Whats Happening?
Recently a bunch of comments have been popping up about certain political/religious topics on blogs that are in no way related to the blog's topic.
And some users with offensive usernames have been commenting and making blogs that are straight up disrespectful, cracking up fights in the blog's comments in the process.
For that reason I want to propose a few ideas on how we can reduce and maybe completely get rid of these users since Codeforces as a platform has been growing fast recently with tons of new users registering.
What Can We Do?
I have some ideas that might help.
IDEA 1 :
Offensive comments/blogs could have certain warnings asking the user to downvote and report the certain comment/blog if it is indeed offensive or disrespectful. (maybe certain words detected in the blog could be a reason to issue this warning, or just history of user)
IDEA 2 :
Authors could clean up and moderate their blogs by hiding comments and moving them to a "Hidden by Author" Tab instead of straight up deleting them so deleting comments can't be abused. These comments could be either manually selected and hidden or automatically hidden when certain words chosen by the author are detected in the comments or if a comment is by a certain user which the author has selected to be hidden.
I hope these ideas could maybe help with tidying up the place and making the community cleaner and more connected.
Someone proposed the idea that you can only comment/create blogs if you have participated in at least 10 contests.
while it may make it harder for new users with maybe bad intents to comment/create blogs, new users can be "mass produced" so if one gets banned another could be used
What do you mean "mass produced"?
until like a month that would mean u would block me (best cf blogger) from blogging which wuold be horrible
I'm in concurrence with those proposals.
Admins could implement a system where only trusted users are permitted to post or comment, akin to the "trusted participants" status in contests. This could entail a requirement for users to participate in a minimum of 5 or 10 contests before gaining posting/commenting privileges, thereby deterring spamming via alternate accounts after a ban.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Implementing a system where only trusted users can post or comment, similar to the "trusted participants" status in contests, could indeed help maintain a healthier online community by deterring spam and fostering meaningful interactions. Requiring users to engage in a certain number of contests before gaining posting/commenting privileges could be an effective way to ensure that those contributing to the community have demonstrated their commitment and trustworthiness. It's definitely worth considering as a measure to improve the overall quality of the platform.
https://codeforces.com/blog/entry/116733
Trnbo
Most arguments are from users below the first division, so they don't have a report button.
Giving them a report button (maybe a fake one) or giving them a warning like the one above might decrease the chance of an argument.
Ban individual IPs and mass ban IP ranges used by VPNs, it's probably the only measure that has had some meaningful impact in discouraging trolls on most online forums/image boards.
are you countred as a troll
I am but a humble prophet of the lord Sparky_Master_WCH1226 (negative contribution be upon him).
Bro, judging by your comment replies, it's clear why you're still a pupil amidst the experts.
Could you please teach me how to escape pupil?
I am sure lord Sparky_Master_WCH1226 will reward you with 72 anime waifus in the afterlife for this good deed.
Believe it or not, you can climb the ranks to Expert or beyond simply by putting anime pf
no since people from some countries where the government blocks some websites (e.g china, Iran, north Korea) will have a hard time accessing it, I don't know if cf is blocked in any of them but it'll be damaging to some, currently I'm using a VPN just to come on cf
Well, IP bans are rarely a silver bullet solution. Many individuals resort to VPNs to circumvent them. However, the drawback is that IP bans can inadvertently affect multiple users sharing the same IP, like those in a university or library. Consequently, innocent users could find themselves locked out of Codeforces.
GPT-commenters should be the first ones to have their IPs banned
I feel like the comment system could definitely be changed, and only "trusted" members should be allowed to comment. I also feel annoyed because when I was specialist, I got way more upvotes, however now that I de-ranked to pupil, I'm getting downvotes instead :/