I thought you need a forum moderator to accept your registration before you can start posting.
These spams make it very hard to find active threads. I wonder if some kind of automated block could be implemented to stop the creation of so many threads in such a short period of time.

Maitsukas wrote: »

This is getting out of hand. The same spam threads are also popping up in the PTS section.

@ZOS_Icy @ZOS_Hadeostry

It's spread to the PTS tab as well... Half a page there already.

I have DM'd @ZOS_CouchTato and @ZOS_Icy about it, so hopefully it gets resolved soon

Firstmep wrote: »

I thought you need a forum moderator to accept your registration before you can start posting.
These spams make it very hard to find active threads. I wonder if some kind of automated block could be implemented to stop the creation of so many threads in such a short period of time.

The accounts that have been posting these spam threads were hijacked, if those accounts are public, look at their post/comment history and you can see when they really were here.

@ZOS_Kevin, @ZOS_Icy, @ZOS_Hadeostry SPAM me harder UwU

I honestly came here to check some threads I was in previously only to see the massive WALL of forum spam. Needless to say, I'm not concerned at ALL. /s

Valkanos wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Thanks for flagging all. Just took care of the spam posts. That's one way to wake up on a Saturday!

Hey Kevin, let me ask you this directly.

Why is it that you so often interact with players, have a good sense of humor, and actually try to bring a more human side to moderation on the forums? Your interactions make it feel like there’s an actual person behind the moderator role.
Why don’t we see more of that from the other moderators?
A lot of the time, when they interact with players, their replies feel unnecessarily hostile, dismissive, or even provocative. Sometimes it seems like their responses create more tension instead of helping to calm things down.
Why this happens? Is there a reason moderators are encouraged to interact with players in such a different way?
And more importantly, why isn’t there more effort to keep moderator-player interactions more human, respectful, and approachable, even when the discussion is heated or the player is being difficult?

I’m genuinely curious about this.

I personally agree. I was personally wronged by a moderator in the past. I am still on this forum thanks to the intervention of someone who recognized that the accusations against me were completely groundless. Things like this should not happen; we players are not the enemy, and no one should treat us with hatred or animosity. Everyone should act like @ZOS_Kevin

Valkanos wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Thanks for flagging all. Just took care of the spam posts. That's one way to wake up on a Saturday!

Hey Kevin, let me ask you this directly.

Why is it that you so often interact with players, have a good sense of humor, and actually try to bring a more human side to moderation on the forums? Your interactions make it feel like there’s an actual person behind the moderator role.
Why don’t we see more of that from the other moderators?
A lot of the time, when they interact with players, their replies feel unnecessarily hostile, dismissive, or even provocative. Sometimes it seems like their responses create more tension instead of helping to calm things down.
Why this happens? Is there a reason moderators are encouraged to interact with players in such a different way?
And more importantly, why isn’t there more effort to keep moderator-player interactions more human, respectful, and approachable, even when the discussion is heated or the player is being difficult?

I’m genuinely curious about this.

There is a lot more to this that I hope ZOS will consider, especially as there are many questions here, but to your first paragraph:

One major distinction is that Kevin is not a moderator. He used to have the title of Forum Manager and was promoted some time ago to Community Manager. They do communicate with each other and there is some overlap in what they do, but moderator and forum/community manager are fundamentally very different roles. Moderators focus mainly on moderating the forum, i.e. enforcing forum rules. I can count on one finger the number of times I’ve seen a moderator directly convey a message from the devs regarding something in game. I can also count on one finger the number of times a moderator has responded to a question I’ve DMed them. (And I’ve DMed them quite a few, all in good faith.) Those things don’t seem to be a regular responsibility of theirs, at least here. CMs do that regularly as part of their focus on facilitating the relationship between devs and players. CMs’ jobs clearly extend beyond the forum, but here they regularly pass along things like patch notes and dev comments to the players, and they take back player sentiment/feedback/suggestions about the game experience back to the devs. In some cases they have also helped managed points of inquiry, conflict, or misunderstanding with other ZOS/ZeniMax Media employees, not just moderators but also Support. They can also check into ESO-related questions from the community, like whether Ja’kh was based on a real-life cat (he was, thanks Kevin!).

There should be an X minute cool down between starting threads. It would at least slow down the spam.

I second the thread creation cooldown idea. This is getting out of hand.

I've never used a forum on cruddy Vanilla aside from this one, so...is there really not a way to lock accounts that have been inactive for a certain period of time until the owner proves their (ESO/RL) identity, or to moderate posts from long-inactive accounts so they don't show up without moderator approval? Thus giving the mods time to recognize what's happening and take action against the hijacked account before it can hit the forum at large? I'm constantly surprised and dismayed by what a "professional" paid forum provider like Vanilla doesn't offer. Some of this is very basic ish we've had on other forum providers for decades at this point.

EDIT: Looks like @ZOS_Kevin has already come to the forum's rescue! Great job!

Either limit the number of threads that can be posted in one hour, or just block access to all accounts that have not logged into the forum for three years or more. If the genuine account holder wants to post after a five-year break, they would need to send an email first, just like we have to request to be added to the forum in the first place.

Looks like we have another round starting but at least it's only 2 posts currently. I'm sure it will get more before they can stop it again.