Anti Spam Petition

MothballsWallet

Andrea, can you link to that thread with your answer please just to make it clear which one you're referring to?

SailorSam

MothballsWallet wrote: »

Andrea, can you link to that thread with your answer please just to make it clear which one you're referring to?[/QUO

Words of Wisdom, by MSE Andrea

We're very much aware of this and it's as frustrating for us as it is for you guys.
We're always working to combat it but for obvious reasons we can't say what those are on the Forum.
If it helps, the amount that actually reaches the Forum is a small number compared to what would come through if we didn't have the measures we do in place. Not a huge consolation given how frustrating it can be, I know, but it may go some way to helping forumites understand.
A huge thanks to everyone that's helping out with the spam button and to our fabulous board guides who have the patience of saints!

grumbler

MothballsWallet wrote: »

Andrea, can you link to that thread with your answer please just to make it clear which one you're referring to?

Ridiculously BONKERS!!

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Thanks everyone!

We're very much aware of this and it's as frustrating for us as it is for you guys.

We're always working to combat it but for obvious reasons we can't say what those are on the Forum.

If it helps, the amount that actually reaches the Forum is a small number compared to what would come through if we didn't have the measures we do in place. Not a huge consolation given how frustrating it can be, I know, but it may go some way to helping forumites understand.

A huge thanks to everyone that's helping out with the spam button and to our fabulous board guides who have the patience of saints!

Spambots

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

Hi everyone!

I've posted on this thread

To answer the question of moderating first posts we can't do that for a few reasons

a) For legal reasons we don't moderate
b) Over 300 people join the forum every day
c) We encourage newbies to join and join in saving money straight away eg in Forum giveaways, debt-free challenges etc.

Thanks for the suggestions though, we are reading and noting them!

Silk

I see they have started again just now ...I'm not going to bother this time !

amibovvered

I just opened a post full of foreign characters and discovered my SPAM button was missing! I 'reported' it instead, don't know if that was the right thing to do?

AJXX

I think a lot of people here saying "just fix it" have no clue about how forums work/technicalities.

For example just blocking "foreign" languages is difficult to implement and could even lead to a drop in genuine users/traffic.

It's been a while since I used vbulletin (the software this forum runs on) but there certainly wasn't ever any quick fix to spam.

As one of the mods have stated, the forum gets around 300 new members daily, that's around 12 per hour. It would be impossible to moderate them all.

I'd hate to think how many posts are made per hour, 300-900? again impossible to moderate them all.

Any changes/mods to the spam filter will need to go through extensive testing first so this will not be an instant fix. The last thing MSE wants is to end up blocking/frustrating genuine users when then end up blocked by poorly implemented spam filter rules.

grumbler

AJXX wrote: »

It's been a while since I used vbulletin (the software this forum runs on) but there certainly wasn't ever any quick fix to spam.

Several times I suggested to add small buttons to all threads in the board view (possibly, in some sort of a popup when you point to the thread), that would make killing obvious spam much easier.

I am no expert, but I don't believe that this simple measure is very difficult to implement.

fermi

AJXX wrote: »

I think a lot of people here saying "just fix it" have no clue about how forums work/technicalities.

For example just blocking "foreign" languages is difficult to implement and could even lead to a drop in genuine users/traffic.

It's been a while since I used vbulletin (the software this forum runs on) but there certainly wasn't ever any quick fix to spam.

As one of the mods have stated, the forum gets around 300 new members daily, that's around 12 per hour. It would be impossible to moderate them all.

I'd hate to think how many posts are made per hour, 300-900? again impossible to moderate them all.

Any changes/mods to the spam filter will need to go through extensive testing first so this will not be an instant fix. The last thing MSE wants is to end up blocking/frustrating genuine users when then end up blocked by poorly implemented spam filter rules.

There still isn't, and these forums are still on v3.8.x while vBulletin is now on v5, so there are virtually no more mods/hacks for this version being done or updated.

And yes, even the well maintained mods/hacks on up to date platform need careful testing on a site this size, as they often have unintended consequences, bugs, or worse if you're not careful.

J_B

fermi wrote: »

There still isn't, and these forums are still on v3.8.x while vBulletin is now on v5, so there are virtually no more mods/hacks for this version being done or updated.

And yes, even the well maintained mods/hacks on up to date platform need careful testing on a site this size, as they often have unintended consequences, bugs, or worse if you're not careful.

Sounds like we're fooked that are we??

JJ_Egan

The majority of forums i use have not let me post in some boards straight away and in all cases have required a captcha and a reply email before the admins accept a new user .

The oh well we have some desperate people that need to post straight away does not ring true when all they eventually see is a wall of spam in a foreign language .

If spammers infect the board could they not also infect my MSE weekly email .