Sciencemadness Discussion Board

What is up with the weirdly-named accounts?

Velzee - 30-7-2016 at 08:11

Hi SM,

Almost every day, I log on to Science Madness, and I see that the most recent posts are from
strangely named accounts, such as "oi3oqdfsqo4" and "xwwa56wyqd" and they seem to be the same ones each time.

If you decide to click on one of these accounts, you are lead to an error page, telling you that you have "no member selected." And if you click on the button to go directly to their post, you are lead to a forum post which isn't theirs, and isn't posted at the same time as the odd user.

I just noticed this happen a few days ago, maybe a week ago, but I just thought it was odd, and should be addressed.

[Edited on 7/30/2016 by Velzee]

[Edited on 7/30/2016 by Velzee]

mayko - 30-7-2016 at 08:20

Those are spam accounts which are being generated partly/entirely by machine. It registers a random string as a username, posts a wildly unconvincing pitch for its product, and then its thread(s) and account are quickly deleted by the admins. I hadn't seen many of these in a while, but thought that targeting high-entropy account names might be a tactic in an anti-spam strategy

Velzee - 30-7-2016 at 08:24

Quote: Originally posted by mayko  
Those are spam accounts which are being generated partly/entirely by machine. It registers a random string as a username, posts a wildly unconvincing pitch for its product, and then its thread(s) and account are quickly deleted by the admins. I hadn't seen many of these in a while, but thought that targeting high-entropy account names might be a tactic in an anti-spam strategy


I have seen some of those weird advertising accounts, but they usually have decent, legible names, and aren't often deleted so quickly. But the accounts I spoke of are quite odd in that they don't usually post anything. On the other hand, I think you are probably correct in that the admins do quickly delete them. Quite an oddity and perhaps an annoyance here at SM.

Texium - 30-7-2016 at 09:30

These accounts are a different kind of spammer account that is taken out automatically by Polverone's spam killer. Even though they are taken out automatically, it still shows them as the most recent post in the subforum that they attempted to post in. It may be kind of annoying, but trust me, it's preferable by far to how it was before we had the spam killer.

Velzee - 30-7-2016 at 10:06

Quote: Originally posted by zts16  
These accounts are a different kind of spammer account that is taken out automatically by Polverone's spam killer. Even though they are taken out automatically, it still shows them as the most recent post in the subforum that they attempted to post in. It may be kind of annoying, but trust me, it's preferable by far to how it was before we had the spam killer.


Ah, thank you for clearing things up!

diddi - 30-7-2016 at 21:36

it is my understanding that there are certain members with spam killer privelidges, who can delete the account in the case that mods do not see it, however they can only do so if there are ZERO REPLIES on the thread, so if you report spam, do not make any posts in the thread such as "Reported" because it stops those with the "superpowers" from being able to delete it.

Velzee - 30-7-2016 at 22:01

Quote: Originally posted by diddi  
it is my understanding that there are certain members with spam killer privelidges, who can delete the account in the case that mods do not see it, however they can only do so if there are ZERO REPLIES on the thread, so if you report spam, do not make any posts in the thread such as "Reported" because it stops those with the "superpowers" from being able to delete it.


Dang, heck if I'd known of these abilities, I could have saved some fuss in past few months. I don't know why it is, but usually I seem to log onto SM just as the spam accounts post. I just report them as soon as I see them.

[Edited on 7/31/2016 by Velzee]