Spam is a real issue!

[04Stefan07 (Stefan)]

Lately it looks like the forum has been attacked by spammers.

Will there be stricter policies enforced to reduce this? It certainly raises concerns for me!

[chrisp9au (Chris)]

Extra work for moderators, but first 5 submissions by new members should be vetted before posting.

[sheeny (Al)]

This is a gem! First 5 posts to be vetted before posting?!!!

Al.

Originally Posted by chrisp9au

Extra work for moderators, but first 5 submissions by new members should be vetted before posting.

[csb (Craig)]

What's up Al

Isn't reading posts all the mods have to do?

Only extra work is if someone breaches t&c.

So no real extra work, just read a few newbie posts instead of established members posts. Solved!

[xelasnave]

It happens, someone reports it and a mod fixes it... Much easier than a mod having to vet a post which would involve an approval system.
Just don't let it upset you.
Alex

[Atmos (Colin)]

Spammers are easy to deal with, the infrastructure allows the banning and deletion of posts from a member with the click of a button (and a few confirmation pages to stop you from making a mistake!). All in all it takes a few minutes to deal with a spammer. A lot of other measures take up a considerable amount of time.
I've been giving it some thought and as annoying as it is having them spam garbage, it is the most economical way besides having a 1 hour grace period between sign up and post or an extra confirmation step (automated) that runs via the email system. Good chance is that neither of these are natively supported with this forum otherwise they'd have probably already been implemented

[Nikolas (Nik)]

As a moderator on a motorcycling forum we have stated over and over do not respond to spammers at all, report them and that's it as any response means their post rises to the top and the google bots pick up on them for advertising purposes. Do not respond even if it is to say "reported" just report it and leave it alone.

[LewisM]

Originally Posted by 04Stefan07

It certainly raises concerns for me!

Why? They aren't hackers, just spam bots randomly posting garbage on thousands of forums. Your info is perfectly safe.

I still moderate a certain forum - done so for 15 years. Spammers are annoying but harmless, and all it takes is someone to report it and it's dealt with. Vetting achieves nothing except wasting time for people who do this job voluntarily.

Report it, ignore it, move on. Just like posts you don't agree with or find interesting.

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by csb

What's up Al

Isn't reading posts all the mods have to do?

Only extra work is if someone breaches t&c.

So no real extra work, just read a few newbie posts instead of established members posts. Solved!

Read it properly... vet them BEFORE posting...

Al.

[xstream (John)]

Originally Posted by sheeny

Read it properly... vet them BEFORE posting...

Al.

The life of Mod, eh Al.

[JA]

There is a way, PERHAPS ........

In the forum software, code that for all new members (say up to "x" number of posts, maybe 1 to 5), any attempt to add a hyperlink is disallowed and the icing on the cake would to have the forum software then barr that username.
It goes without saying that you'd need to inform genuine new users of this process, although if the spammer is a human and not a robot this may be its Achilles' heel.

This would be completely handled automatically and only turned on/off or have the minimum post threshold set my the mods as required on rare occassions.

Since SPAM posts are often repeated MANY times, you could similarly apply this logic to find and barr other offending users automatically.


Best
JA

[Steffen]

Originally Posted by sheeny

Read it properly... vet them BEFORE posting...

Al.

I'm sure it means vet them after submission by the novice user but before posting them to the forum (for all to see).

[chrisp9au (Chris)]

Thank you Steffen!

That was what I meant. I can't see how my suggestion could be interpreted any other way?

Sorry Al, I was just trying to help, I'll keep my mouth shut from now on.