Spamers, really anoying people, don't?

[Evil Rick]

Hi, I just needed to tell this to somebody, I just started to act as moderator on another forums just a week ago, and at this point I'D HATE SPAMERS.

Really, I have to deal at least with 1 spamer every day! I can't believ that there are so many people that take all the time to registrate and log in just to post sometrhing that they know that can't be posted, they know it's against the rules, they know that the stuff is gonna be deleted, they know they're gonna be banned... and even with that they post all sort of disgusting and anoying stuff, specially porn, only this morning I banned an user who posted images of pedofilia! Fortunelly, I detected it just 7 minutes after he made the post, so I think he didn't scared anyone from our forums.

Really, these people had nothing better to do? Do the mods of Animesuki have any advices to deal with these people? Any opinions about the matter thread?

[Claies]

Well, you're probably doing something good, and they like to ruin it. It's kinda simple. People have time.

Looks like you have actual assholes instead of bots. Against them, there's not much you can do other than having a responsive mod team IP-kickban as soon as it's posted. There are some little tricks here and there.

One is to not allow people to start new threads until they have more than one post, which works alright against bots (but of course useless against actual asses). I really can't think of anything off the top of my head for you.

Generally, people understand that they're jokes. It's not going to scare off that many users.

[Samygent]

make them answer some mathematical question when they register

they mostly always have low QI

2+2*2 should be hard enough for them

[chikorita157]

I have encounter Twitter spam from the last 2-4 weeks... when I mysteriously found that most of the followers who were following my anime blog twitter's account was filled with 5+ followers who are spam bots which advertise or have links that go to disgusting websites... and it gotten worse to the point it's a big annoyance and I end up blocking those said followers who are suspected spam accounts... Although Twitter has a facility to report spam accounts, it's too little, too late to solve the overly big spam problems... but I was lucky I haven't receive @ and direct message spam yet.

Spam is very annoying... period. People need to deal with it properly so it doesn't become a problem.

[Aoie_Emesai]

Spam = warning
Trolling and Rude Comment = warning too
Acting Retarded = Warning, send the person a PM.
Pedofillia post = Delete image, send a PM.

Afterward, most is based on how the moderator's personality is ^^

[Irenicus]

I have to wonder: how much of the total internet traffic is used by spam? I recalled an obscene percentage from some unknown source, but that was before the age of streaming.

Originally Posted by Aoie_Emesai

Pedofillia post = Delete image, send a PM.

You are...extremely lenient.

Pedophilia images should in almost all circumstances result in an immediate instagib, no questions asked, except a PM explaining why. If the user got his or her account hacked and played around with, then he or she can send the moderator an e-mail explaining what happened. But a user who intentionally posts such images has no place in any self-respecting forum. I mean, if I remember correctly, even 4chan doesn't allow it at all.

[relentlessflame]

Originally Posted by Evil Rick

Really, these people had nothing better to do? Do the mods of Animesuki have any advices to deal with these people? Any opinions about the matter thread?

Well, most of the spammers are people with nothing better to do (i.e. this is how they make their money). Their mode of operation is to hit as many places as possible all the time; it doesn't matter if 99.9% delete the spam within a day because the cost is so low (just the time it takes to do it), and it only takes a few click-throughs and actual purchases to make it worth their while. Plus, a lot of it is automated; it's the same as with E-mail.

In terms of advice, you're never going to get rid of it. What we do here is rely on users to help out by reporting it (using that all-important "report post" button), and then deal with it immediately by issuing an immediate and unconditional ban (which with this forum software can be done very quickly). Because we have mods from all over the world, our response time on cleaning up spam here is pretty good; usually within an hour or two, sometimes within minutes. So I think all you can do is stay on top of it and find ways of dealing with it as quickly as efficiently as possible so it doesn't take up too much time. Don't bother trying to warn or reason with spammers; they don't care. Their job is to hit as many places in as short a time as possible, so they don't have time to deal with any interactions with other people. They do their job, you do yours.

Also, I would say make sure you keep your forum software up-to-date with the absolute latest patches, as they're always adding features to help with this sort of issue (since all forums have it).

I guess that's basically it. The most important thing is to never click on the links, and to just delete it as quickly as possible.

[Evil Rick]

Originally Posted by Claies

One is to not allow people to start new threads until they have more than one post, which works alright against bots (but of course useless against actual asses). I really can't think of anything off the top of my head for you.

Unfortunaly, most of the spamers I had dealed, post their pointless and obsene stuff in alredy existed threads, I cleaned a promotion for aquiring free porn videos from a X-MEN Origins Wolverine thread last week. -_-;

Originally Posted by Samygent

make them answer some mathematical question when they register

they mostly always have low QI

2+2*2 should be hard enough for them

Hah! That would be good.

Originally Posted by Irenicus

Pedophilia images should in almost all circumstances result in an immediate instagib, no questions asked, except a PM explaining why. If the user got his or her account hacked and played around with, then he or she can send the moderator an e-mail explaining what happened. But a user who intentionally posts such images has no place in any self-respecting forum. I mean, if I remember correctly, even 4chan doesn't allow it at all.

I didn't asked him an explanation, I just deleted the thread and banned the idiot permanently.

Originally Posted by relentlessflame

Well, most of the spammers are people with nothing better to do (i.e. this is how they make their money). Their mode of operation is to hit as many places as possible all the time; it doesn't matter if 99.9% delete the spam within a day because the cost is so low (just the time it takes to do it), and it only takes a few click-throughs and actual purchases to make it worth their while. Plus, a lot of it is automated; it's the same as with E-mail.

In terms of advice, you're never going to get rid of it. What we do here is rely on users to help out by reporting it (using that all-important "report post" button), and then deal with it immediately by issuing an immediate and unconditional ban (which with this forum software can be done very quickly). Because we have mods from all over the world, our response time on cleaning up spam here is pretty good; usually within an hour or two, sometimes within minutes. So I think all you can do is stay on top of it and find ways of dealing with it as quickly as efficiently as possible so it doesn't take up too much time. Don't bother trying to warn or reason with spammers; they don't care. Their job is to hit as many places in as short a time as possible, so they don't have time to deal with any interactions with other people. They do their job, you do yours.

Also, I would say make sure you keep your forum software up-to-date with the absolute latest patches, as they're always adding features to help with this sort of issue (since all forums have it).

I guess that's basically it. The most important thing is to never click on the links, and to just delete it as quickly as possible.

Well, actually it's not my forum, well, I'm not member of the "staff" exactly, I got the title of Moderator last week, the forum belongs to a friend actually, it's still small but because new members were logging, my friend though he coulkd use some help.

Total, there are 3 moderators in this forum including me. I'm just helping them to keep the thread as a nice please, mostly because is very familiar.

[qwertyuiopz]

this topic is spam

[User91411]

I was hoping someone would put in a Spam ham reference, no matter how lame it would be. Oh well.

My opinions on spam are neutral, I don't get annoyed by it and I can find it quite amusing. I won't, and don't participate in spamming in a negative way though. I'd do it for safe and harmless lulz though.

[Liddo-kun]

Originally Posted by Evil Rick

Hi, I just needed to tell this to somebody, I just started to act as moderator on another forums just a week ago, and at this point I'D HATE SPAMERS.

Really, these people had nothing better to do? Do the mods of Animesuki have any advices to deal with these people? Any opinions about the matter thread?

It sounds similar to the kind of problem I had to deal with while working as a mod on my friend's forum.
Is it bots or real people spamming porn on your forum?

If the problem are bots, banning I.P's work well.
For people registering and spamming, the best advice I can say is constant vigilance in deleting their threads + ban.
Making thread creation on important areas of your forum for mods only (only mods can create threads there) also works.

[sa547]

On one MMOG forum I handle (roughly 3,000 users a day), Xrumer machines and Russkies make much postings and dummy accounts like rabbits on crack; some forumers have this tendency to do nothing except to get as much attention putting one-liners, SMS slang (txtspeak), and huge sigs. Combine them with a slightly porous forum software and I have a lot on my hands.

For penalties, pr0n postings get no warning, posts destroyed and full ban; RMTs anywhere from 30 days to permaban; flamebaits get 12 hours to 7 days; conspiracy theorists, game hackers, and spammers for RMT sites get permabanned. Those who get PMs often ask for bail, but I warn them that the next time they'll never get a second chance.

My advice: when being a FM, never expect anything to be normal, expect drama, and spam garbage will be always around, though it's a duty to clean up and set things straight.

[felix]

As I've found out over the years, some people don't actually spam/troll, they are actually that stupid! You can either intimidate/annoy the idiots though harsh policies or live with it.

[Claies]

Originally Posted by Irenicus

Pedophilia images should in almost all circumstances result in an immediate instagib, no questions asked, except a PM explaining why. If the user got his or her account hacked and played around with, then he or she can send the moderator an e-mail explaining what happened. But a user who intentionally posts such images has no place in any self-respecting forum. I mean, if I remember correctly, even 4chan doesn't allow it at all.

4chan's official policy one-ups that and sends the IP along to law enforcement. I say "official policy" because some mods are probably too lazy to care.

I've mentally toyed with the idea of having "banvotes" on new (<5 replies) threads, so that if a certain number of "banvotes" is made, it'll be automatically wiped off, the poster will be suspended, and a mod will be notified.

That leverages the fact that 99% of forum users will definitely hit it for pedo and other illegal things, while the number of votes required will be set high enough (probably a percentage, such as 5-10%, of active users at that moment) to prevent lamers killing threads for bad reasons, whether they simply don't like it or the aforementioned "actually that stupid" users are involved.

The only real weakness I see to this is an intelligent mob, but by that point it's out of any automatic system's hands.

[Raiga]

I've dealt with spam on another (small) forum that I'm an asst. admin on. Mostly it's routine, but what really gets on my nerves is when the bots try to act like they're actually human. It's like, the rise of the freakin' machines, man. You can't fool me! I see through your facade! The human race will not fall to the likes of you and your penis enlargement pills!

Seriously though, it's a really big pet peeve of mine. It's like an insult to my intelligence. I mean, you're a spambot. I know this. You know this. There's no way you're going to fool me into believing you're a legit member when your posts are all expounding the virtues of online pharmacy and promising hardcore milf porn mixed in with atrocious grammar and spelling and a handful of characters I can't even access from my keyboard. So why don't we drop the act, you just do your thing, so I can clean it up, and we'll get on with our lives.

... I realize that my complaints are completely pointless, but it still annoys me.

[Evil Rick]

Hey, guess what? 5 minutes ago I permanently banned a guy who opened 14 threads all with a link to a page promotionating Viagra. -_-;

He was about to open the 15th thread, but "Guess what idiot? You're out of these forums for good!" By lucky I detected him just 10 minutes after he logged in, so his effort didn't worked because noone saw the threads but me, what surprised me is the fact that he took the time to upload his avatar. O.o

[Shadow Kira01]

Thanks to the spammers, the Xenosaga Episode III site vanished from existence.

[Claies]

Originally Posted by Evil Rick

Hey, guess what? 5 minutes ago I permanently banned a guy who opened 14 threads all with a link to a page promotionating Viagra. -_-;

He was about to open the 15th thread, but "Guess what idiot? You're out of these forums for good!" By lucky I detected him just 10 minutes after he logged in, so his effort didn't worked because noone saw the threads but me, what surprised me is the fact that he took the time to upload his avatar. O.o

1) Quit letting people with a 0 postcount open threads.
2) Quit letting people start one thread after another without a 5-minute delay.

Depending on your message board software, there ought to be plugins for this. >_>

[Evil Rick]

Originally Posted by Claies

1) Quit letting people with a 0 postcount open threads.
2) Quit letting people start one thread after another without a 5-minute delay.

Depending on your message board software, there ought to be plugins for this. >_>

Thanks, I'm gonna sugest that to the forum head.

[-KarumA-]

D: sounds horrible all together, I hate bots
friends told me that there are now even msn bots or adds that get send out when you log in, so you are the person then messaging an add to someone in your list, had it several times int he past but it stopped now
and so far in my life I've only encountered one idiot who added me to his msn and decided to open his webcam and just wank off in front of it, blocked and deleted the idiot right away
sometimes I can understand for example /b/'s for great win policy and it is actually funny but there are always idiots around that think they are funny when they are not.