Preventing Spammy Posts

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  • Reply 21 of 77
    grahamwgrahamw Posts: 575member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mydo View Post


    8:38pm still there



    6:57PM PST It's gone.



    Could I ask a favour? If you see spam, would you mind reporting it please? It really would help in the cleanup. I realize that an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure but I've only got cure on tap, so any help would be appreciated.



    There's a report button on the bottom left hand side of every post. Please feel free to report spam when you see it. I'll do my best to clean as I go.



    Edit: I should note that I was only added to the report list for that forum today. I'll do my best to be on the ball for you. Thanks!
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  • Reply 22 of 77
    icfireballicfireball Posts: 2,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by grahamw View Post


    6:57PM PST It's gone.



    Could I ask a favour? If you see spam, would you mind reporting it please? It really would help in the cleanup. I realize that an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure but I've only got cure on tap, so any help would be appreciated.



    There's a report button on the bottom left hand side of every post. Please feel free to report spam when you see it. I'll do my best to clean as I go.



    Edit: I should note that I was only added to the report list for that forum today. I'll do my best to be on the ball for you. Thanks!



    I usually report spam and porn, but honestly there's too much now to report everything, I don't even open the threads anymore.
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  • Reply 23 of 77
    mydomydo Posts: 1,888member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by grahamw View Post


    6:57PM PST It's gone.



    Could I ask a favour? If you see spam, would you mind reporting it please? It really would help in the cleanup. I realize that an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure but I've only got cure on tap, so any help would be appreciated.



    There's a report button on the bottom left hand side of every post. Please feel free to report spam when you see it. I'll do my best to clean as I go.!



    Actually I'm going to stop reporting spam because it never seems to help. I report so much I hit the 30 second wait limit between posts. I officially give up.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by grahamw View Post


    Edit: I should note that I was only added to the report list for that forum today. I'll do my best to be on the ball for you. Thanks!



    Then something is wrong with your reporting system.
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  • Reply 24 of 77
    samnuvasamnuva Posts: 225member
    It seems to me that most of the Spammy Posts say the SAME EXACT THING! Could A filter be installed to prevent that block of test from being posted.
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  • Reply 25 of 77
    grahamwgrahamw Posts: 575member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mydo View Post


    something is wrong with your reporting system.



    Just a quick note: I'm a volunteer. This is no more my reporting system than it is yours. I would still appreciate the continued help, if possible. Hopefully you'll see an improvement in reaction time.



    Thanks.
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  • Reply 26 of 77
    icfireballicfireball Posts: 2,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by grahamw View Post


    Just a quick note: I'm a volunteer. This is no more my reporting system than it is yours. I would still appreciate the continued help, if possible. Hopefully you'll see an improvement in reaction time.



    Thanks.



    I know you're doing your best, and thank you, but this thread is aimed at people who *can* take precautionary measures against spam. The thread title is "Preventing Spammy Posts" not "Destroying Spammy Posts."
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  • Reply 27 of 77
    mydomydo Posts: 1,888member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by grahamw View Post


    Just a quick note: I'm a volunteer. This is no more my reporting system than it is yours. I would still appreciate the continued help, if possible. Hopefully you'll see an improvement in reaction time.



    Thanks.



    Yea I'm a volunteer too. Either way if someone doesn't see a benefit to their hard work then they stop participating.
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  • Reply 28 of 77
    groveratgroverat Posts: 10,872member
    Why does spam bother you so much, mydo?
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  • Reply 29 of 77
    mydomydo Posts: 1,888member
    It's like your posts, annoying and unproductive.
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  • Reply 30 of 77
    groveratgroverat Posts: 10,872member
    OH SNAP! MEGABURN!



    I personally like getting awesome deals on iPhones and Viagra so...
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  • Reply 31 of 77
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samnuva View Post


    It seems to me that most of the Spammy Posts say the SAME EXACT THING! Could A filter be installed to prevent that block of test from being posted.



    Nope.
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  • Reply 32 of 77
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mydo View Post


    Actually I'm going to stop reporting spam because it never seems to help. I report so much I hit the 30 second wait limit between posts. I officially give up.



    Oh well.
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  • Reply 33 of 77
    Obviously, we need a solution.



    If each forum member pledges $20/month, I will stay on AI a minimum of 16 hours/day 365 days/year as a human spam filter.



    How does 7am to 11pm (EST) sound?



    I promise to have all the overnight spam deleted by the time you're drinking your morning coffee.



    I'll get a payment system set up.
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  • Reply 34 of 77
    icfireballicfireball Posts: 2,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by audiopollution View Post


    Oh well.



    How about:



    Moderated first 10 posts. That would solve a lot of problems.
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  • Reply 35 of 77
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by icfireball View Post


    How about:



    Moderated first 10 posts. That would solve a lot of problems.



    Not a chance unless I have some volunteers for mod positions. \



    Unfortunately, 'Unpaid Position For Boring and Endless Click-work' isn't exactly a tempting job posting.
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  • Reply 36 of 77
    icfireballicfireball Posts: 2,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by audiopollution View Post


    Not a chance unless I have some volunteers for mod positions. \



    Unfortunately, 'Unpaid Position For Boring and Endless Click-work' isn't exactly a tempting job posting.



    Here's are a few model that may alleviate the labor, although would be rather complex to set up initially:



    New user's posts are moderated until 5 (or maybe 3) of their posts have been approved by experienced AI users.
    1. New users signs up

    2. New users creates post

    3. New user cannot create another post until that post has been approved (this prevents mass spaming that has to all be deleted).

    4. Experienced AI users (has over 500+ posts, for example) are able to see such pre-moderated posts

    5. Experienced AI users can approve or disapprove the thread or public viewing.

    6. If a thread is approved, the user can post more threads and the thread is publicly visible to everyone.

    7. If a thread is disapproved by two users, it's deleted.

    8. Once the user has posted the certain number of moderated posts and they have all been approved, the user is unmoderated.

    9. Two posts with two disprovals on each of the two posts in the probation period result in an immediate ban.

    And about CAPTCHAS:

    1) Have you tried RECAPTCHA? It's very good at tricking OCR because it uses real words that are only readable because the human brain can interpret even if some letters are totally indistinguishable. Also, it helps digitize books.

    2) Have you tried more creative CAPTCHAS? For example, a picture of a random picture of an animal is displayed and the user has to type in the animal appearing in the picture.
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  • Reply 37 of 77
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by icfireball View Post


    And about CAPTCHAS:

    1) Have you tried RECAPTCHA? It's very good at tricking OCR because it uses real words that are only readable because the human brain can interpret even if some letters are totally indistinguishable. Also, it helps digitize books.

    2) Have you tried more creative CAPTCHAS? For example, a picture of a random picture of an animal is displayed and the user has to type in the animal appearing in the picture.



    If, as some have mentioned, the spam sign-ups are fronted by a human during registration then using Recaptcha would be useless.



    I will look into improving the captcha system ... but, as I've mentioned before, the vB mod/hack must be able to withstand an upgrade to the forums without borking even more things than vB screw themselves on each time they issue a point upgrade.
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  • Reply 38 of 77
    grahamwgrahamw Posts: 575member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by audiopollution View Post


    Not a chance unless I have some volunteers for mod positions. \



    Unfortunately, 'Unpaid Position For Boring and Endless Click-work' isn't exactly a tempting job posting.



    Hey, that's how I got the job
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  • Reply 39 of 77
    icfireballicfireball Posts: 2,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by audiopollution View Post


    If, as some have mentioned, the spam sign-ups are fronted by a human during registration then using Recaptcha would be useless.



    I will look into improving the captcha system ... but, as I've mentioned before, the vB mod/hack must be able to withstand an upgrade to the forums without borking even more things than vB screw themselves on each time they issue a point upgrade.



    Yea, that was me that said that:



    Quote:

    I took a look at the registration CAPTCHAS and no OCR software could read those. The spammers may be posting the threads/spam automatically, but I think you have humans signing up for the spam accounts.



    That's why I think some kind of moderation is best.
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  • Reply 40 of 77
    mslatermslater Posts: 2member
    Hello, new here, and just reported my first two spam messages, and a suspect spammer account, too! Go me!



    May I suggest a small fee for registrations, via paypal? I'm sure that we can all pony up $5 for an account. We'd be instantly rid of ALL spam, cut down on the joke/spammer/sockpuppet accounts, increase the level of discourse (morons & trolls rarely want to pay), and all live happily ever after. As a bonus, you'd get insanely rich*!



    Also, I'm not sure if there are any europe-based mods, but if there aren't, you should look in to that so that spammers don't abuse the system while the mods are sleeping



    *Not entirely true
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