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wfwhitaker
30-May-2008, 13:54
Lately there is an overwhelming amount of spam posts from certain parties who seem to register solely for that purpose. Even when the messages are deleted they come back under new registration to continue fouling the system. This afternoon's crop of crap takes the cake. Is there no means of controlling it or are we simply at their mercy?

Bruce Watson
30-May-2008, 14:18
Indeed. Seems like it might be a good idea to moderate a newbie's first 10 or 20 posts or so. If they can't make a few posts about LF, it ought to be a good indicator that they aren't here for LF, yes?

Jan Pedersen
30-May-2008, 14:36
Perhaps some of the most frequent and well trusted members of this forum could have limited moderator priviledges to take out these unwanted individuals (Spamers)
Just a suggestion.

Eric Woodbury
30-May-2008, 16:33
Or if that is too hard, limit newbies to one post per day.

Frank Petronio
30-May-2008, 16:47
My blog has been getting hit 20-50 per day for the past week, it seems like there is a spam offensive on the way. But Movable Type offers several anti-spam tools and junk filters, so I've been able to increase the filtering (at the expense of almost loosing a few valid comments). You still have to look and review them to make sure you don't filter a real comment.

big_ben_blue
30-May-2008, 16:48
It's getting out of hand. Everything from cheap electronics, shoes to shady photography services; one starts to wonder if the certain body parts enlargements ads are coming next (anyone here in in need for a larger format? :D).

Jim Jirka
30-May-2008, 20:38
I am waiting for the body part reduction ad. :D

Waist.:rolleyes:

David A. Goldfarb
30-May-2008, 20:49
We get these on APUG fairly regularly, and the best tool we have for combating them, which also exists on this forum, is for member to use the "Report Post" function, just by clicking on the red triangle with the exclamation point under the username of the spammer. This sends out an e-mail to all of the moderators, to let them know there is a problem, so that if they're online, but not on the forum or haven't noticed the spam yet, they are more likely to respond quickly.

When the moderators get a Post Report, they can quickly ban the spammer and delete all the spam, so don't respond to the spam in the forum, and don't start a thread about the spam--just report it, and the moderators will deal with it as soon as they are aware of it. On APUG, we often are able to ban the spammer and delete the spam within minutes of the first spam post. The LF forum is a smaller forum, with fewer people to report spam and fewer moderators, but if it gets reported quickly, the moderators can jump in and take care of it before it gets out of hand.

Jan Pedersen
30-May-2008, 22:58
David, I may be quite blind tonight but i can't find that red triangle, can you elaborate a little more on this?
Thanks.

Geert
30-May-2008, 23:30
Problem with reporting SPAM posts, is that the moderators get overloaded.
I really like the comment of Jan on this:


Perhaps some of the most frequent and well trusted members of this forum could have limited moderator priviledges to take out these unwanted individuals (Spamers)
Just a suggestion.

In case spam is noticed, in stead of reporting, they could just delete it. As for misuse, I'm sure that there is a 'tracking' possibility in the forums' administrative tools.

Another possibility is to give those only the rights to move a thread into a hidden trash-forum that gets emptied once in a while.

G

David A. Goldfarb
31-May-2008, 00:40
I don't know how much they're getting here compared to what we get on APUG, but it's really not a big deal to eliminate it when it crops up. It's not necessary to report all the spam posts from a single spammer--just report one, and then it's not too hard to get a list of all the spammer's posts and delete all them at once, after the spammer has been banned.

Jan--Look to the left side of the screen, under each user's name, avatar, info, and above the "post reply" button for the last post in the thread.

Ralph Barker
31-May-2008, 07:39
Tom recently added a vBulletin add-on filter that rejects new registrations from proxy servers. Since most spammers use these to keep their host anonymous, this has eliminated a significant percentage of the spammers, but not those registering from conventional locations/ISPs and having valid e-mail addresses. vBulletin also has a filter that catches some posts as spam, and puts them into a moderation queue, and doesn't display the posts to non-moderator users. This catches some, but isn't particularly effective. The best method is using the reporting mechanism that David G. mentioned.

New-thread spam posts are easy to spot, and are deleted and the registrant banned when one of the moderators is able to log in and scan the new posts. Reporting these generally isn't necessary, but you're welcome to do so.

Reporting spam posts made as a response to an existing thread, however, is very helpful, as we don't always have time to read each thread.

While placing new registrants in the moderation queue sounds like an effective method, it ends up being quite labor intensive, as it catches both valid new members and miscreants, as well.

Charles Hohenstein
31-May-2008, 07:46
How about not letting a new member post anything at all until he has been here a couple of weeks? A couple of weeks of lurking and reading could only do him good, and I doubt that spammers would go to the trouble of monitoring their accounts and coming back to spam us when posting is finally allowed.

CG
31-May-2008, 11:55
I don't know if it's a very friendly idea to ban postings from new members absolutely. New folks are often brought here by having some issue they need answered.

Perhaps a workable intermediate idea would be to have the admins take a look at the first week or two's mesages from new members, to eyeball the questions for suitability before sending them on to the forum in general.

It could be done in a way that would not be a slap in the face of well intentioned folks - and also stop spamming cold.

C

Charles Hohenstein
31-May-2008, 12:05
I don't know if it's a very friendly idea to ban postings from new members absolutely. New folks are often brought here by having some issue they need answered.

Perhaps a workable intermediate idea would be to have the admins take a look at the first week or two's mesages from new members, to eyeball the questions for suitability before sending them on to the forum in general.

It could be done in a way that would not be a slap in the face of well intentioned folks - and also stop spamming cold.

C

Okay, I see your point. I was just trying to suggest something that could be implemented automatically, without requiring the intervention of the moderators. Reviewing the first week or two's postings before allowing them to appear on the site could be a lot of work for the moderators, if a lot of new users showed up at the same time. But I guess that is not going to happen.

Ralph Barker
31-May-2008, 12:51
Just to be clear, new members are immediately allowed to post in the core forums. Access to the FS/WTB section, as noted elsewhere, is allowed after 30 days. Allowing immediate posting to the core forums is actually easier than redirecting initial posts to a moderation queue for approval, because the percentage of spammers is relatively low. If their first post is spam (e.g. Nike sales, etc.), however,it gets deleted as soon as a moderator sees it (or as soon as one can log in after the post has been reported), and the user gets banned.

It is unfortunate that there are so many "people" willing to register to post spam, and/or re-register multiple times to do so.

Frank Petronio
31-May-2008, 12:51
I think it might be a limitation of the forum software, not that it isn't software but what you're asking for is one tiny feature left off the list. I don't know for sure, but I trust Neil, Ralph, etc. to do the most effective and efficient management and moderation.

BTW, thanks to all the moderators for working on this and everything else that they do. This is the very best run forum in the photography world in my humble opinion.

EuGene Smith
31-May-2008, 14:38
David Goldfarb: " . . . and don't start a thread about the spam--"

. . . and without thinking, I did that very thing. I would remove it if I knew how.

wfwhitaker
31-May-2008, 14:59
So did I. Guess I better report myself.

jetcode
31-May-2008, 15:03
I gagged on a Tuna Casserole once but Spam goes down like milk and toast!

Jan Pedersen
31-May-2008, 17:58
Jan--Look to the left side of the screen, under each user's name, avatar, info, and above the "post reply" button for the last post in the thread.

Thanks David, Don't know how i could miss that :o

Frank Bagbey
31-May-2008, 20:51
I know there are some hackers among us who could cure this problem and terminate it permanently. Stand up and get it done!

Tomaas
31-May-2008, 23:07
It's getting out of hand. Everything from cheap electronics, shoes to shady photography services; one starts to wonder if the certain body parts enlargements ads are coming next (anyone here in in need for a larger format? :D).

There vas posting here not long ago by member and he vas complaining he could not secure date even when he pay $200. Maybe these "part enlargement" pills could be of tremendous help to him.

It vas most humor-fulled thread I have ever seen on forum and mine wife could not belief anyone vould be so foolish to post such personal information on publc forum. Does anybody know posting I refer to?

So spam may not all be bad for everyone. He he he!

Tomaas

domenico Foschi
31-May-2008, 23:50
There vas posting here not long ago by member and he vas complaining he could not secure date even when he pay $200. Maybe these "part enlargement" pills could be of tremendous help to him.

It vas most humor-fulled thread I have ever seen on forum and mine wife could not belief anyone vould be so foolish to post such personal information on publc forum. Does anybody know posting I refer to?

So spam may not all be bad for everyone. He he he!

Tomaas

For a moment I though you typed pubic forum...:)

Tomaas
1-Jun-2008, 15:46
For a moment I though you typed pubic forum...:)

:) No, Domenico, ist just my old fingers that cannot type as vell as I use to in my younger days. :)

Tomaas

Aahx
10-Jun-2008, 10:54
It is unfortunate that there are so many "people" willing to register to post spam, and/or re-register multiple times to do so.


The reason some of them are more than willing to do so... it is pure monetary interest. Not making excuses for them by any means mind you. But some mass marketing guru's seem to think spamming gets products sold. So they entice folks to propagate spam and pay them to do so. I personally despise the practice and have chosen not to buy products from manufacturers that are listed under spam adverts as a consequence. This goes for any manufacture that uses any form of advertisement or business practice I find offensive mind you.


As to the spam on forums.. I myself have moderated several forums over the years and the spam tends to come in waves. The worst time of the year is Oct, Nov, Dec though... as they are trying to get folks to buy there products for xmass, etc. That is when I have seen the biggest "waves" of spam hit the forums from my personal experiences moderating them. ^ and no.. I am not intersted in moderating this forum by any means. I allready have too much on my plate (4 other forums + work, etc.. ), and I am still a fairly new member here as well.

As to solutions, the one giving some active members "move topic" authority (i.e. backup moderator status, but not full status). Allowing them to move offensive threads to a unseen "dump" thread does work well. That way the primary moderators can spend more time banning the offenders, while getting help cleaning up the threads lowering there "work load". Though that depends on how the forum software allows one to set up permissions. As some forum software will not allow different levels of permissions where others will.

Greg Miller
11-Jun-2008, 08:55
What is amazing to me about spam is that there must be enough people who respond to it to make it worthwhile for spammers to continue spamming. Instead of banning spammers we need to find a way to ban the people who respond to it. We need Darwin's theory of natural selection to be able to take over. ;)

jetcode
13-Jun-2008, 10:56
I had major problems with spam on a major ISP account but it is virtually gone and now I receive next to no spam whatsoever

Preston
13-Jun-2008, 11:22
I reported two spam posts on our forum the other day. They are gone now. I appreciate our moderators for keeping an eye on the store!

-PB