Responding to SPAM

[Michael Hardner]

Hello MapleLeafWeb posters,

Lately, there has been SPAM posted about Nostradamus on the forum that for some reason is eliciting responses from you.

Please do not respond to SPAM posts in any way - it creates even more tedious work for the facilitators and moderators to clean up after the post.

Thank you.

[Charles Anthony]

Exactly. The bottom line is this: When you encounter a forum violation, do not respond or engage it in public discussion. Report it and then ignore it.

[Guest American Woman]

Exactly. The bottom line is this: When you encounter a forum violation, do not respond or engage it in public discussion. Report it and then ignore it.

I'm trying to report this poster as well as his posts as spam, but none of the reports will go through. I end up getting a "server error" page.

[Shady]

I'm trying to report this poster as well as his posts as spam, but none of the reports will go through. I end up getting a "server error" page.

I was getting the same error message too.

[Michael Hardner]

I'm still receiving reports, so the function does work.

However - I just had the same thing happen.

Greg / Charles ?

[The_Squid]

I'm still receiving reports, so the function does work.

However - I just had the same thing happen.

Greg / Charles ?

I am getting the same error message....

[Guest American Woman]

I am getting the same error message....

I'm still getting it - as the spam accumulates.

-----------------------------------

Edited to add:

I'm wondering, in light of MH saying that he's still getting reports, if the reports are going through in spite of the error message? Is this possible?

Edited August 25, 2012 by American Woman

[madmax]

Wow, this is ironic... the Spammers picked the spamming thread too....

[Guest Manny]

I can no longer differentiate...

[cybercoma]

In Soviet Russia, spammers respond to you!

[Guest Manny]

Wow, this is ironic... the Spammers picked the spamming thread too....

What's ironic is how anyone can log in here and deposit loads of spam right away. There's so much spam out there in the forum right now, it's darn near impossible to avoid.

[GostHacked]

The report button is very broken and the spam on this site has hit a critical level. We need another moderator full time, just to take care of spam if anything.

[betsy]

I think it would be best to make suggestions (stopping Spam) through private messaging or emails.

Some spammers get a "high" in knowing they're causing some concern - like a "flasher" would get enjoyment from the reaction of those he's flashing!

When I see who posted the topic, I just scroll down and skip them.

Edited August 31, 2012 by betsy

[TheNewTeddy]

The report button is very broken and the spam on this site has hit a critical level. We need another moderator full time, just to take care of spam if anything.

A moderator who is able to be here frequently.

[j44]

The report button is very broken and the spam on this site has hit a critical level. We need another moderator full time, just to take care of spam if anything.

A moderator who is able to be here frequently.

Do they even have to be here frequently? There was so much yesterday that wouldn't it have helped to just have someone check in on the site a couple times a day? Even once in the afternoon and once at night.

[cybercoma]

They should just have a team of people, since obviously Charles Anthony and Greg don't spend much time on the forum. The latter rarely if ever anymore and the former only a few times a week. Michael Hardner tries to keep up with the stuff, but it isn't fair for him to have to handle it all by himself. Four or five of the most prolific posters should be given the ability to delete spam accounts and their posts. Charles can keep an eye on them to make sure they don't do anything stupid (deleting members' posts or accounts) and punish them by permanently banning them if they do this. We just need a handful of "cleaners" on the forum to keep an eye on things. They shouldn't be responsible for enforcing the rules or anything else like that. Just keeping the spambots at bey.

[TheNewTeddy]

They should just have a team of people, since obviously Charles Anthony and Greg don't spend much time on the forum. The latter rarely if ever anymore and the former only a few times a week. Michael Hardner tries to keep up with the stuff, but it isn't fair for him to have to handle it all by himself. Four or five of the most prolific posters should be given the ability to delete spam accounts and their posts. Charles can keep an eye on them to make sure they don't do anything stupid (deleting members' posts or accounts) and punish them by permanently banning them if they do this. We just need a handful of "cleaners" on the forum to keep an eye on things. They shouldn't be responsible for enforcing the rules or anything else like that. Just keeping the spambots at bey.

[kimmy]

Perhaps some sort of policy where the first post by new users is moderated?

That would put an end to these spam-bots as well as to Markuze's harassment of people here.

-k

[cybercoma]

Perhaps some sort of policy where the first post by new users is moderated?

That would put an end to these spam-bots as well as to Markuze's harassment of people here.

-k

That's a good idea too.

[TheNewTeddy]

I know forums can have time based filters, IE, you can not post within 10 seconds of your last post or something.

Is there any way to set this up so that users with fewer than 10 posts can only post once an hour?

[Guest Manny]

Wonder if his therapist knows he's back to doing this again.

[TheNewTeddy]

I've decided not to report any spam until the moderators, administrators, and facilitators (who have each-other's jobs according to the dictionary, but whatever) actually respond to this thread.

[Guest American Woman]

I've decided not to report any spam until the moderators, administrators, and facilitators (who have each-other's jobs according to the dictionary, but whatever) actually respond to this thread.

Why? The spam is being removed from the board, so obviously reporting it is effective - and giving us the desired outcome.

[TheNewTeddy]

If you want to stop the spam you need to be pro active and not just respond after the fact.

[Greg]

I am aware of this situation, and we will be dealing with it as soon as possible.

However, in order to effectively deal with the spam, we need to upgrade the forums to the latest version. Doing this will break the forum theme/templates, which will mean the whole forum will have to be defaulted to the standard look for Invision Forums.

This obviously isn't ideal, and I am trying to find a solution that i will impact the forum community the least. However, I do realize that dealing with the forum templates is probably easier than dealing with the onslaught of spammers. So you can expect a solution before the end of the week (possibly sooner).

Thanks!