The Forgetful Archivist Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 I have been noticing a lot of topics that are created by brand new users and consist of the advertising of useless products/services. Are bots somehow sneaking in to post spam? Is there anything we can do to help the Admins combat this menace? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Extesian Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 Laugh, report, repeat (You report a spam post by clicking on the flag, a mod will zap it and ban the user once they see it) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Forgetful Archivist Posted January 15, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 (edited) 16 minutes ago, Extesian said: Laugh, report, repeat (You report a spam post by clicking on the flag, a mod will zap it and ban the user once they see it) Already on it. Question, will this end with a handful of Sharders facing down an endless army of bots or is there an end to this apocalypse in sight? Also is it just me or is the rate of spam increasing, it seems like there wasn't this much spam this frequently a few days ago. Edited January 15, 2018 by The Forgetful Archivist 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Extesian Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 Oh its increasing like crazy. Pre- Oathbringer it was a few a week I'd see. After maybe 2 a day. In recent weeks maybe 5. And the last week I'm probably reporting 10 or more a day? But there are mods in every time zone so all we can do is report and they typically do their brutal business pretty quickly. This time its particularly bad as most Americans are asleep. So they'll keep coming. But by reporting quickly we minimize the chance most Sharders will see many 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steeldancer Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 We should get a rank called Botslayer in White. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toaster Retribution Posted January 15, 2018 Report Share Posted January 15, 2018 2 hours ago, Steeldancer said: We should get a rank called Botslayer in White. Shouldn´t we call those Inquisitors? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Forgetful Archivist Posted January 16, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2018 6 hours ago, Toaster Retribution said: Shouldn´t we call those Inquisitors? That would be so awesome! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted January 16, 2018 Report Share Posted January 16, 2018 Honestly I do need to do some software updates and that should improve things. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaymyth Posted January 17, 2018 Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 Back in the good old days, it was Vashikaran Love Magic bots. Now we just get boring snake oil supplement spammers, which isn't nearly as much fun. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Forgetful Archivist Posted January 17, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2018 2 hours ago, Kaymyth said: Vashikaran Love Magic bots What? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaymyth Posted January 18, 2018 Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 9 minutes ago, The Forgetful Archivist said: What? That's a lot of people's reaction, actually. Basically, spambots that advertised Near East witchery services. They were kind of adorable. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverblade5 Posted January 18, 2018 Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 5 hours ago, Kaymyth said: That's a lot of people's reaction, actually. Basically, spambots that advertised Near East witchery services. They were kind of adorable. I remember that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shqueeves Posted January 18, 2018 Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 It is satisfying to call upon the mods to squish the bot 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Forgetful Archivist Posted January 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 5 minutes ago, Shqueeves said: It is satisfying to call upon the mods to squish the bot It really is, I have been staying up till 11 these past few nights just to have the joy of reporting spam. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mestiv Posted January 18, 2018 Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 2 hours ago, The Forgetful Archivist said: It really is, I have been staying up till 11 these past few nights just to have the joy of reporting spam. That's a very weird way of spending your free time. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Forgetful Archivist Posted January 18, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2018 5 hours ago, Mestiv said: That's a very weird way of spending your free time. Why yes, yes it is. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snorkel Posted February 7, 2018 Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 Could a solution be to promote some people from other time zones to moderator? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Forgetful Archivist Posted February 7, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 Or maybe they could impose a no posting in the first hour an account is created. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shqueeves Posted February 7, 2018 Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 10 hours ago, Snorkel said: Could a solution be to promote some people from other time zones to moderator? There's almost always a mod awake already 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mestiv Posted February 7, 2018 Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 I can confirm that we have solid representation in American and European timezones, which pretty much can handle most of the day. We may have someone in Australia too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MistbornAlpaca Posted February 7, 2018 Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 I personally think we're doing pretty good! Not that I'm on very much, but I literally reported my first spam post only yesterday The satisfaction is overpowering 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Forgetful Archivist Posted February 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) I agree that the mods are doing a great job, I rarely see spam that has been on for longer than 1 hour. But the spam keeps coming, I often report 2-6 spam posts per day. I think that we don't need more mods as much as we need preventative measures. I hypothesize that the spammers are actual people and therefore can get past the Captcha. If Captchas are no longer a viable source of defense then what do we do? We make the site less attractive to spammers. After some cursory research, I think I have found a relatively simple way to do exactly this. We make all past, present, and future external links nofollow, whatever spam farm is funding this will no longer be able to make a profit and the spammers will move on to easier prey. In a few months, we remove the external link ban and hope the spammers don't realize that we have. Edited February 8, 2018 by The Forgetful Archivist 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mestiv Posted February 8, 2018 Report Share Posted February 8, 2018 8 hours ago, The Forgetful Archivist said: I agree that the mods are doing a great job, I rarely see spam that has been on for longer than 1 hour. But the spam keeps coming, I often report 2-4 spam posts per day. I think that we don't need more mods as much as we need preventative measures. I hypothesize that the spammers are actual people and therefore can get past the Captcha. If Captchas are no longer a viable source of defense then what do we do? We make the site less attractive to spammers. After some cursory research, I think I have found a relatively simple way to do exactly this. We make all past, present, and future externel links nofollow, whatever spam farm is funding this will no longer be able to make a profit and the spammers will move on to easier prey. In a few months, we remove the external link ban and hope the spammers don't realize that we have. I like this idea. Although I'm afraid that it won't stop the spammers. If search ranking is what they care about, they should notice that their links don't last long here and the chances of being noticed by crawlers are rather slim. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chiri-Chiri Posted February 8, 2018 Report Share Posted February 8, 2018 (edited) There's a new kind of spam, that can't be reported, or there is a way to do it and I don't know how? The link is down here. Spoiler I could report another one, becase it had a replay, I could report that replay. Edited February 23, 2018 by Chiri-Chiri 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steeldancer Posted February 8, 2018 Report Share Posted February 8, 2018 Report it with the little flag. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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