excrement, the OP's would NOT get ANY of their questions answered. Something has to change.  

 

If we "report" (I like the word flag better), will that be a problem? Alternatively, make every post a vote up or down. Then the malarky is at least moved to the bottom of each thread. 

Edited July 1, 2021 by vickiespencer

[mjensen415]

1 hour ago, vibronx said:

As far as I recall, you had a total of 2 days of read time on the old forum, which is not really a lot over the span of several years.

Don't you worry. I see all of your posts. 😉 

[enunciator]

1 minute ago, mjensen415 said:

Don't you worry. I see all of your posts. 😉 

That's very reassuring...   🕵️‍♂️

[vickiespencer]

8 minutes ago, mjensen415 said:

Don't you worry. I see all of your posts. 😉 

Are you going to respond? Or can we expect any changes? 

 

[mjensen415]

In all seriousness. This is a great conversation about behavioral norms and preferences. There are many ways to interact with a post. An online forum should be a place that's accessible to everyone. I try to not dictate HOW someone interacts, I'm just happy they are interacting.

It also sounds like there is an over-emphasis on "posting spam to gain a badge or rank".  I see the numbers and I can assure you this is not the case. There's no one that I can see gaming the system for a fancier badge. 

I'll post something for the larger audience about this. But a good way to think about it is: 
Ranking - Activity (number of posts)
Reputation - Content (quality of posts)
Badges - Gamification of tasks

Full transparency: I had given myself the "grand master" badge as a test to see how the ranking system worked. I'm happy to "play fair" and take those away.

PS, In no way was it my intention to be rude or dismiss @mariashtelle1, quite the contrary. Apologies to her if that's the way she took interpreted it. 

[vibronx]

5 minutes ago, mjensen415 said:

I see the numbers and I can assure you this is not the case. There's no one that I can see gaming the system for a fancier badge. 

That is simply not true. I can mention a few names, but it is not allowed to negatively call out users, so I will not do that.

EDIT: I can only conclude that Fiverr does not view spam the same way that its regular forum users do. Therefore, we should not expect any elimination of spam. Got it.

Edited July 1, 2021 by vibronx

[mjensen415]

 

20 minutes ago, vickiespencer said:

Or can we expect any changes? 

As for changes, yes. This has been about 7-8 months of work to get to where we are today (data migration, look, platform, etc). In the coming weeks, there will 100% be some changes to the categories, permissions, and leveling systems based on feedback and the designed "purpose" of the forum. I have referred to this launch as "seeing if the boat floats".  Making sure all of the backend systems are working and the engine runs.

Now we can turn our focus on the "how" we can find success in this shared community. 
 

[mjensen415]

1 minute ago, vibronx said:

That is simply not true. I can mention a few names, but it is not allowed to negatively call out users, so I will not do that.

My PMs are open. Happy to discuss your perception vs the data. 

[vickiespencer]

5 minutes ago, mjensen415 said:

It also sounds like there is an over-emphasis on "posting spam to gain a badge or rank".  I see the numbers and I can assure you this is not the case.

@mjensen415 If you did read all of the posts you would know that there are certain users going to older posts, especially in the New User Introduction category merely to post,  "Welcome." I first noticed it when one of the users I follow, @shadiya646first commented on an old thread to ask why the posters were reviving the old posts. The response was, "Everyone wants to be Grand Master."

 

Like @vibronxsaid, if you want a list of the user names of these people I can give you a list. Hint: Many of them have the same level of badge that I and @shadiya646have. 

[vickiespencer]

10 minutes ago, mjensen415 said:

My PMs are open. Happy to discuss your perception vs the data. 

Then I will be happy to give you at least two names. 

[frank_d]

2 hours ago, vibronx said:

but we have a number of moderators who still have the badge and sometimes take actions in silence although they have not posted anything on the forum in years. Is forum moderator supposed to be an eternal position?

Hey @vibronx who are these mods you are referring to? I am genuinely curious as I talk to the active mods all day, and to the best of my knowledge aside from the mods we all know, there are no hidden mods.

[vibronx]

5 minutes ago, frank_d said:

who are these mods you are referring to?

sanda5, fonthaunt, annai80 (I think she changed her name to Anna on the forum?), and sue_mcl. Last I checked they still had their badges despite not having posted much (or at all) for years. I have seen annai take actions on my posts (or threads I posted in), although she hadn't posted since 2019 last I checked.

Edited July 1, 2021 by vibronx

[frank_d]

Anna and Sue are very much active mods regardless of whether or not they choose to post on the forum or not.

 

I wasn’t aware there was a clause that dictated that mods need to actively post on the forum. I can look into it for you if it helps.

 

as for transparency when moderating I overshare all the time, but the direction coming from the admins is to not share mod actions. 

[vickiespencer]

11 hours ago, mjensen415 said:

I don't consider acknowledgement of a reply or a post to be "spam". In fact, just the opposite. I like seeing transparency in communication and recognition from those who are participating in the conversation. 

 

11 hours ago, catwriter said:

Isn't that what the "thanks" emoji is for? So that we don't clutter the forum with unnecessary thanks that can make it more difficult to find the information one might need (if a lot of people post nothing but thanks and good tips)?

I was hoping @mjensen415would answer @catwriter's question.

Maybe we need @discobot to return the Fiverr Forum to give lesson on its proper use 🤔

 

[maezma85]

17 hours ago, mariashtelle1 said:

Please stop spamming forum with “sema problem” and “yes of course messages”.

 
Spamming on the forum will derank your gig. 

What is your concept of spam? Because the definition of spam is this: "Unsolicited email that is sent to a large number of recipients for advertising or commercial purposes" I don't think that in a discussion forum there is such a thing if a link is not shared. Although it is true that sometimes some messages are a bit annoying in the reiteration, I believe that each one expresses himself in the way he wants and / or can

Edited July 2, 2021 by maezma85

[mariashtelle1]

7 minutes ago, maezma85 said:

What is your concept of spam? Because the definition of spam is this:

Well, you forgot to add here the full text of that definition. No worries. I will add it here 
 

8 minutes ago, maezma85 said:

Unsolicited email that is sent to a large number of recipients for advertising or commercial purposes

for the purpose of non-commercial proselytizing, for any prohibited purpose, or simply sending the same message over and over to the same user

 

[vickiespencer]

5 minutes ago, maezma85 said:

What is your concept of spam?

Forum spam is the posts that are copied and pasted from a post someone made earlier in the same thread. Or it could be a poster that posts the same two or three words everywhere, whether they are on topic or not. 

Another definition of spam I found is irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent over the internet to a large number of recipients. The Forum is on the internet and the Fiverr Forum has a large number of members. 

[maezma85]

4 minutes ago, mariashtelle1 said:

Bueno, olvidó agregar aquí el texto completo de esa definición. Sin preocupaciones. Lo agregaré aquí 
 

con el propósito de hacer proselitismo no comercial, para cualquier propósito prohibido, o simplemente enviar el mismo mensaje una y otra vez al mismo usuario

 

Well, it is not the same message or to the same user, nor have I seen the original message for commercial purposes. I insist that we are in a forum for debates and there should be the freedom to express ourselves freely without harming anyone. For me, SPAM is something very different from what you mention

[vickiespencer]

1 minute ago, maezma85 said:

For me, SPAM is something very different from what you mention

Then we can agree to disagree. 

[maezma85]

3 minutes ago, vickiespencer said:

El spam del foro son las publicaciones que se copian y pegan de una publicación que alguien hizo anteriormente en el mismo hilo. O podría ser un póster que publique las mismas dos o tres palabras en todas partes, ya sea que estén relacionadas con el tema o no. 

Otra definición de spam que encontré es mensajes irrelevantes o inapropiados enviados a través de Internet a un gran número de destinatarios. El Foro está en Internet y el Foro Fiverr tiene un gran número de miembros. 

Vicky I understand what you mention but there are people who do not know the English language very well and want to be part of the community. For me, a publication should be considered as SPAM if a URL is placed promoting something but not expressing an opinion regardless of how long the message may be.

[maezma85]

2 minutes ago, vickiespencer said:

Entonces podemos estar de acuerdo en no estar de acuerdo. 

Exactly! That is the objective of the forum, to exchange opinions and experiences 😃

[vickiespencer]

Know of at least 4 platform users who "thread bumped" at least 14 threads that were 4 to 5 weeks old by making the same exact post over and over 14 or more times. When I asked one of them about it their answer was they wanted to be a Grand Master. So they are jamming  spamming the Fiverr Forum in order to get more points to achieve their goal. They know what they are doing. 

Edited July 2, 2021 by vickiespencer

[mariashtelle1]

9 minutes ago, maezma85 said:

For me, SPAM is something very different from what you mention

It’s not me “mentioning it” 😉 

you quoted a part of the definition that was serving your views but you purposely ignored the part that you didn’t serve your purpose, so I just quoted the full definition of the word “spam” and not my “opinion”. 
 

if you’ll open a profile of that person (or many others) you’ll see that they send only one message to all topics no matter what is the discussion in that topic. And that is definition of spam. 

15 minutes ago, maezma85 said:

I insist that we are in a forum for debates and there should be the freedom to express ourselves freely

And that is correct. I do like a good debate with exchange of opinions like we are having right now, because it’s a meaningful conversation. And all those “same problem. Yassss. Of course. And active forum” on the contrary are not meaningful nor they express any opinions or adding value to the conversation, it’s simply done to gain a forum badge 
 

 

[vickiespencer]

Also, when I brought this issue to the Fiverr Forum administrator with proof of who was "thread bumping" he said they could be reported for that behavior.