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Are spam issues as common anymore?

Back in the days we were dealing with spammers left and right I made the decision to set my guide patrol reputation on the higher end, which I primarily did for content protection. I ultimately decided on 20k and have stuck to it for ~4-7 years. I wanted to keep it intentionally high at the time as a deterrent for potential spam (but still welcoming constructive edits), which is the primary reason the number I use is so high.

In hindsight, I think it has become clear that I was wrong in thinking that spammers would edit someone else's guide and that I probably didn't need to set it so high. However, iRobot also was not a thing at the time to help prevent such edits so it was a necessary evil since you were generally on your own to protect your content at the time. They don't make guides often but that seems to be their preferred way to spam these days (which end up getting deleted in short order anyway).

At least right now, I use 2 minimum numbers to edit the content I create:

  • Device Pages/Item pages: 10k
  • Repair guides: 20k

I limit it to 2 so there's no confusion on what you can and cannot edit without going though Patrol. I could manage 3, but I didn't want to make having higher numbers be any more difficult then it probably already is. Since it has been a few years since the heavy spam waves were a problem I am considering relaxing my minimum numbers for edits that aren't automatically accepted. The primary purpose for such high numbers is so malicious, spam and bad edits don't make it very far before the edit dies.

When I looked at how long it takes to be able to edit my content it goes like this under the old minimum standards:

  • Device and item pages: ~4 years
  • Guides: ~6 years

I have not finalized the number yet, but I am thinking about standardizing on 10k for everything (Guides, Device pages, Item pages). Since my more recent and updated device and item pages already use the 10k minimum, half of my work is done. As of now, I only really plan on actively updating 4 sources:

  • Surviving content
  • Archived content
  • Recent content
  • Content that is practical to update (in other words content that's still somewhat relavant and can be found quickly)

I will NOT be updating the following content:

  • If I have to dig to find it (likely too old to see regular use anymore, so not really worth trying to find it)
  • "Dead" guides
  • Guides with an unknown future fate (If I save it, it will receive a update. If not, it dies with the old minimum numbers)

These three groups will not be updated. If they are at 20k or the default (500), they are not being touched and will stay that way. I am more concerned with updating content that's still relevant, rather then investing time into older content I don't think is worth trying to find again.

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Hey Nick! I would say yeah malicious edits are usually very rare, and almost always from users with less than 100 rep, 99/100 they only have 1 rep and are just messing around. But honestly you can set the rep as high as you want to ensure that the edits are being reviewed by someone in Patrol. I would say 10k is probably dandy for the content you listed.

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It's more to ensure bad edits and edits that are known to be malicious die in Patrol, but it also acts as a deterrent to make such malicious edits since it will die very quickly.

I looked at the estimated time it will take someone to get enough reputation and it varies. For the 20k standard it took me 6 years to get there. However it should only take 4 years to get to 10k.

I understood that it would take a while to get to 20k, so in theory anyone with 20k is established and I can rely on their edits being correct without having me (or someone else) approve the edit. I didn't think it would be 6 years, though. I will still set it stupidly high on halo guides, but standard guides will receive a much lower number.

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Nick will be eternally grateful.