So much Spam?

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Why are there are so many spammers on here? I expect its been mentioned before but surely, as happens on many other forums, it can be made that as a new member you have to make a certain number of posts before you can add a link?
 
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good idea

or maybe your first couple of posts would have to be approved before being published
 
Spooky - I came to this forum to suggest just that - I was going to give the post a title like "How to improve the forum through increased moderation" or something.

Might have given rise to a wry chuckle from some of the people I was volunteering for an increased workload... :LOL:

I've suggested the same as fmt to the mods and admin more than once, - I've seen it on other sites, but there seems to be no appetite for it here.

It isn't just links though - over the last few weeks we've had that nutcase who registers over and over again with a new ID and makes pointless non-spamming posts where he just copies and pastes things other people have posted.

It needs manual approval intervention to stop that.
 
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the copy and paste is a trick used by spammers to build up their post count without spam, prior to starting spamming.

Pointless posts for the same reason.
This site suffers more than most though IMO so why not at least try it? Lazy mods/owners. :rolleyes:

Why not use the 'alert moderators' function and help us out so we can remove spam posts as quickly as possible.
I do and am sure others do too yet you're so slow to respond if you can even be bothered, besides that's not really my point. I couldn't care less about genuine advertisers feeling hard done by or any damage done to DIYnot's reputation from potential or existing advertisers as a result I'm just fed up with clicking on posts just to find yet another spammer. Lazy mods/owners. :rolleyes:

There are a couple of really odd things about the way this site is managed! :confused:
 
Moderator 11 said:
the copy and paste is a trick used by spammers to build up their post count without spam, prior to starting spamming.

Pointless posts for the same reason.
Indeed.

So requiring the first x posts of a new member to go through an approval process before they can appear would put a stop to that.


Moderator 8 said:
Why not use the 'alert moderators' function and help us out so we can remove spam posts as quickly as possible.
Why not use technology to stop some of those posts ever being made in the first place?
 
Guys, bear in mind that the moderators are not available all day every day 24/7.

If they are paid to do it (which I doubt) then they will only do it for limited hours, if they are not paid (as is usually the case) then they do it in their own time and have their own lives to leave so cannot be on the site 24/7.

Spam harms no one, its annoying but harms no one so not getting around to removing it - perhaps because they are dealing with the hundreds of other reports is not because they are lazy.

Far from it, being a mod generally means that to police the forum you have to read every message, even skimming over them takes a long time and they cannot get to everything.

As has been asked, try helping the mods and report all instances of spam - but bear in mind that there are far more important things need sorting first - for instance where arguments break out etc.

Try helping them instead of calling them lazy.
 
Earlier this week there were 27! YES 27 posts from the same person based? in Bangladesh. I alerted mods and they had gone within the hour. They don't do a bad job. :)
 
Most of them do not bothered reporting the spammers. For your information I have checked how many posted today, there's is 149 posts to read and I don't have the time to read them all.
You obviously need more Mods then!
We can only do how the forum is set up, the system we have at the moment we hit the spam button and after a couple of posts the spammers is banned but I'm not sure if they can log on with a difference username, you're right there's room for improvement, I'll send a note to admin.
This speaks volumes, you would think admin would be interested in threads like this anyway but clearly not. I don't expect it to change, this site is odd like that as mentioned. Also odd that the Mods are unknown too, something that has never been justified or even clarified to my knowledge.

PS matt, It has been stated before by Mods that they do not read 'everything', there are plenty of instances whereby I have reported spam and it is not removed; ever! Furthermore I sure as hell hope the Mods aren't paid!!!! :LOL:
 
I am very interested in this, already many many posts are prevented with the measure we have in place. I'm not sure what spam you reported FMT that wasn't removed but, all alerts are listed to all mods and remain open until they are dealt with, so it would be very unusual for an alert to be missed.

There has been a significant increase recently in spam posted during the night UK time, which unfortunately remains online longer than normal. There are things being worked on all the time to prevent and detect spam, so it can seem hit and miss at times but both sides evolve accordingly, but things will improve.

If you do see any spam please do report it though.
 
I reported loads the last week or so, and all have been sorted, some obviously taking longer if a mod is not on at the time.

I mod on other forums and it's interesting what they try, links hidden in jifs is the latest one.

You also get the same spammer posting on several forums, so easy to recognise.
 
I moderate a vBulletin forum that has an add-on called Spam-O-Matic. I don't know if something similar is available for PhPBB, but if it is, it makes life so much easier. You can remove all posts from a specific user with one click, and their IP and other details are forwarded to "Stop Forum Spam" etc.
 
I wonder how many new, genuine members making genuine posts there are per day vs the number of spammers?

If the Mods are going to have to deal with spam posts individually anyway would vetting the first x posts of new members be an onerous task? Particularly as spam would need no processing.
 
One excellent feature on UHM, is limit the time you can edit a post to 30mins, as it stops spammers going back to old posts and adding spam.
 
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