Blocking Member Posts

[BMW_Ken]

How do I totally block someone’s posts?  The MotoNews bot has posted race spoilers in the post titles several times.  I have them on my ignored list, but still see the post titles, which is where the problem is.

[John Ranalletta]

I've tried but failed to ignore.  Would prefer MotoNews just go away if possible.

[szurszewski]

54 minutes ago, John Ranalletta said:

I've tried but failed to ignore.  Would prefer MotoNews just go away if possible.

Same!

[Skywagon]

ive replied to motonews whoever or whatever it is several times asking them politely to not do that...to use something like spoiler alert in the heading and put whatever they want in the text.  No response at all.  I cant figure out how to block it either so I've pretty much limited my time here recently during the racing season.

 

I'm hoping the mod's will give us a hand in finding an alternative to this.  Paying for a rather expensive subscription to MotoGP (which as you know most races are in the middle of night US time) and finding out the results without getting a chance to watch it is really disheartening.  So....with no offered remedy so far, I just don't log on here from Thursday until Monday to avoid MotoNews.  I use to read some of their stuff, as they intend so bolster their sponsors, but with no common courtesy in return, I never open their post anymore.....if their advertisers are listening.

[Bob Palin]

I hate spoilers, so inconsiderate of other people.

[BMW_Ken]

Hopefully one of the admins will respond to this and take action as this seems to be an issue for several members.

[Twisties]

@chrisolson

[roadscholar]

@Whip

[Skywagon]

you can block, sort of....the headline still shows up, but when you click on the article it says you blocked this sender.  So that doesn't help at all as MotoNews is posting results in the title which still comes through.

[chrisolson]

On 6/3/2019 at 7:39 AM, Skywagon said:

ive replied to motonews whoever or whatever it is several times asking them politely to not do that...to use something like spoiler alert in the heading and put whatever they want in the text.  No response at all.  I cant figure out how to block it either so I've pretty much limited my time here recently during the racing season.

 

I'm hoping the mod's will give us a hand in finding an alternative to this.  Paying for a rather expensive subscription to MotoGP (which as you know most races are in the middle of night US time) and finding out the results without getting a chance to watch it is really disheartening.  So....with no offered remedy so far, I just don't log on here from Thursday until Monday to avoid MotoNews.  I use to read some of their stuff, as they intend so bolster their sponsors, but with no common courtesy in return, I never open their post anymore.....if their advertisers are listening.

 

MotoNews is a "bot" for lack of a better term ... its the default author (virtual board member) applied to articles that are derived from an RSS feed ... which is basically everything in the forum "Worldwide Motorcycle News".  Its weird, yes,  but just the way the RSS system in this software package works, it requires a "local" author to post the article.

 

But since  MotoNews isn't a real person, PM's are never checked.  We never considered that scenario.

 

If you are using an activity stream to view the site, specific forums can be removed, but that does radically change how the board looks when you initially log in .

 

Spoilers are an issue that we saw with some feeds that didn't make it to this current site and were dropped because of that.  At the time of deployment, those that remained didn't seem to have that issue.  No one, including BMWST management, likes spoilers.

 

Was there one of the sub forums that was more inclined to have articles that dealt with spoiler issues or was this across all them?  I ask since the only option is to drop a specific feed ... completely ...  there is no way to filter them as they are automated from the sending side.   We simply reproduce the articles in the stream.  

 

 Management initially felt that there was/is value in providing a wide range of general motorcycle news to compliment our more narrow focus. ...  so if there is one RSS feed that's the issue, it would at least leave some feeds in place.

 

[Skywagon]

Thanks Chris for the thoughtful explanation.  I was reasonably sure it had the characteristics of an RSS feed.  You asked if there was a particular sub-forum this was happening.  I'm not sure how to answer that, but if you do some searching on MotoNews in the all activity forum, you will see multiple posts where the heading announces things like Rossi Crashed Out, Marquez wins again, Honda comes in 1 and 2 in Italian GP, and many more.  Those aren't exact quotes but pretty close and to the point of posting results nearly real time live time.

 

Im sure many others who have joined this thread  and a couple different threads complaining could give you more examples.  It's not my place to recommend killing a feed, but maybe some automated edit function for MotoNews that limits the headline in some way.  Challenging for sure, but equally annoying.

 

Maybe a better idea would be to do a survey of MotoNews keeping it simple.  Do you find it valuable Y/N, how often do you read the articles, would you like BMWST to keep it or drop it.

 

Thanks again for consideration.

[chrisolson]

2 hours ago, Skywagon said:

Thanks Chris for the thoughtful explanation.  I was reasonably sure it had the characteristics of an RSS feed.  You asked if there was a particular sub-forum this was happening.  I'm not sure how to answer that, but if you do some searching on MotoNews in the all activity forum, you will see multiple posts where the heading announces things like Rossi Crashed Out, Marquez wins again, Honda comes in 1 and 2 in Italian GP, and many more.  Those aren't exact quotes but pretty close and to the point of posting results nearly real time live time.

 

Im sure many others who have joined this thread  and a couple different threads complaining could give you more examples.  It's not my place to recommend killing a feed, but maybe some automated edit function for MotoNews that limits the headline in some way.  Challenging for sure, but equally annoying.

 

Maybe a better idea would be to do a survey of MotoNews keeping it simple.  Do you find it valuable Y/N, how often do you read the articles, would you like BMWST to keep it or drop it.

 

Thanks again for consideration.

 

I understand and share your's and other member's concerns .

 

Unfortunately this software is a "shrinkwrap" package ... meaning its not open ended but proprietary .  To make it more opaque is the fact that this runs in the cloud ... we don't have access to the actual code nor the hardware it runs on.  For 99.999 % of the time this is an advantage ... but not so much if you're looking at writing a custom mod.  Bottom line, a programmatic solution  is just not gonna happen. ... its beyond the capabilities of BMWST staff and engaging a 3rd party developer for a one-off solution would be cost prohibitive .

 

MotoNews is the virtual "author of record"  for all the articles from 6 different RSS feeds :

• Motorcycle Daily
• Motorcyclist Magazine
• Visor Down
• Ride Apart
• Total Motorcycle
• Adventure Motorcycle News

Of those, Motorcycle Daily and Total Motorcycle appear to be the only ones that cover current racing news.  The only solution is to end those feeds.  I'm not opposed to that but I do believe the others have value.   Let me see what the rest of Management has to say....we'll get back with ya.

 

All other opinions from members are welcome as well !!

[Whip]

Is there a way to determine if anyone is actually viewing these RSS feeds?

 

 

[chrisolson]

35 minutes ago, Whip said:

Is there a way to determine if anyone is actually viewing these RSS feeds?

 

Yes, just look in each forum and the view counts are shown per article.  Without doing an actual tally, readership is actually quite high with almost every article having at least one view (actually the average is > 10 if not more) and some as much as 234.

 

I believe the best course of action would be to terminate the two offending feeds since there is no way to filter them and I think we all hate spoilers.  However we should keep the others as there is obviously quite a large number of members who find the information interesting and or entertaining.

[szurszewski]

I don't know if this thread wants to become a discussion of the value of MotoNews, but I'm not shy so I'll throw out my opinion on it anyway: no value to me. It was quickly apparent that it was a bot, and I was curious as to why it was here. One reason I love this forum is there is very little chaff - sort of the opposite of FaceBook. 

 

It's not that I don't like motorcycle related news - just that I don't come HERE for random moto news articles. I come here to get all the great stuff the board members have to say - not what an RSS feed of a motorcycle news site thinks I might like....

[chrisolson]

19 minutes ago, szurszewski said:

I don't know if this thread wants to become a discussion of the value of MotoNews, but I'm not shy so I'll throw out my opinion on it anyway: no value to me. It was quickly apparent that it was a bot, and I was curious as to why it was here. One reason I love this forum is there is very little chaff - sort of the opposite of FaceBook. 

 

It's not that I don't like motorcycle related news - just that I don't come HERE for random moto news articles. I come here to get all the great stuff the board members have to say - not what an RSS feed of a motorcycle news site thinks I might like....

 

Actually no, it is not a discussion of the value of RSS feeds of other motorcycle news/information.  From looking at the actual number of views ... there is a large active readership of the articles (see my post above ).

 

The articles may have no value to you (and others)  but the obvious  solution is not to click on those forums and let those that are viewing continue to view.

 

As I saw it, it was a discussion of how to eliminate spoilers from appearing in the feeds.  That is a valid concern.  I've believe the solution is as I stated above. 

 

 

Motonews is only a means of assigning a virtual author to a post.  RSS articles are considered posts and posts require authors.  MotoNews is the default author  name BMWST created for all 6 RSS feeds .  If you look at the sub forums you see that each feed is different .  MotoNews is not a person or even a program just a virtual author so when talking about RSS feeds its important to understand that even with a common "author" each is different with different content targeted to the individual feed and is controlled differently by the initiating service.

[Bob Palin]

Since they are RSS feeds anybody that finds value in them can sign up for the feed, kill em all, let the internet sort them out. (You could have a topic  that suggests and reviews motorcycle related RSS feeds)

[chrisolson]

1 hour ago, Bob Palin said:

Since they are RSS feeds anybody that finds value in them can sign up for the feed, kill em all, let the internet sort them out. (You could have a topic  that suggests and reviews motorcycle related RSS feeds)

 

 

The original (and I think valid) thought was to provide  "one stop shopping"  for members... not to have to get and manage separate apps/feeds ... but, whatever .... I think some here are attempting to  expand the original, logical and reasonable request of how to eliminate racing spoiler news in  the feeds ....  to eliminate the feeds completely and I truly don't understand that push.

 

I know that I hardly ever look at any of the articles... BUT ... I have looked at a few and enjoyed what I read and I have no issue with them being there  (even if I never read any again since it costs me nothing for them to exist ... if I don't click on that forum ... its like they don't exist, yes ?!! ) .  Obviously there are a fair amount of members who DO read the articles based on view counts.   I don't understand the push to eliminate the articles entirely which will negatively affect those members. 

 

 

 

[chrisolson]

Ok, so the decision by Management  is that the offending two RSS feeds Motorcycle Daily and Total Motorcycle will be terminated.

 

This is viewed as a fair outcome  since

• It addresses BMW_Ken's  original concern of spoilers being posted in the Feeds.
• Both of those feeds have the least individual readership by members so the loss has the least impact on members
• The other feeds have a significant amount of  views, so leaving the other feeds allows members who do read them to continue  to continue to enjoy the articles
• If you view the site via an activity stream, you can delete those remaining RSS forums from your view.

[BMW_Ken]

Thanks.

[Skywagon]

Thanks Chris...hope the elimination of the two doesn't cause you to get another string of....hey where did Motorcycle Daily and Total Motorcycle go :)…..but many of us appreciate you addressing the spoiler issue and perhaps could be reinstated after or in-between racing seasons.

 

[BMW_Ken]

Looks like the Visor Down feed is also putting race spoilers in the title.

[chrisolson]

if you're referencing this one 

 

Lorenzo takes out Dovizioso, Vinales, Rossi: All the reactions & pics

By MotoNews, 8 hours ago

 

 

We don't disagree on spoilers but I'd say this one is borderline as well its probably being an outlier  for the normal coverage of  VisorDown . ...

 

Not posted until today long after the race has been completed ...

 

And yes I know you're going to say the MotoGP subscription lets you view anytime and maybe even as late as today you had not gotten to it.   So the counter discussion would be at what point after a race is completed can any discussion of the results or any facet of the race  be discussed without being classified as a spoiler ? 

[Bob Palin]

On 6/17/2019 at 1:30 PM, chrisolson said:

if you're referencing this one 

Not posted until today long after the race has been completed ...

 

And yes I know you're going to say the MotoGP subscription lets you view anytime and maybe even as late as today you had not gotten to it.   So the counter discussion would be at what point after a race is completed can any discussion of the results or any facet of the race  be discussed without being classified as a spoiler ? 

 

Back at the dawn of the internet we had lots of discussion about spoilers, in the soccer groups where it was most common we first posted spoilers in rot13, but that isn't so easy to do now and wouldn't work for shared stuff anyway. The general consensus was that spoilers should not be posted on the day of the event, after that it was OK in the interests of actually being able to have a discussion about current events in your sport.

[chrisolson]

5 hours ago, Bob Palin said:

The general consensus was that spoilers should not be posted on the day of the event, after that it was OK in the interests of actually being able to have a discussion about current events in your sport.

 

I'm pretty much in agreement with that but I think that was also before the advent of paid services which allows you to experience the full event "live" at a time suitable  to the subscriber .... particularly when the actual  event is in a time zone thats inconvenient in the U..S.  meaning lots of events have the potential to be watched even a full day or more  after  ( I have done that very thing )

 

Of course members posting content should be mindful of  the option of creating a "spoiler" post in which all or part of the content is hidden until "revealed" on demand by the person reading the post.  Of course this doesn't work for magazine articles intended for a wider audience that are automatically posted in the RSS feeds.

 

But the  recently installed "Ignore Forums" feature provides a means for those so inclined to eliminate almost any forum and its potentially "inappropriate" content .  This is not an interactive 'filter" for content, but  simply a means to remove the forum and its content from view.  Its also fully reversible.