Curbing trolls and spammers - suggestion.

Greenshieldstamp_2

My overwhelming thought is one of sadness ,that people exist who would exploit other people when they are vulnerable, and wouln’t hesitate to kick someone when they are down. Over on MSE Old Style we treat each other with respect, as you would a stranger, and value the different backgrounds and lifestyles we all come from.

One of the poster’s mentioned that they find it easier to spot trolls and spam etc. Some genuine people who post on this site are in a vulnerable position, and under pressure dealing with debt; family or health problems. and may not be thinking as rationally as others when it comes to thinking is this person a troll and deliberately trying to upset me?
I think spamming and anti-troll things should be done in the background where possible or for the people at MSE to decide when forum members flag a problem. If it requires extra money for a solution to be found, could the MSE charity be a source of funding as this site helps so many people of all ages?
One practical way would be for new members to be sent an e-mail or even an indication of what a troll is, as (like me before I joined this site) I did not even know such things existed. It would act as a reminder for new people to remember that this is a site “open to the public” and it would perhaps deter possible trolls by showing them that they would not be welcome. It could be worded in such a way so as not to put new people off, more of a helpful hints.
Hope this helps and thank you
Greenshield

P.S. I have gained so much from joining this site and would hate anyone to be upset by anyone malicious, as there are so many kind-hearted and genuine people using it.

Twopints

Is there a limit on the number of recipients that a PM can be sent to?

I believe that some of the spammers just copy the list of users that are on-line into the "To" box on the PM. Then they are only sending one PM but it goes to a lot of people.

fermi

Twopints wrote: »

Is there a limit on the number of recipients that a PM can be sent to?

5 people.

It tells you the limit when you compose a PM.

pash_2

well guess we will have to put up with it for now.. its a long process now though, and only one at a time.. life is too short, think I need more phone numbers, then I can just text the message, save time! though I do find having 2 pages open makes it a little easier, I can surf in the other while my time is up to hit send!:rolleyes:

FERMI it is only one at a time since the changes... well it is for me (I have never posted any spam honest, so I hope it isnt just me thats been cut to one message/person ...):eek:


edited to add a bit after seeing last post!

melancholly

i've said it on another thread already, but i think the fact that spammers are resorting to PMing people is a sign that the spam on the main boards is being dealt with really quickly and efficiently already. stopping people bombarding the site with PMs must be an order of magnitude harder though.... i don't envy anyone doing the job of stopping it!

the really sad fact is that spamming works and is cost effective marketing - there are people who click on the links and buy viagra or whatever (petrol offers anyone )...... why, i have no idea! and hopefully no-one from MSE does, but you never know!

fermi

pash wrote: »

FERMI it is only one at a time since the changes... well it is for me

I just successfully sent a PM to two recipients at the same time.

pash_2

fermi wrote: »

I just successfully sent a PM to two recipients at the same time.

omg :eek: that is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO unfair!!! (said in best Kevin the teenager voice) PAH!!!!!!!!!!:D

emerydown

MSE_Webmaster wrote: »

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

If we had to put a code in like this would that stop the robots from spamming MSE (for new threads anyway).