Feb 2023
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Mar 2023
Mar 2023
thecrystalrook
Feb '23
candiedcotton

Hi, masters in computer engineering with a focus on cybersec and 10 years industry experience here. The solutions you're proposing are considered blacklisting and don't work. You can put restrictions on to prevent title matches, but then people will just start changing titles. This is why we generally don't use black listing in cybersec, it's too easy to work around. A whitelist would be better, i.e. an approved list of whats allowed to be posted, and THEN it can only be allowed once. This prevents a user or bot from just spamming different titles, because the duplicates won't be whitelisted.

cherrystark
Feb '23
Katzalcoatl

Yup. Pretty much all we can do is submit it as a update suggestion and hope for the best. Since they're pushing the discord, nothing will happen

candiedcotton
Feb '23
thecrystalrook

This isn't a cybersecurity issue. This is just data processing. I do understand what you're referring to, but I think for something as simple as processing and filtering data for a forum, it's fine. White listing also has issues.

(insert various credentials that make me valid as a professional opinion).

thecrystalrook
Feb '23

It is literally a cybersec problem if you're dealing with bots and spam.

Yes, I politely dropped my credentials. Thank you for noticing.

Lensing
Feb '23

I think it would be great to get rid of all the promo threads which people start
in other categories. You can hide the promo category, that´s what people also
use the "announcement" and other categories to start new promo threads.

I love the idea of having 4 promo threads but I don´t see a realistic way to do
it and I also think that it would lead to people opening up even more promo threads
in disguise under the other categories and I don´t want that

cherrystark
Feb '23

It drives me crazy when people do that in the writing category. I get really excited thinking it's a thread I can participate in and it's some game for a promo thread.

candiedcotton
Feb '23
thecrystalrook

We're not talking about bots spamming because that's... not an issue.

Hey man, I don't even think I've ever talked to you, but you're coming off really pretentious.

So I'm gonna politely end this conversation.

DarkSena
Feb '23

Haven't see noticed it until yesterday perhaps I was really blind lol
The sheer amount of promoting threads is really insane, it really is like the most of the forums topics.

Lensing
Feb '23

I only see that when I look at the forum on my mobile phone because I can´t log in on the mobile, s
so I can´t hide any category.
On some days it´s only promotion threads when someone comments in every topic and you have to
scroll forever to find other threads.

DarkSena
Feb '23

I'm using the desktop version but I remember yesterday when I came to forums and saw promotions from the top to the bottom, that was the first time I really realized how much of it is going on. I mean I can understand it but on the other hand there's so little else going on :frowning:

darthmongoose
Feb '23

I feel like one of the worst aspects of the forum promo threads is when somebody comes online and posts the same thing in every. single. promo thread all in one go, so every other topic gets pushed down as suddenly 20+ Promo threads are at the top of the forum because the same person has posted "READ MY NOVEL [LINK]" in all of them in the space of 20 minutes.

I actually have in the past played a game with some discord friends, where you had to screencap the longest stack of threads with the same person's avatar on the end. The "highest scoring" ones couldn't be contained in a single screenshot because we legitimately saw somebody bumping close to 30 promo threads in the space of less than an hour (at which point, we stopped playing the game because it stopped being funny and started being annoying).

I feel like maybe just limiting how much people can create these threads would potentially work, since, most people who make these threads have by now realised the secret to having an effective promo post is to be the person who starts the thread. Because the only posts serial promo thread users tend to look at are the OP's and the last one, especially once threads are over about five posts, and plus the people making promo threads tend to frame it with language like they're doing everyone a favour, like "Here you go! A promo thread for you to get seen!", "Promotion is hard, so here's a place for all you hard-working creators to get noticed!" and so people will often look at their work or sub as a gesture of thanks for doing them this "favour", apparently unaware that OP isn't really doing them a favour, they're really just promoting themselves (note: I'm sure some people who start promo threads aren't aware of this, but when somebody keeps starting them, they're sure to have noticed the pattern and aren't just doing it innocently any more.).

It's pretty obvious from how rarely anyone posts in that "milestone celebration thread that killed all the others" which was created after things got really silly with everyone making "celebration!" threads, that people are very aware that it was nothing to do with celebrating and just an excuse to create a thread, since being a thread OP and "inviting" people to "celebrate" or "participate" by sharing their links is a really good way to get views on your own work by somebody already viewing you with the mindset of a party guest who owes the host something.

So maybe promo threads need to require a reason to be created like "I'd like to create a thread for Autism Awareness month where people can promote comics and novels featuring characters on the spectrum, or by autistic creators" or "I want to make a thread about isekai stories, the old one auto-locked months ago" ....The problem is, of course... the forums are already kind of understaffed as-is, and I don't want poor Joanne to need to sift through everyone's promo thread applications. :sweat_01:

HGohwell
Feb '23

You're not the first person to say it, you won't be the last. We've talked about soluation here before, like only being able to post in promotions a certain number of times a day, or having strict only promo in these selected threads, but nothing works. Even having strict threads and please only post to these threads worked. The strict rules on milestone promos aren't enforced anymore. No one has any interest in getting hold of the promo section, but at least we can mute it these days. Even though it's just the same 20 people advertising to the same 20 people and promo threads barely work these days. Promos have just gone up and up. You can't stop it these days because no one cares about the forums enough to think about how that spamming looks to outsiders.

feuersichel
Feb '23

I'm more on the side of limiting the number of posts a user can make in the promotion cathegory. Personaly I like the promo threads that have a theme as my interests can be pretty nische, and those topics aren't really limitable. Or the fun ones, like "promote with an out of context page or sentence", "promote with a meme" etc. ^^

I don't want to punish creative promotion threads just because the others are getting out of hand.

feuersichel
Feb '23
HGohwell

Jeah I think this is the big problem: The need for moderation. Tapas focuses more on the discord server, so the forum is just... kinda there ^^' Thats why I see the limitation of a person being able to post in this topic most sustainable. This doesn't need further moderation once it is in place.

TroyVSTheWorld
Feb '23

Its so useless to see more promo threads pop up and dilute the actual discussion. If you advertise in one thread, there's not much point in advertising in a second thread--Your reach only goes to the EXACT SAME PEOPLE. You're advertising, but not to anyone who hasn't seen your comic.

Calculus_Homework
Feb '23
Mallory

That's a good idea too, fr fr. I would usually do 3 or 4 promo threads to post my stuff, then call it a day. Props to the people who can do more, but also... it gets a bit spammy, like you're saying. lol

Calculus_Homework
Feb '23
darthmongoose

Oh damn. Didn't know that about being OP for a thread... good observation. I haven't been on here enough to make that connection. Kinda sucks that the forums seem to be getting neglected now with the Discord thing going on.

joannekwan(ง ˙o˙)ว here to help~
Feb '23

It's a messy subject and we've tried many things in the past but it all ends up washing out and having the same cycle repeat itself. Like encouraging folks to post in the megathreads, it works for a while but then new creators show up and make their own threads anyway.
It's evident enough how many topics I have to close that don't follow the forum guidelines (mostly talking about webtoon or soliciting sales in one form or another) that new users here don't actually read the guidelines in detail. So adding any new rules in regards to promotion would mostly just go ignored.

And as vibrantfox mentioned, these forums run on a separate engine that Tapas didn't build from the ground up, so they are limited in what they can implement.

1 month later

closed Mar 22, '23

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