Q The link/DM limitation is dumb! Why don’t you do X?
A I see a variation of this question regularly. We’ve trialled a multitude of different methods of spam prevention (over several years) and at this stage, this has by far been the most successful. The process is regularly tweaked when we start seeing trends. Hypothetically, if people stopped trying to take advantage of the community, we’d instantly see this improvement and turn off the bot. Regrettably, that day has yet to come.
If you do think of a better way of spam prevention, please raise it with me. There is a strong chance it has already been trialled in the past but I’m sure there is at least one smart cookie with an implementation we can take on board.
Q I pay to use the site, so why should we be muzzled?
A It is this very fact that raises your value to marketers and the like. Digital Nomads are prized targets. You have money to entertain such a lifestyle, so the perceived return on investment by spammers is higher. People are more than willing to pay for a lifetime membership, get banned and try again. It’s happened many times before and I expect many times more in the future.
Q Why does this community need community rules? I see nothing bad happening!
A That misconception is likely because the majority of moderation happens before you witness it. Given that I have to type up this FAQ should be an indication that there is a problem that we have to actively manage. In my time as a Nomad List moderator I've had to deal with stalkers, allegations of sexual assault, sex trafficking, death threats, fake viagra and passport merchants, racism, sexism, coordinated bullying and sophisticated multi-account-attacks. That's on top of the daily (sometimes hourly) attempts at unsolicited promotion.
Q How long until I can post links?
A The exact answer to this will regularly change. Ultimately the luxury to post links will be when you’ve established yourself as a regular contributor to the community. On occasions, we’ve supplied a specific timeframe and at times we had to change that due to increased abuse activity. The terms (currently) state 6-12 months however at the time of this posting, it’s much less than that. We want this limitation to be as short as possible whilst still achieving a realistic spam solution.
Q The rules aren’t posted anywhere. How do you expect me to follow them?
A The Terms of Service are on the main site, provided to you again if you wish to become a paid member, as well as when you activate your chat account and posted regularly in the main announcements channel. Additionally, they are sent directly to users who breach the terms as part of the warning. If you’ve arrived at the stage where your posts are being moderated, you likely already have a link to the terms in your email inbox and have already clicked past multiple pages where the terms have been displayed. Also, the bot has already DMed you with a link to the terms as well.
Q Is there a whitelist of websites that can be posted whilst new to Nomad List?
A Yes, however, we are only adding sites that are frequently posted which directly benefit the community. Keep in mind though, some “popular” sites that are likely to stay off the list - for example, Amazon. Scammers have attempted to post their products on the site in the guise of recommendations and we have seen countless attempts at affiliate links posted as well.
Q Why won't you tell us specifics on how the ModBots work?
A Why exactly do you want to know? If you want to know if a certain post will pass the mod test, DM me directly and I'll have a look. We don't openly advertise what the bots look for as people will actively try to reword their posts to get around the rules - we see this daily.
Q How can you let a bot ban people? Shouldn’t humans make the final decision?
A The ModBot doesn’t ban. It generally deletes posts. Occasionally it’ll time-out someone who triggers it in a certain way however that time-out is extremely short-lived and the user is free to continue. Of course, certain things may trigger a serious reaction, however, you’d have to actively go out of your way to find yourself in this predicament.
All lengthy time-outs/suspensions are initiated by a human. 99% of the time it's me. Every time this happens, it's documented so I don't have free reign to go on a moderation terror spree. Levels would be alerted immediately. Additionally, we actively avoid suspending as much as possible. To be banned by myself, you’d generally have to either be a repeated offender or be drastically affecting the community. For transparency’s sake, whenever I initiate a non-standard time-out or account suspension, I’ll post it in the announcements channel. If you browse the archives, you'll see how many people we've timed out this year. You probably can count the number of permanent suspensions on one hand.
Q I saw X in a channel and it was never taken down so why am I getting timed out for the same thing?
A Simply put, it was likely missed. The community can post up to 30,000 times a week and we don’t read every single line of text. Bots and other smart alerts raise issues with me using keyword monitoring and other clever processes however when things are missed, we thankfully have members of the community report them. Or I'll locate it after the fact when I review the logs which occur twice daily. Occasionally though, both automated and manual processes will fail.
Q This person said something X weeks ago, why didn’t you do anything about it!
A As above, things get missed. To be fair, retroactive moderation will only occur in case-by-case situations. If you see something, report it to me now and not in 7 weeks,
Q The bot doesn’t like my profile pic!
A I don’t override the bot however in most cases when I see this complaint, it’s because the photo is not within the guidelines so I wouldn’t have any reason to override the decision if it were up to me. We don't allow group photos, drawings, avatars, objects, sunglasses, face coverings, shirtless pics, nudity, black and white, colour filtered pics or pics that aren't you only human profile pics, please. If the bot can’t see a face, try another photo.
Q Why don’t you tell me who reported me?
A We want to protect the privacy of users and let everyone feel free to raise concerns without the fear of harassment after the fact.
Q I saw X did one wrong thing and now he's banned. Why are you so harsh?
A There is more to the story than what you've witnessed. We try to be as transparent as possible regarding moderation without placing the spotlight on the user to protect them. If a suspension has happened, they have seriously overstepped and that's between Nomad List and the ex-user only.
Q Why don’t you tell us who you’ve banned?
A Although they are no longer members of this community, we have no interest in airing dirty laundry.
Q Why don’t we have X channel anymore?
A Channels are generally created based on demand. Having too many channels spreads the chat thin. Also, some channels have had to be decommissioned as the content started to have a life of its own, generating heated debate or other untoward discussions which had nothing to do with this lifestyle.
Q Why does this X rule exist anyway?
A The core request we have with the community is a simple statement “Be nice”. We explain this in the terms of service and throughout the years have had to expand on the definition for clarification. If we have had to go out of our way to clarify something in the terms, it means that the community has had an issue with it in the past.
Q I had no idea! Please remove my warning and I won’t do it again!
A That wouldn’t be fair to the community. By asking for the warning to be reversed, you’re asking for another opportunity to break the terms.
Q How can I get these rules changed? They infringe on my personal rights!
A These guidelines have been created with community input. If you feel they are excessive or that you are unable to exist within these limitations, then perhaps this platform is not suited for you. That may sound blunt however a substantial number of active members are quite passionate about keeping Nomad List a safe space, free of promotion, abuse and other unpleasantries commonly found in unregulated spaces. There are plenty of those however, perhaps you'd find a better home elsewhere?
This should cover the majority of FAQs I encounter daily - for everything else, the official Nomad List member support page should help you
nomadlist.com/faq#support|https://nomadlist.com/faq#supportbr />
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