[improvement] Spam

[hawc]

Hi Admins,

Is their anything that can be done to try and keep the level of Spam down. I notice that all of the Spam comes from people with Indian flags in their profiles, (Do not take this as racist) so I think that if we pre moderated all of the threads that are started with people with Indian Flags in their profiles then we could cut down on the Spam. (We could white list all of the users who do have Indian flags and do not Spam)

 

Oh, and also, could you take a look at the report page. as when I have typed my message and clicked send, the page reloads and my message is still there, so I am not sure weather my message has been sent. Is it possible to have a box appear to tell the users of this site, weather their report has been received.

 

HTH

 

Harry

[LosOjos]

Yeah the spam is getting worse it seems. Maybe just having to have a mod approve the first thread started by a new user?

[CHR1S]

Spam is as inevitable as death and taxes. Because of the sites increasing popularity and subject matter this is also another factor.

 

This forum is one of the best I have used for levels and removal and would hate to see it unmoderated.

[FN-GM]

I think some of our more senior none mod users should be able to "hide" spam posts. Can we make it so people who have been here for a long time, who are trusted can hide posts from first time posters? I hate spam!!!

 

Just my though.

Edited December 6, 2013 by FN-GM

[CHR1S]

Id be happy to help as best I can, like a kind of minimod

[Dos_Box]

We are aware of the current increase in the amount of spam we are getting and believe me when I say we already have several anti-spam measures in place when it comes to registering, which I won't go into for obvious reasons.

We get about 80,000 visitors a day to Edugeek and our size makes us a big target for spammers and we really do our best to mitigate them as soon as they are reported.

We also carry out checks on suspicious new accounts before they have even posted, but if they don't meet certain criteria then we cannot do anything until they reveal themselves, and we remove a large amount that do fail checks.

Having to approve new posts is a non starter as well I'm afraid not only would it delay those who need help the most urgent, but with many hundreds of new posts each day it would put too big a burden on our already hard-working moderators who already have to manage on their own networks.

We are doing our best, and it's not just our community that gets hit by these people, so please bare with us, and we appreciate your input if you have any ideas on further ideas we could consider we shall certainly take them onboard.

[sparkeh]

I think some of our more senior none mod users should be able to "hide" spam posts. Can we make it so people who have been here for a long time, who are trusted can hide posts from first time posters?

 

Just my though.

Great idea. A lot of the spam could be hidden away very quickly rather than having to report it for mods to deal with and free them up for other more interesting tasks.

[creese]

please bare with us, and we appreciate your input if you have any ideas on further ideas we could consider we shall certainly take them onboard.

 

 

You are doing a grand job. I hope none of is is daft enough to follow the links, otherwise they are a brief source of entertainment.

[fiza]

We are aware of the current increase in the amount of spam we are getting and believe me when I say we already have several anti-spam measures in place when it comes to registering, which I won't go into for obvious reasons.

We get about 80,000 visitors a day to Edugeek and our size makes us a big target for spammers and we really do our best to mitigate them as soon as they are reported.

We also carry out checks on suspicious new accounts before they have even posted, but if they don't meet certain criteria then we cannot do anything until they reveal themselves, and we remove a large amount that do fail checks.

Having to approve new posts is a non starter as well I'm afraid not only would it delay those who need help the most urgent, but with many hundreds of new posts each day it would put too big a burden on our already hard-working moderators who already have to manage on their own networks.

We are doing our best, and it's not just our community that gets hit by these people, so please bare with us, and we appreciate your input if you have any ideas on further ideas we could consider we shall certainly take them onboard.

 

@Dos_Box I think the idea was to approve the first post of new users not all new posts.

[sparkeh]

@Dos_Box I think the idea was to approve the first post of new users not all new posts.

Yeah, the spam is usually a spambot's first post.

[teejay]

Couple of thoughts:

Could there be a way of stripping hyperlinks from posts of new users either for say their first 5 posts, or until they've been approved by a mod? This would certainly help prevent accidentally clicking on a spam link.

On another forum I use, the spam report button can only be activated once, so once one member has reported it then others can't. This saves time as once it's reported everyone knows so don't waste time re-reporting it, plus the mods only have one report to deal with.

 

Other than that, for a big site moderated voluntarily I think you do a brilliant job

[FN-GM]

Maybe if they are a newbie and get reported as a spammer, they are locked from posting anything else?

[MordyT]

Some thoughts.

 

Moderate first post of new members, once approved you can set vb to auto promote to a group that doesn't have moderation enabled. I can walk you through steps if you want.

This has stopped spam short on my forums.

There are several registration mods I use to prevent spammers.

1 checks the amount if time a person takes to fill out the registration form. Another way is q/a during registration that is not something normal - instead a site specific questions.

Hidden JavaScript field set to NO with hidden question that you would answer as yes on register form. Anyone answering yes is a spammer though, using a bot (which doesn't care about JavaScript and will see the question)

Lastly, sounds like you need more mods if current mods are overloaded.

 

I like the idea that senior members could flag a post as spam and then the person would be marked for moderation - kinda of after the fact, but effective at stopping the spam.

[ZeroHour]

Lately there has been a surge of spam accounts which I think are actually created by real people. The posts themselves are created by a script but I think registrations are a lot more manual then before. This makes blocking creation a nightmare as humans are suppose to be able to register.

Although auto-moderation of new account posts seems like an obvious solution this actually has a far far higher overhead then dealing with the spam accounts. Its also very hostile to the new user who is urgently needing help. I think unless you are getting really really hit with spam (50% spam 50% real) manual moderation is just too much work. Right now although we do get spam posts they live for only a few minutes generally before getting reported/removed and that to me is one of the more important metrics although I am going to look at blocking links again when posted in the first posts but even that has resulted in people writing complaining about having issues posting because of our locked down rules preventing links, thats why the prior restriction was lifted.

 

I am in the process of looking at other ways of blocking spam accounts by tweaking signups (js tricks can be bad, especially for screen readers etc) as well as implementing a way to autohide like suggested. To be honest thinking now I actually would prefer a 5,10,15,x minute delay for new accounts posts, registered users could see the posts to report as well as highlighting the new account status (aka making people think before clicking possibly with a click warning popup) on the post. If no one reports the post it goes live automatically to unregistered accounts after x unless it has been reported which keeps all posts hidden as well as leaving the new account flag until a mod comes along and deals with it/removes the lock and status.

Edited December 7, 2013 by ZeroHour

[elsiegee40]

I think some of our more senior none mod users should be able to "hide" spam posts. Can we make it so people who have been here for a long time, who are trusted can hide posts from first time posters? I hate spam!!!

 

Just my though.

 

It is very rare that spam sits around for more than a couple of minutes with the existing mod team. As soon as it is reported we get emailed and it's usually a race to see who can spamomatic first. It gets quite competetive!

[FN-GM]

It is very rare that spam sits around for more than a couple of minutes with the existing mod team. As soon as it is reported we get emailed and it's usually a race to see who can spamomatic first. It gets quite competetive!

 

I agree, if you are in the UK. When i was in Australia when most of the mods where tucked up in bed, i used to see Spam much more.

[plexer]

There are now more mods and not all based in the uk.

 

Ben

[FN-GM]

There are now more mods and not all based in the uk.

 

Ben

 

Thats why i said Most.

[ZeroHour]

Just an update to you all, we have blocked some ranges and changes a few things to try and slow the flood for now but we will see how it goes over the next week or so.