Spam Spree

Discussion in 'THE TEMPLE' started by Hsing, Jun 11, 2008.

  1. Hsing Moderator

    I have deleted weiweis posts but one in hopes of restoring the original thread order. She (?) still has to be banned, though - just mentioning because now, it might appear as if she'd posted only one post. (There were ten.)
  2. Hsing Moderator

    I'd like to delete the other spam spree, too, actually, to restore the thread order. Any objections? I'm just asking because Ba already edited those posts, removing the links. I think in such spree cases unbumping (deleting their posts) is alright, though. The user in qzestion is Tcrubuyggo.
  3. Garner Great God and Founding Father

    I think we can delete spam without needing to edit it. I suppose in terms of fairness we should refrain from deleting all examples until the account in question has been banned, their IP black listed, their home address traced and set on fire, and the bodies of their childhood pets dug up and violated... but on the other hand i don't see any reason to doubt the word of a moderator who dealt with the threads.
  4. Maljonic Administrator

    Those two have now been banned.
    1 people like this.
  5. TamyraMcG Active Member

    Bless you all and thanks(esp. Garner-you make me laugh!)
  6. Katcal I Aten't French !

    Another one for the chopping block, dudes...
  7. Hsing Moderator

    KaiyureGirl needs chopping, to be precise... thanks Katcal.
  8. spiky Bar Wench

    Made me smile :D

    Should I mention that i saw a great deal on penis enlargement the other day. I think I'll rush out and get one...
  9. Tephlon Active Member

    I'm glad the latest spam was quickly taken care of.

    Text only porn spam is easy to ignore. When it includes a picture... not so much.
  10. Hsing Moderator

    Yes, that was explicit. People, don't hesistate to press the report button in the future. :)
  11. Tephlon Active Member

    I kind of didn't notice the report button when I tried closing the window that contained the picture of a penis...
  12. Hsing Moderator

    Just as a note, MsTBSoX needs to be banned for spamming. :smile: In case someone wonders about all the deleted messages.
  13. Hsing Moderator

    The same goes for fionala...
  14. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    Correct protocol

    As I remember, there hasn't been much need to raise this point but for my aged brain and probably the benefit of others what is the recognized procedure when spam/advertising/abuse is spotted?

    I spot... I press report... I wait.

    Is there anything else, apart from sending a PM to a sweeper, that needs to be done?
  15. Hsing Moderator

    Actually, when you press report, there's a mail being sent to all sweepers -which are several, as you know - and as far as I remember, you can include a short message after pressing the report button. (It isn't necessary though, as obvious spam speaks for itself.) That means there is no need to write pms to the sweepers or caontact them by any other means, because most of us check their mails first when we go online.

    There is still the matter of people registering to advertise Discworld related stuff, because the intention is that of a spammer, though of a more benevolent one, and we never quite cleared wether it should be treated just like the obvious spam advertising porn, wigs, and dating sites, or wether we should ignore it as long as it isn't getting annoying (say, twenty posts just for the sake of advertising something vaguely interesting, and no other contributions to the board). So, we have no real protocol for those cases where someone posts about a Discworld convention or about the fact he wants to get rid of his Discworld collection via ebay.

    But when it comes to the obvious spam, the protocol is: Don't answer, press report, wait.


    PS: Thanks for those who bother to report spam, anyways. :)
  16. Hsing Moderator

  17. Hsing Moderator

    Could ideejewe also be banned, or better even, found out in person and be staked the proper, traditional way?
    What a pest.
  18. Hsing Moderator

  19. Hsing Moderator

    Girscex, BaBeBiLaa, and BBgrave also need to be banned. :neutral:
  20. jaccairn New Member

    We seem to have a rash of spammers at the moment, some one seems to have devised a new way to do it or found a loophole.

    I think you can add BBgrave and girscex to the list.
  21. Roman_K New Member

    Indeed. More automated "new friends" with every passing day, lately.

    I believe we have a random question during registration as a kind of bot-capture method? It may be that we need to, ah, bolster our defenses a little, so to speak. Or at least look into our current ones to see what's making them falter.
  22. redneck New Member

    NetpigsBang posted four spams in three minutes. I think he should get a reward. Can anyone guess what it is?
  23. Gypsy New Member

  24. Tephlon Active Member

    This is getting annoying.

    Mal, any ideas of what we can do? (Besides reporting?)

    I've been on boards with a 24 hour and even a 7 day waiting period, there are "intelligent" captcha's (Like 2 pictures of dogs and one of a cat and the question is to identify "the one picture that is not a dog"), and there is the slightly time consuming human approval option, which is pretty safe...


    Here's info about "Askimet" (The WordPress anti-spam plugin) for vBulletin: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=118421

    And here's a way to setup spam filtering only for new users (with Askimet): http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showpost.php?p=1013953&postcount=18 But I guess we could moderate the first 5 posts by hand? (And yes, I AM volunteering for spam filtering.)
  25. Hsing Moderator

    Yes, I find myself deleting about a douzen spam posts each morning, and I don't even know about the other mods. A catch question or something like that would be nice.
  26. Hsing Moderator

    Now laserguru just bumps thread by repeating "Your post rocks". Strange kind of spamming, seeing there's not even a link to something.
  27. Tephlon Active Member

    Might be one of several things:
    1) A test to see if automated posting/spamming works, but with an "innocent message".
    2) probably later to be used for bumping spam.
    3) Posts to be later converted to spam.
  28. Hsing Moderator

    Well, aren't we glad we communicate over a board where we can at least delete all that crap...
  29. Hsing Moderator

  30. Maljonic Administrator

    Just so you know all these people are being banned as they're reported. If you're reporting them in this thread it saves a bit of time if you link to their profile like Hsing is mostly doing, then it's just a click-ban process.

    I added another 2 human verification questions to see if that makes any difference, and we can try captcha instead if it doesn't but I think we talked about tryin g to avoid that in the past? Also, if the spammers are actually humans it doesn't maker any difference.

    P.S. The Akismet plugin is nearly a year old and not supported by vbulletin, but there's probably something similar we can do.
  31. Hsing Moderator

  32. Hsing Moderator

  33. Hsing Moderator

  34. Hsing Moderator

  35. Hsing Moderator

    I am sure all mods got the reported post message. It is blatant advertising, but we still haven't decided what to do in those cases the advertisement is Discworld related!
    Could we -at least two or three mods- agree upon what to do with that thread, and on what to do about DW related spam in the future?
  36. Maljonic Administrator

    There's no links or anything is there, I think it's okay kind of advertising seeing as we'd be interested in it.

    P.S. I'm assuming we're talking about the blu ray Discworld stuff etc, not Katcal's Igor thing? :D
  37. Hsing Moderator

    lol... yes, yes we do.

    Besides, one out of five hundred posts with a commercial link -to entertain- is something completely different than four out of five - and I say that without any irony.
  38. Maljonic Administrator

    I think this sounds a bit presumptous: "I'll be on the boards over the next couple of months, so look out for some competitions and promotions that will start appearing soon!" - as if they're supposed to be here and one of us has agreed to it, which they have not, without any introductions. Maybe to the DD with it? :)
  39. Hsing Moderator

    I think so. His older threads -definitely.
  40. Katcal I Aten't French !

    Only 500? Geez you guys so underestimate my blabbermouth Syndrome... :bunny:
  41. Maljonic Administrator

    I just noticed that Buzzfloyd already mentioned to them about posting just to advertise, so off to the DD with them. :)
  42. redneck New Member

    That's one per five hundred posts. Not one out of a total of five hundred. gah.
  43. Hsing Moderator

  44. Hsing Moderator

  45. Katcal I Aten't French !

    funny, there's a jeff turner in my office :D must ask him if he has any cheap Viagra...
  46. Buzzfloyd Spelling Bee

    Mal, can you delete the account of benjonson? I've deleted two posts that were clearly spambot generated and moved one to the DDs.
  47. Hsing Moderator

  48. Hsing Moderator

  49. Maljonic Administrator

    Banned and banned.
  50. Hsing Moderator

  51. Hsing Moderator

  52. Hsing Moderator

  53. Hsing Moderator

  54. Hsing Moderator

  55. Hsing Moderator

  56. Hsing Moderator

  57. Hsing Moderator

  58. Maljonic Administrator

    All done up like a kipper. :)
  59. Joculator The 'Old' Fool

    How's about 'Send the miscreant to the scorpion pit?

    Or any combination of abusive terms in the language of your choice? :D
  60. redneck New Member

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