READ FIRST - Messages are now moderated for new members

[Arne Roomann-Kurrik]

I've noticed a couple of spam messages coming to this list and I'd
like to put a stop to it early. I've turned on post moderation for
new users.

If you're posting to this group for the first time, it may take a day
or two for your first messages to appear, because a human being will
have to look at what you wrote to make sure that you're not a
spammer. Please don't send your message again - it'll appear
eventually.

Thanks,
~Arne

(Reposted since the original title had a typo - hopefully this will be
the last spam on this list)

[Arne Roomann-Kurrik]

First, let me apologize for not giving a heads up about this change.
I understand that this has implications on the perceived openness of
the spec, so I'm opening this thread up for discussion if people want
to give their opinion.

The situation as it unfolded yesterday was that a lot of the Google
groups I moderate started getting hit by a relatively busy wave of
spam posters, using (presumably) hijacked gmail.com accounts. This
happens relatively frequently to Google groups, consisting of short
waves of multiple spam messages in the span of a few hours, although
the opensocial-* groups have been relatively unaffected by these in
the past.

Last afternoon PST, several messages started hitting some moderated
groups first, which gave me a heads up about the size of the problem.
I saw the messages start to be posted to the various opensocial-*
subgroups, which were unmoderated until yesterday. I moved pretty
quickly to turn on moderation and was able to stop dozens of messages
from being posted to this list. I didn't do a good job of giving
advance warning, or spelling the subject of my initial email
correctly :)

The way the opensocial-* groups are set up, it's impossible for me to
turn on moderation for some subgroups and not others. While I have no
problem moderating a technical support forum (such as opensocial-api),
some might see moderation on a specification list as censorship or an
attempt to take control of the spec voting process, which is certainly
not my intent!

Now that this most recent wave of emails is over, I'm curious how the
spec list members want to go forward:

1.) Disable moderation entirely - you will get spam at some point in
the future.
2.) Disable / enable moderation as spam waves happen - should keep
large groups attacks out of your inbox, but requires a lot of
vigilance on my behalf and won't keep sporadic spam messages out.
3.) Keep moderation enabled - New members have to be reviewed (mostly
by me at this point) before they can vote on this list.

In cases 2 and 3, I'd like to put up a policy document stating the
process which will be used for moderation, including the types of
content which will be blocked and the process by which a new member
gains full access to the list.

Thoughts?
~Arne

[Adam Winer]

I'm OK with #3, at long as we have a clear policy document.

-- Adam

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> ~Arne
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[Mark W.]

Arne,

Thanks for the more detailed explanation, and even more thanks for
your vigilance and fast action. My inbox and I certainly appreciate
it.

Thais said, it seems unfair to you to put you in a position of having
to do #2 and/or #3 by yourself. Are there other folks that would be
able to help with this?

Is it possible to moderate on just new members? If the answer is yes,
then perhaps a variation on option 3 would work. Also, what's the
volume of new users that gets created? If it's only a handful a week/
month, and as long as we have rapid turn around, then maybe a version
of #3 would work.

If we went down the path of #3, your idea of clearly stating that this
is an open group and that all are welcome and encouraged to contribute
is a good one. It's only because of spam, that are typically posted
from bogus "new member accounts" that this list is moderated. If we go
down that route, we should indicate who the moderators are and state
that we are only doing this to weed out spam. One other thought... it
would be nice if there was a way that someone could "vouch" or
recommend someone else--maybe simple e-mail off line would work.

Thanks again for being proactive.

-Mark W.

[Arne Roomann-Kurrik]

Hi Mark,

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 2:29 PM, Mark W. <weit...@us.ibm.com> wrote:

Arne,

Thanks for the more detailed explanation, and even more thanks for
your vigilance and fast action. My inbox and I certainly appreciate
it.

Thais said, it seems unfair to you to put you in a position of having
to do #2 and/or #3 by yourself. Are there other folks that would be
able to help with this?

Yes, this is certainly possible.  I'm not the *only* person doing moderation- Dan Peterson, Lane Liabraaten and some others have been stepping up as well, but we could always add more folks if they're willing.  Moderating developer groups is part of my day job at Google, though, so I don't really have a problem doing it.

Is it possible to moderate on just new members? If the answer is yes,
then perhaps a variation on option 3 would work. Also, what's the
volume of new users that gets created? If it's only a handful a week/
month, and as long as we have rapid turn around, then maybe a version
of #3 would work.

Sorry for not being precise here, yes- the moderation is only enabled for new users.  The standard (undocumented) practice I usually follow is to grant most new users full posting access after reviewing their first new post to a list.  There are some cases where a first post may be a "hello world" kind of post, so I continue to hold such members in moderation to see if they follow up with spam afterward.

I'm not sure what the volume of new users is since we haven't been moderating, but I'm guessing it's pretty low - in the handful / week range.  Posts during working hours are usually moderated right away, but the concern is that if moderators don't check the queue over a weekend, a post to the list won't be moderated until Monday.
 

If we went down the path of #3, your idea of clearly stating that this
is an open group and that all are welcome and encouraged to contribute
is a good one. It's only because of spam, that are typically posted
from bogus "new member accounts" that this list is moderated. If we go
down that route, we should indicate who the moderators are and state
that we are only doing this to weed out spam. One other thought... it
would be nice if there was a way that someone could "vouch" or
recommend someone else--maybe simple e-mail off line would work.

We can adjust the "splash page" for the group to make this information clearer - http://groups.google.com/group/opensocial

~Arne