Possible Rules Change for New Members?

[megabyteme]

From time to time we see "new members" (usually dupe accounts) who come here for the sole purpose of making a single post slandering site owners, posting confidential personal info, or posting reviews of sites that work very hard to keep their site and its members out of the eye of the public.

We already have a policy (and a good one) that keeps new members out of the Invite section for 15 days. Wouldn't it also make sense to keep these types of posts out of the trade (including reviews) section?

I still believe there is no place for the slanderous, revenge posts we see from time to time. Is there some way to take a thread out of public viewing once it has been reported? If the thread is indeed within the rules, maybe the moderator could turn the feature off if it is being reported repeatedly. Why allow slanderous/personal info to remain visible until a mod has a chance to review it. Sometimes this can take over an hour. That is a lot of potential publicity for something that should have never been posted. The people who post threads like this also do so when the mods are usually away.

This site gets discussed negatively because of these reoccurring problems. Isn't it time to make some small steps to reduce this image and the tension they cause with the BT community?

[Cabalo]

AFAIK the new members can't post in the invite and trade sections for 15 days, though they can post in the general bittorrent category. If you're referring to the last CN review, it was posted in the general BT, where there isn't such a rule enforced.
And it can't be enforced there, as many users register for this site to get some kind of help, bt related.

The automated report = post status changed to approval mode, I find it hard to work that way. It would certainly lead to a lot of abuse and incoherent threads and discussions. You report me, then I report you out of vengeance, then comes John who missed the last 2 posts and says sth else, then both reports are ignored and reapproved, and there you have it, a senseless thread.

There are certain filters working that automatically put a post on moderation status if certain keywords and objects are detected. It has been working quite well indeed, but it's not a solution for all that you're talking about.

This unwanted attention has only one solution: summary disabling accounts that access this site via a proxy. Or at least who are accessing the BT section. Nothing else is needed.
If that ever happens, the scams would be greatly reduced, no more hit n' run posts with insults/reviews/spam ads , much harder for traders to make dupe accounts, people not as much worried about giving away the invites, as the chances they're inviting a bad apple have been greatly reduced, and so on.

It's a whole bunch of benefits for the board itself, and I'm speaking as someone who, just like you, is bothered with this recurring problem.

[megabyteme]

Thanks for such a thorough response, Cabalo! Obviously you have put a lot of thought into this already. Maybe we can make some ground on it. As you said, we would ALL be better for it.