I'm with the idea of adopting Captcha. There are several spammers on the board now that keep bumping their threads.
@Cogito: Well yes, stemming the issue at its source, before it even becomes an issue would be ideal. That I am not remotely disputing. But some post facto assistance seems like it could be useful - at least in the mean time for the clearer-cut cases, and at least until a more effective, systemic, up-stream solution could be found. That was more so my point: an interim means of mitigating teh spamage. I'm sure the forum will manage either way.
I'm all for Captcha, Pop Quizzes, Background Checks, DNA Tests -- anything to keep these bastards off of the forum.
Until reasonably recently there a was a third active moderator - the excellent Wreybies, who seemed able to log-on while at work. I trust Wreybies is alive and kicking...but more to the point, it is an awful lot for two to do. What if Cogito or Banzai go on holiday?...
it does seem to be getting worse... and with no sign of it being abated, surely something else needs to be done, before we start losing valued long-time members... and to avoid scaring off new ones worth having...
But something needs to be done in the meantime. The entire Publishers section has been taken hostage by these spammers, and the rest of the site is slowly following suit. Honestly, it's never been this bad before. I can't even find legit posts on here anymore.
And at least one spammer has a new tactic - periodically adding the same spam to the thread, thereby bumping it back up to the top and (I understand) making it harder to take down the thread. Seriously, I don't understand why the sudden deluge of spam. It's like a bunch of them just discovered this site and decided to attack.
If you guys trusted me with thread-deletion powers (mwuahahaha), I could delete some spam threads for free. I can't guarantee set hours or anything, but I'm on this site a lot (usually late at night) and could certaintly delete some stuff. And don't worry, I despise misuse of power and I would only delete obvious spam. (I know the difference between someone's "Yay, I finished my novel" thread and a thread full of nothing but Viagra links). Just letting you all know that the offer's there. I value WF a lot, and would be happy to do my part to keep it a writing-oriented-only site. Send me a message if interested.
Right now my schedule allows me to be on here off and on at various times during the day. I'd be happy to delete spam thread as well. The problem is worse here than on other writing sites I frequent, and in the past couple of weeks the spam count seems to have increased dramatically. I do thin a change needs to be made to address it - it makes the forums look bad.
I second both Mallory and Steerpike, if that counts for anything. Both are friendly, helpful and very active on the site. I realize that there are a number of aspects you guys have to consider, but since help is obviously needed, having willing volunteers seems to be a good place to start.
I've only just joined the site and I really hope I don't offend anyone when I say this but it is really bad, and it looks really bad. I almost left and didn't come back because sifting through the junk and stuff that's worth reading is just so tedious.
mallory and steerpike... i became a member here almost 4 years before you came along and even a bit before our mega-mods cog and banzai arrived, but i can still see the reasoning behind the admin having to say 'thanks, but no thanks' to my having made the same offer and can accept the fact that it wouldn't really be doable, for the reasons given... it's good of you to want to help, but i think what's needed most right now is for us all to trust daniel and support his efforts to solve the problem... we all owe him a great vote of thanks for having started the site and making it the fine place it's been for writers over the past 5+ years... let's give him time to take care of this and just go on doing what we do here, while ignoring the pests... it's easy enough to do... love and hugs, maia
Well said mammaia. I just wanted to make it clear I'm willing to help if the admin here decide that it's a good idea. If they decide it isn't workable or not a good idea for any other reason, I'm cool with that as well I hope a workable solution is found soon, so we don't lose too many newbies.
Are you using the stopforumspam tool available through vBulletin? If not you really need to get it. The mods will thank you for it.
I've read through this thread with interest. There are two points that I've picked up on. One is about what constitutes spam. My perception is that any unsolicited advertising is spam. The other is about a member complaining about being banned from another site for posting a link. When registering for most sites it's required that people agree they've read the rules and guidelines. The fact that few do read them is neither here nor there. Taking a few minutes to look through those rules, particularly to see what the policy is on advertising and promotion, is really all it takes to prevent a new member making a post which will be regarded as spam.
I have already explained exactly what happened with the other site; if you really read the thread "with interest" you might have noticed that the misunderstanding I described had nothing to do with my not reading the rules and everything to do with a careless moderator who did not really read the thread in question or bother to check whether the link I posted was in response to the question. Rules? The rules said, as they say on most sites, something along the lines of not advertising. Posting this link was not advertising because it was in response to a question which directly asked for a good site to buy used books. I did not own the site and would not have benefited if the user decided to go there and buy books. What I posted was within the rules, but due to a mistake and some hasty deletions, I was presumed guilty of spamming...which was pretty unfair considering that I'd been an active member on the site for months prior to that and had a clean track record. "Taking a few minutes to look through those rules" therefore did not figure into it. The entire problem was caused by a miscommunication and a lazy spam-checker. My only point in bringing it up at all is to point out that the power to delete threads and ban users shouldn't be taken lightly because there are moments in which mistakes can be made. You suggest a definition of "unsolicited advertising", but that's still vague: say I post a thread telling the forum about a new online writing program I heard about. I don't own the site and don't stand to benefit financially from it; my purpose is merely to inform my friends on this site that there is a program. So I post a link and say check it out. Well, a spam-checker might misunderstand my intentions and I might be in trouble for spamming the forum, even if this wasn't my intention, because my posting the link and telling others to have a look might be interpreted as "unsolicited advertising". Now, if what I've described actually fits the definition for "spam" that you all wish to have here, that's fine, but I want to know exactly what constitutes spam and what doesn't so that misunderstandings like that can be avoided, and clear definitions usually involve more than two words. That's the main reason laws are so long.
We used Captchas in the past but the default vBulletin set-up was cracked but a bot that could pass the captchas. For the past several months (or longer) we've used the question and answer human verification. Apparently a bot targeted us and the spammer programmed the answer to the question into the bot's capabilities - at least that would be my guess. I've changed to reCAPTCHA now, which should cut back on bot spam. If that doesn't work, perhaps a more difficult question might. We are using it. I've given it stricter parameters to filter the spam, so hopefully that will help as well.
I will also consider adding an additional moderator to the team if these anti-spam measures don't make a dent.
