Spamming

Twostage

It looks like the forum has been hit by spammers. I'm assuming the rogue threads can be deleted. I've used forums in the past that limited this kind of damage by restricting the posting rate i.e. you had to wait for a minute between posts. This stops robot posting.

HTH.

supersonic

As on other posts, the Flood is active, but obviously failing. Waiting to hear from Tech.

Pseudonym

can somebody explain to me why - if someone replies to a spammer's post - it then prevents the moderators from removing the entire thread..?

Surely you have options to both 'delete post' and 'delete thread'..?

nicklouse

Because when we tidy up it removes the spammers posts.

It also removes he report as the post has gone, so any inane crap that gets posted in the thread then has to be looked for thread by thread.

So if you want to look like a fool or someone who started a spam thread keep on posting in the threads.

Pseudonym

nicklouse wrote:

Because when we tidy up it removes the spammers posts.

It also removes he report as the post has gone, so any inane crap that gets posted in the thread then has to be looked for thread by thread.

So if you want to look like a fool or someone who started a spam thread keep on posting in the threads.

I haven't actually posted in any of them, fella. I'm just wondering why the remains of the post are still there even after you remove the spam. Presumably you know about them, because you post in them yourself - before locking them.

This, for instance: viewtopic.php?f=40004&t=12826158
And this: viewtopic.php?f=40049&t=12825916

Why cant these simply be deleted..or do you enjoy trying to make people look dumb..?

nicklouse

We do.

But then we find that someone has replied in them which then needs to be manually removed. (not to mention found).

We remove the spam not the topics as often spammers reply in other topics ( not that we have the option to remove all their topics just their posts).

Pseudonym

Seriously though - the two topics I have linked to were both started by spammers - and they are still up. Both topics are now utterly nonsensical and given that you know they are there, I still don't understand why you have chosen to lock them, rather than delete them..?

Jeff Jones

So that we get the message across to people to not reply to spam

Pseudonym

A tenner says that will not work - you think that will still have the same effect when the thread is at the bottom of page 5..?

An announcement at the top of each forum would make more sense, I would have thought. Anyway, never mind...

nicklouse

But it is only the roadies that actually reply to spam. No one else bothers.

And if it makes a few people uncomfortable so be it. Remember that most of the modmins on here get bugger all for doing it and we actually have real jobs that have nothing to do with cycling or he site.

Do you want to clean up all the crud? You can have the powers but do you want them? We could do with someone to keep the roadies tidy.

Pseudonym

nicklouse wrote:

Do you want to clean up all the crud? You can have the powers but do you want them? We could do with someone to keep the roadies tidy.

(for the record: After reading this, I offered to help and was promptly told that none was needed. Must be my aftershave, or something.....)

Pseudonym

how ironic is this..??

(posted in response to a spammer's post on this thread, in case anyone is wondering)

supersonic

Why not report the post? Given it is Boxing day, people aren't sifting through the forum as usual. If reported it would get highlighted.

Pseudonym

supersonic wrote:

Why not report the post? Given it is Boxing day, people aren't sifting through the forum as usual. If reported it would get highlighted.

sorry - I'm through trying to help you lot. See above.

nicklouse

So report the spam.

Pseudonym

nicklouse wrote:

So report the spam.

Like I said - I ain't doin' it..

t.m.h.n.e.t

You are highly naive to think that on the internet,people will not reply to spam. I can't help but see excuse after excuse in this thread for failing to maintain your own forum. As a major internet user and a forum supermoderator elsewhere,it concerns me at the "blind leading the blind" and "turn up when it's broken" attitudes to moderation here. The moderators who work under me are very very sharp on this kind of spam outbreak - because they pay attention!

It's not hard,and it's definitely not time consuming when you know what you're doing. Most if not all forum softwares have the inherent ability to directly delete threads,yes you have to do this manually. There are no wonder tools or magic buttons that can replace proactive moderation. Maybe this should have been thought of beforehand.

ps: I really would love to help out. Give me the tools and I'll get the job done,this is a brilliant forum but it needs the right amount of attention paid to it to stay that way.

Pseudonym

I agree with all of that. I'm also a forum 'supermoderator' on a vBulletin site and all of this could be managed with the right filter settings and moderators who do not look on moderating as an 'elitist chore' while expecting everyone else to spot the spam for them.

Give TMHNET the job.

t.m.h.n.e.t

ModCP - Mark offending threads: Note that all of these test threads have replies!



Select delete - click yes and watch in amazement as




The entire threads are deleted including the roadie spam posts.(Which this time were actually MTB'ers lol)



/me claps contentedly

supersonic

The moderators do not look upon it as an elitest 'chore' - at least I don't!

I am sure if I posted on your superfora everytime there was spam because I had beat a mod to it you would soon comment ;-). Sure we have had a few teething problems when we updated, and over the Christmas period the admins and mod have been quieter, but to say we don't pay attention is wrong, I personally put a lot of time into this place, not least answering questions. We don't expect people to do our jobs, but if you do see spam we have missed then reporting it is appreciated. I get an email, so if not on the forum can quickly be so. I'm not here 24/7 lol.

The flood controls have been sorted. We have an option to delete all of a users posts rather than highlight each one manually, then delete them all, but there is the problem of spam posts in normal, useful threads. We do not always want to delete the thread of course, so we are very grateful if people report posts so we can see them. I don't read every thread, but do my best.

Maybe we do need to look into more admin and mods as the site is quite large with over 200,000 members. Pseuodonym, who did you ask, and did you reference this thread?

Pseudonym

supersonic wrote:

Pseuodonym, who did you ask, and did you reference this thread?

I sent a PM to 'nicklouse' after his post above. All I got in response was a short reply saying they 'didn't need any help' - which is odd, considering he makes a direct appeal for help in his post on this thread. I can forward you my PM and his reply if you like...

t.m.h.n.e.t

Deleting USERS POSTS only is the entire problem! In phpbb doing that via the thread or users profile only removes that post and thus,makes any replies look like they started the thread.

Delete via the proper menu as above - deletes the threads entirely and in bulk (inc any posts after the first) Then go to the spammers profile and delete single posts that have been posted on already created threads.

You give yourself more work by doing it backwards because you don't remove the threads,it only makes the next post in the thread the starter.

supersonic

Pseudonym wrote:

supersonic wrote:

Pseuodonym, who did you ask, and did you reference this thread?

I sent a PM to 'nicklouse' after his post above. All I got in response was a short reply saying they 'didn't need any help' - which is odd, considering he makes a direct appeal for help in his post on this thread. I can forward you my PM and his reply if you like...

I will leave him to comment on that!

Pseudonym

supersonic wrote:

I will leave him to comment on that!

I wouldn't hold yer breath then...

supersonic

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

Deleting USERS POSTS only is the entire problem! In phpbb doing that via the thread only removes that post and thus,makes any replies look like they started the thread.

Delete via the proper menu as above - deletes the threads entirely and in bulk (inc any posts after the first) Then go to the spammers profile and delete single posts that have been posted on already created threads.

I was referring to the previous flood problem when this was the logical choice. I for one deleted 20,000 posts, and wasn't doing doing it manually!

But now as the problem is much less I have being taking those steps.

t.m.h.n.e.t

supersonic wrote:

T.M.H.N.E.T wrote:

Deleting USERS POSTS only is the entire problem! In phpbb doing that via the thread only removes that post and thus,makes any replies look like they started the thread.

Delete via the proper menu as above - deletes the threads entirely and in bulk (inc any posts after the first) Then go to the spammers profile and delete single posts that have been posted on already created threads.

I was referring to the previous flood problem when this was the logical choice. I for one deleted 20,000 posts, and wasn't doing doing it manually!

But now as the problem is much less I have being taking those steps.

You can also search in modcp for a username and use the dropdown at the bottom for various options inc all posts delete. Although this doesn't fix the 1st post becoming thread starter problem. Thats up to the thread delete tool.