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View Full Version : What's up with the spam?



billybreen
03-12-2007, 08:53 PM
Maybe I missed a discussion of why those spam topics were moved into this board. Can we kill those?

willywoody
03-12-2007, 10:23 PM
yeh, i tried to figure out how to report these spam threads to the mods but didn't readily figure it out.

-jk
03-12-2007, 10:36 PM
Maybe I missed a discussion of why those spam topics were moved into this board. Can we kill those?

They're 'bots that create user ids, then log in and post spam. Very annoying. We haven't really been able yet to stop it, but we're looking at it.

-jk

JBDuke
03-12-2007, 11:10 PM
yeh, i tried to figure out how to report these spam threads to the mods but didn't readily figure it out.

Willywoody,

You can report spam, or any other post that violates our posting guidelines, to the moderators by clicking the little icon at the top right of a message. It looks like an exclamation point inside a red-bordered triangle. That'll send an email to the moderators, and one of us should respond pretty quickly. When we see a spam thread, we delete it and ban the user permanently.

We're looking at something to stop the bots, but it's going to take some effort from the admins, some of whom are a little distracted just now.

BluBones
03-13-2007, 12:09 AM
Also, the spam wasn't moved to the Off-Topic Board. For whatever reason, this is where the bots choose to put their spam.

willywoody
03-13-2007, 01:48 PM
Willywoody,

You can report spam, or any other post that violates our posting guidelines, to the moderators by clicking the little icon at the top right of a message. It looks like an exclamation point inside a red-bordered triangle. That'll send an email to the moderators, and one of us should respond pretty quickly. When we see a spam thread, we delete it and ban the user permanently.

We're looking at something to stop the bots, but it's going to take some effort from the admins, some of whom are a little distracted just now.

thanks. i should've known that.

DukeUsul
03-13-2007, 05:50 PM
Is there a captcha feature for vBulletin? A quick google search seems to say yes, although i can't find any good documentation on it.

Clipsfan
03-13-2007, 06:34 PM
Is it just me, or does it appear that one of the guys who originally spammed on this board has just decided to go about it a slightly different way now? He started a new thread which includes his website in it, and keeps bumping the thread with small posts. Not only that, but the other poster in the thread hadn't posted before, either.

DukeUsul
03-14-2007, 09:53 AM
Is it just me, or does it appear that one of the guys who originally spammed on this board has just decided to go about it a slightly different way now? He started a new thread which includes his website in it, and keeps bumping the thread with small posts. Not only that, but the other poster in the thread hadn't posted before, either.

Yup I'm thinking the same thing.

Clipsfan
03-14-2007, 12:15 PM
Yup I'm thinking the same thing.

I flagged the thread a couple times yseterday, a few hours apart, as the guy kept on doing it (and the comments kept on getting more inane). I never heard back from the moderators, but at least the thread is not at the top today.

Cavlaw
03-14-2007, 12:40 PM
Here are a couple of discussions on containing spam, the first is vbulletin specific, the second is more general (and linked from the first post of the former):

http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28464

http://www.securitywatch.co.uk/forum-spam/how-fight-forum-spamming-222.html

Hope that is helpful.

willywoody
03-16-2007, 02:56 PM
good tips.

throatybeard
03-19-2007, 05:19 AM
You should see some progress against spam soon.

gus
03-22-2007, 08:46 AM
You should see some progress against spam soon.

With two more spam threads appearing, I feel I should ask- would you say the we're seeing the last throes of the spam-acy? ;)

throatybeard
03-23-2007, 08:33 AM
Yeah, I lied.

There was some mod discussion about banning whole domains. We ended up not doing it yet.

Two isn't bad.