oh boy. here comes the rant about this no one probably asked for, someone stop him!

(legal disclaimer: this is my opinion on recent events. solely my own opinion. do not use my blog as an excuse to harass or attack others. people who do not agree with me need to have their opinions respected. this post was made without the knowledge of other instances of spacehey drama and independently of others.)

with that out of the way here we go...

TLDR: i ultimately believe that this is a terrible solution to the problems this website has been having, doesn't solve the root problems we have been having, and see this as the possible / eventual downfall of this website.

okay now here comes the long version, with proper typing, so you know it's serious!

As many of us know, SpaceHey has been having a large amount of spam bots enter the site. This wasn't uncommon to see. If you ever looked at the "Cool New People" tab, it wasn't uncommon to see accounts that were clearly bots, advertising legal services in Malaysia, a cleaning company based in Kazakhstan, etc. 

These bots, as well as many of the other bots this website has been having issues with, have obviously been a problem. There have also been many instances of bots joining this website, pretending to be humans, and then messaging people for "emergency commissions" which is just another way of saying "gimme your money!" and these ones are usually harder to spot because, I assume these people are using AI to make a profile look more legit. 

An's solution? Make this website invite only! The first action he probably has done to this website in how many months or years?

Invite only you say? Well Pretense, that would get rid of all of these bots trying to join obviously, right?

Admittingly, yes. This will solve a large portion of the bot issues, but I honestly believe that this nuclear method of stopping bots is a TERRIBLE solution.

Now before you throw your tomatoes at me, hear me out.

Locking this site behind an Invite Only instance will effectively kill what organic growth this website had remaining. If you aren't in the know with people who are already here, then tough luck. If we want to argue that "lol those losers on other websites don't deserve to be here!" or "people are just joining for the y2k aesthetic!" then let me go back to when I first joined this website, as the app I was originally on called "Vent" was sinking like the Titanic (I still fucking hate Jamie and hope hell has a place for him.) and I was looking for a new place to post. I didn't know anyone on this website before joining, just that people from Vent were migrating here. If I came to this website three years ago and saw that I needed an invite from someone already on the website to join, you know what I would of done? Gone to another social media site in the hopes of asking for an invite code, like many others defensive of this change insist people would do? Nope, I would of closed the tab and never came back, and many others would likely do the same. 

Secondly, there is no full foolproof way of blocking out scam accounts. Bluesky, during it's invite only period back in 2023, had problems with bots. Someone would make an account by getting invited, and then send all of their invite codes to accounts that would then make fake accounts trying to scam people out of money. If SpaceHey allows new users invite codes immediately after joining then taking this nuclear option doesn't fully solve this problem, as anyone could just invite an account that is then used for the same scams that caused invite only to happen in the first place!

Lastly, and more importantly, this doesn't address the main issues that SpaceHey is having. We have not been able to upload layouts to this website for years, there is a serious problem with grooming on this website as you can find many guys on this website older then me with people half my age added as friends which is just so disgusting, and you can easily see that moderation is slow to react to actual issues with this website in the first place, even if it is pointed out to them several times! Even ignoring the drama that seems to be going on with this mod team and these SpaceHey “celebrities”, you can sense that there is a lot of disdain. With that being said, there are better things this site can work on!

"Well Pretense, since you're such a big smartie pants guy, what would YOU do if you controlled the levers of this website?"

First off, I would immediately up the moderation team on this website. Clearly this website has a group of individuals who are willing to help with issues and vetting people who get reported or layouts that get uploaded. Now I am not saying we should just let a bunch of teenagers become moderators of this website, that just sounds like a recipe for worse outcomes, and these moderators can't just decide to be gun-ho and ban everyone who gets reported without looking into things. They need to be active, know what they are doing and willing to work with the community, not chastise them and the website they help moderate. I would actively follow up with distinguished members of the community and get their insight and perhaps even request their help if they can prove they know what they are doing.

Secondly, If what we truly wanted was a community that was guarded, which seems to be what the majority of people want if you look on An's blog post, then invite only is too much of a nuclear option for me to be comfortable about. Rather then requiring that everyone here know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy with an invite code to join, we should be requiring applications to join in addition to invite codes. This would make it so people don't have to know the sister of a SpaceHey user to get into the website, while also keep bot accounts at bay. Obviously, being invite only until the moderation is up there to allow this would make sense and would make me feel better about this, but the sense I am getting is that invite only is a more long term band-aid rather then a temporary measure. New users should also be restricted from receiving invites immediately after signing up, or otherwise the bot networks will simply adjust to the new method of joining.

Thirdly, and I think rather nuclear and brutally honest, SpaceHey needs to focus on user safety primarily over bots. There are way too many minors on this website for issues of possible grooming, unsolicited direct messaging, etc, to be ignored. Moderation should be focused on removing problematic people. Clearly this website has anti-spam involved, if that can be set up better, then moderation can focus on actual reports rather then chasing a new spam account every two seconds. 

To sum up, there are a lot of things wrong with this website. This recent change is only a band-aid and will ultimately not solve those problems.

I've seen the blogs of people calling out SpaceHey mods and developers for their lack of action, people complaining about adults adding minors, and people getting into public fight matches in blogs. This new change will only serve to stoke the divisions, which is why several long term members are migrating to places that will not be named in this post. I do wish for the best for everyone here.

I know there are many people who do agree with making this website invite only, and that is also their opinion and should be respected. I am opting to turn off the comments on this one because this is solely my opinion, and since I am making this blog public. 

I do hope that things get better here. I enjoy spending time here, I have made many memories with people I have met from here, and I do not want to see this website fail. The path it is on however, makes me worried that it will.

EDIT 1: I modified some bits to clarify a little bit more on what I was trying to explain regarding up-scaling moderation and how it clearly can be a bigger issue if not careful and also boldened some points that I believe are important. I also made some changes to wording, also added more to my disclaimer at the top of my page for this one.

Since I've posted this, I've actively been blocked and harassed by a handful of users. If your first instinct when you read this blog is to defame and harass me, then you need to find a new hobby.

EDIT 2: My second points in my blog are being proven in record time, as I’ve been added by over a dozen or so bots and scam AI accounts since this change was made. Really glad that locking this place behind invite only totally solved that problem right?? 

(Since this post is now flirting back and forth with the top 2 pages of the top blogs section alongside other SpaceHey “celebrities” if you are reading this and adding me please check my DNI before requesting!)