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Topic: Why so much spam? (Read 10557 times) previous topic - next topic
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Why so much spam?

I login fairly early every day (BST) and there's fairly often 3+ spam threads on the front page. I know you folks are good at cleaning up but I don't see this on other forums. I was also told off for reporting spam a while back.

Are there no decent anti-spam registration plugins for IP.Board?

Why so much spam?

Reply #1 –
Quote from: probedb on
I was also told off for reporting spam a while back.
I am not quite sure why someone would do that. Sure, identifying spam is usually easy, but at least speaking for myself, I sometimes fail to notice things, and in those contexts, reports are useful. Also, sometimes we get bombarded with umpteen reports from different users about the same piece of spam, but that is obviously not their fault, and deleting PMs is not difficult. Besides, I remember being thanked for reporting spam! I can only assume that different members of staff have quite different opinions on the practice.

Quote
Are there no decent anti-spam registration plugins for IP.Board?
I cannot speak for the admins, but I have wondered the same thing before, and I would heartily support any such measures. Surely even a simple CAPTCHA or quiz would be a big help. (Alternative systems that require admins to manually approve accounts without any form of automated challenge seem much less useful to me.)

Why so much spam?

Reply #2 –
Quote from: db1989 on
I remember being thanked for reporting spam!

I too have been thanked for reporting spam (something I do fairly often) and cannot imagine why this would be discouraged by any mod.

Why so much spam?

Reply #3 –
Automatic spam protection should be fairly easy according to the IP.Board website.

Why so much spam?

Reply #4 –
The spam problem is so bad we have special tools to help deal with it (which db1989 knows nothing of, as he shuns IRC ;_; (like I'm the one to talk, lately...))

The cause of the problem is, of course, Hydrogenaudio's high search ranking.

Why so much spam?

Reply #5 –
Quote from: Canar on
The spam problem is so bad we have special tools to help deal with it (which db1989 knows nothing of, as he shuns IRC ;_; (like I'm the one to talk, lately...))
I know about at least some of them… :S And I feel bad about never being on IRC, but FWIW, there’s no reason other than forgetfulness mixed with the fact that I’ve only ever used IRC a few times in the quite distant past. Keep bugging me and I’ll probably there eventually.

Why so much spam?

Reply #6 –
Thanks guys  Looking back I was told not to report spam unless it's still there hours later. I guess I manage to hit the board before whatever tools run.

Why so much spam?

Reply #7 –
1) Don't reply to spam.
2) We can find most spam semi-automatically.
3) We sometimes fail so if it stays up >24h you can still report it.

Reporting "fresh" spam usually leads to 10 reports for a something that's already been handled so it doesn't really help.

Why so much spam?

Reply #8 –
Quote from: Garf on
3) [...] if it stays up >24h you can still report it.

Reporting "fresh" spam usually leads to 10 reports for a something that's already been handled so it doesn't really help.

Perhaps ToS #14 should be adapted then in order to avoid unnecessary annoyance of the HA staff?

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If you encounter spam, please immediately report it to the HA staff by using the "Report" button below the post.
[emphasize mine]

I don't want to keep from you the fact that I have had several ugly discussions with greynol on this topic in the past: I had thought I would do HA a good turn reporting SPAM as soon as possible, but greynol told me that some of my reports simply have been wrong in the head of the moment. In retrospect I would like to apologize to him for having been so unresonable.
This is HA. Not the Jerry Springer Show.

Why so much spam?

Reply #9 –
Thanks for the understanding.  I don't think googling usernames in order to prevent possible instances of spam are was a good use of your time, especially when we have tools at our disposal. Granted, I don't think we had as many that were implemented back then.

Why so much spam?

Reply #10 –
You do have a good memory... 

Quote
I don't think googling usernames in order to prevent possible instances of spam are was a good use of your time
Yes. Mainly this happened when a company that offered games on facebook, prepared to go public and I realized in this period of time a flood of new members with user names known from that games...

Anyhow, I suffered from that situation between us and I am very glad that this is over now. Thank you, greynol. 

[!--sizeo:1--][span style=\"font-size:8pt;line-height:100%\"][!--/sizeo--]Reason for edit: see above[/size]
This is HA. Not the Jerry Springer Show.

Why so much spam?

Reply #13 –
Thanks for clarifying this. A reminder of this preferred 24-hour policy within the Report page might also be handy.

It currently reads:
Quote
Enter your report

Please note: The moderator will be made aware of the link to the post and the topic title.

This form is to be used ONLY for reporting objectional content, etc and is not to be used as a method of communicating with moderators for other reasons.


I have also noticed, especially a couple of months ago, that spam, even once removed, can resurrect ancient topics because they start to show up in View New Posts and some users will View Last Post in a thread and not spot that it's actually 8 years old, not Today 07:07 as they thought. If there's a way to warn users when they hit Reply or simply remove those threads from View New Posts once the spam has been deleted, it might help avoid pointless answers to questions asked in long-dead threads.

I'm amazed at what a wonderful spam-free site this remains, despite its high google ranking, so kudos to all the admins for their work.
Dynamic – the artist formerly known as DickD

Why so much spam?

Reply #14 –
I went ahead and fixed that and took the liberty to make a few other edits.  I'll post what it was prior to editing in case there is a desire to revert my changes.

Quote
-> 14.

It is acceptable to announce new audio related software on the forum, but registering solely to promote your software or services, without the intent of participating in the discussion on the forums, is not allowed. You also must not misrepresent your relation to software or services you are promoting.

This forum is no marketplace, please don't put up things for sale here.

Sometimes there are also people who post spam messages. We try to detect and remote as much of those semi-automatically, but sometimes that fails. If you encounter spam that appears to have been there for more than a day, please immediately report it to the HA staff by using the "Report" button below the post. Do not reply to spam posts/topic.

The only portion that might deviate from the original intent was the part about promoting software or services.

I now have it as:
"It is acceptable to announce new audio related software on the forum, but registering solely to promote software or services, without the intent of participating in the discussion on the forums, is not allowed."

Why so much spam?

Reply #15 –
Quote from: Dynamic on
A reminder of this preferred 24-hour policy within the Report page might also be handy.
Can that even be edited? Without manually going into the HTML or committing other shenanigans, I mean. If so, yours is a good idea, and I have another suggestion: The page should also be updated so that we don’t have to separately inform users that, contrary to what I presume is IP.Board’s standard warning, the staff here—as far as I know, but correct me if someone disagrees!—have no problem with the reporting system being used for other fair reasons, such as requesting edits to posts. In such cases, reporting is quicker than manually composing a PM and reaches all staff automatically, so users save time and need not worry about having to decide who to ask. I hope I haven’t mistaken the general sentiment, but I seem to recall at least one other member of staff referencing this point of view in the past.

Quote
I'm amazed at what a wonderful spam-free site this remains, despite its high google ranking, so kudos to all the admins for their work.
Hey now, it’s not just the admins…
 

Why so much spam?

Reply #17 –
Quote from: db1989 on
Quote
I'm amazed at what a wonderful spam-free site this remains, despite its high google ranking, so kudos to all the admins for their work.
Hey now, it’s not just the admins…


By which I meant all people who administer the boards and their spam-freedom, including moderators (whether or not they have super-powers).
Dynamic – the artist formerly known as DickD