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Well I've been snooping around and most likely being a pain in the butt for some while challenging folks to get their act together. As far as I know there could be three more on the horizon all stemming from 'recent events' so that's a good sign. These tools don't need to be collecting dust. I see these issues some are facing as a blessing in disguise. That energy just needs to be focused on being productive rather than making people feel defeated. Away for four months, came back, and it looked like folks were just sitting on their hands. It's a releif to see this spring up seemingly out of nowhere.

I think my only concern with this project is scaling up while having to manually enforce the rules. And those rules are fair, but strict. Roughly how many active users do you think can be managed in that fashion?

I think my only concern with this project is scaling up while having to manually enforce the rules. And those rules are fair, but strict. Roughly how many active users do you think can be managed in that fashion?

Well, some degree of automation is in the works -- especially with respect to dropping comments to warn suspected abusers that their accounts are being or will soon be scrutinized. More than that, though, is the planned development of 'systems' to enable individual users to help monitor and moderate.

It is an ambitious undertaking. I am truly grateful to have @scholaris and @calumam helping to get this project launched. And, it is an experiment. Adjustments can be made along the way, to adapt to important lessons-learned.

The automated message. That's been done before. It can get ugly if the one on the receiving end would prefer to keep their secret and carry on with the suspected abuse.

Even as groups 'policing' potential cases of abuse dropped the automated message and switched to an automated small downvote, those on the receiving end are quite often disgusted with it. Could be a clear case of consistent proven plagiarism or identity theft; the one receiving the message is not happy, at all, to the point of writing a daily diary smear campaign or simply being overly dramatic and disruptive within the community. It doesn't always turn out like that but it does go that way, sometimes.

I saw it a lot though in the early days when folks showed up from all over the world expecting a free-for-all. Be very careful with how that message is worded. Something like, "Hello, your account is due for an audit shortly. Please be certain you've been following these rules..." could be a lot less abrasive and alarming than, "Hello. You're up to no good and we know it."