Ask Ubuntu General Room

01:43

@C.S.Cameron you know as well as I that editing spam out of posts doesn't solve the problem, nor does it help anything during a strike. It's actually something that gets people smacked every once in a while if they overdo it.

C.S.Cameron

02:17

@ThomasWard-OnStrike Please show me where editing harmful spam out of a question or answer is not permitted. Your message sounds like you are threatening me.

Journeyman Geek On Strike

@C.S.Cameron makes it less obvious that its spam, making clean up hard once its over

Thomas Ward -On Strike

@JourneymanGeekOnStrike 100% this, and it's always been this

and always been this across the network

Journeyman Geek On Strike

I have a few search criteria that I plan to use against deleted posts to hunt down and delete spammers

a lot of this can transfer network wide should a mod be so inclined.

Editing might break it

Thomas Ward -On Strike

153

Q: Should spam posts be edited?

I noticed that the posts of the recent spam surge on Ask Ubuntu were all edited by community members into something like EDITED - REMOVED SPAM ANSWER or similar. While I understand why the users have done this and I too don't want to leave the spam content visible for longer than absolutel...

all the answers explain why NOT to edit spam posts.

and that meta post has been around since 2011

mod strike or not, you should still not edit spam.

because then any flags you did raise are now invalid, etc. against it.

C.S.Cameron

Some of the spam I have flagged and edited has been sitting on AU for hours, presumably with a harmful payload in it. The anti spam bots do not seem to be working, If they were I would not need to do this.

Journeyman Geek On Strike

02:24

@C.S.Cameron they're not working. Yanno, the strike

but we've handled spam before smokey... flagging is fine

Editing makes post strike remediation harder

C.S.Cameron

@ThomasWard-OnStrike quoted from the first answer in your link: "As nhinkle says, most links do not even need to be removed, unless they are linking to porn, viruses, or disturbing content".

Thomas Ward -On Strike

From the same answer:

> If a post is flagged after being edited, those flags will be invalidated if the post is rolled back; unless your edit actually results in a post that shouldn't be deleted, you're just creating an opportunity for someone to make the post stick around longer.

> Editing spam can result in the remainder of the spam post being considered "good"

From the second answer:

> In addition to avoid editing spam posts, I'd like to mention as well that you should also roll it back ASAP if someone else edits a spam post.

and as Journeyman says, and he's been around even longer than I, it makes post-strike remediation of spam harder

we no longer can confirm if it's spam or not, it looks like then that you're using flags for "not an answer" or "not a question" posts.

so editing spam causes more problems than it solves.

it also prevents retroactive processing or detection mechanisms we would use to log the spam (if we chose to do so in other tools)

C.S.Cameron

What kind of sicko is going to roll back spam with ads for Turkish Call Girls, Loan Sharks, Penis Enlargers, Voodoo spells, and Gummy Drugs. The spammers never have a rep of more than 1.

Journeyman Geek On Strike

One who wants the users to be deleted and their IPs blocked

Thomas Ward -On Strike

@JourneymanGeekOnStrike Which we can't do if we no longer see posts as spam

(and editing the spam can lead to the flags being withdrawn/retrafcted)

Journeyman Geek On Strike

02:34

If its porn - then stirikes don't matter

PING a mod, tell them the situation and its flagged

Other than that - we'll deal with it

Thomas Ward -On Strike

@JourneymanGeekOnStrike This. Moderators are NOT restricted from erasing illegal content, during this strike (including but not limited to sexual abuse, kiddie porn, etc.). However the vast majority of spam is not illegal content. And during the strike many of us don't check the queue.

Journeyman Geek On Strike

Yeah, but a lot of us don't check the queue

C.S.Cameron

It takes less than 3 seconds to review the edit to confirm spam once the post is opened.

Thomas Ward -On Strike

how hard is it to just ask us to delete something that is porn, etc. rather than edit it out

@C.S.Cameron Edits don't show in the mod panel that way, and it's nontrivial for us to view the edit history for dozens of posts just to clean up things during a strike where it isn't in the exclusions list for strike inactions.

Journeyman Geek On Strike

@C.S.Cameron We're not actively checking the queues

C.S.Cameron

02:41

Editing the harmful links out of the spam is better than leaving it there for hours. a search for --- spam--- will quickly find any spam posts I have edited that have not been deleted. I have been checking regularly to confirm these spam posts have been deleted

Journeyman Geek On Strike

It isn't because we'd need to know that + there's other tools that can pick up on content, like smoke detector

Thomas Ward -On Strike

also the search tools are absolute crap for searching for strings like what you're stating, which only makes it harder to search for that

> I have been checking regularly to confirm these spam posts have been deleted

C.S.Cameron

@JourneymanGeekOnStrike If you were then I would not be wasting my time editing and flagging them. If the post is marked in red with "Deleted" is it still there?

Thomas Ward -On Strike

That's not going to happen during the mod strike because ther'es literally THOUSANDS of flags that CMs have to deal with right now due to the strike.,

Journeyman Geek On Strike

@C.S.Cameron We're not actively checking the queues cause well, the company tried to make it harder for other kinds of crap to be removed, and we're on strike

Thomas Ward -On Strike

02:46

I hear rumors from certain sources that SO's count is in the thousands alone.

Journeyman Geek On Strike

@ThomasWard-OnStrike Rumours like... a meta comment :D

Thomas Ward -On Strike

Oh that reminds me, you indicated support of the strike by the way, CS.

Journeyman Geek On Strike

at least 8k

Humint says 10k

SU's in the hundred+ range

C.S.Cameron

@ThomasWard-OnStrike It does not sound like you have tried this lately, Search works for me.

Thomas Ward -On Strike

irrelevant.

also

19

Q: Don't edit spam answers, just flag them

We've been hit by way more spam than normal, just thought I'd point out these discussions on meta that might be useful to folks: What can we do about the increasing amount of spam on Ask Ubuntu? Should Spam posts be edited?

discussion deleted-questions spam-handling

^^ an Ask Ubuntu meta thread about this

and a response from Oli in 2011

until someone brings this up in Meta to change this decision and moderator advice/guidelines to the community, that still stands

C.S.Cameron

02:50

@ThomasWard-OnStrike It looks to me like four or five spam flags closes the question.

Thomas Ward -On Strike

and the CMs even will support that

@C.S.Cameron Doesn't mean that there's that many people flagging. Many in the community are in support of the strike and not flagging either.

which again means CMs have to deal with the crap

C.S.Cameron

@ThomasWard-OnStrike I am pro AI. I am not pro SE. I think everyone should move to Ubuntu Forums.

Thomas Ward -On Strike

also let me point out that ignoring the policies on the site - strike or not - tends to get the CMs involved one way or another, and I'm pretty sure you have a negative track record with them.

and ignoring policies on Ubuntu Forums earns you a ban there. (Trust me, I know the Forum Council - and they have no tolerance for BS eitiher)

@C.S.Cameron discussion for a different forum, not here.

and it's already been proposed elsewhere to negative reception I think by the community in general. (People have problems with how Ubuntu Forums is run too)

C.S.Cameron

My Masseuse is here.

andrew.46 - On Strike

05:08

Seems to be less drama on the Southern Hemisphere evenings :). Some calming music / mantra:

Deva Premal Gayatri Mantra 2 hours

►

C.S.Cameron

05:52

Very nice, Yesterday was Poya day, (full moon), We live in the midst of three Buddhist temples. We can hear chanting from each on Poya day, also very nice. During Covid, it lasted 24/7.

Artur Meinild

06:59

This is meditation music to me... 😎

Wintersun - Time I (v1.5) [Full Album]

►

andrew.46 - On Strike

07:43

@ArturMeinild OK so I lasted a bit over a minute this time :)

@C.S.Cameron Sounds very, very peaceful and such a long way away from AU / SE / AI battles :)

Artur Meinild

@andrew.46-OnStrike Hehe - I believe the first 4 minutes are very serene - then it picks up some speed, but still.. 😅

andrew.46 - On Strike

@ArturMeinild You make me feel old :)

Artur Meinild

08:10

@andrew.46-OnStrike Sorry, not intentional.. 😅🌞

vidarlo

12:26

@andrew.46-OnStrike Installing slackware now with separate /boot :P

still same

Stuck on "Loading Linux." Lilo works fine it seems...

vidarlo

12:46

huh

took 10 minutes to boot

interesting

vidarlo

20:24

@ArturMeinild Sigh.

Artur Meinild

20:48

@vidarlo 😶

@vidarlo I couldn't resist posting a reply..

I'm almost eager to see what happens if the number 1492 shows up again...

vidarlo

21:22

10 days actually. Rather harsh? That was the sole reason?

Russia Must Remove Putin

23:31

I've been using NixOS with sway lately and I get this same error message, but I just click 'ok' and proceed to use the application regardless of the error message. I think VMWare Horizon/View is just not detecting the X emulation ability of wayland correctly. I don't think I should answer though, because my experience isn't on Ubuntu. Thoughts?
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1442642/x11-display-server-protocol-configured

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