Fighting Spam..Thoughts?

@Rob needs to remove the spam. The spam cleaner that I use cannot do a "bulk-remove" for all of these users that mostly share the same IP (211.174.115.76).
 


I have been bulk banning accounts. But it does not remove the posts. :mad:

Work is being done to fix this.
 
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I reported 6 posts today; this site seems to be getting overrun by spammers. They are all the same keyword BS - nonsense with a product name (no links, thank goodness) that is used to boost search engine hits.

Of the forums I frequent, this is the only one that seems to be plagued with spam. A few others get an occasional message only. In a way it is a complement that spammers feel this site is relevant enough to spam on - or at least the site name is relevant enough to be keyword searched for spam hits. I would say the members get tired of it, and I can say with a high degree of certainty the admins are as well. Being a back end server guy, I have no idea how to address this, but it makes me sometimes think twice about visiting.

Example - I reported 6 posts today; I open each spam post in a new tab. (I feel the need to report every spam post I see - my issue, I know, but it should help everyone.) However, since there is a 30 second wait between posts, I have to click the "Report" button, type "Spam", click submit, and close the window. This means I have to go to another site for 26 or 27 seconds before reporting the next post. After reporting two or three, which is normal, I lose interest in reading further.

I'm really not sure what to do - I don't see this other places, but it is not fair to push on the admins to do more, as I think they are not compensated / well compensated for administering this site.

We seem to be in a quandary here.
 
I reported 6 posts today; this site seems to be getting overrun by spammers. They are all the same keyword BS - nonsense with a product name (no links, thank goodness) that is used to boost search engine hits.

Of the forums I frequent, this is the only one that seems to be plagued with spam. A few others get an occasional message only. In a way it is a complement that spammers feel this site is relevant enough to spam on - or at least the site name is relevant enough to be keyword searched for spam hits. I would say the members get tired of it, and I can say with a high degree of certainty the admins are as well. Being a back end server guy, I have no idea how to address this, but it makes me sometimes think twice about visiting.

Example - I reported 6 posts today; I open each spam post in a new tab. (I feel the need to report every spam post I see - my issue, I know, but it should help everyone.) However, since there is a 30 second wait between posts, I have to click the "Report" button, type "Spam", click submit, and close the window. This means I have to go to another site for 26 or 27 seconds before reporting the next post. After reporting two or three, which is normal, I lose interest in reading further.

I'm really not sure what to do - I don't see this other places, but it is not fair to push on the admins to do more, as I think they are not compensated / well compensated for administering this site.

We seem to be in a quandary here.

I try to check to see the list of reported spam as often as I can. I think @ryanvade and I are the only ones that have moderator privileges. Unfortunately, I cannot grant the same privilege to other users.
 
Yeah, I'm not asking for privs here - I just wish there were some magic bullet to address the spam issues. Anything that would probably work (captcha?) takes effort and money.

I look at those posts and realize they are pointlesss as themselves; they seem to serve as a search hit generator. And yet, we have to wade through this stuff.

Just venting.
 
Have you guys considered Mollom? I can't post links, so go to Google and type "Mollom"

I run several websites, and I receive no spam registrations and no spam posts since I started using them. In most cases, people won't even have to perform a captcha test.

I'm not sure if this is something that integrates with your forum / website software, but a developer could probably get it working if it's something you'd be interested in.
 
Hm... you could also put in a hack to give Users warnings. You can give warnings on the purpose of breaking the forum rules, including spamming.

3 Warnings = ban, 6 Warnings = account gets deleted...

Just an example. Maybe I got it wrong and you meant spam bots, I am afraid my English skills suck atm *rolleyes*
 
Hm... you could also put in a hack to give Users warnings. You can give warnings on the purpose of breaking the forum rules, including spamming.

3 Warnings = ban, 6 Warnings = account gets deleted...

That idea is sound, but... Many of these spammers are only making one post - and probably only plan on making one post. They have an internet hit generating post they put on multiple we sites so if someone googles something, many hits come up.

I agree a user warning system may be warranted anyhow, but this type of spam is more of a "hit and run" exercise than clogging up the site effort.
 
Hm... maybe we could make the report function more strict for reports from a acknoledged group which is already established in the community lead to deletion/ban. Therefore the work doesn't only lie on the shoulders of the moderators/administrators?!
 
A very actual concern, that of spam. The suggestions and solutions posted here are very useful to someone like me who still has not even downloaded a linux program successfully. WILSF, what I am learning so far, is that this topic will continue to be a part of the forum discussion. This is healthy. The information you are providing contribute to form awareness of the areas of discussion and give me the opportunity to explore a sliver of the ongoing development of ideas, freedom of speech and information exchange, as well as the effectiveness of communication and cooperation of the projects. Thanks for this.
 
All has been quiet for quite some time - or maybe I am just not seeing it in my morning cruise.

If something was done, then congratulations! Job well done! We won't ask what so to not tip off the wrong crowd.
 
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Well, whatever you guys did, I haven't seen a lick of spam since I have been here.

I despise captcha (or however you spell it) as I don't have the greatest eyesight and I have to keep refreshing for a new one that I can actually understand. I do not mind the ones that are, say math related or type the color of the rectangle. Is it this site that has the 2 are by land and 2 are by sea? That is one I have seen lately and this site and another linux (the mint forum) site are the only forums that I have joined in the past year.
 
@rstanley - It might be this post earlier in the thread? (I am not positive, but that is the only post of his in this thread. );)
 

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