Shinako
1
Over the time, we have been facing a lot of advertisements in the forums. Many users have been guiding them(which is nice!) and make them familiar with the do’s and don’ts of the forums and admins delete them at the right times too, but repeating the same thing could be a bit tiring. That is why I suggest we have a coaching template regarding forum spam. I agree that most of them are just one-timers or pure spammers, but I believe in assuming good faith
and wish to take an initiative about this. If a template already exists, please let me know of it. If not, I have made a template under my namespace for now. Follow the link here
. I’m pasting the content here: “Hi, Thank you for participating in the forums! We’re glad to have you voice out your opinion. Unfortunately, I noticed that you advertised about certain products in the forums. (Also made multiple threads about it). Just wanted you to know that we usually avoid advertising in the forums since it is a place to discuss about developments related to wikiHow, so advertising diverts us from our mission and it is usually frowned upon. But, you might have done it by mistake! If so, don’t worry - we all err and we all learn as we go! I’d suggest you take a look at How to Behave On an Internet Forum and wikiHow’s forum dialogue expectations for a clearer idea
Feel free to ask me if you have questions regarding the usage of the forums!” But, I know that it might be lacking something or the other and that is why, I would appreciate the input from the community. If the community approves of this template, then surely it could be created under Template namespace. Thanks in advance.
Whenever a forum spammer comes to the forums and starts spamming, I would usually refrain from leaving a message; doing so could encourage the spammer to persist. If we stay out of their way, however, they will go away. Just my thoughts.
Shinako
3
For _we usually refrain from leaving a message_Quoting some lines from David (Clarinetdude):_1. Don’t feed that advertising troll. Leave a SINGLE message on the first spammy thread created and/or “the user’s talkpage asking the perpetuator” to stop posting such advertisements such as this one:_I personally agree with it and believe that a single message won’t hurt and that is what this whole thread is pointed towards. So, basically, “leaving a message” is kinda suggested… (yep, only one though) For _doing so could encourage the spammer to persist_Indeed, and again, that is why, a single message, that could possibly be a hand-written note or this particular template…? Waiting to hear some more users’ opinions
I see no harm in creating templates and using them at the appropriate times and under the right circumstances. The problem that might arise is that templates are not well-organized and easily accessible. There might be so many templates that the most helpful and most used ones are obscured by a multitude of seldom-used templates. I am thinking that a useful organization for templates might be: section 1) most used section 2) top 80%-- those that are not
seldom used section 3) all where the sections can be “quick-accessed” through a TOC (Table of Contents) and the most used templates would appear in each section.
I apologize, but I did not know that before. Thank you for pointing that out.
That is a great idea! Thank you for sharing it
