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Spam and advertising

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  • Tom's Hardware
  • Spam
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October 9, 2013 2:42:50 PM

I have noticed that there has been a dramatic uptick in the amount of spam and advertising in the forums and while moderators keep taking it down more keeps popping up i was wonder who else and bothered by this and if we have some ideas on how to stop this

More about : spam advertising

October 9, 2013 2:51:13 PM

Individually, we kill off dozens per day. And yes, this is being discussed in the moderators forums.

If you have any ideas, bring 'em out!
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October 9, 2013 2:53:00 PM

Would it be easier for the mods if there was some kind of a filter on new user posts? Maybe have them be approved by mods in order for it to make it to the forums or would that be exponentially more work?
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October 9, 2013 3:03:18 PM

Take a look at stopforumspam.com. You can implement this over an API, it will block spammer if their IP or E-Mail is in the database. It is free to use, give it a try.
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October 9, 2013 3:19:32 PM

Mandatory 5 post minimum to post links and/or jpg's.
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October 9, 2013 5:08:54 PM

or better yet see if there are using the same IP becuase im sure this is the same person/group and if they are ban them at the ip level
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October 9, 2013 5:11:10 PM

legokill101 said:
or better yet see if there are using the same IP becuase im sure this is the same person/group and if they are ban them at the ip level


And maybe ban everyone else at that same internet cafe or Starbucks...:( 
Many things are being looked at.
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October 9, 2013 5:34:08 PM

good point... well they seem have cheep uggs **** in the title the end probably meant to stop any auto delate but based on the beging couldnt you flag the post for delation soving some of the problems
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October 9, 2013 5:52:07 PM

I used to mod another board and we cut it substantially by a mandatory 5 post in a new users forum before allowing general posts. Filters are great but of little relevance to someone getting paid to do it.

It made it very easy to just check a few threads every day. The recent uptick in the hide the maleware link in a jpg is annoying.
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October 9, 2013 5:58:23 PM

the other option since the problem is that moderators are not always online whati f you had a flag a spam button that if it was pressed lets say 3 times (just a example) would hide it and flag if for a mod and if the mod determind it good it would be reposeted at the top of the list otherwise it would get deleated
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October 10, 2013 8:47:20 AM

Instituting a 5 post minimum might be a bit on the heavy-handed side. Most of our new users are ones coming to the site to ask questions for the first time. This would cut down dramatically on new user conversion.

But we are exploring means by which to contain the growing spam threat, and we're open to suggestions.
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October 10, 2013 11:37:34 AM

5 post in a introduction thread is not a lot to ask someone.

Easier to weed out the one post wonders also.
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October 10, 2013 12:57:41 PM

yes and it would be less browesed but you could also make it so if enough poepole clicked a for example report for spam button that it would be hidden in a section of the forums for mods to go over and if they ditermided it spam they delate it if not it is put back into the general forums
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October 10, 2013 1:29:11 PM

The problem with that is to many people will hit the spam button just to flag a post they disagree with. Think of TH as a super highway with multiple onramps trying to filter every onramp is pointless. Now push every new member to a introduction forum and your able to filter our the spam from one choke point. Spammers will post one time and run, new members will be greeted and helped get the info they want. TH could have a new walmart greeters badge.
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October 11, 2013 2:00:42 AM

tourist said:
5 post in a introduction thread is not a lot to ask someone.

It's alot to ask of someone who is not interesting in having a conversation but has a problem they need to fix.
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October 11, 2013 6:47:27 AM

randomizer said:
tourist said:
5 post in a introduction thread is not a lot to ask someone.

It's alot to ask of someone who is not interesting in having a conversation but has a problem they need to fix.


Spammers will post one time and run, new members will be greeted and helped get the info they want. TH could have a new walmart greeters badge.

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October 11, 2013 11:00:32 PM

tourist said:
Spammers will post one time and run,


Thats the latest trend, used to be that a spam account was made and they would fire out as many as they could before we jumped on them. Now they just create hundreds of accounts and do a single post from each. Means that we have to ban each account, and in doing so only remove a single piece of spam. It takes a lot more time to deal with spammers using this tactic, which is why as of late there has been a lot more than usual.

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October 12, 2013 11:02:23 AM

These are not spam bots pushing work at home scams, but individuals testing out scrips. Embedding a link to maleware in a quoted jpg has the potential of infecting a lot more than readers at TH if google has a chance to index/cache the page. There is no perfect solution only a temporary one until someone smarter figures out a way around it, the best offense is a good defense. It does not have to be 5 post minimum it could be only 2 as long as there is a attentive mod willing to stay on top of it

Just my suggestion, the report abuse button is still a members best friend
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October 14, 2013 12:36:47 PM

The main reason why we can't use IP Bans too frequently is that some of the addresses used by the bot to post Spam may be wholly innocent, having been compromised by hacking. We'd hate to prevent folks from coming here for the right reasons and some of those addresses might have been cribbed from here in the first place.

Another good reason not to post e-mail addresses in public places.
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October 15, 2013 1:25:44 PM

here is an idea for the first two post of a user per say have a automated program check out the embed links and scan for virus and limit the number of times they can post in a given time period to stop making it quick and easy
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October 21, 2013 6:50:26 AM

We've rolled out a few improvements to spam prevention in the past week, and we've seen a small drop. We're working on killing them off for good now, and hope to have something ready to go in short order that will put a serious dent in spam we see on the forums.
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October 21, 2013 9:34:51 AM

How do you plan on stopping this

Link removed by Saga Lout for safety reasons.

Roll down to jamesrosa5 post and hit quote message, see the jpg ? now run the link through your favorite av software. Maleware !!!!!!!!
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October 21, 2013 11:07:38 AM

In spit of the all the available technology, Moderators depend heavily on the decent folk, who constitute the majority of our posters, to give us a head-up when something inappropriate is posted. Mousemonkey deleted that post and banned the poster within two minutes of you posting here so the system does work.
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October 21, 2013 2:46:19 PM

The post was from the 20th, maybe if the mods did a little more scanning than posting they would catch this stuff. Sorry to be blunt, but your welcome
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October 21, 2013 3:54:48 PM

tourist said:
The post was from the 20th, maybe if the mods did a little more scanning than posting they would catch this stuff. Sorry to be blunt, but your welcome


I'm sorry that I don't review as many threads as you think I should and I promise that I'll try harder in future, I'm sure that the posters who violate the rules won't feel the same way that you do but so long as you're happy who cares eh? :lol: 
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October 21, 2013 9:13:58 PM

Mousemonkey said:
tourist said:
The post was from the 20th, maybe if the mods did a little more scanning than posting they would catch this stuff. Sorry to be blunt, but your welcome


I'm sorry that I don't review as many threads as you think I should and I promise that I'll try harder in future, I'm sure that the posters who violate the rules won't feel the same way that you do but so long as you're happy who cares eh? :lol: 


Ouch ! I deserved that

If I would have known it was your thread mouse i would have hit the abuse button at least 100 times. :lol:  MY attempt at sarcastic humor.

Do not go and swing the big rule book on every poor sap crossing the line, including me.
It was not directed at you but a general assessment of a few other mods missing it, or unwilling to sniff it out.

My apologies to those that took offense. I sometimes forget the sugar





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October 22, 2013 12:02:31 AM

I was in Tom's for forty five minutes this morning before I got the chance to catch up with my tracked threads. In a fairly complex precedure, I caught and banned nineteen Spammers including several who hadn't even posted yet. We do what we can but we are posters as well and, despite popular belief :D  - human beings!

Please just keep reporting bad stuff. We need all the help we can get
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October 22, 2013 3:47:25 AM

tourist said:
Mousemonkey said:
tourist said:
The post was from the 20th, maybe if the mods did a little more scanning than posting they would catch this stuff. Sorry to be blunt, but your welcome


I'm sorry that I don't review as many threads as you think I should and I promise that I'll try harder in future, I'm sure that the posters who violate the rules won't feel the same way that you do but so long as you're happy who cares eh? :lol: 


Ouch ! I deserved that

If I would have known it was your thread mouse i would have hit the abuse button at least 100 times. :lol:  MY attempt at sarcastic humor.

Do not go and swing the big rule book on every poor sap crossing the line, including me.
It was not directed at you but a general assessment of a few other mods missing it, or unwilling to sniff it out.

My apologies to those that took offense. I sometimes forget the sugar







No offence taken mate, I actually found it quite amusing as some folk think that I'm on this site 24/7 and never sleep! :lol: 
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October 22, 2013 7:42:16 PM

Mousemonkey said:
tourist said:
Mousemonkey said:
tourist said:
The post was from the 20th, maybe if the mods did a little more scanning than posting they would catch this stuff. Sorry to be blunt, but your welcome


I'm sorry that I don't review as many threads as you think I should and I promise that I'll try harder in future, I'm sure that the posters who violate the rules won't feel the same way that you do but so long as you're happy who cares eh? :lol: 


Ouch ! I deserved that

If I would have known it was your thread mouse i would have hit the abuse button at least 100 times. :lol:  MY attempt at sarcastic humor.

Do not go and swing the big rule book on every poor sap crossing the line, including me.
It was not directed at you but a general assessment of a few other mods missing it, or unwilling to sniff it out.

My apologies to those that took offense. I sometimes forget the sugar







No offence taken mate, I actually found it quite amusing as some folk think that I'm on this site 24/7 and never sleep! :lol: 


Aren't you? :dawa: 

I got a spammer earlier with 59 linked accounts. Not a single one had been banned. Yeah that took a while.
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October 22, 2013 7:50:12 PM

Only sometimes... :whistle: 
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October 23, 2013 6:37:37 AM

The bulk of our development energies at current are being invested into fighting anti-spam weapons at this point. The tide of battle will be turning in short order.
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!