Quote from: tmfp on November 04, 2018, 11:29:43 AM

I have half an hour before the pub opens, so having a little fun there.
I don't like criticizing mods, they have a shit job and generally do it very well but I can't help thinking that, unless they take firmer action, this could be the thin end of the wedge and this type of Pong spam will become the New Normal.

The italicized is precisely why I started this thread: this new scheme of simulating a conversation could be an insidious way of spamming the forum with little recourse available in the current set of rules. Right now we are able to take them out - albeit highly inefficiently - because they are committing plagiarism by recycling entire conversations over and over again, but if the bots get just a little bit more clever and start spouting random gibberish instead of copying and pasting we'll just be left with reporting them for "low value posts," and mods are far more reluctant to nuke/ban for that offense compared to plagiarism.

Really, the OP for each of these threads needs to be banned for "incentivized posting" and the threads locked or nuked since both threads are self-moderated and the vast majority of the posts therein are plagiarized. However, the mods are not only leaving the reports in which I have requested such unhandled, they are requiring 3 or more examples of plagiarism for each user before banning them. I hear you on not coming down too hard on the mods because they have a shitty job, but in some respects they are the ones to blame for making the job shittier than it need be. Mind you, I understand why they might be reluctant to nuke a thread just on the report of a full member like me, but when you or xtraelv or others that have been here for years join the fray they really ought to take more notice.