Discussion: Tactics spam & angry comments

"An idea could be a list of blacklisted words, but not sure that's good."
Yes, it’s bad because it looks too much like toxic positivity. But the portal desperately needs a "hide" feature, so you can just ban these spammers and never see their messages or the trash they post ever again. At the very least, there should be a "dislike" function to make it harder for these scammers to prey on uninformed users after people who have already dealt with them bury their posts in dislikes.

I completely agree with @Uchiha7. The video shows the Match Engine version, disables the editor (Josh's is enabled, which is clear and doesn't help), and the number of save files. If this is set as a basic rule for a tactic, then we'll see what happens.

PS:

Quote from you, Stam: I mean users are allowed to title tactics however they want


An excerpt from How to share your FM26 Tactic: Using titles such as "The Best Tactic Ever" won't pass here.


Your statement doesn't quite fit, because it doesn't say it's just a suggestion; you yourself write that it's inappropriate. And now think about the titles of the tactics: Monster, THE BEST, META, UNBELIEVABLE!!!! Well??? I think you understand the problem.

Oh I am happy that @Stam found my comment and made it visible. Don't know how that antispam filter works, though, I only replied to each of his points, didn't do anything that sounds like spam.
Savegames status is the real proof in my opinion as I said before, especially for someone like he who claims to spend from 12 to 14 hours a day in front of his PC playing this wonderful game that we love.
It should be easy for him to finish one savegame a day, even without saving any game, and without holiday mode, he can play all the matches and maybe save the game once or twice or even three times. I think as I saw on another youtuber channel (I do not know if I can mention him here so I don't) , he shows he only saved the game 5-6 times and even provides a link to his savegame (he uploads it somewhere and then you can download the save from the description of his video so that you can load it on your fm and see). I don't think we can ask Josh to provide a link to the savegame but at least show it in his videos should be a good way to regain some trust

I mean "the best tactic ever" is not the same as monster, meta, unbelievable. But that brings up the idea of a word blacklist for titles. There's currently no word checking for titles, and in that sense users are allowed to name tactics however they want.

If a member doesn't belong to the tacticians membergroup (therefore doesn't have permission to bypass the queue), I can check titles and 'censor' them how I see fit. But when a member has that permission, pages are published without moderation.

It's obvious that a YouTube creator will try to use images and keywords that grab attention and lead to more views. That's understandable, especially if they're doing it as full-time job.

About the suggestion by Uchiha7, we can't possibly demand from all members to go that extra mile and showcase things on video. But maybe for video creators, we could request that step for transparency. Screenshots can be edited or used outside context (e.g. from a different save), therefore a screenshot is not always solid proof.

The option to hide tactics by certain members is a possibility, but it doesn't exactly solve the problem. The thumbs up/down feature could work if we apply some sort of penalty for consistent negative scores, though I'm not personally fond of negative energy.

I agree with you that screenshots can be edited or taken out of context, which is exactly why I was suggesting video rather than screenshots.

I also agree that asking all members to go the extra mile would be unreasonable. My suggestion was specifically aimed at creators who already make videos for their tactics. In that case, showing the Game Status and match engine version for 15–20 seconds feels like a very small addition, not an extra burden.

That way transparency improves without raising the bar for regular users.

Hello,

If it comes to Game Status @stam is right; that pictures can be manipulated.

But there a couple of data which could indicate authenticity. One of them is game creation time which must be the same before and after. (Each tactics will have to be then tested on the new file created only for that purpose).

To many save during testing could indicate manipulation. I don't know if it is a common practice to play important matches but when I holiday testing tactics I didn't play any matches.
This is not consistent testing for me if you adding more disruption to testing environment.

Josh is stating that he does 70/30. so the question is how many time he have saved the game.

The game status/detail windows will show if there were editor used though .
I have never used FMRTE as someone said it is not shown in the game status as editor used.

Can someone please provide any proof of that?

Bottom Line a person who is concern could randomly ask for a save file if the data provided is questionable.

Hey,

For me, it's quite simple.

My issue with Josh's tactics, is that they never replicate what he is advertising. I'm amazed that its taken this long that 1 content creator uploads tactics and calls them META, or UNBELIEVABLE and people aren't looking at them and saying, hold on these don't actually work the same way as his pictures.

Everyone is saying that they can't see any proof of cheating BUT, how come none of his tactics replicate the success he appears to have ? It's mind-boggling to me that no one is thinking like that.

Also, I've seen in here that they said josh plays 12/14 hours a day... are we saying pressing the holiday button for 70% of the season is playing the game...

Being on holiday for that long of a time completely takes away from all the pros and cons of playing the game.

I agree more info needs to be provided when uploading tactics. I don't believe getting screengrabs of the whole picture and not just snippets of what I want you to see is asking for too much or going the extra mile.

Just one last thought.

Every tactic josh uploads are amazing, he has over 100 points in every save, wins everything etc...

Ask yourselves why josh's tactics never get the positive feedback. For example, the meta strikers-less tactic is game breaking...look how much people know about that tactic vs people talk about josh's.

Clearly something isn't right.

Absolutely, something's not right here, and this guy is allowed to make videos for FMscout? That's... Well, whatever. I'm curious to see what happens when he actually has to show the engine for a few seconds, or if they'll just try to talk around that rule.

I’ve been following these tactic posts closely and I agree the volume of daily releases from a single creator has shifted the signal/noise balance on FMScout.

Here are a few specific, objective concerns that I think the community should address so that tactic content on FMScout is genuinely useful and not just clickbait:

1) Lack of embedded data
Many posts lead with big claims (“200+ goals”, “0.4 conceded”), but the pages themselves do not include full match data, goal distributions, or defensive/attacking metrics in table form. That forces users to rely on video snippets rather than actual numbers visible on the site.

2) Testing methodology transparency
Several of these posts openly state a mixed holiday/manual approach. Holiday simulation influences results in ways that are not consistent with live play. It would be more transparent to show consistent testing methods or clearly label holiday simulation results as such.

3) Squad selection bias
Tactics are often tested with elite clubs only. That inflates performance metrics because player quality is a huge factor in FM. If a tactic is “designed for all teams,” it should be shown on mid-table and lower table squads with the same dataset.

4) Lack of control comparisons
A single tactic’s success with one squad and one season doesn’t prove structural superiority. A brief A/B comparison with a baseline tactic or across multiple seasons would allow other players to judge real impact.

5) Variant ambiguity
Rotating between several closely related variants while presenting results as one tactic blurs what is actually being evaluated. It’s fine to have tactical flexibility, but that needs to be clearly explained and separately documented.

6) Community benchmarking
Platforms like FM Arena and other competitive testing environments enforce standardized conditions. If FMScout tactics were stress tested in such environments (and results linked back), the community would gain a clearer picture of who is contributing genuinely useful systems.

I’m not dumping on anyone personally, but when the same pattern repeats many times a week, it indicates a structural issue with how tactic content is presented and validated on the site.

Improvement suggestions for FMScout:
• Add metadata fields for testing method (holiday vs manual) and baseline comparisons.
• Require statistical tables to be embedded on the page, not just screenshots or video links.
• Introduce a simple quality badge system (e.g., Verified multi-season test, Control compared, Non-elite tested).
• Encourage contributors to publish raw match logs or spreadsheets.

This would raise the bar for everyone and help avoid threads full of complaints about spam-like tactic dumps.

Thanks for going into more detail.

So if I understand correctly, the bottom line is that you can't replicate the advertised results because the tactic testing process appears to be problematic?

@ranelsinna: Adding a field where the user can select testing method (holiday, manual) is easy. That also applies to encouraging people to publish raw match logs or spreadsheets.

However, the other suggestions require time I don't currently have. I'm validating file submissions alone, including tactics. If we had a tactic validation/reviewing team, it could be feasible.

Having said that, if anyone's willing to help with that, please send me a pm or reach out via the live chat.

Understandable, you have a private life too. But I assume you're in contact with Josh, so before you can fully implement everything, at least ask him to show the Match Engine in his videos for a few seconds. That way, you'll have the peace and quiet and the time to implement everything properly.