Why did my last post disappear ?

[#1]

@SpendLessTime No no no, not a "toaster" pop-up, one that's more like the Authentication or Error messages, or the warning about leaving a post when replying/editing. (Damn that's reminds me).

[#2]

Sorry don't agree with the PM. In the time it takes to arrive you'll have created a thread wondering where your post went!

[#3]

Let's not argue, as the solution to this is likely to be irrelevant, because on Monday we will be told that it is part of the Lithium functionality, which can't be changed, and Plusnet are powerless to make any alterations beyond what shade of pink/magenta is displayed.

[#4]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 we will be told that it is part of the Lithium functionality, which can't be changed, and Plusnet are powerless to make any alterations beyond what shade of pink/magenta is displayed.

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Yes that's top of the cop outs. Often used like "we will be told that it is part of the EU functionality, which can't be changed, and the government are powerless to make any alterations beyond what shade of pink/magenta is displayed"

The business/government version of the dog ate my homework.

[#5]

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@Mav wrote:

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@HarryB wrote:

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@Oldjim wrote:

I wonder if the text you were trying to post hit the spam filter

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Looks like this is spot on.

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There were three posts marked as spam. I have released these back to their original threads.

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As soon as I read the OP I suspected that the spam filter had caught this post. I just checked the spam folder before reading the replies and it looks like it has been taken care of. Thanks @Mav for sorting.

[#6]

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@SpendLessTime wrote:

So just so I understand this correctly, when the Spam filter mechanism decides a post is Spam, it just hides the post from normal users but does not inform the author that it has done so? And hides it from the author too?

If that is correct, I think that an enhancement is needed to the Spam mechanism to send a PM to the author saying it has been marked as spam and include the message text.

Otherwise things like this thread happen.

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@jaread83,  so what are you going to do about notifying the user about their post being quarantined, as discussed in the second half of this topic ?

[#7]

There is nothing we can do and if we did provide some kind of warning then it will give the spammers a method of prodding the system to get around the filters.

If you beleive your post has been quarantined, please message a mod or admin and they will fish it out of the quarantine for you. The system will learn over time and if you have a post taken out of quarantine then the spam filter should remember that you are a legitimate user and not a spammer.

[#8]

Why would I believe my post had been put into quarantine ?, I had done nothing wrong. my post had disappeared three times and I didn't know why.

I already lose maybe 10% to 20% of posts due to editor crashes, jumping off to random pages, preview hangs, and other ongoing issues which you and Lithium should have resolved by now,  so how am I and other forum users supposed to know the difference ?

[#9]

I don't know why your post was flagged as spam. We certainly don't want to show a notification to indicate that a post has been flagged either as then spammers will find ways to get around it. The ratio of spam vs actual posts being filtered is a large difference. If you think that your message has been filtered please let mods or admins know and they will have a look.

[#10]

So what if spammers find ways around it !,  this forum is VERY GOOD at reporting 'questionable' replies to the moderators, and presumably the moderators have the power to ban users if they persist.

It is therefore not necessary to provide anything more than an initial deterrent for the very few people who join this forum to cause problems, as the community is already proficient in protecting itself.

The interests of the vast majority of well behaved members should be a higher priority than flawed logic to deal with extremely few disruptive posters, and I can't see how receiving a SPAM notification would cause a problem.

Following your argument about spammers presumably repeatedly posting variations of SPAM posts until one got past the notification,  then you could write a bit of code to spot repeated SPAM flagging, then automate a report of unusual activity to moderator (and/or impose a one day ban).

To leave genuine forum users with no clue that their post has been quarantined is unacceptable.

[#11]

Is this an issue provoked by the Forum being 'Open'? 

If a message was validated as being from within a subset consisting of known Plusnet account holders then the likelihood of it being SPAM is very low plus there is additional User detail available - so little spam checking needed.  Unfortunately this forum is hosted by a third party and not linked back to Plusnet systems.  (And I wouldn't want it to be!)

So we're stuck between the proverbial Rocks. .   

[#12]

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Nibiru wrote:.........  then you could write a bit of code to spot repeated SPAM flagging, then automate a report of unusual activity to moderator (and/or impose a one day ban).

That's precisely what I'd expect the filter to be doing, except the automatic ban which I'm not keen on as all filters will have some flaw that will eventually incorrectly flag or ban incorrectly.

@Anonymous wrote:
To leave genuine forum users with no clue that their post has been quarantined is unacceptable.

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I had raised this on Staging prior to this incident, and this is tricky, and Jack has already responded here as he did to me on staging, but I am pursuing other ideas there.

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@MauriceC wrote:

Is this an issue provoked by the Forum being 'Open'? 

If a message was validated as being from within a subset consisting of known Plusnet account holders then the likelihood of it being SPAM is very low ...............

In answer to the first point, I don't think it is really, but as far as the next point is concerned, we have had genuine customers "spamming" - repeating the same "grievance" post in multiple threads and those are the sort of things I expect the filter to be catching.

Nibiru's case was bad luck, I had exactly the same happen to me with no obvious reason at all. Anyway, as mentioned pursuing other ideas and will update on any developments.

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[#13]

I've just replied to a thread (the packet loss one) and my post seems to have disappeared?

[#14]

@Landlord

Your post had been caught by the spam filter. I have released it now.