v1.3 — Automatic filtering for breaking-news spikes

Added

• An anti-ad bot now removes link spam from brand-new accounts, copy-paste "watch the full video" posts, crypto ads and mass mentions during breaking-news spikes. We use 虾宝 (Xiabao), an anti-ad bot for Telegram groups that is free for group owners: @xiabaotg_bot runs as an admin with Delete messages and Ban users only. Setup steps are in the Xiabao setup guide for group owners.

Changed

• The editor on duty sets slow mode to 1 minute for the first hour after any breaking-news post, then back to 10 seconds.

Why

• During the storm coverage in September, comments grew tenfold in an hour and most of the spam arrived while the night editor was writing the story.

Disclosure: written by the 虾宝 (Xiabao) team, which maintains the bot mentioned above.