Regarding Spam

[Robert]

Spam is an issue that every forum faces. This forum deals with it far more effectively and efficiently than many others.

I'm on multiple forums, Terry, and I've only come across one that's worse than this for clearing out spam. The management here are anything but effective at dealing with it. Spam posts over a week old is not the sign of a healthy forum.

Cheers,
Rob

[TWErvin2]

Rob,

I'm on multiple forums, Terry, and I've only come across one that's worse than this for clearing out spam. The management here are anything but effective at dealing with it. Spam posts over a week old is not the sign of a healthy forum.

Cheers,
Rob

I guess I don't go to the areas of the forum here where spam is prevalent (Generally, I only stay in the upper two sections, and not the crit sections). I can tell you from being an admin at a forum, and moderator at another, that it is something I deal with daily. I know of several forums I visted that simply gave up rather than put in hoop after hoop for members to be able to post, or to individually screen new members, and/or having to go continually go in and delete posts and members, block ISPs, etc.

Some of it is the forum software that more effectively inhibits spammers, and a host of other factors.

Whatever the case, I've seen worse, far worse.

Terry

[Gannon]

I agree I've seen far worse, therefore well done mods!

[MRD]

Irony indeed. Regarding spam I think the mods should implement a 'birth of silence' policy for new members. You're not allowed to post anything till 72 hours have elapsed since joining the forum. I see benefits further and beyond just the spam.

I think that's a bad idea. The only thing that would do with spam is delay it by three days, hardly a solution. Plus you'd be limiting people's ability to write which, for a forum dedicated to writing, is probably not a good thing.

[The-Joker]

I disagree. If it's a human spammer and not a bot it could be a deterrent. Remember predators attack the easy target. If one has to register and then wait a whole three days to post, then spamming this site becomes a three day process, not a 3 minute process, and spammers would move on. It even might interfere with the bots as well. They might not be programmed to wait or something.

And yes this is a writing site, but reading is just as essential. And having a whole 3 days to read previous posts might prevent repetition of belabored topics

[Islander]

I'm sure the moderators are doing everything they can to remove the spam, but when it's this much, I think the problem lies with the software and registration process.

I think it's a good idea to stop people from posting for three days after registration - if it works, the effect should be seen immediately, and if it doesn't, it's easy to change back.

Until a better solution is found, it could even be necessary to verify new members manually before they're allowed to post.

[mammamaia]

the deluge continues to worsen, so it's probably worth a try...

but if it's going to work at all, then a 24-hour wait would be just as effective and not as annoying to would-be new members as a 3-day one would...

[Daniel]

I am currently looking for a solution to this problem.

[J.P.Clyde]

Personally, I did like another idea presented. An application process beforehand. Those who are new members must answer a questionnaire style application before being accepted.

The only question I have about any policy regarding new members, would it automatically void my account?

Truth be I only what registered just last week. If we added in these new member regulations, would they effect the people who have been posting normally as a fully fledged functioning member?

[The-Joker]

There appears to be a recent surge of spam and I predict this will only get worse. Currently half the latest posts are spam. The time for half measures is over. This war must end soon or this site might perish in the flood.

[MRD]

There appears to be a recent surge of spam and I predict this will only get worse. Currently half the latest posts are spam. The time for half measures is over. This war must end soon or this site might perish in the flood.

Well that's a little overboard...

Spam is an annoyance at best. When you see it, report it and move on. Hardly a "war", and certainly not site-threatening.

I'm sure forum admins are doing everything they can to solve the problem. So relax and don't be going all commando on some spam bots...

[Anonym]

THIS IS SPART-- uh, WRITING FORUMS!!!

I still think we could use more trustworthy people manually deleting obvious spam threads and banning their authors in the mean time, if it's not all that complicated. At least until software deterrents sufficient to stem this plague of spam are in place. IMO.

[The Degenerate]

Well that's a little overboard...

Spam is an annoyance at best. When you see it, report it and move on. Hardly a "war", and certainly not site-threatening.

I'm sure forum admins are doing everything they can to solve the problem. So relax and don't be going all commando on some spam bots...

Really? Take a look over at the Publishers forum and compare the legit to spam ratio.

[MRD]

Really? Take a look over at the Publishers forum and compare the legit to spam ratio.

Granted, there's a lot of spam. All the more to ignore.

It's not exactly difficult to work out what is, and isn't, spam. If you see spam, report it and move along, it doesn't take more than a few seconds. Nothing to get so worked up over.

So relax, you'll live longer.

[mammamaia]

i'm with mrd on this... it's easy enough to ignore till daniel figures out the best way to deal with it... getting all het up about it won't help you, him, us, or the site!

[Ubrechor]

i'm with mrd on this... it's easy enough to ignore till daniel figures out the best way to deal with it... getting all het up about it won't help you, him, us, or the site!

I agree. Of course, it is extremely annoying, having the spam everywhere, but usually you can tell the difference between spam and genuine. I haven't found it life-threatening

[Cogito]

The robospammers would hardly be slowed down by a silence period. For every account that spams immediately, they open ten more sleeper accounts to spam days, weeks, or months later. And they DO come back to those sleeper accounts.

Any solution must stop them from successfully registering dozens or hundreds of accounts in the first place.

[Mobhit]

The robospammers would hardly be slowed down by a silence period. For every account that spams immediately, they open ten more sleeper accounts to spam days, weeks, or months later. And they DO come back to those sleeper accounts.

Any solution must stop them from successfully registering dozens or hundreds of accounts in the first place.

Sadly enough the only way to stop that is an IP Registry, which requires license which require legal mumbo-jumbo, which is in all truth being told, More annoying then the spam itself.

IP Register records IP not just e-mail, so I can't create an account from the same computer when one account is made.

Figure to explain for the non-geekies. I still find it said I remember this from middle school some 18 years ago

[Baron]

The robospammers would hardly be slowed down by a silence period. For every account that spams immediately, they open ten more sleeper accounts to spam days, weeks, or months later. And they DO come back to those sleeper accounts.

Any solution must stop them from successfully registering dozens or hundreds of accounts in the first place.

This is a potential problem on all internet forums. The worst offenders are the Asian SEOs. Measure have been taken on my own site, which would probably be useful to you. First there is a restriction on new members using signatures and visitor messages until they have been seen to be active on the forums. Second is a quick check of new members. Where there are multiple registrations for one IP the accounts are deleted (except AOL accounts). Any IP that shows with an unresolved hostname, and most of the Asian SEOs usually do, is also deleted. We also have the Akismet spam manager turned on. The staff deal with any spam posts which do manage to appear on the boards as soon as they are aware of them but those other measures mean that there is very little of that.

I also had a cleanup of the site recently and removed all accounts more than a year old which had no posts. This reduced the number of members by two thirds and no doubt a great number of those were spam accounts.

[Islander]

The spam seems to have slowed down now.