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A change in VS Battles editing requirements

Antvasima

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Hello.

Given the massive problems that we have had with sockpuppet accounts, I sent the following message to the Fandom staff two days ago:


"Hello.

Yesterday, the VS Battles wiki staff was systematically harrassed by a member who had been banned for trolling.

He created around 66 different sockpuppet accounts to harrass our staff, and does not show any signs of letting up. It is extremely tiresome for the staff to deal with and wears us down when we are already overworked enough as it is. "Block, ignore, continue" is unlikely to work in this case, as we are dealing with an absolute fanatic.

As such, I request a range IP block for the VPNs that he uses, and would also greatly appreciate if Fandom as a whole stops allowing junk email address providers for signing up new accounts, as it has likely turned plenty of wikis into troll sockpuppet havens, which risks to burn out a lot of your free staff hobbyists in the long run.

All of the accounts in the following page between "23:40, May 15, 2018 Engirshwriter" and "18:07, May 15, 2018 Mckmal53392" seem to be him.

https://vsbattles.fandom.com/index....&user=&page=&year=&month=-1&hide_patrol_log=1 "


I received the following reply:


"Hi Antvasima,

Effective immediately, users now must have a confirmed email address to edit at https://vsbattles.fandom.com

This is an unusual measure for us to take, it's not something we would do for most communties but we are comfortable making an exception. Ideally we would like to change this back at some point, but in light of our other conversations, let's see what effects this as over the next weeks/months. It should cut down on the troll/junk account issue, of course. But it will be interesting to see if anything else changes.

Also -- since we hardly ever do this, it's possible that this won't work as expected or it may have other side effects. For example, it's quite possible that this limit will not apply to Discussions.

So let me know if anything seems odd or if other problems come up. And certainly let me know if it seems like nothing has changed at all.

Best regards,

Bert Hall Director, Support & Engagement"


As such, it is important that all of our staff and other regular members get a confirmed email address account, if they do not have one already.

Also, after you have done so, immediate unsubscribe from email notifications due to new edits or thread replies, as your inbox might quickly amass hundreds of new messages otherwise.

Instructions how to do this:

1) Click your selected user image found in a circle near the upper right corner of your screen.

2) Go to "my preferences".

3) Click on the Email tab.

4) Under the "address" subsection at the very top, you will see "my email address" and a blank white line. Enter your e-mail on said line.

ScreenShot 20180519100425
5) Click "Save" at the very bottom of the page.

6) To unsubscribe from constant e-mail notifications, scroll further down in the Email tab, and uncheck all of the "Email me when..." boxes.

7) Under "Message Wall and Forum", select "Never. Do not send me any Message Wall or Forum emails".

8) Click "Save" again.
 
I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by confirmed email address account. If one of the effects is that my email gets vsbw messages, then no worries for me. If not, then I'm lost.
 
I think that a confirmed email simply means signing up a regular email account and clicking a confirmation link.
 
I figured it out and I'm confirmed. The rest of this post is for those who are lost.

Click your avi that's in a circle in the right corner of your screen. Go to "my preferences". Click on the e-mail tab. Under the "address" subsection at the very top, you'll see "my e-mail address" and a blank white line. Enter your e-mail on said line and hit "save" at the very bottom of the page. And voila.
 
Everybody who are able to reply here already have a confirmed email, as Fandom has made the other ones unable to edit. This message is for the benefit of regular members who have trouble posting or editing.
 
I used to recieve emails from here but for some reason they stopped, I checked and it still says I'm confirmed.
 
@Matthew

Me and Soldier Blue handled an absolutely obsessive sockpuppet user who was angry about being banned for trolling.
 
Phoenix821 said:
I used to recieve emails from here but for some reason they stopped, I checked and it still says I'm confirmed.
You can turn off receiving e-mails. That's what I did. Maybe you did so too and forgot.
 
ahhh i got it was confused till cal said it and turns out i did lel. Anyway this makes sense
 
I hope that this will significantly reduce our problem with troll sockpuppet accounts.
 
Torlikoff said:
Minor detail, but I counted 73 accounts made by mckmal. Did you track the specific IP?
I counted 66 new sockpuppets, but one of the accounts later contacted me and turned out to be an innocent who happened to sign up at the same time, so I unbanned him.

We cannot see the IP address. The Fandom staff can though.
 
Matthew Schroeder said:
The hell even happened and how did I miss this.
Some guy was banned for making a bunch of troll threads. He made around 70 socks in two days. Just Some Weirdo, Antvasima, and myself went around handling them all. It was a pain in the ass.
 
I have made the following addition to the first post:

Also, after you have done so, immediate unsubscribe from email notifications due to new edits or thread replies, as your inbox might quickly amass hundreds of new messages otherwise.
 
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