Spam, the Final Solution

I know there's been some strife in the C9 coffeehouse recently because of the new "report spam" functionality. I'm here to thank you all for your feedback, and to let you know that we are listening. Because the Coffeehouse is Channel 9.

And listening is only half of the conversation; the other half is action. So, I am glad to be reporting that we have a solution to the spam question.

Ultimately, my goal is to eliminate the scourge that is spam from then entirity of Channel 9. Following are the steps that we have implemented, and will be deploying within the days:

• To eliminate automated postings, we will introduce a CAPTCHA system to ensure that unwanted automated posts don't make it onto C9. Our CAPTCHA images come from decades of MS Research work, and have been used on a wide-ranging list of properties such as Hotmail and MSN Mail.
  
  For those who aren't familiar with CAPTCHA, it is usually an image that's very easy for people to break, yet impossible for programs to recognize. For example, in the following CAPTCHA, everyone will see the words "Channel 9", and they simply type that into a validation box when posting.
  
  Note: Our CAPTCHA's are case-sensitive.
  
  
  
  In fact, HumanCompiler has just finished with the new posting module, and I must say, it looks great!
  
  
  
• But automated spam is only a third of all our spam, we've found out. One third is human-generated spam, and we need your participation for those.
  
  In retrospect, we can see that our current "weighted" system of spam reporting is flawed. It isn't fast acting enough. Depending on the posters, it could take from 3 to 7 reports for the system to mark a post as spam. I'm going to fix that.
  
  We will recruit amongst our members for moderator, by asking you to take a test. It will comprise of 25 multiple-choice questions, and we will be very stringent as to who will make the cut. Please stay tune for this moderator examination.
  
  
• And finally, we will announce a new banning system. It's just common sense that we should ban those accounts that create spam in the first place.
  
  From our database, we can see that about 100 new users sign up to Channel 9 every week. About 50% of these accounts are used to create spam posts.
  
  We will start a very agressive banning policy of madatory deletion of 20 accounts per day to remove those spam generating, or inactive, accounts.
  

I believe that with the implementation of these steps, and your help, Channel 9 will return to its old self where members gets along, and the community became vibrant again.

Thank you.

Jeff Sanquist.