Stopping Spam

[Joe Ross]

The second worst thing you can do (other then clicking the spammers link) is to continue posting in the thread. That keeps the thread at the top of the forum and visible to the most people

After the first person posts notifying it is spam, everybody should ignore the thread. Even if a moderator isn't around it will fall down the page and off into oblivion.

[mechanicalbrain]

yeah i kind of realised that after i posted. oh well... i wonder whos so determined to post spam on CD

[Matt Krass]

Maybe CD needs a team of backups mods for things like IRI? I don't know I just woke up, but I do know that everyone in the FIRST IRC was aware of the spam pretty fast if one of them was a mod this could have been done faster, not that it wasn't done pretty fast given the skeleton crew.

Now back to wondering what possessed me to get up before 2pm...

[mechanicalbrain]

yeah thats just plain crazy.

[Conor Ryan]

Ok, I think I may have found a potential solution, or at least it may help. We already have image verification to become a user, now what about image verification to create a thread also? Its a small detour from the norm, but I think most of us are willing to give it a try for the sake of a cleaner forum.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by cdr1122334455

Ok, I think I may have found a potential solution, or at least it may help. We already have image verification to become a user, now what about image verification to create a thread also? Its a small detour from the norm, but I think most of us are willing to give it a try for the sake of a cleaner forum.

Absolutely not. I'm always on here. Just make me a mod, and I'll take care of spam. Anyway, with how much I post, I'm not going to type in a code every time I want to start a new thread. That is almost "giving in" to the spammers. We can deal with them without putting more trouble upon ourselves.

[Nate Smith]

What about this...i'm not sure how much work this would be, but would it be possible for any posts made by an account in the first seven days after the account was created require mod approval?


Also, as far as the backup mod team, I would be willing to help out with something like that...I'm not sure how much I'll be able to participate with FIRST this upcoming year, for reasons that I'll announce shortly(a few of you might already know, but please keep it under wraps until I officially announce it...thank you)

[mechanicalbrain]

ooh a secret! shhhhh

[Jay H 237]

Originally Posted by Nate Smith

What about this...i'm not sure how much work this would be, but would it be possible for any posts made by an account in the first seven days after the account was created require mod approval?

Since most of the spammers create new threads (better exposure for them) shortly after registering instead of posting in current threads, it might be better to limit one's ability to start a new thread within 48hrs or so of registering. This will still allow newcomers to be able to immediately take part in threads but hopefully deter the spammers. Nate has a good idea but I think it would work against the forum during the build season when there's many new users and posts unless the time frame is shortened.

Originally Posted by Nate Smith

Also, as far as the backup mod team, I would be willing to help out with something like that...

I'll also be willing to help if there becomes a need.

[Matt Krass]

Originally Posted by Jay H 237

Since most of the spammers create new threads (better exposure for them) shortly after registering instead of posting in current threads, it might be better to limit one's ability to start a new thread within 48hrs or so of registering.

But what about those who register just to post a question? I think the mod approval thing might work better, but not for seven days, maybe 48 hours after account creation, thread creation requires mod approval, but you can post in existing threads? Then again Brandon already has quite a workload, I'd hate to be causing him more work, he does too much for us already

[Joe Matt]

I really see no problem right now with the spam on CD (or lack therefore of). On one board I was on there were white suppremest spam threads that took one full day to delete, compare the mere minutes it takes on CD. If in the future there is any problem, I think a few members (like myself) wouldn't mind being a "spam" patrol group, probably a lot easier to do than setting up more barricades.

[Katie Reynolds]

Originally Posted by cdr1122334455

Ok, I think I may have found a potential solution, or at least it may help. We already have image verification to become a user, now what about image verification to create a thread also? Its a small detour from the norm, but I think most of us are willing to give it a try for the sake of a cleaner forum.

If the spammers can get past the registration image verification, what's stopping them from getting past a "post new thread" image verification?

[mechanicalbrain]

also if they get through image verification it shows this is not a program but a person so two things. one what if its just one person being a inconsiderate *cough mumble mumble*. they might be using one email. also if someone wants to spam on CD their is nothing we can do that wouldn't make it impossible for other people to post. i think that what we might want is to make a spam button that automatically locks a thread or post and requires you give a reason. if someone abuses this they loose their account. this obviously would work on an honor system but it means spams could instantly be deleted.

[sanddrag]

Giving any registered user the power to close/lock a thread is not a good idea. That would create more havoc than the spam. I honestly think the spam is not that big of a problem, at least not yet. With enough mods, it is usually taken care of very quickly.

[Tytus Gerrish]

my home computer has 9 programs that block detect and destroy spam, i never even used IE once on it. and some stuff still gets through. but on chief delphi things like people spaming the boards just has to be done on an individual bassis.