Stop spam

[beastmode]

Is there anyone we can stop this horrendous spam that comes up on this site from time to time? Maybe vetting new users to check their legitimacy before allowing them to post.

[Jedi_Master]

It has been a while since the last spam attack, 08 September.

[Sitting Duck]

yeah but I was gonna ask about a fake ukara license

[beastmode]

It seemed more recent than that but that's probably just because they annoy me so much.

[proffrink]

Vetting new members and adding extra security measures generally do more harm than good. I've worked on a lot of corporate websites and the like (including forums); the ones with overzealous 'new poster rules' ones always tend to get less users - maybe this isn't correlated at all, but I get the feeling it can't be making the user experience any easier.

 

I know I detest websites that make you jump through any number of hoops to sign up. It's hard enough for a lot of people to stop lurking and start posting without extra measures to ensure their legitimacy. I feel a few spam posts every couple of months is worth it for making the forums even just slightly more approachable to newer players. So long as the mod team are taking down these sorts of posts within 6 hours then they're doing their job well, and if we all ignore the posts they get buried very rapidly anyway.

 

One course of action is an 'airsoft related security question' like 'name the legislature passed in 2007 that has many stipulations applying to airsoft', but even something like that runs the risk of turning away new players who might know absolutely nothing and have some on here to find out. Some of those users are the ones that go on to post 'what gun should I get' threads, sure, but ultimately some of them do return as contributing members.

 

It's tough.

[proffrink]

Also, double post but can we perhaps stop posting in these threads and use the report button? I know it's really tempting, but you must realise these are run with scripts after the initial authentication and will never see your quips anyway.

 

You serve only to have a quick giggle at everyone's expense (who then have to see the thread on top again); you're doing their work for them.

 

Edit:

Mods just got the them. Yay.

[Deva]

We have several safeguards in place. Captchas, email verification, are you human tests, an email and IP lookup against a known spammer database, but some slips through. I'm afraid it's the nature of things.

 

Best thing you can do is just report the thread - although bear in mind most people will have already done it unless you are viewing it in the first few minutes.

[proffrink]

Are you using that IPB built-in anti-spam network thingy? Any idea how many it's caught? I found it a bit useless when they released it but their database has to be pretty big now.

[Deva]

No, didn't seem to do much, we're plugged in to StopForumSpam, they have something like 32 million records. You can see at the bottom of the main index how many people they have blocked automagically.

[proffrink]

More than the total number of forum posts. That's absolutely insane.

[TheGrover]

Shame there's no report button on the mobile version (unless I'm just daft and didn't see it )

[proffrink]

Don't think there is In a pinch you could go to 'full version' at the bottom and then use the default skin to report before switching back.

[beastmode]

Also, double post but can we perhaps stop posting in these threads and use the report button? I know it's really tempting, but you must realise these are run with scripts after the initial authentication and will never see your quips anyway.

 

You serve only to have a quick giggle at everyone's expense (who then have to see the thread on top again); you're doing their work for them.

 

Edit:

Mods just got the them. Yay.

I did use the report button but just thought I'd open a thread up to have a moan and see if there's anything else that could be done about it.

[beastmode]

Also, double post but can we perhaps stop posting in these threads and use the report button? I know it's really tempting, but you must realise these are run with scripts after the initial authentication and will never see your quips anyway.

 

You serve only to have a quick giggle at everyone's expense (who then have to see the thread on top again); you're doing their work for them.

 

Edit:

Mods just got the them. Yay.

I did use the report button but just thought I'd open a thread up to have a moan and see if there's anything else that could be done about it.

[proffrink]

As you should - I'm certainly not complaining about this thread, but the posts in the others. We seem to be a lot better than last time though, heh.

[beastmode]

Ah sorry misunderstood I didn't see the other posts replies before it all got deleted.