Amount of spam on the forum

Post by **John** » Sat May 26, 2007 10:01 pm

Aren't you guys and especialy the MOD'S not getting sick and tired of the amount of spam on this forum?

I am

civicr · Post by **civicr** » Sat May 26, 2007 10:36 pm

i agree john over the past few months its been getting worse an worse

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Sat May 26, 2007 10:50 pm

we're doing our best to keep the site clean, and yes, were getting rather sick of deleting dozens of spam posts a day. We have applied several measures to keep the spammers out, but they seem to have quite a lot of time on their hands...

I will encourage all not to read the spam posts. It might make it less interesting to post here if nobody reads them.

There's little comfort in knowing that other forums, no matter what platform they're on, seem to have a lot more spam posts now than they used to as well. We just have to keep trying to keep them out, and keep deleting posts

discusbabe · Post by **discusbabe** » Sun May 27, 2007 5:48 pm

Can you not add a question with a multiple choice answer for new members to select before they are allowed onto the forum? Sorry, not very well worded!

I'm admin on another forum and since adding this facility we don't get any spam at all!

Post by **TwoTankAmin** » Sun May 27, 2007 6:37 pm

There are several methods you can use to reduce the volume of spam. The answer a question gateway mentioned above is one. Another is for the Admins to activate new members manually in order to insure they are not spammers before allowing them to post. Most use a similar ISP addy that can be spotted. Another clue here is spammers almost never bother to synchronize the time setting as new members will normally do.

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Sun May 27, 2007 9:21 pm

Hi Guys

My Apologies for not getting this sorted out before now. The main problem we have is that the forum is an old 2.0.17 version. All of the effective methods of reducing the spam run on the latest phpbb software. Unfortunately due to the fact that we already have number of modifications to the site i fist have to upgrade the forum by hand.

I must admit the plan was to set aside last weekend for this, but instead I got an urgent call from a client and ended up working 43 hours on the trot.

My apologies for this again, and please bare with me whilst I get this sorted out.

Regards

bonsai · Post by **bonsai** » Sun May 27, 2007 11:36 pm

I am very ANGRY & DISGUSTED , it says VERY CLEARLY that your NOT to post [not suitable for children], but people keep doing it! Please can you stop this, as it is VERY offending!

Post by **Barbie** » Mon May 28, 2007 6:46 am

Obviously if we had a method to stop people doing it, it would long have been in place. The only option that can stop it happening is to completely restrict all new registrations to only authorized manually. That makes for quite a bit of work on a forum with this type of volume.

Please keep in mind Rob is doing everything he can to work on correcting the issue. With the modifications that have been done to the board to add galleries and what not, upgrading the software is no longer a "simple" process and must be done manually.

If someone knows of a script that can be added to the software, or would be willing to write one to be implemented that just "adds a question and answer field", I'm sure we'd all love to hear about it. It's not quite as simple of a fix as just adding a field somewhere in a form we've already got

.

As to the spam, it's posted by "bots" that do nothing but scour the internet and post this sort of thing in order to boost both google ratings and hits. It's not some live person recklessly flaunting the rules, it's actually a concerted effort made by dishonest and ethically challenged individuals. All the complaining and scolding in the world won't matter a bit, I'm sorry to say.

Barbie

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon May 28, 2007 9:45 am

Hi Bonsai, and everyone else reading thhis thread.

As Barbie has said ( and thanks by the way

) if there was an easy quick way to stop this now we would. As I am sure you will understand, we are not exactly enjoying spending any free time we actually have scouring the forum for spam. We are doing what we can at teh moment with what we have. Like yourselves I am disgusted at the amount of spam, and we are in the process of doing something about it, but it is not a simple process.

This forum is moderated and kept online by volunteers who give up their spare time to try and keep it controlled as to provide a resource to help breed and keep hypanicstrus zebra. Whilst I would love to say that I could make it the highest priority on my list, it is not possible.

As I said previously, Please bare with me whilst I try and get this sorted. The Mos are all aware of the amount of spam, and doing what I deem to be an excellent job considering the circumstances. Can we please say thank you to them for doing what they do instead of criticising.

Regards

Rob

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Mon May 28, 2007 10:03 am

In another forum they posted a poll aksing how the members would like to see the spammers punished. The spammers even posted in that thread.

So they'rer not only, as Barbie said, morally challenged, but also have an "in your face" - attitude.

Post by **John** » Mon May 28, 2007 2:49 pm

Rob wrote: Can we please say thank you to them for doing what they do instead of criticising.

Regards

Rob

In no means i started this thread to critisice the MOD'S or the forum, which i very much enjoy.
As i allready stated the MOD'S must be especially get sick and tired of removing lots a spam on a daily basis.
My intention was to get a discussion going on how to stop the amount of spam on the forum.

@ our forum's MOD'S: thanks for all the work every day to keep the forum clean

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Mon May 28, 2007 3:28 pm

hi John

thanks for that and please do not think I was getting at anyone in my previous post, I was merely wanting to make sure people realised we are working on it, and in teh meantime trying our best to keep it to a minimum.

I personally get very little time on the forum at the moment which makes it even more frustating that the time I do get is detelting spam and bogus users instead of contributing.

It is very frustrating and disturbing to think that there are people writing spambots that post obscenities on a forum that is read by all ages. I appreciate your concern, and we will get it sorted as soon as possible.

discusbabe · Post by **discusbabe** » Mon May 28, 2007 7:29 pm

I think all mods and admin here do a fantastic job and the amount of spam isn't that big and it's always obvious what is spam and what isn't! The user names are usually the give away, in whatever language!

Also the forum is fortunate that the spam posted is often links and it's again obvious what is spam and what isn't.

I'd be happy to help out deleting spam on a daily basis if this is of any help, it's sad to hear that people are disgusted by what they see!

McEve · Post by **McEve** » Mon May 28, 2007 7:37 pm

discusbabe wrote:I think all mods and admin here do a fantastic job and the amount of spam isn't that big and it's always obvious what is spam and what isn't! The user names are usually the give away, in whatever language!

Also the forum is fortunate that the spam posted is often links and it's again obvious what is spam and what isn't.

I'd be happy to help out deleting spam on a daily basis if this is of any help, it's sad to hear that people are disgusted by what they see!

Thank you so much discusbabe, we all do our best to keep on top of it.

I can understand what bonsai is referring too.. sometimes it's not only links...

Hopefully this will be a problem of the past soon

stang1 · Post by **stang1** » Mon May 28, 2007 11:01 pm

I think the mods are doing a great job and we should be patient while they try and sort it out. All we can do is not bother reading the thread thus not giving the spammer any satisfaction or gain.

Amount of spam on the forum

Amount of spam on the forum

zeb

REALLY DISGUSTED BY WHAT I SEE ON Here!