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One has to laugh

Sporadic Sparkly

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where something has happened that has caused you to feel frustrated, but it also seems so utterly ridiculous that you cannot help but laugh about it?

If it seems like I'm talking in riddles, then allow me to explain.

Earlier, I had attempted to start a discussion, but as soon as I clicked on the 'Post' button, the site's anti-spam software sprang into action because it had deemed the content of my post to be SPAM. Whilst I appreciate the anti-spam software is software, and not a human being, I struggled to understand how it had formed that opinion. Anyway, after providing the ultra-sensitive anti-spam software with a brief explanation as to why I didn't believe I was guilty of the crime it had suspected me of, I had then signed out.

As I've not yet got around to tweaking my NAS settings, when I then checked my e-mails there was one notifying me of the supposed misdemeanour that I obviously already knew about and had appealed just a few minutes earlier. It was the wording of that e-mail notification that I felt compelled to laugh at. Despite my discussion being under review and therefore not visible on the forum, the e-mail notification stated that it had been 'flagged by other users as inappropriate'. 

Now, as that discussion/thread/post - whatever one wishes to call it - has yet to appear on the forums, I'm at a loss as to how other users could have possibly flagged it. Laughing

If the software considers itself to be human and a user of the online community, then I think we should all feel very afraid.

On a serious note, I can fully understand why some members get so freaked out by the software when it pounces on them... especially when they have familiarised themselves with the Online Community Rules, and are 99.9% certain that they haven't said or done anything that those rules prohibit.

  • Guess what? The same thing had ended up happening with this post/discussion/thread too.

    With the benefit of hindsight, it was perhaps a blessing in disguise that I was experiencing the onset of a weekend-long migraine, as it meant that I was too busy feeling unwell to continue feeling frustrated about the technical-related issues that I and many others had been experiencing here.

  • in reply to Fibonacci Squid

    In my mind, there's no point getting het up about this. This only serves to perpetuate more negativity in oneself. We have choices and we can choose to leave this place alone until it's righted itself, or take part where we can.

    It's obviously being worked on behind the scenes and nothing or no-one is perfect (apart from my cat, OBVIOUSLY. Except I don't think she would have the dexterity for coding....).

    Edit: in essence, I agree with you.

  • in reply to SpikeyMark

    An addition I find particularly amusing is that this is an option on the notifications list. And it's been permanently disabled, and it is still happening. 

    I do think part of the reason I am able to find these so funny is that I've done enough coding that I can imagine the poor person who's having to go through the code for the website to try and find where the line(s) are that are causing this problem and the frustration that they are feeling. And they're probably feeling enough frustration and anger that I don't need to feel any, so I leave that all to them. 

  • in reply to Fibonacci Squid

    That one is particularly annoying. "You have just posted what you knew you had just posted! Like, just that second, in case you forgot. Yay!"

  • in reply to Fibonacci Squid

    And as a fun extra, we're apparently getting notified about our own posts again!

  • I am back! High point of not having access was getting informed my account was being abusive in my absence. Very impressive of it

    You do indeed just have to laugh. But I do understand why people, particularly those who are maybe newer to NAS community and haven't seen its previous highs and lows of spam, spam detection, and abuse detection, find it distressing. 

    Maybe we need to temporarily add a message to the 'your post was abusive' email that says 'on the other hand this may be the computers being silly again, let us know if so'

  • I still can't use my original account, I replied to this thread last night and it got pulled for being abuse and spam.

    I'm not finding any of this funny, it's depressing, but also typical of any "improvements", especially those involving computers, they just seem to make things worse not better. I think this software does think itself human and beyond reproach as many posts critical of it get pulled, and I'm the one who often gets acused of magical thinking! Is it really any wonder when stuff like this happens?

  • I've just fallen victim to the spam issue when replying to another thread using this account as I can't access my original account. It's frustration and annoying. 

    Inula

    PS I'm not laughing! ;)  

  • in reply to SpikeyMark

    Ah that's really sad!! It must've taken ages to bake and decorate them. Especially at Christmas when there's so many other things to do. 

  • Why should I laugh? I feel more like turning the pooter into a frisbee, I agree with you about how can somebody object to somethng that you're not allowed to post? Thats really frustrating, I've spent ages typing something and then I get told it's spam or abuse and disapears into the ether, only to reappear several days and a few pages later when the appeal has been successful. It makes the site no easier to use, just differently frustrating to the old one, I think I'd rather have the old one back than have to keep being a guineapig for an untested program

  • in reply to SpikeyMark

    Poor gingerbread people. Always unfortunate when that happens lol.

  • Your post made me laugh so much! I'm sorry you and others are struggling so much with your accounts, luckily mine is behaving itself at the moment. But I'm glad you were able to see the funny side with this today. It made me smile reading it. Slight smile

  • in reply to SpikeyMark

    It uploaded! It said that it didn't! Well, here's the other one...

  • in reply to SpikeyMark

    Can't get the photos to upload. Done it plenty of times before...

    Ah well, something else to laugh/cry about.

    My wife and I were in charge of Gingerbread Men for Christmas (2017, not 2018 according to the photos time stamps)

    We had them in the boot of the car. We stopped at a service station because it was a bit of a trip to get there. We opened the boot to get something out and the tin of the lovingly made and decorated gingerbread men fell on the wet ground. We were pretty upset about it, but it was also very comical. Like some sort of gingerbread related horror film.

  • At least we have been lucky enough to be able to use our original accounts.

    I have had the feeling of laughing in the face of adversity many times. It's a fine line, though! The great gingerbread man disaster of 2018 springs to mind for some unknown reason... I'm going to try and find a photo to explain.

    Anyway, one silver lining is that I have seen you on the forum many times but for some reason we've rarely interacted. It's nice that we've had a few.

    *Goes off to PC to find ginger bread photo*