SPAM - The endless annoyance

[Dnote 0]

Hi,

So, you all know we have a spam problem on the forum.

To give you an update on this, we've tried various things to resolve this and so far have failed miserably at doing so. :frowning: 

We're currently talking with the forum developers to see if there are any solutions that we haven't tried yet before taking more drastic measures, but we are working on finding a solution for this problem.

Also, for those that don't know about this, on each post there is a "Flag" function in the bottom left, that lets users mark a post as spam (or report it). Feel free to use this function, it helps us deal with the spam posts a little quicker, as at the moment, removing the spam is a manual process, one post at a time.

Thanks,

[buttonfan 5]

Go back to vBulletin! :p

tooshortlalalalala

[Chromatic 127]

It wouldn't be so bad tbh if I could read South Korean

[Dnote 0]

Because we use our own account system there are elements we have direct control over and those we don't. It looks like the long term solution is to improve the integration between the forums and our account system, enabling us greater control on who can access it, but we're still looking for a good short term solution.

[Dnote 0]

We've taken a more aggressive step towards removing the spam from the forum, it may an archaic way of dealing with the problem but will hopefully be effective.

[couger1981 89]

Dnote said:

We've taken a more aggressive step towards removing the spam from the forum, it may an archaic way of dealing with the problem but will hopefully be effective.

Doesn't look like it's working.

[Syn 2]

Any fix in sight? Seems the spam hits the fan late EST and early morning EST...

[f1since08 60]

Myself, @MBKF1 and @SkiddyMcCrash are doing our best to delete them when we can, but remember we have jobs/school/uni/lives/sleep to go to and can't be on here 24-7.

[SkiddyMcCrash 311]

Yisc said:

It's undoable to keep reporting them one by one, so I gave up.

You want to try deleting them 1 by 1, because they are making 1 post and then switching to another account, making another post, then switching to another

[sjsharp2010 227]

Yisc said:

Yisc said:

I would highly appreciate it, when this spam flood would be looked into again. My mouse gets worn out of all that reporting.

Sadly no answer and again a lot of spam on the forum.

It's undoable to keep reporting them one by one, so I gave up.

Yeah I've kind of given up flagging them all the time there's just been so many that I'd never get anything else done if I spend my time flagging them.

[versedi 39]

Captcha on post (temporary solution to prevent new spam from flooding), then after it calms down (bots will eventually stop hitting it) cleanup all spammy accounts and set a captcha + simple equation in register page. Remove the post (New Subject) captcha. Problem solved - profit.

[kefen 0]

Wouldn't it help if you have to confirm your email adress before you can start posting?

[KevM 44]

Could you introduce 'Captcha' for new members registering, with an account verification email?

[sjsharp2010 227]

I think w3hat they need is to introduce a post limit for new members something like you have to post 5 times before you can set up a new topic. TBH I think it's the only way the  spambots will be stopped.

KevM said:

Could you introduce 'Captcha' for new members registering, with an account verification email?

I think they're already using it. or at least tried that and it's stil flooding the forums I think the only option is to go aggressive against them now as it's getting ridiculous

[versedi 39]

Dear forum webmasters, Dear @Dnote  please try No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHAs from Google without letters - the one that you check images that are showing i.e. chips.
It's really effective against bots, so if we're attacked by physical persons hired to do so we'll fail anyway no matter what precautions you're taking.

Here's some unofficial plugin for VF http://vanillaforums.org/addon/nocaptcharecaptcha-plugin but I'd recommend to write your own (this is pretty easy task).

[MBKF1 91]

As @sjsharp2010 said, I think that having a system where new members must post at least 10 times before being able to create their own threads could greatly reduce the spam. I've suggested this to the admins so I really hope it's considered!

In the meantime, keep reporting any spam and myself and the other moderators will remove it when we can.

[versedi 39]

Did you thought about making a regex with all chinese/korean whatever else BS this is - which would prohibit making new threads? You don't have chinese section so it would work I think...

[couger1981 89]

Yisc said:

versedi said:

Did you thought about making a regex with all chinese/korean whatever else BS this is - which would prohibit making new threads? You don't have chinese section so it would work I think...

The amount of spam seems a lot worse today. It's impossible to keep reporting them all. So again I am asking if someone who runs the forum, can do something to stop this.

They are trying to stop it but they seem to come back.

[versedi 39]

Back again.
They have weird methodology: they first create a topic named "asdasdasd" with content "asdasfasfasdfa" and then after few minutes change it into asian crap.

[Ho3n3r 122]

Yisc said:

It seems that the spam is back, now that F1 2016 has gone live.

+1. So much fun reading the forums with all this flying around in between legit threads.

[LariosoDog 0]

How about sending an email to confirm not a spammer - I wonder if spamrobots fix that.
Maybe even having the "I am not a robot" - much better than having to wait rediculous timespan to post.

I waited now 45 minutes to make second post, since I did not realize each attempt adds 10 minutes to post again.

[MrDeap 12]

Wouldn't banning certain gambling "keyword" would fix the issue?

[LGS469 1]

the spam is back big time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jennyannem 41]

It appears we have had a bit of a spam attack recently - I've deleted/banned as many as I can find, but if there's anything else, let me know!

[MrDeap 12]

This sure make me hungry. It's love at a first bite.