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-   -   Thought on reducing the spam (https://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=1385820)

camcojb 10-08-2017 9:02 AM

Thought on reducing the spam
 
I have a car site that has the same issue with spammers that we have here. I set mine up to moderate new members. They are automatically moved into the coppa group which requires me to ok them before they can post. This stops all the spammers. Only downside is a real new member may have a slight delay before I activate their membership and they can post.

My site is busy (not "Calguns" busy) but I keep thinking this may be a solution, at least temporarily until something more permanent can be done. ;)

mike415stone 10-08-2017 9:11 AM

spam goes into crazy mode everytime there is a high profile gun related crime

Den60 10-08-2017 9:19 AM

The OP makes a good point. All this spam crap is really effing annoying.

Lebaneseblonde 10-08-2017 12:38 PM

I not think the mods don't care. To be honest. I am stopping the flagging, after all... it's free labour. I was more than willing to to flag like crazy, but with the up ticks in massive spam hits, the dated forum setup as detailed by multiple tech ppl. I am gonna stop.

Librarian 10-08-2017 12:48 PM

Mods are free labor, too.

Most of the daylight (in CA) spam seems to be 'stream this sports event'. (Don't, BTW - back when I bothered to look, every link went to a known malware site.)

Evening/night seems more 'you need this product' junk.

Pinto 10-08-2017 3:50 PM

I'm lobbying for a bounty on spam reported. I'm thinking I could afford ammo for the DTA I could buy.

Bring it.

Red-Osier 10-08-2017 3:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pinto (Post 20749935)
I'm lobbying for a bounty on spam reported. I'm thinking I could afford ammo for the DTA I could buy.

Bring it.

Garv would beat you ;)

Pinto 10-08-2017 4:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red-Osier77 (Post 20749957)
Garv would beat you ;)

Yeah, you got that right, the guy would be able to retire with a bounty.

But he has to sleep sometime :chris:

Garv 10-08-2017 7:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pinto (Post 20750049)
Yeah, you got that right, the guy would be able to retire with a bounty.

But he has to sleep sometime :chris:

I am an insomniac. :D

Cody 10-08-2017 8:53 PM

The spammers come here BECAUSE there are no prevention measures in place. If something was set up, even temporarily, they would go away.
I like the idea of "the first post must be approved". I've used it on other forums with a high level of success.

socal147 10-09-2017 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by camcojb (Post 20748448)
I have a car site that has the same issue with spammers that we have here. I set mine up to moderate new members. They are automatically moved into the coppa group which requires me to ok them before they can post. This stops all the spammers. Only downside is a real new member may have a slight delay before I activate their membership and they can post.

This
I admit to not being educated on running websites. The quoted "seems" to be the obvious and easily implemented solution.

wpage 10-09-2017 10:14 AM

Some of the spam is entertaining...

Kestryll 10-09-2017 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cody (Post 20751136)
The spammers come here BECAUSE there are no prevention measures in place. If something was set up, even temporarily, they would go away.
I like the idea of "the first post must be approved". I've used it on other forums with a high level of success.

Quote:

Originally Posted by socal147 (Post 20752752)
This
I admit to not being educated on running websites. The quoted "seems" to be the obvious and easily implemented solution.

We are set up with email verification, verification question, ReCaptcha and more.
We're not just open to the world but we are a juicy target.

The reason we're a good target, and worth the effort to spammers, is also why post approval would be a major problem.
We average 3.0Tb of data transfer each month, large traffic and large amounts of new users and posts.

That's a lot of hours especially considering most of the Staff myself included have full time jobs as well.

We're always looking for new ways to fight spam but frankly almost every common tool for doing so has an end around from the spammers.
It's an arms race and they don't have to care if it makes things harder for the members.

Kestryll 10-09-2017 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lebaneseblonde (Post 20749277)
the dated forum setup as detailed by multiple tech ppl.

We can update at any time, it's not that big of a deal in fact in many ways it would make my life easier and our hosting company's life easier.

Of course the problem becomes all the little mods and hacks people like.
For example iTrader is an unsupported mod that goes away, along with your rating, when we upgrade to either vB4 or Xenforo.
So everyone with years of iTrader scores starts at zero again.

That's just one of the mods everyone has become accustom to that would go away.
I'd prefer not to lose all that so one of the issues is figuring out how to port it all over when the new softwares don't even use the various php functions.

3453 10-10-2017 10:54 AM

Give the long time reporters of spam the ability to ban these guys rather than report them. Must be a few you can trust with that power.

lazyworm 10-10-2017 12:45 PM

or automatically ban users that has low post count AND multiple spam reports.

tankarian 10-10-2017 7:19 PM

Approval for the first post on new members seems like a good idea to weed out the scumbags

Librarian 10-10-2017 7:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lazyworm (Post 20757781)
or automatically ban users that has low post count AND multiple spam reports.

That's more generous than our current criteria.

1 spam and the poster is gone; it just sometimes happens SpammerMember puts up 2 or more before we get around to them.

Now, if the member has, say, 500 prior posts, I'll look into it further.

But a join date in the last week and 1 spam post? Buh-bye.

lazyworm 10-10-2017 7:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Librarian (Post 20759592)
That's more generous than our current criteria.

1 spam and the poster is gone; it just sometimes happens SpammerMember puts up 2 or more before we get around to them.

Now, if the member has, say, 500 prior posts, I'll look into it further.

But a join date in the last week and 1 spam post? Buh-bye.

Agreed if a human has to review the report, 1 is enough. What I meant
was via an automated system. Multiple just to weed out human mistakes.

I think the issue here is that a mod has to react to a spam report currently.
We should have a automated way so we can reduce your workload.

Thoughts 10-11-2017 5:32 PM

I work on another site as a mod, and I agree that stopping spam is a lot of work. After some effort, we reached settings that keep most of it out of view and in a moderation queue, but the downside is a lot of work goes into clearing the queue, and valid posts can be delayed for hours. In addition, we had to add restrictions to editing posts, etc, that make it harder on newer users. I don't know what the right answer might be.

Rizzo 10-13-2017 7:43 AM

SPAM Posts
 
Suggestion:
Moderate the first one or two posts of a new member so the SPAM posts do not make it to the main forum.
These SPAM posts are cluttering up the forums and I do not see anything being done about it.

Do any of the Mods or Admins read our suggestions?

It would seem NO because this issue has been brought up before and we still have the problem.

Calico1404 10-13-2017 8:02 AM

They read them, discuss them and are constantly trying to figure out new idea's to combat these infiltrators.

Lebaneseblonde 10-13-2017 8:28 AM

May be reading the suggestions. They sure aren't acting on anything.

The last rounds of spam, are clearly created sleeper accounts.
They are the tech ppl that are calgunners. So the board has a pool of ppl willing to help out

Lebaneseblonde 10-14-2017 8:06 AM

Well today is clearly evident that they have adapted. Now the posts are rampant and have taken on topics almost appropriate to the board.

Who is the board owner?

Garv 10-14-2017 8:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lebaneseblonde (Post 20773682)

Who is the board owner?

Kestryll

He is working on it, but we lose features like I-Trader without going through a lot of hoops with upgrading the system.

Keep up the good work LB.

Lebaneseblonde 10-14-2017 8:26 AM

Back to the salt mine. Ugh

G-Man WC 10-14-2017 10:40 AM

This is just getting out of control!
-g

Librarian 10-14-2017 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rizzo (Post 20769605)

Do any of the Mods or Admins read our suggestions?

Yes.

Did any of the members notice there was already a thread here on this topic?

Merged.

Rizzo 10-14-2017 4:45 PM

OK, so the suggestions are read. That's great.
I, along with another poster, suggested to "moderate" new member's first or first several posts in order to stop SPAM from getting into the forums.

Since that suggestion was read why hasn't a Mod or Admin commented on the suggestion to explain why it wouldn't work.
I'm assuming it would not work because we still are getting many SPAM posts.
Thanks.

Librarian 10-14-2017 4:58 PM

From Kestryll's post, above:
Quote:

The reason we're a good target, and worth the effort to spammers, is also why post approval would be a major problem.

We average 3.0Tb of data transfer each month, large traffic and large amounts of new users and posts.
ETA: I just banned 6 members and deleted 17 threads; I do that at least 5 or 6 times per day.

scadvice 10-15-2017 7:27 AM

Holy cow, I had no idea it was that big of a problem! What a pain. I for one will be more alert and report.

DVSmith 10-15-2017 9:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Librarian (Post 20775436)
From Kestryll's post, above:

ETA: I just banned 6 members and deleted 17 threads; I do that at least 5 or 6 times per day.

I have tagged a bunch, does that help or annoy the mods?

Lebaneseblonde 10-15-2017 10:26 AM

And today the onslaught keeps on coming.
How about stop new members sign up for a time period. Alleast it will help thin out the posts and maybe the mods could go down the no post low post members and thin the herd out. Surely some if not most the accounts were created months ago. If they have done recently... well then something has been infected

Librarian 10-15-2017 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DVSmith (Post 20777374)
I have tagged a bunch, does that help or annoy the mods?

Helps; thank you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lebaneseblonde (Post 20777635)
And today the onslaught keeps on coming.
How about stop new members sign up for a time period. Alleast it will help thin out the posts and maybe the mods could go down the no post low post members and thin the herd out. Surely some if not most the accounts were created months ago. If they have done recently... well then something has been infected

Very few lie dormant for more than a month. Almost all are from registrations 'today' or 'yesterday'.

DVSmith 10-15-2017 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Librarian (Post 20777846)
Helps; thank you.

It has sort of become a game, like popping bubble wrap. Kind of addicting! LOL

Lebaneseblonde 10-15-2017 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Librarian (Post 20777846)
Helps; thank you.



Very few lie dormant for more than a month. Almost all are from registrations 'today' or 'yesterday'.

Then just shut off the joins for awhile

Librarian 10-15-2017 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lebaneseblonde (Post 20777962)
Then just shut off the joins for awhile

That's sub-optimal, if you think the forum has any purpose beyond 'minimum spam'.

I've read entirely reasonable threads this morning from new members who signed up today.

Cody 10-15-2017 3:44 PM

Then can't you just make it so new members first post must be approved by a mod? At least this way none of the spam makes it to the forum.
What's going on now is just a constant clean up and it's never going to get any better unless something is done proactively. You have to stop them before their posts show up, that way they will go away.

Milsurp Collector 10-21-2017 9:42 AM

I have an idea to stop the spammers
 
I have an idea to stop the spammers.

They come here to create clickable hyperlinks. If we take that away it removes their incentive to come here.

I suggest temporarily disabling the use of [url] [ /url] tags and the "Automatically parse links in text" function for the entire board. Real posters can still post the URL for a site, and we will just have to copy and paste the URL into the address field, a minor inconvenience. But the spammers will no longer be able to have clickable hyperlinks in their posts either, just long lists of text URL addresses that no one can click. Or posts about male enhancement products without clickable hyperlinks.

Since it is impossible to keep spammers from joining and posting, we have to take away their incentive to do so. The change would have to be announced to all of the regular members so they will know how to adapt. It will be a little annoying for regular members to not have hyperlinks for real posts, but not as annoying as all the spam. If it is successful the hyperlinking function could be re-enabled in the future.

Red-Osier 10-22-2017 5:28 AM

The spammer's thread titles are getting better.


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