Curbing trolls and spammers - suggestion.

mystic_trev

MSE_Forum_Manager wrote: »

We often see people commenting that "MSE has gotten worse" "people are more nasty" - it's worth remembering that the sheer number of people on here is now huge, and thus the associated problems will also increase.

And there lies the problem! I really wish for those early days when posters were nice to each other and we enjoyed sharing information. The sites got so big that it's really impossible to avoid conflicts with some other posters.

bestpud

On the subject of spammers - what is the best way of dealing with the thread while it is still there?

Sometimes these posts have just one reply and I can't make my mind up whether to just report it and let it slip down the board, or add weight to the reply saying it is spam, iyswim?

I tend to leave it if it already has two or more replies but what does everyone else do?

I have read so monay posts from people taken in by seemingly obvious scams that I kind of feel the need to shout loud and clear about scammers, but perhaps it is just me?

*MF*

Just my 2p ...

Some are so blatant, some maybe not so - for these maybe press the report button, say you "suspect" it is spam, and let MSE decide.

You can either post your suspicion and that you have reported it to tell others or if you are really in two minds just leave it as a report and leave it to MSE.

Former_MSE_Andrea

*MF* wrote: »

Just my 2p ...

Some are so blatant, some maybe not so - for these maybe press the report button, say you "suspect" it is spam, and let MSE decide.

You can either post your suspicion and that you have reported it to tell others or if you are really in two minds just leave it as a report and leave it to MSE.

Spot on *MF*. While some posts look like this they may not be and we'd rather these posts are left to drop down the boards then be removed by the forum team as appropriate, to err on the side of caution rather than possibly call someone new to the forum a spammer or troll and put them off.

Former_MSE_Webmaster

Hi folks,

Just to keep you in the loop...

As discussed already on this board, we had another spam attack last night and it's fairly obvious it's executed by robots.

You're correct in assuming that an upgrade on a Forum of this size is a serious undertaking but we're quite a ways down that road already. In the meantime, however, we're looking at other options to limit this sort of attack such as limiting the amount of addressee's on a PM and changing the amount of time between PMs to much longer.

I'll ask you to bear with us while we're working on this and can I also point out that replying to a spam PM is pointless and only adds to the resource drain on the servers, not to mention the cleanup we have to do afterwards, so please refrain.

Thanks,

Webby

Trix

Oh - is that why I now have to wait 600 minutes between pms and all my smilies have been stolen from them?

Ah well - all for a good cause I guess :rolleyes:

Former_MSE_Webmaster

600 minutes? It should be only be 10 minutes (600 seconds). Could you confirm that please Trix?

Webby

Trix

Oops - I meant seconds

My smilies disappeared and the quotes were all messed up as well - but they're all OK again now

MSE_Martin

Hi folks,

We're actively pursuing anti-automated spammer actions; but we want to do it so it doesn't impact normal users so we're looking at options. Trolls is more difficult, one man's troll can be (not always) another mans enlightened being!

Martin

Trix

'Normal' users Martin? What about The Arms lot? :rotfl: (and yes - I'm one of them )

Thanks to all who are working hard to stop the spam though :T