Comment on Update: Invitation requests remain disabled for the time being

  1. Delta140 Tue 31 Oct 2017 12:46AM UTC

    Ok, thanks for clearing that up for me AnonEhouse, it was much appreciated

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    1. AnonEhouse Tue 31 Oct 2017 12:50AM UTC

      Stark Evolution in action

      Glad to help.

      It took me a long time to find out what purpose the spam served- they used to Spam my LiveJournal blog in comments, and I was always wondering why they bothered to post these random seeming lists of products / services/ websites until I got curious enough to track down the explanation.

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      1. Delta140 Tue 31 Oct 2017 12:56AM UTC

        I'm pretty sure it serves no other purpose than to be annoying but I don't get why people would just make a massive list, because that immediately makes them look like a spammer

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        1. AnonEhouse Tue 31 Oct 2017 01:16AM UTC

          Stark Evolution in action

          The massive lists add to their score by search engines so their products or services appear much sooner in the search than it honestly belongs.

          They tend to operate on the principle that it's a lot of work to track down and remove them and they can post faster than they can be found, so a lot of sites stop fighting them after a while. If I go looking for old crafting blogs, quite often there are a few real comments, followed by a line of spam comments.

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          1. Delta140 Tue 31 Oct 2017 01:41AM UTC

            Thanks for clear this up for me

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          2. ScarletMelodies92 Sat 04 Nov 2017 10:22AM UTC

            Oh, so that's the whole point of them? I saw a bunch 'bout two weeks ago, and I was absently wondering, why are people posting this? It seems pointless! And then the invitation queue was shut down....

             

            And, looking through the comments, there's a lot of stuff about inviting someone if you were already a member of AO3. This may be completely wrong, but was this originally the way to become a member or something?

            Sorry, I'm pretty new here, but I already love it, and it makes me disappointed to think that the staff have to work because people don't want to pay for ad space.

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            1. AnonEhouse Sun 05 Nov 2017 02:14PM UTC

              Stark Evolution in action

              I wasn't on AO3 from the very beginning, so I don't know if getting an invite from a member was the original method of joining.

              I do know that for a long time AO3 had both the current queue system where anyone could request an invitation code, *AND* the option for current members to request extra invite codes. The form let you say how many you wanted, and your purpose in requesting them.

              It took about as long to be processed as being on the queue, but once you got them, you could keep the codes in your AO3 account and give them out as needed, saving time for the people you gave them to.

              From what AO3 peeps have said on the comments here, that system caused problems with spamming, abuse, and unexpected server loads because the codes could wind up used at any time.

              Theoretically, people getting an invite from the queue *could* hold onto them for a long time and then all make accounts at once, causing the same server overload, but after waiting to get the invite, I think most people would create an account as soon as they could.

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