Danbooru

Tag type vandalism

Posted under General

As I'm sure you all have noticed, someone has been changing tags to incorrect types recently (the one I can recall is artist_request, but there were more).

At first I didn't think that this was vandalism but rather just some idiot, but it's happening way too frequently. Today I even noticed that peeing had been changed to a character tag. Nobody with even a lick of common sense would do that honestly, it has to be purposeful vandalism. There was also another tag I came across yesterday that was incorrectly changed to an artist type, but I can't recall what it was as I fixed it and moved on.

I think it's time we had a way of tracking tag type changes. Probably only accessible by staff. Not just to track vandals, but also to make it easier to correct common newbie mistakes. I can't count the number of times I've had to change jam back to a general tag, for instance, because people keep confusing it with jam_(artist).

Updated by 葉月

Never underestimate the bored and stupid, I always say.

They probably think they're "doing us a favor" by showing us "how easy our site is to fuck with", but in reality they're just being assholes.

Kayako said:
Never underestimate the bored and stupid, I always say.

Danbooru has been very fortunate in only having half-assed vandals so far. There are a ton of ways someone with half a clue could fuck up the site.

Anyway, it would help if only janitors could change the type of tags that have more than some small number of posts (let's say 25). Established tags almost never need to change type, and when they do it should be done with mod approval anyway.

That sounds like a reasonable option. If it's implemented I'd like to have the ability expanded to contributors as well, though. It's not really necessary, I guess, I just don't like options being restricted to staff only. That's more of a personal thing than anything.

evazion said: Anyway, it would help if only janitors could change the type of tags that have more than some small number of posts (let's say 25). Established tags almost never need to change type, and when they do it should be done with mod approval anyway.

Sounds reasonable to me. Letting contribs in too should be fine too.

Mm. I know there's been more than a few times I've had to add or modify such, and I'd hate to think I'd have to fire a dmail at an admin for each time I do so in the future.

I'm for easing it down to Priveleged users, on the grounds that (aside from my own purposes):

  • If a user paid to get Priveleged access, he or she has at least some vested interest in the site.
  • If a user was granted Priveleged access by a moderator, that bespeaks some level of trustworthiness.

edit: But I will agree that tag-type changes should be trackable, so that any damages done can be repaired and the offenders punished. That should be given priority.

Updated

I'd rather have a tag type history of some sort than another operation restricted. This kind of vandalism is as easy to fix as it is to do, when you know what's being changed. Subject tag-typing to the same new user delay as everything else, and ban the offenders as they show up.

But hey, if Contributors can still typecast, I don't mind too much. :p

Stop suggesting restricting things to janitors only holy shit. Just because 20 people filed an application once with albert two years ago doesn't make them any better/more trustworthy than the 500+ contributors.

Log said:
Stop suggesting restricting things to janitors only holy shit. Just because 20 people filed an application once with albert two years ago doesn't make them any better/more trustworthy than the 500+ contributors.

Just because someone has reposted enough Touhou from Pixiv to make Contributor status doesn't mean they're trustworthy either. The more people you give a power to, the more likely it is that eventually one get butthurt and have a meltdown and try to use it to vandalize the site on their way out. Not really a concern in this case, but in general it's good to restrict privileges to the fewest number of people who need them.

And in practice, this wouldn't be a restriction. The only time I ever need to change a tag type is when someone makes a new character or artist tag and forgets to type it. In these cases the tag never has more than a few posts, so you wouldn't be restricted from changing it. This would only prevent widely used tags from changing type, which practically never happens. The only time I can remember it happening is when we decided original should be a copyright tag.

RaisingK said:
I'd rather have a tag type history of some sort than another operation restricted.

Implementation-wise, it's much easier to restrict it than to come up with an entire history mechanism just to keep track of a single flag that rarely changes in the first place.

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