GarageJournal.com has a big spam problem.

[jca]

This spam link post:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1124741

has been present since 2010, and reported as spam via the "Report Post" button, but has not been removed.

Does GarageJournal.com respond to spam reports?

Unfortunately, the GarageJournal.com forum is also full of spammer profile accounts, which are accounts that make few/no posts, expressly for the purpose of "hiding" spam links (called "backlinks") in the user profile contact area, such as in the signature section or the homepage profile link.

For example, if you were to search the member list of the GarageJournal.com forum, and isolate it to members who have made 0 posts, but have a link in their profile, you would see countless spammer accounts. Here are the three most recent spam accounts (Click "Contact Info"):

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/member.php?u=79177
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/member.php?u=79161
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/member.php?u=79076

Unfortunately this is a widespread problem in public forums, but it cannot be ignored. If that type of spam continues, Google (and other search engines) will start to penalize garagejournal.com in search engine results/rankings for containing too many spam links.

Are the admin(s) of the forum aware of this problem? This site is such a great resource -- just don't want it to fall under an onslaught of spam.

 

[thesilverone]

I don't think there are enough active moderators and only one admin here

 

[jca]

I don't think there are enough active moderators and only one admin here

Sorry to hear that. Hope the problem gets addressed, because it is hurting the site/business/etc.

 

[sammm]

I've reported several posts as SPAM and they all magically disappear. Maybe they missed one.

I'm an admin on another forum and most admins/mods have real jobs too.

Big spam problem? I disagree.

 

[jca]

I'm an admin on another forum and most admins/mods have real jobs too.

Big spam problem? I disagree.

Not really sure why you would "disagree" with the problem of spam that I described -- everything I said above is true -- just wanted to point it out since I think the site is a great resource.

It doesn't have to be a full-time job to remove and stop most/all of the spam problem mentioned, just a few necessary fixes in vBulletin.

What forum are you an admin of?

 

[Jack Olsen]

Got it.

I don't get notified when the report button is used. I would guess that it's only the Admin right now. It'd be more effective if that setting got changed, but I'm not sure how simple that it.

 

[Bull]

Got it.

I don't get notified when the report button is used. I would guess that it's only the Admin right now. It'd be more effective if that setting got changed, but I'm not sure how simple that it.

Ditto. I only receive spam reports through PM.

Now that I know about this, I will spend some of my "free" time looking through the member lists for these types of accounts and links that you mentioned. Thanks for the head's up.

 

[jca]

I don't get notified when the report button is used. I would guess that it's only the Admin right now. It'd be more effective if that setting got changed, but I'm not sure how simple that it.

Assuming this site is running vBulletin 3.x, it's a single setting in the vBulletin Admin options ("User Infractions & Post Reporting Options") that sends "Reported Post" emails to all admins, moderators, and super moderators. Maybe someone with Admin access could look at that setting.

Removing all the spammer accounts will take a few steps by the Admin, along with some new security measures/changes to stop that backlink spammer account problems.

There are lots of references to these spam fixes online (including at vbulletin.com), or I could outline them if an admin wanted to contact me.

 

[jca]

Now that I know about this, I will spend some of my "free" time looking through the member lists for these types of accounts and links that you mentioned. Thanks for the head's up.

No problem -- thanks for looking at the spam accounts I mentioned.

Unfortunately, simply "banning" those accounts won't stop the problem. For example, it looks like you guys have banned the three accounts I mentioned in the first post, but their accounts are still visible along with the spam links ("home page") in their profile -- these links are still indexed ("seen") by Google, which is all the spammer wants. (They are not going to use the account or even log in with that account ever again.)

Banning or deleting the accounts will not be enough, since these accounts are created by automated spam bots, day after day, endlessly, until a forum's member directory is overwhelmed by them. It happens all the time to many forums, often going unnoticed, until it grows out of control.

Only banning/deleting all the spam accounts, deleting all the spam profile/signature links, and then stopping the spam bots from registering in the first place will make the problem go away.

As a forum admin, I know it can be a big hassle, but it's something most forums are vulnerable to and have to deal with. As I mentioned, there is a lot of info out there about dealing with this problem, or someone can contact me if they'd like.

 

[Bull]

I'd go ape on killing off this problem if I could. But only Ryan, the site admin, is going to be able to attack it the way you describe. I will send him an e-mail with a link to this thread.

No problem -- thanks for looking at the spam accounts I mentioned.

Unfortunately, simply "banning" those accounts won't stop the problem. For example, it looks like you guys have banned the three accounts I mentioned in the first post, but their accounts are still visible along with the spam links ("home page") in their profile -- these links are still indexed ("seen") by Google, which is all the spammer wants. (They are not going to use the account or even log in with that account ever again.)

Banning or deleting the accounts will not be enough, since these accounts are created by automated spam bots, day after day, endlessly, until a forum's member directory is overwhelmed by them. It happens all the time to many forums, often going unnoticed, until it grows out of control.

Only banning/deleting all the spam accounts, deleting all the spam profile/signature links, and then stopping the spam bots from registering in the first place will make the problem go away.

As a forum admin, I know it can be a big hassle, but it's something most forums are vulnerable to and have to deal with. As I mentioned, there is a lot of info out there about dealing with this problem, or someone can contact me if they'd like.

 

[ngk22r]

Not trying to be a wise guy but jca has a link in his contact page....

 

[dkroth]

1234

 

[Spam16v]

who said spam? don't ban me plz?

 

[jca]

Not trying to be a wise guy but jca has a link in his contact page....

Yes, I have a link to my own site in my profile, just as many other forum members do (just as you have your own signature link soliciting reviews for your own business/selling). What is your point? Should I remove my site link? Are you saying I'm a spammer? Can you elaborate?

No one is saying everyone in the forum who has a link in their profile or signature is a spammer. Just pointing out all these automated spam bots hide their spam links in their profile without ever posting or contributing to the forum in any way. The bots register, change their profile/signature to hide their link, then never return. It's pretty clear which members are "real" and contribute to the site versus a spam bot/account.

 

[UncleJoe]

I have worked in IT for 26 years, the last 15 in Network Security. To say that this forum has a big spam problem is an overstatement. I see the spam posts every so often but this is a volunteer run forum and the moderators do have real actual lives and deserve to spend some time tinkering in their own shops.

I have one client that has more than 500,000 spam attacks every day. Now that is a spam problem.

The OP makes some valid points about spam links left when a spammer signs up but I can still google a subject and get pointed to the Garage Journal so Google has not banned us yet.

It is probably good policy to delete all references to an account once it is determined that the account is associated with spam. I believe the moderators do a great job and while spam does appear from time to time it is not overwhelming.

 

[T56 Impala]

I don't see a spam issue either. I looked at the link in the OP and actually, he may well have been plugging a product, but it appeared legit to me. He mentioned several companies in the post. Don't really think they are related either.

Am I missing something?

 

[jca]

I looked at the link in the OP and actually, he may well have been plugging a product, but it appeared legit to me. He mentioned several companies in the post. Don't really think they are related either.

Am I missing something?

Impala, the spam post from that thread has been removed since this topic was started (I believe it was spam for Ugg Boots) -- you are looking at the other legitimate posts in that thread, not the spam.

 

[HOTFR8]

Impala, the spam post from that thread has been removed since this topic was started (I believe it was spam for Ugg Boots) -- you are looking at the other legitimate posts in that thread, not the spam.

I'll back you up on that as I recall the post on Ugg boots.

 

[ngk22r]

....

 

[xcgates]

I'm with UncleJoe on this one. Just today one of my friends came by looking for some people to track down an IP that has been attempting to scan a secured computer, and run scripts for the past 2 days.

For all practical purposes, I never see spam here. Even if I'm specifically searching this site using Google, I don't run across spam.

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

I am a mod on two other forums and the bot registration got out of hand around the first of the year when the spammers came out with an algorithm that "broke" the "retype these letters" style validation for a new user. We have gone back to the "answer a question" type of validation to eliminate that problem.

The typical account info for the bot accounts that is visible to the mods shows a hotmail or gmail account, a time zone of -12 GMT or some other wierd time zone but a US location and 123456 for the "occupation"

 

[Stephenw]

One type of spam the OP is talking about is backlink spam. A bot registers new accounts that never make any spam posts on the forums. These accounts just have spam links in their signatures.

Their only purpose is to get their spam links onto the forum via the members list. These links are picked up when a search engine crawls through the members list.

The idea is that the more links they have on the web, the higher they will rank with search engines.

 

[warezdog]

Frankly they're too busy handing out six infraction points to ACTUAL members like me for making comments about "those are really nice Bonney's" or "I hope you still have those come payday" on the classified section.

Seriously the admin needs to grow a pair

 

[Bull]

Frankly they're too busy handing out six infraction points to ACTUAL members like me for making comments about "those are really nice Bonney's" or "I hope you still have those come payday" on the classified section.

Seriously the admin needs to grow a pair

The rules for the classifieds are clear and at the top of the forum. If people can't follow them, they are going to have a tough time navigating the waters of life.

 

[Stuey]

One type of spam the OP is talking about is backlink spam. A bot registers new accounts that never make any spam posts on the forums. These accounts just have spam links in their signatures.

Their only purpose is to get their spam links onto the forum via the members list. These links are picked up when a search engine crawls through the members list.

The idea is that the more links they have on the web, the higher they will rank with search engines.

Agreed, but I'd bet that Google's algorithm is sophisticated enough to know that this is a public forum with free registration. Assuming this is true, it would be safe to say that backlinks from the forum don't do squat for anyone's google ranking.

Now consider if Google's algorithm did look at the links in spam members' profiles. Those pages are going to have no rank and thus no value, so the backlinks are just about worthless. Multiply that by 100, 1000, or more forums, and yes, the marginal value adds up, but Google would then probably automatically flag those links as spam.

Frankly they're too busy handing out six infraction points to ACTUAL members like me for making comments about "those are really nice Bonney's" or "I hope you still have those come payday" on the classified section.

Seriously the admin needs to grow a pair

Antagonisms like that don't help your cause.

 

[Ryan]

Google is not a problem fellas. I'm on the inside.

Spam, however, is a constant fight. The hardest are the ghost accounts. We get them when we can.

 

[HOTFR8]

Google is not a problem fellas. I'm on the inside.

Spam, however, is a constant fight. The hardest are the ghost accounts. We get them when we can.

Would have been one of those ghost accounts that posted multiple times on the Ugg boots.