So much spam recently... more BG's please??

mountainchrisriver

There seems to have been a huge increase in the amount of spam since the site started regularly attracting more visitors (about the same time as Martin's new prog started to air [understandably])...

I have no issue with the amount of visitors; that is great, as the moneysaving message is getting out to more folk... what I do find annoying is the amount of spam around and, especially over the weekend, how long it takes to remove it from the site...

Simple suggestion... can the number of BG's be increased, or have a set of "anti-spam BG's" that can go around and delete the offending posts?

I can only imagine the problem can get worse as the site's popularity increases... any thoughts from the MSE team or other site users??

Thanks for listening...

eyelinerprincess

The problem is the last big spammer was posting on every forum, was banned, then started up again using another name. Is there any way to ban IP addresses?

mountainchrisriver

eyelinerprincess wrote: »

The problem is the last big spammer was posting on every forum, was banned, then started up again using another name. Is there any way to ban IP addresses?

Think the spammers can get around IP address blocks easily if required by having dynamic IP addresses, although I am no techie!

Poppycat

We do need more BG's particularly at the weekend to cover, I know they do a great job and have lives but because of the popularity of this site its a easy target for spammers

Its very frustrating seeing posts remain here for hours if not a day or so at weekend, this I believe only encourages them to come back on as they get maximum exposure, I feel mse is a easy target and most probably is posted on various PTC sites so that spammers target mse with there referrals.

We also need to block persistent urls like that Chinese site that has used about 30+ usernames every other day they come back flogging there warez

Former_MSE_Forum_Manager

Hi guys

Thanks for your feedback. Unfortunately with spam its an ongoing fight and with a forum the size of ours the percentage we remove is quite high. I don't think we actually do a bad job of fighting it - remember it's on every board and you probably are aware of only a small part of everything we need to deal with.

However, we appreciate your comments and will pass them on to the team.

a11waysindebt

I was going to suggest an email adress where it could be reported too,but you have one already.

May be several people could have access to this address so it wouldn't be a burden on just 1 person.

mountainchrisriver

MSE_Forum_Manager wrote: »

I don't think we actually do a bad job of fighting it - remember it's on every board and you probably are aware of only a small part of everything we need to deal with.

I was not suggesting you did a particularly bad job... although weekends are sometimes really bad if we are being honest... hence the suggestion for some more BG's, to help you folk out...

I (and many other "spam busters!" on here) report stacks of spam from most boards on MSE (if we spot it) and if this indeed "only a small part" then I would say you do need some more help!?

Thanks for the reply and I look forward to an update once it has been discussed by the MSE team...

JDMYOFAN

A few potential options...

Could you do it that if x amount of different people 'report' on a certain thread by certain users, an automatic 'suspense' is placed on that user until investigated where the admin/moderators can confirm or lift the suspension.

Have a system which picks up what you have posted in the past and checks to see if it is a repeat post, potentiall automatically suspend as above?

Have a validation box whenever a link is placed in a message

MrsTinks

The problem with link validation is that this would infinitely increase the work of the BGs and/or the forum teams. The problem is the boards are now so busy that the BGs don't have time to read every single post and therefor sometimes spam can go unnoticed although the abuse team are usually pretty speedy in dealing with offenders.
Suspending accounts or posts by majority reporting again could be subject to abuse by people who wanted to be naughty and start several accounts to block someone who annoyed them/disagreed with them/advised them to not post spam etc... you get the idea
Are more BGs the solution? well honestly i am not sure... maybe boardwide permissions to remove spam for the BGs once one has been spotted would be of more use...

Former_MSE_Forum_Manager

nj106 wrote: »

Could you do it that if x amount of different people 'report' on a certain thread by certain users, an automatic 'suspense' is placed on that user until investigated where the admin/moderators can confirm or lift the suspension

The problem with this is the potential for it to be abused as it could apply to any user.

Thanks for the feedback everyone - keep it coming - im sure we can find more ways to combat the spammers.

a11waysindebt

I'm available if you need my services in any way.Just to remove spam that is.