I have found several comments on the reviews section that are just chock full of links to (presumably) porn sites. Also, some of the reviews are illegible now (perhaps tampered with or hacked). The whole review section should be cleaned out of any crud and swept for any other nasty surprises (or else this evil may engulf us all!)
... several comments on the reviews section that are just chock full of links to (presumably) porn sites. Also, some of the reviews are illegible now (perhaps tampered with or hacked). The whole review section should be cleaned out of any crud and swept for any other nasty surprises ...
Thanks, OD. I went through the reviews and did a quick scan to clean up what I could find. But I did not pore through them the way they deserve. I think I deleted most of the egregious spam. There were a lot of spoof links for drugs and porn.
I certainly encourage other Canonfire! staff memebers to browse the reviews and clean up any corruption and spam. And, to our vigilant members at-large, let us know if you see anything else inapropriate on the Web site.
Thanks again, Osmund-Davizid. _________________ Don (Greyson)
Sorry to be always pointing out bad news, but it seems that mostly the older reviews are chock full of spam porn and drugs.
Check out the reviews of the Bastion of Faith, Ivid the Undying, Greyhawk Adventures, Player's Handbook 3rd edition, Arms and Equipment Guide, Tome and Blood, Slayer's Guide to Dragons, Oriental Adventures. These are just the ones I found by randomly reading the reviews, so there are bound to be more.
I point these out mostly so that 1) the reviews can be better enjoyed and 2) with all the hacking that has occured in the past, we need to keep on our toes to watch out for junk like this to protect the site.
While I am writing this and am on a review kick, I want to hype the review section a bit more.
With the open sourcing of D&D, there is just so much stuff out there I don't know where to start when it comes to buying. Some of the threads in the forum discusses one new product or another, so there is interest in it, but no new reviews have been added for a long time.
So let's have some more reviews on recent products (and old classics), all you high speed gamers! This is an area we need to keep working on
The reviews are one of the most underused and neglected aspects of the site that could get alot better.
Right now, I'm working on code to restrict posters and commenters to members only just like the topical articles (I have no idea why it didn't already come this way, but its a must.)
If you guys have any ideas on how else to improve the reviews, I'd love to hear them.
In going through the reviews one by one, I am in the process of removing all of this spam crap. Just in A, B and C alphabetical categories, I've removed 128 offending comment posts already. It's going to be a long night...
Hopefully, this cleansing and Gary's adjustment of the settings will prevent further abuses. _________________ What would Raxivort do?<br />
Ok, after deleting almost 500 spam posts and wasting 4 1/2 hours of my weekend, the reviews are completely clean.
Please report any further misuse you find so we can deal with it. Now that log-in is required to post reviews, we can trace who is responsible, and given the nature of the messages i was deleting, I will heartily encourage Gary to ban the IP of anyone doing it in the future. _________________ What would Raxivort do?<br />
Hopefully, this cleansing and Gary's adjustment of the settings will prevent further abuses.
Wow, nice job, Rich. I tried to delete a few at a time when I had a chance. Gary did indicate on Thursday that he beleives he has implemented the "fix" that will require users to login (or register and then login if new members) to post comments. So, if a Canonfire! member finds he or she cannot post a review comment, make sure to login to the site.
As far as promoting use of the Reviews and encouraging legitimate comments, perhaps we can rotate products in and out of the Crier a week at a time or so. And invite members to comment on the given product that is up. Kind of like Abysslin's old Archive feature. Maybe even a "preview" of which product is up next week, so users can find their product (or buy/download it), look through and make informed comments and reviews. Just a lame idea I thought I'd throw out there. _________________ Don (Greyson)
I, for one, like the reviews section and the clean up is most appreciated.
Rotating products sounds like a good idea. But we really need more reviews as a whole.
Because I am of the old school, I am sticking to reviewing old 2nd edition minus products. I do this to 1) encourage discussion about the few actual canonical sources we have for Greyhawk information 2) to shed some light for the people new to Greyhawk about some of the older products we sometimes take for granted and 3) because the old stuff is all I own.
I just got done with a review I was working on for some time now - Fate of Istus. It should be posted in the near future. That is a classic example of a module that is always discussed but has not yet been reviewed. Hope it will generate some interest.
First, the review submission form need to automatically paragraph break text, just like the Topical Submission webform does (without the need to code your text w/ [br] etc.). In fact, submitting a review should use the same interface as the Topical Submissions. This will make it easier for more people to submit reviews.
Second, the profile of the reviews needs to be raised to get more readership. Writing a really cracking review can take something approaching the effort to do a Topical submission. However, unless one goes looking for "latest review," you will not know one is there. The "latest review" field on the home page is down on the right. I'm not sure how best to raise the profile but if the status quo is maintained, the only people who will find a review are those who are specifically looking for a review - but not the perhaps casual, but potentially interested, reader.
I agree with O-D that more reviews would be great, particularly of 3E "default GH" and "d20" products. I think the above two steps would point in the right direction. _________________ GVD
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