Problems with Spam

[DennisMartz]

I'm wondering why the forum isn't set-up to allow a new user to post messages only after they've been approved to do so by one of the moderators? It would mean a little more work, but wouldn't it get rid of most (if not all) of the spam?

(which would probably mean a lot LESS work keeping the forums cleaned up)

Dennis

[Debbi]

I HATE these spammers!

I wonder if disallowing usernames with numbers at the end wouldn't keep out about 90% of the spam?

[nichewriter]

Me too. I hate it when I log in around 2 or 3 in the morning and all I see are spammers - it's so exhausting to go through the forum and click on topics. My "Foe" list has grown but many times I sure wish I could zap these 'turds. I can usually see 3 or 4 of them in the forum late at night (or early in the morning) posting when I'm on here (I've been on really weird sleep schedule the last month or so). I'm all for moderated posts for new users -- and maybe then, they can be banned right away.

[Debbi]

Gah, the spammers have been out in force this entire weekend. Every time I take a look at the "new posts", there is a raft of spam obscuring the juicy bits. Poor Celeste! You must be exhausted by now.

[Celeste Stewart]

I am. It's disheartening to check one spammer and see that he has 17+ posts and then check another spammer and to see that he too has that many. And then another. I think I deleted over 100 spam messages this afternoon. Sometimes I just clear out the popular forums and leave the less popular ones for later because it's time consuming when there's that many. It takes about four to five clicks per post just to zap them. We need a better way to deal with this for sure!

[Debbi]

Some people have suggested an approval process for forum members before they can post anything. For a quick fix maybe Support could exclude posters with a number at the end of their usernames. That would cut out quite a few (until they get wise). It seems like the spammers are multiplying like bunnies recently. Maybe it's the holidays.

[Celeste Stewart]

Support, have you looked into some of the anti-spambot mods available for phpBB forums?
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=427852

Spam has been horrendous lately. 100s of spam messages a day! It seems that some of the spammers post about 20 at a time. It only takes a few of those to make the forum practically unuseable. How about one of those "prove you're a human" questions? Any other ideas?

[Jmercer]

And, it looks like the post right above mine just proves the point. I am irritated by having to pick through the spam to get to the good comments, but what really worries me is that the spam makes the whole site look unprofessional. I am concerned what a buyer might think if he or she happened upon the forums and saw a screen full of "buy shoes" "hot purses."

[4rumid]

Many of the spammers are repeat offenders. Can't those accounts -- or any spammer account -- be suspended? The task might be Sisyphean, but it would be a start until a better solution comes along.

[Celeste Stewart]

I don't have the supreme moderating powers to ban users, but I'd love it. "Arabellas" currently has 38 messages on the boards - and that's just one of several spammers populating the boards right now. It's insane and will take probably a half an hour to clean up the current crop of garbage. I can't spend a heck of lot of time deleting spam because I'm buried with work and honestly I'm kind of done with it. I'm sure Ed is, too. We need a better plan, that's for sure.

[Debbi]

I volunteered to help out with deleting spam and Support said they were adding that priviledge to my account, so I am just waiting for the go-ahead. Hopefully that will ease your burden, Celeste. If they could also give you the power to actually ban users and not just deletes messages, that would be even better. We could be a deadly duo!

Debbi

[Celeste Stewart]

Awesome! That will be a big help. I still think that there's got to be a better way, but until that way is figured out we'll all appreciate the extra zappage.

[jadedragon]

Tonight there is tons of new spam all over the place. I've developed a little expertise as one of 4 active Admins at http://realcent.forumco.com. We have over 700 active posting members and rank high for a bunch of precious metal, base metal, scrap metal and bullion terms. Spam is quickly deleted because there are enough Mods and Admins to delete spam and lock the users that spam. We have no barriers to signing up, yet we get minimal spam.

I suggest appointing additional volunteer Admins that have the power to lock out users. Also there must be some forum settings that can be tweaked. Improving the professionalism of the forum will give a good impression to users of CC and hopefully result in more sales.

[Debbi]

Ok, everyone, we all need to send Celeste many gifts for all her hard work and dedication in fighting off these spam monsters! I got my spam-killing powers today and I just spent almost an hour cleaning spam out of the new, active and unaswered sections and there is still plenty more. As I was doing it, I noticed that the spammers (mainly arabellas and Commoner1) were at it AS I was deleting their previous spams! Celeste, I don't know how you've dealt with this for so long. It's only my first day and I'm already ready to track them all down and cram their cable modems up their !@#$%

Thank you Support for giving me the opportunity to help Celeste out. When you get some free time (if that ever happens) can you please think of some more elegant soltuions to this underatking? If we could ban users, that might help, but I'm sure there are anti-spambot scripts you can run somewhere out there.

Whee! *delete* *delete* DIE DIE DIE!

[Celeste Stewart]

Crazy, isn't it! It's frustrating and a major time waster. Thanks for battling the spammers with me and Ed!