I have a noticed, a ridiculous amount of advertising and annoying links on here, and I think I speak for Writing Forums, we want it stopped. Any suggestions on how to begin eliminating the problem?
I can't agree more! And how is it getting around my pop-up blocker? I have changed the settings to allow none, and yet the windows keep opening!
sorry, but you do not speak for me... i'm not getting any pop-ups at all... and the only ads i see are at the top of the page, where i can ignore them easily enough...
Yes, I agree. I'm not getting any pop-ups either and the adverts don't bother me. And you shouldn't really perport to be speaking on behalf of people whose opinions you have not canvassed.
I think people misunderstood.. I meant, people creating an account, and their FIRST and only post, is an advertisement to a site. I have reported six or seven, which have been deleted, hence the reason you may not have seen them. Sorry for any misunderstanding.
That's different. I've just read one and there I do agree with you. Apart from the bit where you're speaking for everyone!
The most efficient way to get rid of the spam, is to report it. As soon as either a report slides into my inbox, or I come across it on the forums, I remove it. Unless I'm either sleeping or eating, and I don't do either as a particularly large portion of the day.
Ah yes. Le Spambots. There are ways to prevent them, but unfortunately it's not 100% effective. Like Banzai said, should you encounter a spambot, or any rather spammy post for that matter, report it. That's why there are moderators on these sort of sites. They will ban the bot and clean up the mess. (Thank god vB has a Delete as Spam option or I'd have gone crazy years ago...)
And these are the ones who are here long enough for you to see them. There are many more you never get to see. The mods are cleaning them as fast as we can, and have asked Daniel for more automated assistance.
Yeah Daniel, Cogito and Banzai are all on it. I've only seen 3 advertisements recently, so they are taking care of it as much as they can.
I am sure Daniel is aware but there is actually a plug in for vBulletin 4 which stops spam accounts at the registration page. If this plugin were to be implemented spam would only be a rare occurrence.
A good way to control spambot activity is to require mod approval for a user's first post. It's been implemented at a forum where I'm a moderator and hasn't really dissuaded new users.
It's hardly that simple! As soon as there is a widely-distributed spam blocker, spammers are working on new ways to circumvent it. That would place a large burden on the mods here, given the rate at which new members join. I also don't want to restrict new users unnecessarily.
I think the best way to deter spammers away is by not allowing links to appear in the post. Without a quick link their posts are useless because very few or nobody is going to copy-paste the address to check it out. For genuine members who want to post links, there can be a system where they ask permission from the mods, and the mods can activate the link button for a particular post. Will the mods be flooded with such request? I don't think so, because I have noticed very very few members posting links. This can be a way of earning for the website too, create a separate forum for such advertising posts (like a shoutbox) and take minimal payment before granting permission.
It's actually simpler than you think. Within the plug-in there is an option to enable which connects the program to the Akismet database. If spam is reported on any other site using the same plug-in then that spam post will also be registered here and cross-checked against the database.
They seem to go in spurts, just based on what I've seen in various forums. Pretty easily recognized, too. So see it, report it, ignore it, gone. It's only a couple of clicks, after all.
I don't think that would have any effect, because the spambots don't check whether links have been stripped or not, they just fire the spam out. I belong to other forums that do strip links, and they get as much spam as this one. I agree that spam does seem to have been getting worse of late.
