Spam flood

Yame · 01-19-2012, 01:46 PM

I've noticed that lately, this forum has been getting spammed very often. I get email notifications when someone responds to a thread I posted in, and some nights my email gets spammed with responses from here, nearly all of them being trolls/ads.

I know I can change the email settings if it really bothers me (though I'd rather not), but I figured we should probably address the spammer problem instead, since it just keeps getting worse.

From what I've noticed the mods are fairly quick at deleting these posts, but perhaps there are ways they can be prevented in the first place? For example, have you guys thought about starting to screen new sign-ups, and approve them before they post anything? I'm a part of a few forums that do this. Perhaps to help with this screening, you could put in a mandatory question that all new people signing up have to answer before being approved. It could be something like "what got you interested in belly dance?" or "what got you interested in this forum?" or even "tell us something about yourself." Just to see if it's a real person interested in the forum behind that screen. I think this might filter out a lot of the spammers.

Also, I don't know if you guys already do this, but banning spammers after the first offense would be good too.

Mosaic · 01-19-2012, 02:34 PM

Behind the scenes the spammers are banned as fast as we are able to ban them, for instance in the last 24 hours I personally have banned 40+ new registered spammers, and other mods have banned quite a few as well - most of them don't make it onto the forum, there will be those who do when our backs are turned

We have over the last month been on a slow laborious clean up of spammers well over 1600 so far. Salome has put into the registration process re-CAPTCHA & is looking into other means to catch spammers, but that will mainly deter the spambots, single post spammers will be harder to catch at the door, but we mods work hard to keep them at bay and get rid of them as soon as we spot them. They are a pain and a nuisance, and very time consuming, bear with us we are doing all we can to stop them or rid the forum of them ASAP.
~Mosaic

Harry · 01-19-2012, 02:38 PM

As Yame indicates, the spamming is frequent, not just here, but in most forums and BBs. Working in the IT business, spamming is the bane of my existence, and sometimes, it is not just spamming... We come up with a 'solution' to counter the latest junk, and somebody out there finds a way to get around the protection.

So, in a roundabout way, I appreciate the effort that the volunteer moderators put into keeping the trash out of here. It's not an easy task, at times.

By the way, I did some research: It appears to me that our wonderful volunteer moderators do completely 'zap' spammers out of the forum.

Yame · 01-19-2012, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mosaic

for instance in the last 24 hours I personally have banned 40+ new registered spammers, and other mods have banned quite a few as well - most of them don't make it onto the forum, there will be those who do when our backs are turned

Wow, that's insane! Sounds like hard work. Has it always been this bad, or is this recent? I wonder what attracts people to our forum. I highly doubt anyone actually clicks those links!

gisela · 01-19-2012, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yame

Wow, that's insane! Sounds like hard work. Has it always been this bad, or is this recent? I wonder what attracts people to our forum. I highly doubt anyone actually clicks those links!

Not always. It comes in waves. Some years ago it was almost unbearable, but then Salome introduced some new functions and it became much much better. Recently there has been, as you say, a flood, again

.

Mosaic · 01-19-2012, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yame

Wow, that's insane! Sounds like hard work. Has it always been this bad, or is this recent? I wonder what attracts people to our forum. I highly doubt anyone actually clicks those links!

It seems to come in batches, of craziness, then it will slow to just a few or we'll get a day without any. Spammers look for easy places to drop their doo-doo, hopefully some of the stuff Salome will set up will stop some of it. but like Harry said, bung up one loop hole and they find another hole or break through the barriers, it is juts a never ending job trying to stay one step ahead.

Sometimes I feel like I 'live' on the forum

I have been here zapping for the past few hours and I'm off to bed - it is nearly 3am here in Oz!

Thanks for the heads up Harry

~Mosaic

Yame · 01-19-2012, 04:23 PM

It sounds like you guys are doing a great job of keeping most of the spammers at bay, but it never hurts to brainstorm some new ideas, hence why I opened the thread

Hopefully this flood phase won't last too long. What a PITA!

gisela · 01-19-2012, 04:28 PM

Absolutely Yame. It's good to bring the subject up now and then as the members might have new knowledge from other sources.

Harry · 01-19-2012, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yame

... What a PITA!

Exactly... The big thing is vigilance. The thing that makes this whole thing work is, if you see something that looks like it isn't supposed to be here, contact the moderators. They're good; they'll check it out.

LadyLoba · 01-19-2012, 08:32 PM

The only one I saw today was some sort of weird ad that had nothing to do with anything under the "favorite bellydancers" thread. You moderators deserve a lot of credit...I would lose my patience getting rid of all that junk.

That and trolling...esp trolling that starts out sounding like legitimate participation in the web site. I havent seen that on here in a while...but I've been on chat sites that were teeming with it.

01-19-2012, 01:46 PM	#1
Yame Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: New Jersey Posts: 969	Spam flood I've noticed that lately, this forum has been getting spammed very often. I get email notifications when someone responds to a thread I posted in, and some nights my email gets spammed with responses from here, nearly all of them being trolls/ads. I know I can change the email settings if it really bothers me (though I'd rather not), but I figured we should probably address the spammer problem instead, since it just keeps getting worse. From what I've noticed the mods are fairly quick at deleting these posts, but perhaps there are ways they can be prevented in the first place? For example, have you guys thought about starting to screen new sign-ups, and approve them before they post anything? I'm a part of a few forums that do this. Perhaps to help with this screening, you could put in a mandatory question that all new people signing up have to answer before being approved. It could be something like "what got you interested in belly dance?" or "what got you interested in this forum?" or even "tell us something about yourself." Just to see if it's a real person interested in the forum behind that screen. I think this might filter out a lot of the spammers. Also, I don't know if you guys already do this, but banning spammers after the first offense would be good too.

01-19-2012, 02:34 PM	#2
Mosaic Super Moderator Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Melbourne Australia, but a Kiwi Posts: 6,597	Behind the scenes the spammers are banned as fast as we are able to ban them, for instance in the last 24 hours I personally have banned 40+ new registered spammers, and other mods have banned quite a few as well - most of them don't make it onto the forum, there will be those who do when our backs are turned We have over the last month been on a slow laborious clean up of spammers well over 1600 so far. Salome has put into the registration process re-CAPTCHA & is looking into other means to catch spammers, but that will mainly deter the spambots, single post spammers will be harder to catch at the door, but we mods work hard to keep them at bay and get rid of them as soon as we spot them. They are a pain and a nuisance, and very time consuming, bear with us we are doing all we can to stop them or rid the forum of them ASAP. ~Mosaic Cheart likes this. __________________ *Stifling an urge to dance is bad for your health - it rusts your spirit and your hips. ~Adabella Radici*

01-19-2012, 02:38 PM	#3
Harry Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Baltimore, MD USA Posts: 553	As Yame indicates, the spamming is frequent, not just here, but in most forums and BBs. Working in the IT business, spamming is the bane of my existence, and sometimes, it is not just spamming... We come up with a 'solution' to counter the latest junk, and somebody out there finds a way to get around the protection. So, in a roundabout way, I appreciate the effort that the volunteer moderators put into keeping the trash out of here. It's not an easy task, at times. By the way, I did some research: It appears to me that our wonderful volunteer moderators do completely 'zap' spammers out of the forum. Mosaic and Suzanne Azhaar like this.

01-19-2012, 04:23 PM	#7
Yame Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: New Jersey Posts: 969	It sounds like you guys are doing a great job of keeping most of the spammers at bay, but it never hurts to brainstorm some new ideas, hence why I opened the thread Hopefully this flood phase won't last too long. What a PITA! gisela and Mosaic like this.

01-19-2012, 08:32 PM	#10
LadyLoba Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Nevada, USA Posts: 704	The only one I saw today was some sort of weird ad that had nothing to do with anything under the "favorite bellydancers" thread. You moderators deserve a lot of credit...I would lose my patience getting rid of all that junk. That and trolling...esp trolling that starts out sounding like legitimate participation in the web site. I havent seen that on here in a while...but I've been on chat sites that were teeming with it. __________________ "Never hurt a fiction writer. You will wind up the model for the villain in their next story."

01-19-2012, 04:28 PM	#8
gisela Super Moderator Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Denmark Posts: 3,976	Absolutely Yame. It's good to bring the subject up now and then as the members might have new knowledge from other sources.