How should Woombelism be dealt with?

[bhoeyb]

remove all clan from the different list but keep all bills in the data base...
is it possible?

not erase account... just make it "invisible"?? (in stat, in "hit"list...)???

But probably, they entered bills from fake countries. When another user has the original bill in the futur, he/she'll get a hit comming from e.g. from Canada, Lichtenstein, Switserland, ...
All those notes and future hits are worthless

[TC]

hummm yes indeed...
i don't think for this !

pffff erase all !!

[emmem]

Here I am again with some new idea’s I have thought of during the day.

Maybe we need to have some kind of disclaimer/user agreement/policy on EBT. Once it’s ready every user should be notified of it. A way of doing this is once we have it to show it just after logging in. After pressing I agree the user will not get this notice any more and can enter his notes as before.

Among different thing the disclaimer should state that it was created due to the fact that some users abused the system and that we are sorry it had to come this far. It should also state that when abuse of the system is detected what measures can be taken.

Now about the measures. First there could be a warming after abuse is suspected. When logging in the suspect of abuse gets a warning with a textbox where he can explain him or herself.

Secondly when abuse is too obvious another warning can be given to indicated the measure taken. For instance taking away the possibility to use the advanced form.

If abuse still continues something that can be done to is to transfer the data to a parallel database. Warn the user he is now working in a parallel database with other abusers. So those users see stats and data of both the regular database and the fake database. Regular users and guest should only get regular data.

[Mr Euro]

Re: Emmem

It's great to see that some fellow EBT-ers are also thinking about the Woombelism, but the idea of a disclaimer and a parallel database I'm strongly against. Why? First of all, EBT should be fun. The disclaimer would be disencouraging, it gives the wrong impression. Further more, I believe that only 10 users out of 5475 are really abusing the system. (Maybe less, because Woombel and his crew appear to be just one person see other threads for that) And why should the other 5465 users be punished for it. That wouldn't be fun, would it? We should go out from the fact that the users of the system are good users. Have a little faith in humanity!!!

I do believe the moderating thingy is really good, but when some users must be moderated almost daily (cfr Woombel & Co) they should get a mail warning they would be deleted if they continue. If they don't respond or if they keep making fake hits. Just plain delete them all. Nobody is happy with fake hits and I do believe that many EBT don't want to have a woombelhit in their hitlist. Would you?

So my suggestion still remains:

Too many moderations for the same EBT-ers -> Delete useraccounts AND notes. (An email warning them first is acceptable)

[emmem]

Re: Emmem
It's great to see that some fellow EBT-ers are also thinking about the Woombelism, but the idea of a disclaimer and a parallel database I'm strongly against.

The disclaimer may indeed be not such a good idea. But deleting an account without something where we can point to is IMHO a bad idea. OK maybe the way I proposed of introducing a disclaimer is bit of a problem but I think there should be one. That’s just my opinion.

A parallel database can be a good idea, because if woombel is a kid, he can be easily mislead and think he is entering his fake data into the database everyone accesses. Hopefully it will prevent him from creating another user and start all over again.
Well such a parallel database has another problem : the effort to create something like that. Maybe that makes it a bad idea.

And why should the other 5465 users be punished for it. That wouldn't be fun, would it? We should go out from the fact that the users of the system are good users. Have a little faith in humanity!!!

A disclaimer is not a punishment. Put you got kind of a point there. I guess if the disclaimer isn’t brought diplomatically it could be perceived as a punishment.

I do consider the majority of the users on EBT as good users. But there will always be some bad elements I’m afraid.

I do believe the moderating thingy is really good, but when some users must be moderated almost daily (cfr Woombel & Co) they should get a mail warning they would be deleted if they continue. If they don't respond or if they keep making fake hits. Just plain delete them all. Nobody is happy with fake hits and I do believe that many EBT don't want to have a woombelhit in their hitlist. Would you?

I don't think they read their mails comming from EBT (since they have to get plenty of them for every hit they generate).

A warning when they log in (with a possibility to respond) will be more effective I think.

[bhoeyb]

Too many moderations for the same EBT-ers -> Delete useraccounts AND notes. (An email warning them first is acceptable)

I agree with that! It will be the most easy way. Creating 2 databases is WAY TO MUCH work. And yes, EBT has to be (and stay) fun, not a pain in the a.. because all the problems with some fakers

[EuroBillTracker]

Information Just started deleting bills entered more than twice by Rolf'1969 and there's a shitload !
I'll be writing a little script tonight to make it faster. What I4m doing is just keeping the original entry

[Mr Euro]

Great! But why do you keep the first entry??? I bet Woombel&Co will start over. They only need one time to enter the serial to get a hit again. If you delete all, they must at least enter twice the same serial....

[EuroBillTracker]

Great! But why do you keep the first entry??? I bet Woombel&Co will start over. They only need one time to enter the serial to get a hit again. If you delete all, they must at least enter twice the same serial....

I keep one because I believe they are real bills.
I am not yet punishing them for doing it...

[EuroBillTracker]

I have started removing all but one entry for bills with huge numbers of entries. Of course all data is backed up in case something new comes up (but I doubt it...)

I've also runa little script to make sure the count number for each bill in the database is coherent so if you try the moderate=false trick you should see some improvement for now...

[Flip the Coin]

I think they like to have lots of bills in their list and exchange them for that reason only. What if a bill only counts for the last user who registered this bill? This way it would do nothing for their own stats. For 'normal' people it wont hurt if a hit means that this bill doesn't count for their number of bills stat..

Nico

[EuroBillTracker]

I think they like to have lots of bills in their list and exchange them for that reason only. What if a bill only counts for the last user who registered this bill? This way it would do nothing for their own stats. For 'normal' people it wont hurt if a hit means that this bill doesn't count for their number of bills stat..

Nico

This was discussed at lenght in another thread... can't remember which !

[emmem]

I think they like to have lots of bills in their list and exchange them for that reason only. What if a bill only counts for the last user who registered this bill? This way it would do nothing for their own stats. For 'normal' people it wont hurt if a hit means that this bill doesn't count for their number of bills stat..

Nico

This was discussed at lenght in another thread... can't remember which !

This is the idea Olivier has already proposed some time ago.

Have to admit I came up with an idea which was more fair in theory, but that wasn’t, considering it now, worth the effort of implementing I’m afraid.

But now maybe the proposal of only counting the last entry for the number of bills can be reconsidered. At least if those heat of europe entries in those exotic countries disappear as a result of this.