The Anti-Carryonbuff Thread

I agree and if your doing something on this site just to get points, you're seriously wasting your life.

I think voting should still exist, you just wouldn't get "points" for it.

One of the users in question has now been blocked from the point system (Thank you, Tom). Some of their fake accounts have been deleted as well, but not all of them.

Another user in question has finally had their most recent fake account deleted.

@Orpheus I would be fine with removing the points system but to be quite honest I would sort of miss them. There are lists and things that I worked on for years and I'm very proud of... but that is just my ego and I think I would get over it. The points has obviously only brought out the worst in people and at this point is hardly contributing to the 'quality' of the site.

Wow, you can make it to the rank of top 20 in just three weeks... ya... feeling a lot of quality went behind that effort :P

Carryonbuff (now renaming himself 'disillusioned'), has been excluded from the points system.

I can live with or without the points system. I think the system has its positives and its negatives, but not a big deal personally.
But then, I wonder what kind of effects a no-points Listal would bring to Listal activity and traffic, thus to its economic return.
Besides, some people will always compete for the votes or the views or whatever, and spam and make fakes, as long as a crushdown on such things is achieved, stricter registration and verification procedures, and so on.

It my fanstays world of "Things that will never happen on Listal" we would have an award system like iCheck. You would have an award for accomplishments. Say and an award for making 10, 50, 100, 250 and 500 lists but then no more awards after that. This could also cover more 'site improvement aspects' 'the number of valid issue reports made', the number of times you added information for an item,

But basically there would be a cap. You would only have so many cute little awards on your awards shelf for doing any one thing on Listal. You would still get your "Lollipop"

LOL, but that wouldn't really stop the cheating... I guess it would just spread it around more.

Bah, I guess it only works at iCheck because cheating the point system there sort of undermines the whole point of using the site in the first place. No one cares about ranking on iCheck.

I have just checked 'disillusioned' AKA carryonbuff's account and indeed he has been excluded from the point system. I'm rather perplex about this action though... I have been around for quite a while and I have never seem something like that. Still, if you take such actions, it means that Tom has found as guilty as charged so why not simply deleting his account?

Anyway, I must confess, I always been a fan of the points system. I mean, the whole system used to be really healthy. First, you had to find a great concept, then, spend a lot of time writing some great text, put some nice pics and then slowly, you would get the votes, and at some point, a promotion. For all this, you would get some points and your rank would go up. It was incredibly fun and you had to challenge yourself creatively to come up with the best lists. Unfortunately, at some point, the focus and energy was no longer put on the creativity but on 'the marketing strategies' (one of my listal nemesis actually used this term in one of his terrible lists...) which are creating fake accounts, spamming people to death and copying stuff from the web or listal self...

Personally, I think the focus should be put on creating and enforcing stricter rules. The carryonbuff situation is the best example. He has been around for a year maybe and after all this, he is still allowed to come and goes...

I think excluding the faker from the points system and deleting the fakes is the right way to go. Problem is, it should be done promptly, not after months the fakes have been reported! But I guess Tom is just one person, that's the question! :)

As I've said before there really needs to be someone who can handle these duties as Tom is busy and can't always get around to it. If site improvement is wanted as badly as it is (we all talk about it all the time) then something needs to be done.

Mods should have power to temporarily ban people and that seems to be coming soon but not soon enough. I think that will help the site tremendously.

I don't feel as thought removing a user's points is helpful, judging by the users who I've seen in this situation. They keep coming back and spamming the site with crap and then vote for that crap to rise their ranking. I'm aware that a person could just re-create an account if their's is deleted but doing so multiple times may discourage them. Also, if that email address is blocked from creating a new account then they'll have to go through the trouble of making a new yahoo/gmail/hotmail account and it may discourage them.

I can't see removing points as a solution to this or any of the problems on the site. Unfortunately.

What if mods could suspend suspiciously fake accounts (prevent them from being able to vote or do anything, even post comments) until Tom has a chance to look at them at delete them. Same things with users spamming porn. I don't know if that is what was meant by a temporary ban but I think that the ban that mods can initiate themselves really needs to be able to prevent users from voting on other stuff and not just being able to upload images.

I can definitely understand why legit users might be sad to see points go. For those who have actually earned their points, it's a good way to actually see how our effort has built up in the long run. Points, user ranks, and front page promotions and all that are really good ideas. But the unfortunate thing about good ideas is that when you put them into the real world, there will always be some assholes ready to corrupt them. If people were better as a whole, the points system would be great. Sadly they're not, and point obsession has started to tear down site quality.

Being that I'm not a psychic, I can't say for sure if removing points would solve the problems. Though I think I can safely say that removing the idiots would be the best solution overall. But if we're not going to do that, and it doesn't look like we are, I think it'd be worth it to give removing points a try. So many users are too motivated by them, and freak out if they lose any (notice all the recent "why was my picture deleted" threads). It's just not worth it anymore. And although removing points might not fix all problems, as I doubt it will, I do think it'd be a good start.

Orpheus- I did mean on the individual spammers account, sorry that I wasn't clear.

Still, I don't believe that eradicating the points system in it's entirety would stop these people to be honest. I know it sound ridiculous but people are crazy and will do things just for the satisfaction. I think it would help but there are many users who like the points system (myself included) who may not post here if they aren't "rewarded." It takes time and effort to find an image and share it here. If we weren't getting points and having that little competition I can't say that I would always bother. I can save the pic on my computer.

I think that removing the points system for current users would cause many to leave. I truly do. I think a solution would be to stop the points system from here on out, as in any new account that is created votes can be cast but they will not result in points. Also, these new users can create lists and get votes but not get points. I think that might be worth a shot and will not alienate the users who are already here.

Oh wow, I just wondered what happened to this person and I didn't know that he was a problem person. I liked that he voted for my lists and added a few of mine to his lists of lists. I honestly will miss him a bit though he supposedly did all these undesirable things.

I really do enjoy the points system, it's quite fun to earn them though I don't know the utility of them. It's a part of what drives me to do the work I do which is really silly I suppose.

siesmicforce.listal.com/

Yes?

No?

Maybe?

That's definitely him...... uhhhhhh

I knew he'd be back, I've reported this new account to Tom.

So I'm browsing Listal, and I come across this.

www.listal.com/movie/his-girl-friday/pictures

"Siesmicforce/Carryonbuff In Pathetic Disguise" has just uploaded 52 images for the movie "His Girl Friday", most of which have already been uploaded and are literally right below the images he has uploaded.

He is back, he is spamming, and I want him gone, NOW!

Apologies for my outburst, but we don't need more people like Orpheus leaving the site.

I believe I have taken care of all the duplicates. Of course my eyes are crossing of their own accord now.

Yeah, he spammed the shit out of the gallery for "The Scarlet Empress" too, uploading a ridiculous amount of photos, including duplicates. One of them was a photo I had JUST uploaded. He's clearly not paying attention and doing this stuff impulsively. Very annoying.

I put in another request for that account to be banned/deleted.

If his accounts keep get deleting, hopefully that will eventually deter him.

diehard.listal.com/

After three weeks of no activity, we're now on terror alert orange.

Yeah, that looks like him. I've taken care of it for now but hopefully Tom will do something for the long-term.