Spammers

[Xabia Jim]

What's with these people that join FB just to post solicitations?

***** phones, etc? do they really sell stuff this way?

(I just bring up an old post to get rid of them......)

[Ken524]

Re: Spammers

Jim,

Spammers have special software the crawls around the net looking for bulletin boards like this one (vBulletin, and other types). When the spam software "discovers" a board like ours, it automatically registers and posts whatever it is they are selling.

It's tough to stop the spamming without putting too many restrictions on the legitimate members. Something we just sort of need to put up with for now.

[james]

Re: Spammers

Our Forum software keeps getting better at giving us options to keep spammers out. Graphic captchas, email address confirmation, block IP addresses, block ISPs, etc. It's gotten a lot better. There is an option where moderators view and approve postings, but we would never do that.

So a few still get through. Any time you see one that I don't -- send me a PM.

We're doing pretty good.
James

[dmun]

Re: Spammers

It seems to me that there has been a new rash of spammers. It may be that a moderation of a new member's first three posts might be in order. James must be spending a lot of time ditching these abusive members, perhaps a group of active forum volunteers could take over the job of weeding out abusive posts.

[dbhansen]

Re: Spammers

To whomever cleaned up the spam today, thank you! It was getting a little ridiculous....

[james]

Re: Spammers

That's me. It's a constant chore, so I guess it's part of remaining civilized amidst the uncivilized. We have a lot of anti-spam software on the Forum, but it's like an arms race where the spammers learn new tricks; the anti-spam software gets better; repeat. :-)
James

[james]

Re: Spammers

I just read David's posting.

Do you think we have group support for Moderating the first few postings by new members?

I remember back to when I joined by first forum and was unsure about waiting for the first one(s) to go through. As though I was being interviewed to join the group.

What do you think?

Meanwhile, I will do some research on the latest anti-spam software. Perhaps there is something new we can add. More to come on that.

James

[asudavew]

Re: Spammers

I don't think spam on this site is a serious problem.
(Especially compared to my inbox)

I wouldn't mind moderating the first few postings, but as James pointed out..... Do we want to make new members feel like they are being interviewed?

I say live with it.

Unless it gets so bad James, that you are spending lots of time cleaning it up.

My two cents.

Dave

[Ken524]

Re: Spammers

I think Dmun's idea is more like having someone screening the first few posts of new members and approving them before they are made public. It wouldn't be like an interview at all.

This would be transparent for newbies. They make a post like normal, only the post would have to be approved before it goes on the board (lag time of a few hours). After x number of legit posts, they are no longer screened.

I would be more than happy to volunteer to be a "screener" for new member posts. I'm usually on here 4-5 times a week; if not every day.

If 3 or 4 of us could be designated by James as mods with limited privileges, there would be very little lag for the honest new users.

[asudavew]

Re: Spammers

Seems like that would work Ken.
I'm on most days too, so I wouldn't mind helping out.

How's the cooking going Ken. Did you check out James new bread?
Looks awesome and easy too!

I'm gonna give it a go this weekend.
Have you been using your oven every weekend?

Dave

[james]

Re: Spammers

OK. Give me a minute to research the software that will let us do this. The approach makes sense.

I'll be back...
James

[dmun]

Re: Spammers

I notice that most posts now have two new buttons on them:

This returns "add infraction on 'user' ", user = poster name, and:

which says: "report post"
I assume these are our new anti-spam tools. Any instructions about using them?

Our latest drop-in spammer is advertising refractorys in Bristol, UK. This is actually something we could use, is a member in the refractory trade in the UK, if it were a real member rather than a spambot.

[james]

Re: Spammers

Hi David,

I have made you and Ken moderators, which is why you can see these new options. We have also installed new software (forum software 3.7.3, reCaptcha, and Akismet) today, which I am working my way through. Once it is all set up, I think we are going to be in pretty good shape. The spambot registrations should go down and I think it's going to be easier to put spam postings in a moderation que and delete them before they actually reach the forum. I'm hoping it will be easy to keep up and transparent to all of our users. At least that's our goal!

More to come, and the 3.7.3 and reCaptcha are already set up and working.

We can talk about legitimate vendors trying to gain visibility.

James

[Ken524]

Re: Spammers

Hi David,

I have made you and Ken moderators, which is why you can see these new options. We have also installed new software (forum software 3.7.3, reCaptcha, and Akismet) today, which I am working my way through. Once it is all set up, I think we are going to be in pretty good shape. The spambot registrations should go down and I think it's going to be easier to put spam postings in a moderation que and delete them before they actually reach the forum. I'm hoping it will be easy to keep up and transparent to all of our users. At least that's our goal!

More to come, and the 3.7.3 and reCaptcha are already set up and working.

We can talk about legitimate vendors trying to gain visibility.

James

I think the Captcha stuff works great. It nearly eliminated spam on my website's guestbook. Now, Dmun and I just need to figure out what we can (or should) be doing as moderators.