Recent SPAM influx and suggestions to control

[ahtoxa]

Mods and everyone else.

It's no news that there are a lot of spammers on the site lately. I have noticed that many are registered in other countries. As annoying as it has been, today SOF became NSFW; there was a spam post with nudity.

This is a huge issue for all.

A few suggestions:

- approving a new member's first 5 posts manually to determine if spammer or not (someone else's suggestion I've read here before)

- restricting a new user's ability to post to one forum for the first 5 posts

- increasing a number of moderators to help with the matters, especially for early morning


If anyone has ideas, let's post them here and hopefully we can resolve or better control the matter.

Thanks all.

 

[sx sonic]

What about using those goofy letters/words for new member registration? The ones that are hard to read and you have to copy them and submit before continuing, sometimes they say "just checking your not a robot".


Or we could not allow foreign accounts to register lol.

 

[Blue hedgehog]

What about using those goofy letters/words for new member registration? The ones that are hard to read and you have to copy them and submit before continuing, sometimes they say "just checking your not a robot".


Or we could not allow foreign accounts to register lol.

I like the funky letter idea. Maybe the 1st few posts need anti robot verification.

Not allowing foreign accounts isn't right. We have many good members from all over who have contributed to the sonic experience.

 

[ColonelPanic]

The Sonic/Aveo is a car sold globally, I would agree that limiting access does not seem right for legitimate members not in the US.

Limiting access geographically didn't seem to do us much good, IMHO. As soon as members were blocked from certain countries a few months ago, the spammers just worked around that and started pouring in from elsewhere.

Are there any upgrades available for this forum software? That has worked wonders for boards I've been a moderator on. Also, prohibiting new members from posting links until x number of posts helps...

Some forums I've been on make you watch a commercial and answer a question based on it before you can register. Hey, ad revenue AND verification...

 

[Preloader]

It would suck for a mod to have to approve posts individually. Good-bye personal life.

I do like the 5 posts in a "New Members" sub-forum.

That's how they handle spam on one of the other forums I'm on. The new user has to post 5 times in the New Members section before he/she is allowed to post anywhere else.

Considering most spam-bots hit multiple sub-forums...... only one would make it through, and that would be in the "New Member" forum. That should knock out 70% of new spammers.

 

[sx sonic]

To clarify I was not serious about blocking members from particular areas, s'pose I should have included one of these

The silly letters or complete a phrase methods are nice because they're effective, doesn't hinder new members, and is not taxing on the moderators/administrators.


I think I'd grow to hate the forum if I was constantly dealing with spam and chasing around new members for XX posts, probably wouldn't be to friendly to people not following forum rules after putting up with all spam BS. Imagine waking up every mourning and knowing your going to spend alot of time just tracking down garbage posts, eek.


For the record I'd be down to assist in deleting spammers, I don't think I'm ready for official Moderator duty as it'd be a PITA to do some of the duties on my phone which is practically my only internet source. But I could certainly help in banning/deleting spammers.

 

[Preloader]

I believe you are talking about Captcha.

 

[whitnith]

Some other ways I've seen forums handle spam are asking a simple question, that has to be approved before you can even complete registration to post anything. Usually "Who manufactures this car?" Anything not Chevrolet/Chevy/at least close doesn't get sent the link to finish registration. Sometimes I've had to wait a few days to get a registration link if the forum wasn't on the ball with checking the answers, it wasn't the end of the world.

New users can't post images/links for 5 posts, even after getting approved.

 

[Foxbox]

I hope something happens to control this.

I brought it up a while ago. Every time I log on in the morning my "unread" posts are all spam. Completely makes that feature useless.

The response I got when I made my thread was something along the lines of "we're doing the best we can" and then my thread was locked.

 

[Chrish051873]

i like to use email confirmation before a user can post, seems to work good as i was having major issues myself, with up 25 spammers a day.

I enabled this option, not one since.

It still allows all countries.

And it will keep the site clean.

 

[SouthFLSonic]

Ok so the amount of SPAM coming onto this site is almost unbearable and today is the worst I have seen yet. The whole first page of threads is all SPAM and not just one or two comments per thread it is upwards of 5 all with different names.

What can you guys do to make this forum usable again because this has got to stop and someone has to do something about it. No one even clicks to report SPAM anymore because there are single SPAM posts in threads from weeks previously that just ends up getting buried when more comments come in after it.

I feel almost like the people running this ship have abandoned it and just letting it run its course. No one has heard from Sonic-Mike in ages about stickers that the forum sells, SPAM has taken over every day on here and nothing has been done to fix it other than saying it only happens at night when the mods sleep so to bad. Some of us view this Forum at work and when there is porn in the SPAM that IS NOT GOOD!!!!!

Make it more difficult for these people to start an account or even post here without an approval of some sorts. It shouldn't matter if it is difficult for new members to join due to increased SPAMMERS if it makes the quality for the current members better. Come on now guys take some pride in what has been created here and start tacking it back for the people who participate and are truly here for the love of the car. If it means people have to donate a dollar to become a member I am for that if it means I can sign in and enjoy what I came here for and not page after page of posts that aren't even in English selling me illegal pills shemales Michael Kors porn etc.

 

[Foxbox]

Agreed.

I'd like to add, if you "report" spam please don't then comment and type "Reported".

I've logged on and seen the first whole page full of spam like mentioned above.

I'll come back a couple hours later and it's the same useless threads with someone who has typed "Reported" in each one.

Hit the report button and then just let it fall off.

 

[SouthFLSonic]

Agreed.

I'd like to add, if you "report" spam please don't then comment and type "Reported".

I've logged on and seen the first whole page full of spam like mentioned above.

I'll come back a couple hours later and it's the same useless threads with someone who has typed "Reported" in each one.

Hit the report button and then just let it fall off.

Only reason people type "reported" is because that is what the mods told everyone to do so they do not get 20 reports for the same SPAM. I agree with what you're saying that the "reported" posts are just as bad as the SPAM everywhere all day long though.

 

[Chrish051873]

Only reason people type "reported" is because that is what the mods told everyone to do so they do not get 20 reports for the same SPAM. I agree with what you're saying that the "reported" posts are just as bad as the SPAM everywhere all day long though.

they also need to delete the "reported" thread with the spam thread.

I agree with you guys, spam is getting old. As for the peolpe that paid for a membership should really be getting testy.

Just my .02

Chris