Spam ( and not the Good Kind you can fry and eat :-) )

[POMU]

Hi Guys

  Any Idea how all this Spam is getting through ?

Pomu

 

[bikkuri bahn]

How about revising the user registration process, such as requiring new members to answer some simple questions, like: what is the name of the high speed train in Japan? shin_ _ _ _ _ _, or, what are the two big model train companies in Japan? Tomix and ____. I know some enthusiast forums in the U.S. use this system.

Edited December 18, 2013 by bikkuri bahn

[JR 500系]

How about revising the user registration process, such as requiring new members to answer some simple questions, like: what is the name of the high speed train in Japan? shin_ _ _ _ _ _, or, what are the two big model train companies in Japan? Tomix and ____. I know some enthusiast forums in the U.S. use this system.

 

That's a great idea bikkuri bahn! 

 

Certainly good to try if its not too much trouble. since seeing the recent hike in spam... 

[cteno4]

We really only had one bad one there, rest have been minimal. I worry that any question may be just a turn off to newbies.

 

Jeff

[ToniBabelony]

How about a 'proof you're a human' kind of thing? Or do we already have that?

[JR 500系]

We really only had one bad one there, rest have been minimal. I worry that any question may be just a turn off to newbies. Jeff

 

Valid point Jeff. 

 

Please allow me to share some of my past experience on a Lego forum:

 

I remembered when our local Lego forum required a one YEAR , yes ONE YEAR wait to just register to be a member. This was due to YEAR long surveillance and alot of lazy administrators and moderators....  Then we sort of changed that by letting people come in after a MONTH long surveillance. They can post and see normal threads, but the really special (and juicy) threads are locked and they cannot access them until granted permission by a admin or mod. Alot of work, but it kept the forum looking nice and friendly, for sometime... Until the mods themselves can't know who the trust and left the forum altogether. 

 

Despite that, the public wouldn't mind waiting one month for approval, probably due to the fact that we had the most juicy news, in terms of sales, around. We had multiple scoots ( i was one of them) covering the entire island for all small and alleyway shops and reporting sales of exclusive items. But that was then...

[kvp]

As a newbie my suggestion would be to just simply ask them for a short introduction about themselves and  their hobby interests on the registration page. This could be a very good test to filter out bots. Also adding manual moderation for the first 3 to 10 posts is also possible. When someone can write a meaningful about text and say something on topic to a few threads without adding spam links then they are probably not spambots.

 

ps: The same membership system is used on the lego forum i'm a member of. This allows access to everyone and eliminates most spammers.

[cteno4]

My main concern is the newbie who is just interested in getting in and asking a question when they are ready. 

 

but one big thing i did not consider is the forum is totally open to reading w/o registration, so that helps a lot. 

 

i think most spammers (even human ones) would be filtered out with even the first post moderated, even if you just say the first few posts would be moderated. 

 

I think our only issue here is the couple of spams a week we get. we only had that one that hit every forum one night. moderators seem pretty good at removing spams w/in a day and pretty simple task and there are enough of us looking at the forum daily to find them quickly and zap them. I would even volunteer to be a spam zapper moderator if the admin felt they needed help. 

 

I just like the place feeling very open and simple to newbies. small impediments can really derail folks. I know the options to moderate or answer questions seem simple and easy to those of us that are really in the hobby but those could seem a bit off putting to the real newbie.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Mr Frosty]

On another forum I mod, all first posts need to be mod approved. This generally removes most of the spam and bans the spammers in one go.

[Martijn Meerts]

The spam hasn't been worse recently, it's just that I was slacking some to remove it after getting the reports in ;)

 

The thing is, all these spammers are actual people who get paid to post spam on forums, they're not automated scripts. So, any question during registration that's too easy and/or quick to find the answer to on Google will really do no good whatsoever. More difficult questions might scare possible new members off.

 

The forum does actually filter out a lot of potential spammers. A while ago we had an issue with our registration code. During that time the software wasn't registered and the spam service stopped working. We normally get about 3-4 registrations per day, but during that issue it shot up to around the 60-70 mark.

 

I'll also be updating the forum to the latest version of the software sometime in the next few weeks, I do believe they've improved some on the spam filters. The only problem is that it's fairly time consuming work because we use a completely custom theme, and I need to go through all the theme changes and incorporate those in the custom one.

[linkey]

LonRebollar is posting spam on the Forums in the Platform 2 - N gauge section. Posting medication/drugs adverts in the section. Maybe their account has been hacked. 

Edited May 8, 2014 by linkey

[Martijn Meerts]

Was just a standard spambot, not a hacked account.. He only registered today ;)

[JR 500系]

Glad It was resolved. Thanks Martijn! Was influx with tons of spam last night with almost every new thread everywhere! 

[linkey]

Just saw another spam from CarlLux with the topic "Look" it has nothing to do with the JNS Forum or anything N scale related. Just to let you know.

He has posted spam on the following platforms:
Platform 2
Platform 3
Platform 6 and 
Platform 7

All the topics has nothing to do with trains and trying to promote spam and religion.

Edited August 10, 2014 by linkey

[cteno4]

Oooooohhh the religion of SPAM! I can just imagine that. The great god of spam! Spam priests and priestesses! The spam sacraments...

 

Jeff

[disturbman]

Thanks Linkey (and all the others that reported Carl), it has been taken care of.

Though, if you want to warn us, the most efficient manner is to report the poster (or its posts) directly.

[linkey]

I did report it as well just noting it on here about it.