Ponychan has been rolled back to June 3rd due to the spamming of /void/.
This was initially put to a vote, and the reasoning for those votes was also requested:
1 person voted to clear/restore /void/
3 people voted to delete /void/:
--- 1 didn't realize it existed
--- 1 wanted it gone for structural reasons
--- 1 wanted it gone due to content
--- 1 additional vote to delete the board was invalidated
None of the people who actually used /void/, rare as that may be, actually voted.
The spam on /void/ was committed by a single user with access to an entire IP subnet, likely via proxy, with ~100 posts distributed across 11 IPs. (correction: It was a set of unblocked TOR relays serving as exits.) One of those IPs was by the same user who posted the invalidated vote, which was inadvertently deleted along with the /void/ spam. This deleted post was explicitly claimed by someone claiming to be Cat, confirming that the same user was the spammer.
After considering people's reasoning and votes, we initially went with the compromise solution of clearing /void/ and waiting to see if it got any use, and then possibly deleting the board later.
But since "Cat" has outed himself as the spammer, and since "Cat" subsequently voted to delete the board, the considerations change substantially. Allowing individual users to spam boards in order to influence whether or not they are allowed to exist is a terrible precedent, so the board has been restored.
In addition, one of "Cat"s posts this morning suggested that he may be responsible for some of the rule-breaking images posted lately (specifically, sexualized minors), which raises the possibility that he's also responsible for the CP spam that has been plaguing the site almost since it began.
This fiasco did reveal a slight inconsistency in the auto-block lists which cat took advantage of, which has since been resolved.
This post was edited by a moderator on .
