It would be nice to remove the spam replies from the new replies counter in the forum index. This way we won't end up opening old threads just to find a "2 posts not shown on this page because they were spam" message.

A way to implement it would be to check the new replies from newest to oldest, and eliminate the "new replies" indicator if all of them are spam. 

mankrip, I agree. Right now the way it works is, each user x thread has a "last seen postnum", and then that gets compared to the "last postnum" for that thread, and the difference is the number of new posts. It's efficient but relies on cached data. To extend this system I could update last post num every time spam is flagged, which would at least eliminate the case you describe (all new posts are spam.) But the count could be wrong.

Last fall i spent some time writing new SQL queries that dynamically counted new posts excluding spam. It has some other nice features like ignoring posts from before you registered your account. The only issue with it is the performance -- 200ms vs. 0.7ms for the old query. Which is why they haven't gone live yet. 

And stop anon posting outside GA. 

"Site Help" should also have anon posting enabled. 

99% To stir up shit and abuse people.
1% To say something worthwhile.

Yeah let's all pander to the 1%.

Glad you chaps aren't politicians! 

When func was literally the only place to have quality interaction with quality quake people, the rules could be a bit more slack, because really, where else could you go?

Now, func has been squeezed to near irrelevance by two discord channels - #TF for the anything-goes matey banter and jovial pisstaking, and #QM for serious mapping chat.

Previously, func fulfilled both these roles, but now it really has no use beyond giving a voice to the very small number of people who for whatever reason aren't on discord, and also for the occasional map release post or event announcement (both of which are usually just cross-posted from discord anyway).

So, the spam and shitposting is starting to dominate here, in the absence of quality posting, and therefore I think we probably need to be a little more moderated. 

#TF is also for serious mapping chat with some great discussions about the subject and various mapping help / promotion sub-forums.

Other than that, yes cleaning up anon stuff here would help. 

So, the spam and shitposting is starting to dominate here, in the absence of quality posting

Is not the issue this, the lack of normal posting, more than the spam from anons? Right now, outside of releases most posting is about people falling for trolls (both anons and users) or advertising them about what they do on Discord than on actual spam or much less anon or worthwhile posting.
Apart that there has been more trolling from users than from anons, both before and after non-IP posting was allowed.

Due to Discord and its popularity in general i doubt we will regain back posting to levels of years ago same as how Discord and Facebook has taken users from many websites and forums, but we could recover a good chunk of users if we discuss the actual issue instead of blaming anons. How many discussions do we need about this? We had some already in this year for nothing. 

Anon shitposting is used to fan the flames of arguments between normal posters, prolonging nasty arguments between normal posters (e.g. you can see that the latest mfx/otp beef has been embellished and enhanced with some strategically applied anonery, giving the whole thing more oxygen.)

The other use for anon posting is spam.

The actual, valid anon posts that are not shitposts or spam are so rare that I don't think there can be any defence of the anon posting feature. It has been suggested by myself and others that perhaps allowing anon posting only in GA would quarantine the problem to that one thread, whilst also preserving an outlet for the 0.000001% of anon posting cases where an anon who is not a spammer or a shitposter has to post something really important otherwise the world will literally explode or whatever.

I'm not trying to make func suddenly incredibly active again, that's for a totally different discussion and it's not the purpose of this idea -I'm just saying here's a really simple way to improve the signal-to-noise ratio.

#TF is also for serious mapping chat with some great discussions about the subject and various mapping help / promotion sub-forums.

Yes I agree shums, sorry if it looked like I was saying otherwise. 

I am saying that the problem is on the signal, there is not enough, and the discussion about improving the place is getting distracted with a part of the noise.

On the noise, while i think the otp/mfx thing was done mainly between them, there was more than enough support to it through members to not blame its continuity on anons, even less counting that there was at least two decent anons, from memory, on that part. More importantly, the ball is always on our side for falling to not follow the basic Internet rule of not feed the troll, be it anon or not. 

Cocerello, is there a significant benefit of anon posting that needs to be protected?

It's true that we _could_ worry about human nature and training everyone around here to be better internet citizens. While that's going on, can we also just disable anon posting? 

Exactly.

I try not to spend too much time thinking about grand long-term projects to evolve func into a popular, vibrant forum where everyone is nice to each other, living in harmony with the anon spammers and shitposters who for some reason are still allowed to post.

I prefer just to point out what I call "simple no-brainers" that would probably take a very small amount of time/work to fix and would have an obvious positive effect. 

Fuck that noise. Anon posting needs to go. 

It is about putting the food where the mouth is, while what i said could sound like what you both say, it is not going in that direction. Not openly supporting ourselves member flaming and trolling would do wonders, no need to educate people or even be nice.

@Johnny Law, i could return it to you in the same way. Is anon posting so bad that it needs to be the first priority for making the site better? Focusing on anon is wasting the time.

Using Kinn's example on otp/mfx: that was around 60 posts, and even if i count the deleted posts, it is less than 10 anon posts, and we need to count there was a few posts by good anons. So, where was the reason that it lasted so long? On a few anon posts or on the other few dozens of posts supporting/trolling/flaming on it? And most cases here are the same. Anon posting is a very small part of the site

There was people with more good reasons for leaving anon posting like it is on previous discussions, so i will not copy them. 

I'd like to debunk all of them again. 

There is one and only one valid reason for anonery. You're posting from a different PC or device and you don't have your login details.

But in reality this accounts for such a miniscule % of anon posts, that it's ludicrous to let in all the spam and shitposting just to pander to this one case. Besides, allowing anons in GA only would solve the problem where you don't have your login but have to say something REALLY IMPORTANT LIVES ARE AT STAKE OH MY GOD. 

Or perhaps the one thread where we allow anons should be the beef thread. That would stop GA from just becoming the focal point of all the drivel, whilst having no real impact on the beef thread - it's already a pretty spicy thread. 

Rename the beef thread "Beef / Drunk / Anonymous". Stop anon posting in all but this one. Sticky it, move on, and everyone can ignore it at their leisure.

...

and make it so spy can only post in that one.