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Author: Subject: Tired of reporting spam
froot
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[*] posted on 6-5-2014 at 00:14


It appears the spam problem has been solved. Urged by curiosity I must ask, what happened?



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Zyklon-A
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[*] posted on 6-5-2014 at 11:32


I have been meaning to ask this too. I haven't seen any spam here for a while. Perhaps they realized that none of the ~10 people who might see their add, (before it's deleted) don't need a new kitchen.
And if they did need a new one, they wouldn't buy from them.




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[*] posted on 6-5-2014 at 13:17


The sites they advertise aren't actually good either. All the reviews say things like "Never buy from them. They do a terrible job" or "Worst kitchen fitters in the UK." Maybe they shouldn't have that on the main page for all to see! That's also probably why they spam like that.



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elementcollector1
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[*] posted on 7-5-2014 at 09:34


*Sigh*
I guess it was just a slow month, huh?




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Etaoin Shrdlu
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[*] posted on 7-5-2014 at 09:57


Can we just kick anyone whose first post contains the words "kitchens" or "shoes" along with a link into a group that can't post? Moderators could free the one-in-a-million person who just wanted to talk about vulcanized rubber.
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[*] posted on 9-5-2014 at 21:29


Quote: Originally posted by Etaoin Shrdlu  
Can we just kick anyone whose first post contains the words "kitchens" or "shoes" along with a link into a group that can't post? Moderators could free the one-in-a-million person who just wanted to talk about vulcanized rubber.


I second that, but it appears that the problem has vanished anyway, so nothing more may be needed.

Edit: Never mind that, I just reported a new kitchen problem. I guess I spoke too soon.

[Edited on 5-10-2014 by zts16]
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[*] posted on 8-6-2014 at 13:02


Ummmm... Is anybody else seeing this? I haven't seen much spam in a while and then this happens.:mad:
Come to think of it why has spam decreased?




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Zyklon-A
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[*] posted on 8-6-2014 at 13:05


What the fuck is this? This is the worst spam bot I've ever seen.
Alright it's fixed.

[Edited on 8-6-2014 by Zyklonb]




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[*] posted on 9-6-2014 at 14:02


Just out of curiosity… what was it? I wasn't around when it happened.
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bismuthate
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[*] posted on 9-6-2014 at 14:05


Well, a spam bot took up the entire today's posts first page.



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The Volatile Chemist
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[*] posted on 9-6-2014 at 14:18


LOL, who's for DDOSing the people who spam our forum? Even if it IS just a proxy :)?



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[*] posted on 9-6-2014 at 14:26


Quote: Originally posted by bismuthate  
Well, a spam bot took up the entire today's posts first page.

Oh my, that's pretty awful indeed...

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist  
LOL, who's for DDOSing the people who spam our forum? Even if it IS just a proxy :)?

I'm all for it! Although somehow, I don't think the admins would be very approving of that.
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The Volatile Chemist
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[*] posted on 9-6-2014 at 14:35


Quote: Originally posted by zts16  

Quote: Originally posted by The Volatile Chemist  
LOL, who's for DDOSing the people who spam our forum? Even if it IS just a proxy :)?

I'm all for it! Although somehow, I don't think the admins would be very approving of that.

We don't have to tell them...(I'm serious here)...RIGHT ADMINS? :P




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[*] posted on 9-6-2014 at 16:38


https://www.sciencemadness.org/whisper/viewthread.php?tid=30...
what is with spam nowadays? This is just crazed rambling!




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[*] posted on 9-6-2014 at 19:13


"Please welcome our newest member yd5xh6j3b1w9."
Oh, we'll welcome HIM alright.... :\




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[*] posted on 11-6-2014 at 18:05


WTF! There's more spam than posts being submitted, can we make a policy to accept members based on interview, or they have to submit a short autobiography about themselves, along with a picture?



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[*] posted on 11-6-2014 at 18:54


I think that would be a BIT cruel, but it might be a good idea. Admins, can you post the spammer's IPs someplace? Mebbe we can have some fun...:cool:



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[*] posted on 12-6-2014 at 09:40


Quote: Originally posted by numos  
WTF! There's more spam than posts being submitted, can we make a policy to accept members based on interview, or they have to submit a short autobiography about themselves, along with a picture?

The last suggestion defeats the purpose of even pretending to support anonymity. I would be down for the first, except it means someone who needed pressing information might not be able to get it in time.

I still say anyone who in their first post posts both a link and one of certain trigger words (shoes, nike, kitchen, etcetera) should be temporarily suspended. The odd person who genuinely wanted to discuss vulcanized rubber or something could be removed from suspension more easily than actually going through the effort of pre-accepting every single new contributor.

[Edited on 6-12-2014 by Etaoin Shrdlu]
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[*] posted on 12-6-2014 at 10:50


Is IP banning not possible? Or not taking place? On the forums I've admined, IP banning didn't catch 100% of spambots, but it did have a pretty good effect.
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[*] posted on 12-6-2014 at 18:46


Yeah, I think the forcing to submit a picture thing would be creepy and weird. I probably wouldn't have joined if I had to do that. I am still strongly for the idea of asking a few chemistry questions, and additionally incorporating spammer prevention measures like those suggested by Etaoin Shrdlu. Anyone who actually wants to join this forum would probably enjoy taking a quick chemistry quiz in the registration process.
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[*] posted on 12-6-2014 at 19:45


I'm not going to make people take a chemistry quiz to join. I'm not going to require every new member to get manual approval before posting. This has been suggested many times before and I'm not going to do it.

Temporary IP banning is already incorporated in the ban script and it makes little difference. There are a lot of IP addresses in the world and most of them are dynamically assigned to clients. Even when a big clump of spammers register all at once they usually have different IP addresses.

I have disabled captchas for registration because legitimate members or would-be members found them frustrating to solve. You still need a working email address to register. Anti-bot tricks do not stop spammers because many spammers are human beings, though they behave with all the intelligence of bots.

Just keep reporting the spam. If two independent reports tag the same post as spam, that post and all of the spammer's other posts, plus the spammer's account, will all be deleted automatically within 2 minutes. Posting about spam in this thread will not cause spam to be deleted.




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Zyklon-A
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[*] posted on 12-6-2014 at 19:53


So, am I on the list? I've reported plenty of spam, generally it's still there within two minutes. Of course maybe that's because no one else reported it, but I'd like to know.



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[*] posted on 12-6-2014 at 22:53


Yes, you're on the list.



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froot
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[*] posted on 12-6-2014 at 22:59


How difficult would it be to add a 'spam' button at the top right of each post? When clicked by one of 2 members on the spam report list a small pop-up responds with 'Thanks, reported!' and self closes thereby minimizing interruption in the website experience - or the button simply changes colour and says 'reported'. This button can be made visible only by members on the spam report list.



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[*] posted on 13-6-2014 at 00:24


Froot, that is a good idea. I have already written something similar for use by moderators only, for getting rid of new members who aren't posting but have spam links in their profile. I don't have time to add it now but I will put it on my to-do list.



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