Spammer timeout

[PCustoms]

Is there anyway to have a user (The Chinese spambot) get put into automatic timeout/review if too many posts are flagged within a certain timeframe?

Alternatively, can the number of new threads started per hour be limited?

 

[RoninB4]

Looks like another spammer has taken up the pursuit. For those of us up way to early in the AM, is there any way one of us can help the mods besides reporting? Seems like reporting just loads up the plate of the mods, who are likely a bit over-worked as is lately. I like this website and it bothers me when some self serving spammer clearly attempts to overload the website for their own personal gain.

 

[mike93lx]

Looks like another spammer has taken up the pursuit. For those of us up way to early in the AM, is there any way one of us can help the mods besides reporting? Seems like reporting just loads up the plate of the mods, who are likely a bit over-worked as is lately. I like this website and it bothers me when some self serving spammer clearly attempts to overload the website for their own personal gain.

Some sites ban users/hide posts whdn report counts hit a threshold, allowing a mod to take action later

 

[RoninB4]

Some sites ban users/hide posts whdn report counts hit a threshold, allowing a mod to take action later

Would be nice if this applies to this site. This is the third day in a row I've been up early and found a flood of Chinese spam.

 

[RoninB4]

Compliments to the admin/mod that got on top of that last attack.

 

[demarpaint]

Looks like another spammer has taken up the pursuit. For those of us up way to early in the AM, is there any way one of us can help the mods besides reporting? Seems like reporting just loads up the plate of the mods, who are likely a bit over-worked as is lately. I like this website and it bothers me when some self serving spammer clearly attempts to overload the website for their own personal gain.

I'm up early just about everyday, I could help if needed. I'm also familiar with moderating forums.

 

[PCustoms]

Is there anyway to have a user (The Chinese spambot) get put into automatic timeout/review if too many posts are flagged within a certain timeframe?

Alternatively, can the number of new threads started per hour be limited?

3 new Chinese spam posters running the board this morning. Reported all 3 15 seconds apart.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Some sites ban users/hide posts whdn report counts hit a threshold, allowing a mod to take action later

I believe Ryan said this is what is supposed to happen.

Normally when I am at work and have a call in the middle of the night, I will check on things.

Last night, I was out and we were quiet.

 

[PCustoms]

Normally when I am at work and have a call in the middle of the night, I will check on things.

Last night, I was out and we were quiet.

Glad you got to sleep!

You guys dona good job cleaning up, I've just been up early the past several days and have seen the onslaught. With the reporting limited to every 15 seconds and no obvious immediate effect I don't want to barrage mods with reports.

I try to just note that the user is 100% spam once I realize it.

 

[mike93lx]

I believe Ryan said this is what is supposed to happen.

Normally when I am at work and have a call in the middle of the night, I will check on things.

Last night, I was out and we were quiet.

Man, you gotta work on those priorities. How do you expect to get a raise from Ryan come annual review time?

 

[Mfaz28]

Are there any suspicious balloons overhead? Seems to be epidemic.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Man, you gotta work on those priorities. How do you expect to get a raise from Ryan come annual review time?

Raise ?!?!

The guy can take away the magical powers any time he sees fit. . . No hard feelings. It's a great forum and I consider myself lucky to help keep it running.

 

[Lassen Forge]

There are now 6 of them... I spent an hour this AM reporting all of it (took me that long to catch up)....
Why can't we have a filter that disallows chinese pictograms or characters... Seriously, that would stop them.
So would blocking them. The original fuckoffs are still there, and when they find out they don't get blocked they multiply like cockroaches.

Just saying....

 

[Lassen Forge]

Glad you got to sleep!

You guys dona good job cleaning up, I've just been up early the past several days and have seen the onslaught. With the reporting limited to every 15 seconds and no obvious immediate effect I don't want to barrage mods with reports.

I try to just note that the user is 100% spam once I realize it.

It's every 30. I'll open and flag a number of them, and as the 30 second timer runs out, I report another. Usually have about 10 of them on as separate tabs at once.

 

[PCustoms]

Wow....

@Ryan anything we can do to help beyond sending reports?

Rough count I say 3 spam accounts and over 100 messages just now (5:30am eastern)

 

[cvairwerks]

Actually, the easy way to stop it, is have the first few ( a random, non published number) posts moderated. From what I know, until the moderated posts are either allowed or deleted, nothing the spammer tried to post would get thru.

 

[mike93lx]

Actually, the easy way to stop it, is have the first few ( a random, non published number) posts moderated. From what I know, until the moderated posts are either allowed or deleted, nothing the spammer tried to post would get thru.

Feels like a simpler way would be a posting timeout for new users. These guys are registering and immediately posting, so even an hour may be enough to not get them to come back

 

[PCustoms]

New trick I just used is to ignore the user after making the report

Hides their other 37 post from view.

Sad when viewing new and a page shows 3 threads as everything else is hidden spam.

 

[Snip's]

New trick I just used is to ignore the user after making the report

Hides their other 37 post from view.

Sad when viewing new and a page shows 3 threads as everything else is hidden spam.

Good suggestion....

 

[cvairwerks]

Mike, you might get a few, but at least one of them signed up almot 12 hours ago, then started posting. Going the moderated route, nothing gets posted til a mod approves.

 

[mike93lx]

Mike, you might get a few, but at least one of them signed up almot 12 hours ago, then started posting. Going the moderated route, nothing gets posted til a mod approves.

Yeah, I think that creates more work for the mods.

I get that it's annoying to log on and see a bunch of spam, but it's a few users that need to get banned, not hundreds, and the mods always jump on it quickly when the day starts.

 

[cvairwerks]

Yeah, it does add to their burden a little, but the board is getting hit with wave after wave of this. Couple of the other boards I've been on, had to go the moderated route for a while to kill it off.

 

[LXCam]

Gezzz. Ho Lee Fuc, Chu Su *** and Shiz He Britches were busy last night.

Good luck mods.

 

[Lassen Forge]

It's also the same user names - a couple days ago it was one, then two... IIRC this morning it was 5. Once they find a board (like this one) they can acess and exploit, they start registering new accounts and then post faster than they can be removed. There are other evil tricks that the mods or admins can use (if the feature is turned on) to block the ISPs sending the spam... its almost a nuclear option, however I don't think we have an awful lot of the spammers posting from Cn.

Past couple days they've been starting at midnight west coast time (4 PM in China or 9 AM here in the EU) and running nonstop for an hour or two... I start reporting them as soon as I see them, but man, it's rough, spent 2 hours doing nothing but reporting spam this morning...

 

[mike93lx]

It's also the same user names - a couple days ago it was one, then two... IIRC this morning it was 5. Once they find a board (like this one) they can acess and exploit, they start registering new accounts and then post faster than they can be removed. There are other evil tricks that the mods or admins can use (if the feature is turned on) to block the ISPs sending the spam... its almost a nuclear option, however I don't think we have an awful lot of the spammers posting from Cn.

Past couple days they've been starting at midnight west coast time (4 PM in China or 9 AM here in the EU) and running nonstop for an hour or two... I start reporting them as soon as I see them, but man, it's rough, spent 2 hours doing nothing but reporting spam this morning...

If it's just a few users, why spend all that time reporting posts? Just report the users once each and the mods will see who to bounce

 

[PCustoms]

If it's just a few users, why spend all that time reporting posts? Just report the users once each and the mods will see who to bounce

With these being so obviously spam, I click the username to see that they have ## posts, then when I report that post I mention "new user, ## posts all spam" or similar.

 

[welder4956]

I'll put on my tin foil hat for a moment and wonder if the spam attacks are just practice runs to refine the ability to disable internet communications. Find out what works before deploying on a much larger scale. Tin foil hat off.

 

[PCustoms]

6am on the east coast and there was over 60 spam posts from 2 users. I made 2 reports and hit ignore.

Any feedback on this thread and some of the ideas?

 

[mike93lx]

6am on the east coast and there was over 60 spam posts from 2 users. I made 2 reports and hit ignore.

I did the same.

 

[NUTTSGT]

IPs are coming from everywhere, including the US. Some from Russia, Vietnam and other countries.

 

[PCustoms]

IPs are coming from everywhere, including the US. Some from Russia, Vietnam and other countries.

So blanket IP banning isn't going to work.

 

[The Cobbler]

some new users & posts require moderation if they fit certain criteria ( not sure on the criteria)
but Ryan does work hard at keeping the board up to date and spam free. it was great for a while , virtually no spam that had to be dealt with by the mods, the software was doing it.
it's a cat & mouse game I guess

 

[Lassen Forge]

So the question (to our Super Staffers) is how would you prefer to be reported? Report the name and ignore the azzole, or by the post?

 

[NUTTSGT]

Lassen, that is totally up to Ryan. However, I would say just report each spam user once.

Once a Mod or Ryan, marks them as spam, it'll delete all of their posts.

This morning, the spammers were already gone but I had 90 emails in my personal account. So even after taking care of the turds here, I have to take care of what they are creating elsewhere.

 

[Lassen Forge]

Lassen, that is totally up to Ryan. However, I would say just report each spam user once.

Cool, consider it done. I felt bad as I was pretty sure every time I reported a post you guys were getting hit with an email from each report (that's how ours used to work) so yeah, prolly a lot of those 90 emails were mine, sorry!!!

Have an awesome weekend!!

 

[demarpaint]

I flagged one very early thing morning on the east coast, figuring that's all that was needed to see the spam attack.

 

[The Cobbler]

I agree with Nutts , that a report on a single post from a user that has multiple posts is adequate . once the spammer is deleted all their posts are gone and the user is banned .
we get an email with each report so we have seen upwards of 100 emails in the morning LOL .

As far as how to report, I think the best way for us is report the post .

 

[PCustoms]

Just reported another 2 new ones for a combined 10 posts of "asd" type gibberish posts.

Hopefully the mod team only gets 2 emails

 

[NUTTSGT]

I'm up right now and cleared what is there . Hopefully that's all for today.

 

[Ryan]

I am working on it fellas... Essentially, I designed a spam filter a few months back that has worked remarkably well. However, seems as though they figured out my approach yet again and are able to get through. It's mostly Chinese spammers using Russian bot farms and VPNs... It might take me some time, but I will get them.

In the mean time, please report anything you see... even if you are confident it has already been reported.