Spammer in the forum

[SEDeary]

I'm not sure if this is the proper place to report this, but there's a spammer in the writer's forum and it's annoying.

This is the user's profile

Turacuppori
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=24108

Would CC please do something about it? Also, how should I report this next time?

Thanks,

Sarah

[Evelyn]

Hey there, Sarah! Welcome to C-C and glad to have you aboard.

There are three of us who regularly patrol the forums for spam, but we can't catch them the instant they join. Clever spammers! We do our best and yes, they're irritating. I wish that all spammers would be infested with fleas.

If you'd like to help fight spam, send a message to the tech guys and ask if there's room for one more warrior. It's a constant battle and we'd welcome another person to help keep the annoyance down. Otherwise, you can do a "report" when you see a bad post, but we get to them when we can so it's really wasting your few seconds of time.

Keep smiling and keep writing. Hope to see more of you around the forums.

Evelyn

[Celeste Stewart]

Evelyn and Debbie and any other spam patrol members -- did you notice the new "Moderate Forum" link in the Moderator's Control Panel? YAY!!!! It's much easier to delete spam posts. Now you can mark multiple posts at once and delete them in bulk. So far, it seems a little flukey -- sometimes I see that link, sometimes I don't. Hopefully it's a permanent upgrade for us. You can also bulk delete posts within an individual thread as well as brand new postings.

[Lor]

Celeste,
Do you have anyone in the Eastern Time Zone. I can't tell you the number of times I come to the forums in the AM only to find 99% of the recent posts are link launderers. If ya'll need someone in the ETZ, I'd be happy to do it. I check CC daily and early. Easy enough to do a quick tidy.
Lorraine

[Celeste Stewart]

I'm not sure where everyone lives.

[SEDeary]

Hi there!

Sure Evelyn! Where do I sign up? I don't log in the forums everyday, but I'd be more than glad to help you smite the spammers! Fleas sound great too, but I think that might be a bit more complicated, LOL.

I'll send an email ASAP, but will they take a newbie? Might as well try, right? I'll let you know. Thank you for your response! Take care.

Sarah

[mnicol22]

I'm not sure if this is the proper place to report this, but there's a spammer in the writer's forum and it's annoying.

This is the user's profile
[spammer account deleted]

Would CC please do something about it? Also, how should I report this next time?

Thanks,

Sarah

Actually, there's a few of them! I'm not sure they're different people or the same person with multiple accounts. They sure are fast! I found at least 10 new posts within minutes! I wish they would just get suspended and be over with it. It's really annoying!

[jellygator]

How do you send a notice to the techs?

[Celeste Stewart]

You can send CC support a message by using the Contact feature when signed into the main page. You can report spam when you see it by clicking the icon with the red exclamation mark in the upper right corner. I don't think this is necessary as the volunteer spam patrollers see the spam right away when we log in.

[Lysis]

Celeste, are you stuck deleting the spam one-by-one? If CC lets you, ask them for admin access. When you click a name, you click "Administrate User," then the page that shows lets you block the email and at the very bottom you can can choose "Delete Posts" and delete the spam account. This kills any spam in one swoop instead of one-by-one. I know how annoying the russian spammers are. The UA and RU spammers hit me every day on my forum, but it's not too much of a big deal if you use the admin panel.

I took 3 days off for Thanksgiving and came back to a ton of spam.

[Celeste Stewart]

I wish we could simultaneously ban the user and delete all of the user's emails at once, but that doesn't seem to be an option available in our control panels . I recently found out how to bulk delete a bunch of messages at once, so that's at least helpful. The whole spam thing is annoying. It's all automated, so the spammers don't get discouraged; they just keep making new accounts.

[jellygator]

Just thinking here, but I wonder if there'd be a way to code a screening function that flagged any post containing more than 3 links. Flagged posts would be redirected for manual approval or the users could be required to complete additional steps (like capcha) to post. Actually, capchas might be good for all users to post here. The forum's not THAT active that it should be a problem.

[Lysis]

You can set it up so all first posts are reviewed, but I doubt CC would do that, because it is a hassle for the mods. It's probably the best way to stop spammers, but it's kinda an inconvenience.

Most spammers profile spam, so they just make accounts to spam backlinks in the profile. I kill those accounts too, because I'm a ninja.

[mnicol22]

Hehe! I like spam killing ninjas! They're my favorite kind! Down with spam!

[Evelyn]

I second Celeste's motion to allow mods to delete spam accounts completely. I have a funny feeling that if there aren't a lot of spammy links showing in the user list, fewer spammers would sign up. But I'm a pollyanna when it comes to thinking people will do the right thing...

So let the mods delete these spam accounts, please. It would take a while, but I'm up for working my way through all 20,000 users and getting rid of obvious spammers, even from way back at the beginning of the forum. Please? Please?

BTW, I took a few days off for a trip to my mom's, so that's why we were one man down on the spam-killing team. I'm back now and will be ruthless as ever, Celeste.