Spam solution?

[jkelleyrtp]

Not sure about how the forum filters work but is there a way we can block new threads with "live", "stream", and the link pointing toward reddit?

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by jkelleyrtp

Not sure about how the forum filters work but is there a way we can block new threads with "live", "stream", and the link pointing toward reddit?

Just keep reporting them.

[JoshWilson]

Originally Posted by jkelleyrtp

Not sure about how the forum filters work but is there a way we can block new threads with "live", "stream", and the link pointing toward reddit?

Personally, I love the idea of being able to block people from posting their streaming stuff. Maybe doing something about the IP address instead of just getting rid of the account or post or whatever they do right now?

[MaGiC_PiKaChU]

i also had the idea of blocking links to reddit...

one other solution I found was to not allow users with -10 posts to use links, since it's always a new account

[Whippet]

I could have sworn that a few years ago, threads started by new accounts had to be approved by a moderator. Am I remembering incorrectly, or did something change?

(Note that I am not advocating increasing the moderators' already large workload, although this would likely help with the spam to an extent.)

[logank013]

Originally Posted by Whippet

(Note that I am not advocating increasing the moderators' already large workload, although this would likely help with the spam to an extent.)

Is it possible to increase the amount of moderators? How many are there now anyway? I feel like there are a lot of trustworthy mentors on here that have had an account for 8 years+ who aren't moderators but could be trusted as moderators.

[adammiller3122]

Originally Posted by logank013

Is it possible to increase the amount of moderators? How many are there now anyway? I feel like there are a lot of trustworthy mentors on here that have had an account for 8 years+ who aren't moderators but could be trusted as moderators.

I would be more than willing to help out. I am a moderator on many different sites as well as hosting my own for a few things.

[EricH]

Originally Posted by logank013

Is it possible to increase the amount of moderators? How many are there now anyway? I feel like there are a lot of trustworthy mentors on here that have had an account for 8 years+ who aren't moderators but could be trusted as moderators.

I'm not sure I'd trust myself as a moderator--just sayin'.

That being said, here's the full list: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showgroups.php (from the list of all the forums, click the "Forum Leaders" link). I count 49, not all of whom are necessarily very active (and not all of them have moderating responsibilities in any given forum).

[AdamStockton]

I wouldn't mind helping out as well, especially if it would help to reduce the amount of spam on CD and improve the overall user experience. I've had to battle spam-bots in the past while maintaining my own teams website.

As for a mechanism to detect spam without moderator interaction, I wonder how difficult it would be to automatically hide/delete/quarantine a thread after a certain number of users report it as spam? This could be implemented in a php script that scans the database for threads that have been reported excessively. A cron job could be set to run this script every so often, completely automating the task.

In theory, there should be very few false positives, if any. There could always be some type of appeal process if there was a false positive.

For preventing the spam in the first place, it probably would be best to somehow upgrade the capatcha that is used on the register page. The Google ran reCAPTCHA as mentioned above would probably be the best, as it is constantly improved.

[nighterfighter]

The current wave of spam all posts a very specific type of link:

www.reddit.com/SPAMHERE

Anyone familiar with Reddit knows that 99% of reddit links will come from a specific subreddit, eg: www.reddit.com/r/frc


While one option would be to prevent new accounts posting links to any site on reddit, a more refined option could be to simply block new accounts from posting links that don't point to a specific subreddit.

Obviously this is a temporary solution, and only fixes the symptoms of the spam-bots, so to say.


On the other hand, I personally have been enjoying the quirky titles it posts...

[logank013]

Just out of curiosity, it there any known reason as to why people spam on CD?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

As a moderator I can add a little info here...
When someone reports a post, I get an email notification as do other moderators. When I check my email I will go to the linked post and delete if needed. I will then use a feature of this board to delete the user so that same user can never post again. There are several of us that are on at similar times. I know that John Boucher and Gary Vostol and I are usually on early mornings. (I get to work at 6 AM and John and Gary have usually done some clean up before I get on. They are on Eastern time.)
I alerted Brandon a while back that spam was at an increase. It seems that when he had released India as a valid area, the spam increased. India has FTC teams and we hope that FRC will start there as well. That was behind the decision to open up that area.
As to the spam itself, this is similar to junk mail. The people behind the onslaught work on what it will take to get some one to pay up. In junk mail, those folks believe 100,000 mailings to get ten or less customers is valid. Without moderation, we know the posters will begin to flood the forum on a logarithmic scale. With everything in place, we are seeing only one or two posts from each poster.
I also use a site for research if I suspect the user is valid. It is http://www.stopforumspam.com. By entering the user screen name, you can see if this user has been reported and where the location of the ISP might be.

[logank013]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

As a moderator I can add a little info here...
When someone reports a post, I get an email notification as do other moderators. When I check my email I will go to the linked post and delete if needed. I will then use a feature of this board to delete the user so that same user can never post again. There are several of us that are on at similar times. I know that John Boucher and Gary Vostol and I are usually on early mornings. (I get to work at 6 AM and John and Gary have usually done some clean up before I get on. They are on Eastern time.)
I alerted Brandon a while back that spam was at an increase. It seems that when he had released India as a valid area, the spam increased. India has FTC teams and we hope that FRC will start there as well. That was behind the decision to open up that area.
As to the spam itself, this is similar to junk mail. The people behind the onslaught work on what it will take to get some one to pay up. In junk mail, those folks believe 100,000 mailings to get ten or less customers is valid. Without moderation, we know the posters will begin to flood the forum on a logarithmic scale. With everything in place, we are seeing only one or two posts from each poster.
I also use a site for research if I suspect the user is valid. It is http://www.stopforumspam.com. By entering the user screen name, you can see if this user has been reported and where the location of the ISP might be.

So It's suspected that a computer based program is spamming? Not kids from FRC that just are bored and want to "have some fun"? Just wondering. Thanks

[Zach101]

Originally Posted by Whippet

I could have sworn that a few years ago, threads started by new accounts had to be approved by a moderator. Am I remembering incorrectly, or did something change?

(Note that I am not advocating increasing the moderators' already large workload, although this would likely help with the spam to an extent.)

My bad if I missed a reply to this but in late 2013 when i joined the team and created a CD account a moderator didn't have too as far as I can remember. Though when creating a new account there is a text box where you put a person's username; that person would be some one who recommended CD to you.(Not sure if it is needed to put one in the text box but it is easy to copy some one's username in a thread.)

As of a solution what if each person's first self made thread would have to go through the moderators before being posted. It would help if it were just spam, if it was an actual thread though the moderators would have to be quick in checking these posts in case they were important. Also can these spammers just make new threads? Or could they post in random threads? Otherwise the moderators might be getting a lot more emails if they can randomly post in these threads.

Plus I want to add if you do find a spam thread don't post in them. Just report. Otherwise the post will stay on for longer unless/until removed.

[EmileH]

What if for new members trying to sign up, if you put in a referrer (with, say, 50 or more posts) and that referrer agreed to your signing up, in that you were legitimate, then you could be added to CD as an account, and if you didn't put in a referrer, then you would have to wait for a moderator to approve your signing up. For example if a user on "team 7" with a username a moderator couldn't identify tried to sign up, then the moderator would disallow the registration, or interrogate that user. If it was a person with an actual name, actual team, and other personal information, the moderator would simply approve the sign up.