Crazy idea to fight spam
 

Hey all,

I know that lately (today) there have been an unbearably large amount of spam posts. I find that it would be somewhat easy to combat - although this would take a bit of work.

Is it possible and feasible to create a bot account that watches all the new threads looking for the following criteria:

-OP has less than 10 posts
-Entire body of the post is less than x words
-Post is edited
-etc, etc.

When a post meets the criteria, it is deleted or hidden.

Just an idea, wondering what you all think.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

In addition to that it would detect if the post has a link of some sort because that seems to be present in all spam posts.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

This seems like one of the more practical anti-spam solutions, so kudos!

I'm just worried about casting a net that's too tightly-woven, and accidentally knocking out some legitimate threads along the way (thinking specifically of discussion threads started by anonymous accounts since they also tend to be relatively short and often include links) But hey, if you add specific enough criteria then that problem could probably be averted.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

The post could be temporarily hidden until mods review it

Or just hide all posts containing the words "live stream" :)

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

Like the idea... problem is this version of vBulletin is a bit... antiquated, and probably can't do it without coding it as a custom mod. Brandon has also said publically (sorry I'm too lazy to find/link the thread) he'd like to move software once the software he wants to move to is out of beta.

So, I think we're probably more like to see minor tweaks or things that vB can do out of the box, than custom coded solutions.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

That won't go over well with TBA users.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

The other criteria won't be met and so it wont be an issue. Unless they get a new poster.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

Could do this by scraping the page returns externally and arrive at a viable list of junk.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

Note. I recently just posted for the first time with a new account. It had this whole message that the post may not appear right away and that it could take up to 2 days to get approved but it was instantly there.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

Why are you admitting to breaking site rules? Duplicate accounts are not permitted without mod approval.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

Woah hold up there.

I was talking about the F4 Network account which got explicit approval from the webmaster. (Brandon)

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

So, as I see it, there has not been much opposition to this proposal. Would it be possible for some mods and people with more technical experience than I to chime in on the feasibility of the plan?

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

The problem that I see is when someone with a low count needs help. During the season new users ask for help with problems and this could delay responses with information that could help their team.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

I've often been treated as though I speak for all of FRC11 even when I clearly note I do not always do so.

If you make an external system to scrape this forum, could put in a user registration system where a team can designate a user whom can vouch for the other users and avoid the delay by vetting the users before they need help in a pinch.

This seems like a big headache to integrate into this forum's software. Probably easier to write it and test it as an external system then figure out a way to connect the systems together. In theory you'll end up with a list of high probability spam to show that the system works.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

What about a subforum for posts from users with under 5 posts which can only be posted in once a post is approved by any member with 50+ posts.

Crazy idea to fight spam
 

What about that but for every forum?

Edit: I mean members with a certain post count (+100?) review other users first posts.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

It would have to approved by a mod.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

This is a great idea. Pretty much every newer user (50+ posts as you said) can tell if it is spam or not. Plus it will allow me and many others like me who are on all the time to do a "mod-like" task when no mods are on.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

Currently a lot of the spam seems to link to genglobal.org

As a temporary fix, could a ban on genglobal.org links be implemented? I don't think anyone legitimately needs to link there.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

Most of these links do lead to genglobal.org, but not all. Obviously as you stated, it would be a temporary fix, due to the fact that it would only filter those links.

It is possible. I don't know if CD has it, but vBulletin has a plugin that blocks links stemming from one link.

I like this idea, and until a long term fix can be found, this would work.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

Oh noes! You actually clicked on the links!?

Seriously though, I like this proposal.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

As a more general / effective temporary fix, CD could have a whitelist for websites that actually will generate links. Eg, FIRST website, TBA, Github, etc would be allowed as links, while other links would simply display URLs without actually being a link.

Example:
link to github (whitelisted, displayed as link)
ht​tp://g​englobal.o​rg/some-spam (not whitelisted, displayed as plain url)

On other forums this type of system is effective at preventing spam from new users (in fairness, other forums have other measures as well), since spammers know people aren't going to copy and paste their spam. I'm not sure how effective it'll be on our resident spammer here, but I think it's worth a try.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

Has anyone suggested a captcha on account creation?

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

Pretty sure there is one... and they'd get around it anyway.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

To take the strain off the mods from patrolling every single post, why not restrict a thread (unviewable) if the OP receives a certain amount of negative rep from it. The thread can then be removed when a moderator sees it is in the restricted section.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

There is a captcha on account creation. It is worth noting that it is not a modern captcha service like Google's ReCaptcha, and probably easier to circumvent.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

But, but... what about our favorite "controversial" threads? This would kill those, too!


Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but it would contribute to the perception of non-transparent moderating that seems to have developed.

The other factor is that you'd have to deal with "rep clicks" vs. "rep score". One rep click from someone with a lot of rep points can dish out an awful lot of rep score in a hurry--one reason I'm generally cautious with rep--but the same score can also be picked up from a lot of people with not as many rep points all firing off one rep click apiece.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

This is a good idea. Maybe posters with less than 10 posts can't use links? Not sure what the limitations of vBulletin are but I know 2338 was able to do things like that with our phBB forum.

http://i.imgur.com/2wAz8I4.png

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

Then instead of using rep, use reports. When a certain number of people report the post as spam, it should be hidden until a mod can take action

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

As long as "certain number" = 1-2 (and was limited to thread OPs), I think you'd be OK. More than that and I'd expect a moderator revolt.

Bear in mind that every time someone reports a post, the mods for that area get a message. Don't want to be clogging up inboxes now.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

Looks like a new type of spam came in today, based on posting very unsafe images.

I propose that CD disallows the [img] tag altogether until this spam issue can be resolved. (It should be an easy config change with vbulletin). I don't think we can risk members being exposed to these things.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

If anything, put it on imgur as a link...

Crazy idea to fight spam
 

And bait people to click? Don't think that'll help much.

Edit: What I'm trying to say is that these people are persistent and something as trivial as that won't hold them back.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

The idea of keeping all newcomers to a single forum has some possibilities. First, it allows the moderators watching spam to stay in one area. Second, a "live one" may not really know where to put their question, and the moderator can move it for them to the proper forum. The questioner upon returning will see the thread moved and know where to put it. It's just a matter of seeing how "live" the newcomer is to allow them full access -- one or two starting threads.

True story: When I was an IT-ish person at my company I got to see all the incoming email spam. This was way back in the heyday of nonsense text messages with "click here". My favorite was this one:

Looking it up now, here's the song (without that last line): Barnaby The Bear.

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

At least that's a bit more creative than what we're getting :)

Re: Crazy idea to fight spam
 

It was the last line that really sold me on the message.

If The Spam Poetry Institute http://www.spampoetry.org/ is any indication, there is a large drop off of good spam submissions the past couple of years.

(Sorry, didn't mean to set up a click-bait! :o Just Google "spam poetry" if you need your fill of good/amusing spam messages.)