Let's get rid of the spam!

[JBarbour]

Neil / Scottie its getting silly now! Surely more can be done!

[stardustjunkie]

I'm impressed by the number of people volunteering themselves to be moderators.

I was a support staff, then promoted to moderator and then promoted again to an admin on a website that has over 5 million users, most of them teenagers that used the very active forums. It's not as easy as it seems. This is a different type of website of course, and with what I would assume to be a higher aged demographic, it is probably slightly less of a headache to deal with but that doesn't mean it's easy.

I have full respect for anyone who looks after website forums voluntarily. From experience I know that it can be mentally draining and time consuming. You have to deal with idiots who have nothing better to do with their lives than troll forums and you work hard behind the scenes for very little thanks. You get abuse when you make decisions and you get people sucking up to you because you're 'staff'.

So on that note, good luck to anyone who does volunteer and get accepted, fair play to you, I'm sure you'll do great. I've just done it for too many years elsewhere

[JBarbour]

FUCK YOU TO ALL OF YOU HERE ALAWAYS IGNORING MY QUESTIONS FUCK YOU TO ALL OF YOU

What questions have you got?

Resale? April/May pal

Best campsite? Debatable, I like Pylon

Headliners? Coldplay, Foos and unknown

[H.M.V]

report it like they said. needs a clean up crew in the night though.

[Slugworth]

Ignore it. It want's to be fed so starve it.

[Bradders]

Again, this is the difference between a troll (implied to be a real person) and a bot (a computer program posting randomly). This is obviously a bot, or, very unlikely, someone mentally ill. "Don't feed the troll" doesn't apply here.

[Slugworth]

Fair enough. What does 'the bot' get from it though?

[Bradders]

That's what's odd about this one. Usually there's a link to sell something or make money in some way.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Again, this is the difference between a troll (implied to be a real person) and a bot (a computer program posting randomly). This is obviously a bot, or, very unlikely, someone mentally ill. "Don't feed the troll" doesn't apply here.

I had it down as someone mentally ill, or with a different sense of humour to mine. Mind you, I know very little about bots. What I do know (or think I know) is that if this is a bot it's not selling anything. If it's a bot trawling for some information then how is it being successful ie what information does whoever is behind it want and how are we supplying it by responding directly to their posts?

[ICGenie]

Could be a bot written by someone mentally ill?

I have to say the irony of it posting in here did make me giggle

[stuartbert two hats]

It's not a bot. A bot wouldn't have targeted this thread to post replies in. Nor would it have answered a question put to it the other day. Definitely a real person.

[eFestivals]

Get reporting

it only needs one person to do it (tho feel free for that person to be you).

What it definitely doesn't need is the same person reporting every post of one spammer - as all of the spam from that one sp0ammer will be dealt with by a single click.

[eFestivals]

Neil / Scottie its getting silly now! Surely more can be done!

Nope, it simply can't.

It's only possible to block an account, an email addy (that might be used for an account), or an IP address.

All of these are being blocked. If the guy gets himself another IP address he can come back again.

Posts complaining about the spammer are as much spam as any spamming. Just a thought.

[Mezhyp1]

it only needs one person to do it (tho feel free for that person to be you).

What it definitely doesn't need is the same person reporting every post of one spammer - as all of the spam from that one sp0ammer will be dealt with by a single click.

Wasn't sure if each individual post had to be reported or just the account in question, cheers Neil

[A Guy Called Matt]

it only needs one person to do it (tho feel free for that person to be you).

What it definitely doesn't need is the same person reporting every post of one spammer - as all of the spam from that one sp0ammer will be dealt with by a single click.

Sorry that I reported lots the other day - did not know one would do it.

One will be all in future, cheers for the info Neil.

[eFestivals]

Wasn't sure if each individual post had to be reported or just the account in question, cheers Neil

for a multiple spammer, the best bet is to report the user - cos if everyone did just that, I'd only get one report (reports of the same thing go into the same report).

for a single spammer, the best bet is to report just that one spam topic.

But if in doubt, report the spam in whichever way seems best to you. Reported spam is better than nothing reported.

Edited February 10, 2015 by eFestivals

[Spindles]

Worth knowing, cheers. In the past I've reported multiple times, thinking I was doing the right thing, or not bothered, assuming that due to the volume/length of time the spam's been up that someone else would have done it already.

[JBarbour]

Nope, it simply can't.

It's only possible to block an account, an email addy (that might be used for an account), or an IP address.

All of these are being blocked. If the guy gets himself another IP address he can come back again.

Posts complaining about the spammer are as much spam as any spamming. Just a thought.

So we should accept this guy / bot is coming back every night? There is nothing you can do about it?

Eventually this is going to effect your traffic on the forum

[eFestivals]

So we should accept this guy / bot is coming back every night? There is nothing you can do about it?

It's not about "accepting" his spam. It's about accepting the reality of what can be done about spam. You can moan all you like, but nothing can change that reality.

Eventually this is going to effect your traffic on the forum

as do many things, including posts moaning about spam. That's a similar reality.

[the beadle]

I quite like the Shit Kitchens.

Yeah they're a great band

[philipsteak]

We've reached the singularity. A spambot has achieved sentience and then immediately had a mental breakdown

[Gucci Piggy]

When did he answer a question?

[A Guy Called Matt]

When did he answer a question?

On Saturday in their 2nd user name of the day they actually joined in, I think it was on this thread somewhere and part may still be there as a quote.

They also visit your user profile if you make a comment so are a very real person.

[ICGenie]

So we should accept this guy / bot is coming back every night? There is nothing you can do about it?

Eventually this is going to effect your traffic on the forum

Does it really bother people that much? I just scroll past and ignore. I'll start reporting the user when I see it. I don't find it disruptive enough to not want to visit the forum.

[Gucci Piggy]

On Saturday in their 2nd user name of the day they actually joined in, I think it was on this thread somewhere and part may still be there as a quote.

They also visit your user profile if you make a comment so are a very real person.

Yeah I saw they'd visited my profile haha.