:eyes:

Hey folks!

As you may have seen, the spam problem is out of control. Though you might no longer see spammers on the homepage, the spamming is still happening at an outrageous rate. :sob:

Over the weekend I pushed an update that both broke the API in case it would help (it didn't), and added what I'm calling a "trust score" to every node (user, post, game) and comment. The homepage feed was updated to only show posts with a positive score, and users with a negative score can no longer add or change content.

To start, I flagged a hundred or so spammers and their posts with scores of -1000. That included ~3000 posts from the previous 4 days. *sigh*. It didn't last long. :upside_down:

The plan is to eventually introduce several metrics for determining trust score, such as a user's history on ldjam.com (number of events participated in, likes from other trusted members), moderation, and some machine classification models (i.e. AI).

The reason you don't currently see a homepage filled with spam is because of a little cheat: I marked everyone with an account created before April 30th 2021 as trustworthy. NOT an ideal solution, but an easy one to get us started. In the coming days I'll do more to let more users appear on the homepage.

EDIT: Yikes, I still found 2 spammers a few pages down, each with 2 year old accounts. :face_palm:

All that said, this doesn't solve the comment spam, just homepage spam.

Sign-ups for Ludum Dare 53 should open later today.

Might as well add my mandatory "I'm in" and "My suggestions" post.

In for the 7th time!

~~idk if it's a global unban but ur posts r probably visible now~~

i lied, new transfer students can't graduate yet.

This will be my 8th Ludum Dare!

In 2021, I signed up by (a happy) accident.

This will be my third time on purpose.

I always like to look at previous themes. I don't think there's anything wrong with dupe or similar themes as previous but I prefer to suggest something new.

Previous Themes:

• Indirect interaction
• Guardian
• Construction/destruction (sheep)
• Preparation – Set it up, let it go
• Infection
• Random
• Light and darkness
• Growth
• Swarms
• Moon/anti-text
• Build the level you play
• Chain reaction
• Weird/unexpected/surprise
• Minimalist
• The tower (owls)
• Roads
• Advancing wall of doom
• Caverns
• Exploration
• Islands
• Enemies as weapons
• Discovery
• It's dangerous to go alone! Take this!
• Escape
• Alone (kitten challenge)
• Tiny world
• Evolution
• You are the villain (goat)
• Minimalism (potato)
• 10 seconds
• You only get one
• Beneath the surface
• Connected Worlds
• Entire Game on One Screen
• An Unconventional Weapon
• You are the Monster
• Growing/two button controls
• Shapeshift
• Ancient Technology
• One Room
• A Small World
• Running out of Power
• The more you have, the worse it is
• Combine two incompatible genres
• Running out of space
• Sacrifices must be made
• Your life is currency
• Start with nothing
• Keep it alive
• Stuck in a loop
• Deeper and Deeper
• Unstable
• Delay the inevitable
• Every 10 seconds
• Harvest

man it feels good to have fun doing something I enjoy after a stressful week https://youtu.be/C4Rn0Jz7kOk

Hi! Few theme suggestions from me :clown::dash::sparkles:

Were in with Viivakoodiponit and other friends. This time we might get biggest team we've ever had :slight_smile:

A thought about theme suggestions: In the past I have mostly suggested themes that I would dream of making a game in the jam, but hadn't thought what others might get out of that theme. This time I went the other way and selected themes that I could make up at least three meanings for the mere wording of the theme. That way when making it a into a game there will be even more interpretations for those alternative meanings.

also: theme slaughter yeeey

slaughtered 205, kept 7 so far.

Also to whoever put in three "All Star" quotes:

pretty sure i got all 3 versions :ok_hand:

Is there a way to allow a download of the slaughtered list? It would be great as an inspiration for new game ideas

No matter what happens I am going to write a game with the theme "Pick up the Poop!" It is going to be epic,