Spam and advertising

[legokill101]

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

 

[USAFRet]

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!

 

[vrumor]

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?

 

[DavidRappl]

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.

 

[legokill101]

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

 

[USAFRet]

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.

 

[legokill101]

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

 

[legokill101]

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

 

[jpishgar]

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.

 

[legokill101]

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

 

[randomizer]

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.

 

[manofchalk]

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.

 

[Saga Lout]

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.

 

[legokill101]

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

 

[jpishgar]

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.

 

[Saga Lout]

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.

 

[Mousemonkey]

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:

 

[Saga Lout]

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 - human beings!

Please just keep reporting bad stuff. We need all the help we can get

 

[Mousemonkey]

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:

 

[Deleted member 217926]

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?

I got a spammer earlier with 59 linked accounts. Not a single one had been banned. Yeah that took a while.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Only sometimes...

 

[jpishgar]

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.