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The spam problem is really getting out of hand.Follow

#1 Jul 08 2014 at 7:06 AM Rating: Decent
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Is there anything that can be done? It's been years since I made an account, but is there captcha now? If there isn't, it may be time to add it, or email confirmation, or something. This is getting silly.
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#2 Jul 08 2014 at 8:35 AM Rating: Good
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I blame the Yuros and their soccerball game. Smiley: motz
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#3 Jul 18 2014 at 4:43 PM Rating: Good
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Lol. Every other morning when I get up, I see spam in the FFXI General Section and I report it.

...I'm sure that adds to the moderators's headaches; and I don't know what software this board uses. Maybe see if there's a antispam mod/plugin you can modify for this forum? Like Spam-O-Matic that is used on RPGamer? (I should know, I'm a mod over there and I suggested it, but they use Vbull.)
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#4 Jul 20 2014 at 1:31 AM Rating: Good
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Do the spammers not work weekends or something? Has an admin been up all night dealing with things? Or have changes already been implemented to reduce spam? Either way, I haven't seen anything in the last hour or two, which is surprising.

Edit: It looks like it's more likely to be the first one, as things picked up later in the night.

Edited, Jul 20th 2014 6:25am by Poldaran
#5 Jul 22 2014 at 12:55 PM Rating: Good
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New record!

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#6 Jul 22 2014 at 3:04 PM Rating: Good
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We've been talking about the spammers at some length on the EQ Boards.

https://everquest.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=1&mid=140432271817764615&p=1#14


The solution near the end of the thread that might be easiest on admn here is basically:

"Any new poster with a post count under 20 has a programmed in restriction of a 3-hour delay between being able to create new topics"

Note that this doesn't prevent the newbie poster coming on and asking for help (still happens on the EQ board with some regularity) nor does it stop a low-post-count person participating in threads as this doesn't appear to be useful to the spammers (they seem to want to own the front page with new topics).


We had a goof spam 23 new threads earlier today/last night. We used to get 1-2 a week that would live into the afternoon. It's gotta be driving the allakhazam admn nuts...
#7 Jul 23 2014 at 10:48 AM Rating: Good
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snailish wrote:
"Any new poster with a post count under 20 has a programmed in restriction of a 3-hour delay between being able to create new topics"
They did something similar to that in the official Final Fantasy XIV forums. I don't go there, but word from the ever present grape vine was that it wasn't looked upon favorably. Three hours seems excessive, but a delay might not be such a bad idea since these are mostly done in rapid succession at a time the admins that can do anything about it aren't around.

Getting someone on the proverbial night shift probably wouldn't hurt either.
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#8 Jul 23 2014 at 4:59 PM Rating: Good
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Maybe a progressive thing, 5 minutes between the first and the second thread, 10 between the second and third, 20 between the third and fourth and then 40, 60, 80 etc.

Any non spammer is unlikely to want to even make 3 threads in 15 minutes nevermind more than that.


I'm not sure how much it would help though, might just lead to spammers necroing threads all over the place instead.
#9 Jul 23 2014 at 4:59 PM Rating: Good
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Maybe a progressive thing, 5 minutes between the first and the second thread, 10 between the second and third, 20 between the third and fourth and then 40, 60, 80 etc.

Any non spammer is unlikely to want to even make 3 threads in 15 minutes nevermind more than that.


I'm not sure how much it would help though, might just lead to spammers necroing threads all over the place instead.
#10 Jul 23 2014 at 10:22 PM Rating: Excellent
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It's kinda funny when you see a powerlevel spammer and your first thought isn't "damn people ruinin' ma games!" but instead is "well, at least they're not a black magic vashiwhatever." It was kind of a weird feeling, if I'm being honest.
#11 Jul 24 2014 at 9:23 AM Rating: Excellent
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Well, they had time to program a bunch of extra **** on the bottom of the forums so, you know, priorities I guess.
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#12 Jul 24 2014 at 11:26 AM Rating: Good
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Yeah, I was just gonna ask if that was an accident or what. That ... doesn't not looking appealing at all.
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#13 Jul 25 2014 at 8:31 AM Rating: Good
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lolgaxe wrote:
That ... doesn't not looking appealing at all.


I'll go ahead and assume you wrote that on your phone.

Also, bottom thing is hilarious. It's webpage design concept from the early 00's back in style. Let's put a menu at the bottom of a page, just in case someone scrolls all the way down and decides to sign up.

Edited, Jul 25th 2014 4:34pm by Mazra
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#14 Jul 30 2014 at 3:13 AM Rating: Good
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Any way we could naughty word list "vashikaran" or "vashikaran specialist" to "Bob-danged Spammer" or "I am the prettiest, prettiest little pony"? You could make that my Christmas present this year.

Edited, Jul 30th 2014 3:20am by Poldaran
#15 Jul 30 2014 at 7:27 PM Rating: Good
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What about "ban me baby one more time" and/or "oops I did it again"?
#16 Jul 31 2014 at 2:25 AM Rating: Good
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Too on the nose. You want something random. That way, if they're paying attention, it confuses and slows them down. That's why I favor the pony one over the spammer one.

Edited, Jul 31st 2014 2:25am by Poldaran
#17 Aug 03 2014 at 2:45 AM Rating: Decent
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Case in point, the forum that this thread is in has been inundated with spam tonight. I would like to propose a boycott on premium and the disabling of adblock(for those of us who have done so in the past) until a system to prevent this has been implemented.

I'd also like to point out my disappointment in the lack of admin participation in this thread. Having dealt with this issue as a mod for Macbeth Shoes and sysop for Conservapedia(much to my own shame, but I tried to help them be less biased), I can say, without a doubt, that having no system in place, could put the profitability of Zam at risk as less people will want to come here if they have to scroll past a plethora of spam posts to find what they're looking for. It just doesn't look good to have a page be decimated to 5 or 6 threads after the spam has been nuked either.

I've been here for 10 years now(give or take) and I hate to see the site like this. Something needs to be done. We want answers and solutions, not ignorance. Get it together guys.
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10k before the site's inevitable death or bust

The World Is Not A Cold Dead Place.
Alan Watts wrote:
I am omnipotent insofar as I am the Universe, but I am not an omnipotent in the role of Alan Watts, only cunning


Eske wrote:
I've always read Driftwood as the straight man in varus' double act. It helps if you read all of his posts in the voice of Droopy Dog.
#18 Aug 03 2014 at 3:16 AM Rating: Good
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Driftwood wrote:
I'd also like to point out my disappointment in the lack of admin participation in this thread.
There have been admin responses in other threads about the issue. That's just one, but I recall seeing others.
#19 Aug 03 2014 at 7:37 PM Rating: Excellent
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I thought most of the people in this thread have seen my other replies so I didn't think it needed another one. but here goes anyways.

There are fixes proposed and in the works for the registration issue, the thread spam issue, the ability to remove thread spam quickly issue, and potentially banning access by the entire Nation of India to all Zam content. They have been in the works since may, and are pending scare dev time. I believe I have made sufficient noise about the problem that we are now at the top of the developer pile, but the issue is not resolved yet. No excuses, if I were just a poster here I would be just as pissed off about the situation as I am otherwise, and I can't fault a single one of you who are angry about this.

For what it's worth, you have my personal appology that I have been unable to keep up with removing spam as fast as the spammers can create it. While there are ongoing technical reasons why they can spam faster than I can remove those threads, ultimatly it's my forum and I feel responsable for those failings regardless of the root cause.

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#20 Aug 04 2014 at 8:45 AM Rating: Good
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We should resort to violence.
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#21 Aug 04 2014 at 11:03 AM Rating: Excellent
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Kuwoobie wrote:
We should resort to violence.

Against India?
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Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#22 Aug 13 2014 at 12:37 AM Rating: Good
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The black magic spam appears to be coming back. Not at a high rate yet, but they've found some way to get past the filter or something. I'm leaning towards siding with calls for violence before we're all turned into newts.
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