Members Ernest Buckley Posted June 17, 2016 Members Share Posted June 17, 2016 I don`t pretend to know anything about forums design or infrastructure but just about every morning I sign in to HC, I see at least 1-2 spam threads. This morning, there are PAGES of spam from the same "person". I belong to other forums and I never see spam like this. HC has improved a lot in the last year or so but this is an issue that is still not under control. What gives? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted June 17, 2016 Members Share Posted June 17, 2016 They pancaked my last post so must be my fault. You'll notice they post with zero views as if just inserted into the process. Dam krians! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bieke Posted June 17, 2016 Members Share Posted June 17, 2016 the spam problem subject has been raised numerous times other forums probably have adequate anti-spam tools in placewhereas HC there is not much to prevent spammers from signing up apart from the image verification,so it is still too easy for a human spammer to just sign up and start spamming A simple and effective solution would be to have a moderator approve a new user’s first threads and/or posts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators MrKnobs Posted June 17, 2016 Moderators Share Posted June 17, 2016 I deleted a bunch of spam from this forum at about 3AM this morning. The spam seems to be one offs, thankfully. Terry D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 I deleted a bunch of spam from this forum at about 3AM this morning. The spam seems to be one offs, thankfully. Terry D. And I hit it late last night before going to bed, and have been deleting it on and off since 0630 this morning. We can use different anti-spam tools, but eventually the spammers figure out a way to get around them and we're right back to square one. Measure / counter-measure. Same as it ever was, and probably ever will be unfortunately... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted June 17, 2016 Author Members Share Posted June 17, 2016 A simple and effective solution would be to have a moderator approve a new user’s first threads and/or posts. It sounds simple enough. Why can`t it be done? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 It sounds simple enough. Why can`t it be done? We're considering that... although there are some downsides to that approach, and ways to work around it that I'd rather not go into, for obvious reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted June 19, 2016 Moderators Share Posted June 19, 2016 I cleaned up 8 this morning...seems my inbox gets inundated daily with reports. One jag-off had 5 spam threads...whatever happened to the waiting period we used to have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted June 19, 2016 Members Share Posted June 19, 2016 I always get "this is a repeat of ..." so if it's ok with you guys I'll just use single characters from now. QWERTY or 1234 etc.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beck Posted June 20, 2016 Members Share Posted June 20, 2016 I used to try and turn the spam into a legit thread... being creative... a little ad lib, you know. It's been a few years, but a couple that started as spam were so funny after a few posts that Craig said to leave them up and let it run. I've tried since then, but all my super creative genius is wasted when they get deleted. EDIT: Of course I would misspell genius and have to correct it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted June 20, 2016 Members Share Posted June 20, 2016 KB 13131313A defect in VB has been discovered that would allow a spammer who can read English to substitute malice for financial gain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members *BLEEP* Posted June 21, 2016 Members Share Posted June 21, 2016 I cleaned up 8 this morning...seems my inbox gets inundated daily with reports. One jag-off had 5 spam threads... I now realise there are certainly many zombied H-C spammer accounts, because for the first time -- I believe -- I visited the Computer And Mobile Recording subfourms Hardware & Accessories, MacOS, and Windows and saw several of them. This was especially true with the Windows subforum, as I saw several suspicious postings with inane content that looked as if it were spit out by a translator app or simply copied and pasted from some other "solutions" website (and the answer was often wrong), and all posted by user accounts with single digit post counts and no history of posting anywhere else at H-C (well, at least not yet ). At least one of those user accounts that had joined in with posting this inanity even had spam links displayed in their signature box! Sheesh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bieke Posted June 21, 2016 Members Share Posted June 21, 2016 Another effective solution would be to simply rename this forum to Sound, Studio and Spamor to give the spammers their own signature forumwe could all chime in and join the spam discussions and ultimatelyMake Better Spam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted June 25, 2016 Author Members Share Posted June 25, 2016 Well, its another day, and theres more spam. Incredible. I don`t know why this has to be such a big deal. First time posters should have their posts approved by a Moderator. Its not rocket science. Lets be honest here.... this forum is not exactly hopping. Maybe if we improve the quality of posts, we`ll get better quality members. Just a thought.EB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted June 26, 2016 Moderators Share Posted June 26, 2016 It comes down to staffing size..we just don't have the coverage 24/7/365 to adequately perform that level of screening. [i've been to the 'mothership'...so I know 1st hand ] Plus we are constantly making demands on teh IT guys to make changes...so they are swamped... I don't think we lack quality posts...but we are still in a major 're-build', redefining our mission and place in the great interwebz... and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bieke Posted June 27, 2016 Members Share Posted June 27, 2016 It comes down to staffing size..we just don't have the coverage 24/7/365 to adequately perform that level of screening. [i've been to the 'mothership'...so I know 1st hand ] Plus we are constantly making demands on teh IT guys to make changes...so they are swamped... I don't think we lack quality posts...but we are still in a major 're-build', redefining our mission and place in the great interwebz... and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!! hmmm, yes, I'm aware that Team HC is just 3 people and Craig who does as much as he can but for instance the new User Reviews are approved by Chris Leoffler before they're added noiw I just checked the latest 10 members (I cannot check more because the Member List is screwy) so the 10 newest members, 5 did not post, 5 posted spam so it makes sense another effective anti spam solution (it has been mentioned before) is to ask new members to motivate why they are signing up and to have them answer a couple of music related questions. I wanted to buy a vintage watch some time ago, I found a nice vintage watch forum with a great sell/trade subforum, and found the watch I wanted, so I signed up, I had to answer a couple of tech questions (I googled for answers) and had to send a motivation why I wanted to join the forum (I explained that I wanted to learn about vintage watches) and most important, I had to tell them what contribution I could make to their forum (the hardest) ... anyway, they did not let me join. And frankly, all I wanted to do was buy that watch I spotted in the for sale section, so ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted June 27, 2016 Author Members Share Posted June 27, 2016 It comes down to staffing size..we just don't have the coverage 24/7/365 to adequately perform that level of screening. [i've been to the 'mothership'...so I know 1st hand ] Plus we are constantly making demands on teh IT guys to make changes...so they are swamped... I don't think we lack quality posts...but we are still in a major 're-build', redefining our mission and place in the great interwebz... and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!! I know its a small team but I think screening would be quite easy if the first post by a new member had to be approved. The Spammers would be immediately turned off by the waiting process and click to some other site. E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted June 27, 2016 Moderators Share Posted June 27, 2016 Well there is a small paid staff, and us volunteers...and I agree there are steps we could take, but that is going to be up to the guys with actual pay grades to decide...we lowly volunteers just plunk along as best we can...because we care...spam has been a problem here as long as I can remember...so like 1999...we moderators] also lost some of our 'simplified anti-spammer' tools in the new VB5 format, like ban and delete simultaneously, delete all posts by, s othe process does take longer for us now; I can't speak for the guys up at the admin level... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted June 27, 2016 Moderators Share Posted June 27, 2016 totally agree...but not up to me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bieke Posted June 28, 2016 Members Share Posted June 28, 2016 sure, spam is a problem to any forum, I don't remember seeing spam posts in the good ole days, well, there probably was tons of spam but it just did not get posted, now spam has been a daily nuisance on the forums for several years already and spam just gets posted and stays visible for half a day or so. So spammers are banned every day, so they might just as well keep a reposit of new members thread and do it there so that it no longer pollutes the forums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bieke Posted June 28, 2016 Members Share Posted June 28, 2016 latest 10 members6 non posters4 spammers actually, threre aren't that many new members joining that contribute to the forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ernest Buckley Posted July 5, 2016 Author Members Share Posted July 5, 2016 latest 10 members 6 non posters 4 spammers actually, threre aren't that many new members joining that contribute to the forums Thats my point. I visit HC almost everyday. The activity is very low, except for the mods who try to boast activity with their posts but lets be realistic... this place is a ghost town. I don`t see why we cannot implement stricter guidelines for a first post. If someone really wants to be part of HC, they`ll respect the 24 hour wait time before their first post gets posted. Quality above quantity as they say. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 1001gear Posted July 5, 2016 Members Share Posted July 5, 2016 Thats my point. I visit HC almost everyday. The activity is very low, except for the mods who try to boast activity with their posts but lets be realistic... this place is a ghost town. I don`t see why we cannot implement stricter guidelines for a first post. If someone really wants to be part of HC, they`ll respect the 24 hour wait time before their first post gets posted. Quality above quantity as they say. Monitoring new users would cost somebody the wages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members AlamoJoe Posted July 5, 2016 Members Share Posted July 5, 2016 I've actually developed a fairly, and somewhat eerily trained eye for Spam. Generally, I don't even open the post. Henceforth, it's not really an irritant to me. Kinda like flies buzzing around outside the screen door.I can appreciate that it's a source of irritation to some however.I read a heckuva lot of posts, but don't really post that much. It's not that I'm not interested, I am. I'm just not as learned about the subjects as most others here, and the older I get, the fewer dumbass comments I want to leave on record. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted July 5, 2016 Members Share Posted July 5, 2016 I think the moderators are actually doing a wonderful job getting rid of spammers. It used to be allot worse, but then again, the site was pretty busy back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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