Mollum Privacy Policy
Mon, 2010-09-20 22:14
root@Mollum Privacy Policy
I'm a bit reactionary as far as privacy is concerned. I realize that Mollum is not keeping anything that Eclipse Phase doesn't have, and that it keeps my identifying information for 2 months, and the anonymized data for 2 years, and they abide by Belgian data protection legislation (which I assume to be stronger than British or American privacy laws). I also recognize that it is important for the administrators to deal with spam, and that I can use proxies if I am really worried about it. So logically, there isn't anything wrong with using Mollum, but this doesn't keep me from having a difficult time with it. If sysop would take the time to assure the skittish beast that is root, I would be thankful.
- {message conents}
- root
- 173.26.136.201
- {User ID}
- Your.Friendly.Fixer@gmail.com
- http://www.eclipsephase.com
- {Date and Time}
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Tue, 2010-09-21 17:00
#2
Re: Mollum Privacy Policy
test. (Testing to see if that user role add is in place.)
Edit: And it is - the second anyone with at least 20 good comments or topics under their belt posts, they'll be bypassed. So in your case given your current post count - you'll be bypassing Mollum with your first reply to anything on the system. 
Tue, 2010-09-21 19:04
#3
Re: Mollum Privacy Policy
root@Mollum Privacy Policy
test. (Testing to see if that user role add is in place.)
Edit: And it is - the second anyone with at least 20 good comments or topics under their belt posts, they'll be bypassed. So in your case given your current post count - you'll be bypassing Mollum with your first reply to anything on the system.
That was kind of you, but I've re-thought my position on this privacy issue. I was reading your response on my Droid when the utter absurdity of my paranoid reaction popped into focus. I'm walking around with a Droid, this little black box that keeps information on my email, physical location, browsing habits, application use, and probably a number of other things I don't know about. If I'm so happy to give Google as much surveillance on me as they want to I can use the Google Goggles app, or whatever other application my I think is really cool, why am I getting freaked out when a website I trust is using a tiny bit of data that pretty much anyone can get to if they really cared? Especially when it means I don't have to contest penis-enlargement spam posts in any of the threads I read? So, in light of this self-reflection, I'm pretty much going to have to retract my stance on the privacy policy and apologize for getting bitchy about it.
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Tue, 2010-09-21 19:13
#4
Re: Mollum Privacy Policy
That wasn't even *remotely* bitchy. I've seen much worse for much lesser reasons. There are other reasons to set up the legit user exemption as well, it keeps us from abusing Mollum's servers when we really don't have a need to.
Tue, 2010-09-21 19:33
#5
Re: Mollum Privacy Policy
root@Mollum Privacy Policy
There are other reasons to set up the legit user exemption as well, it keeps us from abusing Mollum's servers when we really don't have a need to.
Oh, good point. It probably slows down build up of website databases too, which is always good. I was actually curious as to how much spam a website like this gets? Forums seem like they would be an excellent target for thread spam, but I don't think I've ever seen any evidence of it outside of deep archives on old yahoo websites.
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Mollum is created by the same folks that developed Drupal and has become a standard for Drupal much the way Akismet is for Wordpress (and operates in much the same way only Akismet doesn't do public/private keys).
Data is passed on the backend under encryption with a public and private key system to prevent interception concerns. (Code available here if you want to review it: http://drupal.org/project/mollom ) So the data remains in EP's hands or in Mollum's system for analysis and never elsewhere. I'm going to take a stab at the source of your concern being the IP address that gets passed along? The purpose here is to build a profile of spam accounts from specific IPs from different incidents across multiple sites in order to be able to block them on any Mollum protected site.
Ideally I would love to be able to handle spam without an additional service - but realistically, we can't really keep up without some assist.
Akismet is also in strong consideration as well, so I was considering running a week under Mollum and a week under Akismet to see which was more responsive to our needs.
Edit: I'm also considering a way to keep us from applying Mollum to posters who have a good record of behavior. Something along the lines of "Once you have at least 20 good non-spammy posts, you bypass the spam system" That's a bit too much of a wall for most spammers to even attempt to climb, but which a regular forum goer can easily reach.
I fix broken things. Should you need to get a feature on eclipsephase.com fixed, mention it on the suggestions board and we'll look into it for you. I also fix Darkcast and the Darkcast Wiki