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depurple
Warnings : 1
Ministerial
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Posts: 2876
Location: Australia
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Bloody Hell:
Erolz and the Boys DO something!
Every man and his dog wants to sell some sort of bullshit on our Forum!
They are driving me crazy!
Suggest something?
Can't we email them back and give them, some crap!
If they where selling Paris new sex tape fair enough!
BUT there are some that I don't know what the hell they pushing!
Come up with some ideas!
Maybe I can send them a photo of my mother in law at St Tropez in a
G-String!
That usually puts them off for a few months!
cheers |
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erolz
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Aug 2005
Posts: 4195
Location: Kyrenia / Girne
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| depurple wrote: |
Bloody Hell:
Erolz and the Boys DO something! |
You mean do something more than the constant removal of these posts and removal of those posting them, the majority of which you yourself do not even see as they are removed by mods before you see them?
| depurple wrote: |
Every man and his dog wants to sell some sort of bullshit on our Forum!
They are driving me crazy!
Suggest something?
Can't we email them back and give them, some crap! |
DP is there was a way to stop such spamming we would have done it by now. Their post may be annoying for you to see but we have to take action on each an every one.
We could make membership of the forum require that a mod/admin grant access before a member can post - but I do not want to put barriers in the way of genuine members.
You can email them back but it will not make any difference, it would just be more work on top of that which we already do keeping the forum clear of such spam posts for no benefit.
| depurple wrote: |
| Come up with some ideas! |
Yes please do DP. If you have any effective means of preventing such posts and posters without requiring every potential member to be 'vetted' first by an admin or mod, then I am more than interested in hearing them. If your best idea is simply to moan at those who are already giving their time and doing the best to keep the forum clear of such posts, then with respect I suggest that is not exactly the most constructive thing you can do. |
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boomerang
Warnings : 1
Deputy
Joined: 20 Aug 2005
Posts: 1133
Location: Melbourne
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Erol the only way to stop the spammers is if you approve every membership application your self rather than done automatically.
yes I know is a pain in the ass, but thats the only way.
PS. I am still having problems logging on this site |
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100%cypriot
Warnings : 4
Ministerial
Joined: 27 Jun 2006
Posts: 2164
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| Boom i am having the same problem here from the uk , sometimes i just can't get the home page up |
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100%cypriot
Warnings : 4
Ministerial
Joined: 27 Jun 2006
Posts: 2164
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| Send these spammers some spam back ,,,, see how they like it |
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Leyla
Mukhtar/is
Joined: 14 Apr 2006
Posts: 612
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I have encountered a 24/36 hour "posting restricition" period wherby a new registrant has to wait before they can make their first post - a deterrant basically. If someone is genuine they will wait, a spammer will more than likely give up.
PS Thanks again Erol for providing this forum for us. |
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erolz
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Aug 2005
Posts: 4195
Location: Kyrenia / Girne
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| boomerang wrote: |
Erol the only way to stop the spammers is if you approve every membership application your self rather than done automatically.
yes I know is a pain in the ass, but thats the only way. |
Boomer my concerns re this approach are not to do with it being a 'pain in the ass'. My concerns are that
1 - It constitutes a 'barrier' for those that are genuine posters imo.
2 - What 'criteria' would I or any other mod/admin use in order to discern if a poster was a genuine one or not ?
3 - This is my main concern to be honest. How would anyone know that this 'approval mechanism was not being used to 'silence' certain points of view. The fact is I and the mods in general have been attacked for bias in terms of our quarantining posts, despite the fact that every quarantined post is viewable by all members. If I and the other mods / admins are accused of bias when there is a full documentary record of every mod action available to all and open to be contested by anyone, what will be the result of a completely hidden process of 'approving' new members ? Having been beaten with a stick of bias in the past where I can at least defend myself and the mod/admin team with the full public disclosure of our action I am extremely reluctant to provide people with a stick with which to beat me / the forum where I have no such defense.
| 100%cypriot wrote: |
Send these spammers some spam back ,,,, see how they like it
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Quite apart from the moral issues of 'spamming to stop spammers' this just would not be effective. Many of these spammers are not humans but automated programs that do not care about receiving spam. Even those that are human do not care about spam in their inboxes - the mail accounts they use for spamming from are not those they use for anything other than spamming.
| Leyla wrote: |
| I have encountered a 24/36 hour "posting restricition" period wherby a new registrant has to wait before they can make their first post - a deterrant basically. If someone is genuine they will wait, a spammer will more than likely give up. |
This is something I will look into to see how easily I could implement such on the forum. However I still have some concerns that it may either put of some genuine posters from contributing or not prove effective in deterring spammers. Having said that it definitely could be worth trying.
| Leyla wrote: |
PS Thanks again Erol for providing this forum for us. |
Thank you for your kind words and for participating in the forum. |
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100%cypriot
Warnings : 4
Ministerial
Joined: 27 Jun 2006
Posts: 2164
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| we know you and the other admin are trying your best. |
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boomerang
Warnings : 1
Deputy
Joined: 20 Aug 2005
Posts: 1133
Location: Melbourne
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Erol there is no other way to stop automated bots from spamming, you know it and I know it.
If its not automated logging, you can see their IP address, surely you can tell them apart.
It has nothing to do with being biased...if you are that worried assign one of the mods to do it, someone like city where she is impartial
Anyway its only a suggestion as it will cut down on the work load of deleting threats/quarantining threads as its one hell of a lot of work moving posts around...and these guys getting a fee right.
Also you could find a filter that cuts out spamming posts, like the ones used for email. It sends them directly to a junk folder...I don't know if such filters exist for boards, but maybe if you google it you might have some success.
you already have a quarantine folder and you setup a junk folder so they are directed automatically and not just blocked.
ps...i didn't mean to beat you over the head with the not been able to log on to the forum, I was just letting you know.
anyway goodnight all |
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erolz
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Aug 2005
Posts: 4195
Location: Kyrenia / Girne
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| boomerang wrote: |
| Erol there is no other way to stop automated bots from spamming, you know it and I know it. |
Yes I know this and said as much in my first reply.
| boomerang wrote: |
If its not automated logging, you can see their IP address, surely you can tell them apart. |
The way the process works if we change to admin approval of new members is that someone (or something) signs up on the forum using the sign up process. An email is then sent to all the admins saying this person has signed up and giving the email address they signed up with (but not the IP address). Certainly if the email address is kingspammer@spamcity.com , then the admin can just ignore the email and the new member will be unable to post. However if the email address is jdoe@gmail.com , then the admin will have to first send an email to this person, presumably asking them if they are a spammer or not or something similar. It is this process that I am unsure of.
| boomerang wrote: |
It has nothing to do with being biased...if you are that worried assign one of the mods to do it, someone like city where she is impartial |
I know I am not consciously biased but the point is there are those that wish to try and damage the perception of either my or the forum integrity in this regard. That they do this by claiming bias despite the fact that from day one we have had a mixture of Greek Cypriot/ Turkish Cypriot and non cypriot admins / mods AND all actions taken by this mixed team are publicly viewable (and therefore accountable). Imagine then how such people might exploit a hidden process whereby I or other admins could ignore membership from people with .gr of .cy email addresses whilst accepting those from .tr. What matters to me as much as the actuality of the forums integrity re bias is the perception and demonstrability of this integrity.
| boomerang wrote: |
Anyway its only a suggestion as it will cut down on the work load of deleting threats/quarantining threads as its one hell of a lot of work moving posts around...and these guys getting a fee right. |
Please do not get me wrong boomer, I welcome your input and suggestions and thank you for them.
| boomerang wrote: |
Also you could find a filter that cuts out spamming posts, like the ones used for email. It sends them directly to a junk folder...I don't know if such filters exist for boards, but maybe if you regard it you might have some success.
you already have a quarantine folder and you setup a junk folder so they are directed automatically and not just blocked. |
I am not aware of any such systems for forums but I will research the matter as soon as I get time. It is certainly possible that something along these lines exits that I am unaware off.
No one is more keen to try and stop this spamming than me and the other mod/admins that have to deal with it day in and day out.
| boomerang wrote: |
ps...i didn't mean to beat you over the head with the not been able to log on to the forum, I was just letting you know.
anyway goodnight all |
No problem - understood. |
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Khan
Deputy
Joined: 13 Nov 2005
Posts: 1092
Location: London
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| Most of these posts involve an external link, is there no way to prohibit external links being posted until say your 5th post? |
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thebrix
Mukhtar/is
Joined: 19 Aug 2005
Posts: 526
Location: London, United Kingdom
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| boomerang wrote: |
Erol the only way to stop the spammers is if you approve every membership application your self rather than done automatically.
yes I know is a pain in the ass, but thats the only way.
PS. I am still having problems logging on this site |
Or use some flavour of CAPTCHAs as an extra step in the registration process. There must be phpBB plugins for that!
(Addition - there is. See KittenAuth). |
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erolz
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Aug 2005
Posts: 4195
Location: Kyrenia / Girne
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| thebrix wrote: |
Or use some flavour of CAPTCHAs as an extra step in the registration process. There must be phpBB plugins for that!
(Addition - there is. See KittenAuth). |
Thanks - this looks like it is wort giving a go. I'll try and get it installed as soon as possible , at least with the default images and questions. |
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erolz
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Aug 2005
Posts: 4195
Location: Kyrenia / Girne
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OK 'kitten authentication' has now been added to the forum. At the moment I just have it with the default images but in time I will reaplce these with bespoke ones for even more effectiveness.
Thanks to thebrix for finding the info on this.
Please if you wish to see how this new visual confirmation works do not sign up a new account here but use the mod authors demo here
http://staging.artsoft.org/test_forum_ka/
thanks and hopefully this will reduce the current spam levels. |
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city
Site Admin
Joined: 15 Aug 2005
Posts: 3370
Location: Larnaca area
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I am with Erolz on this. Even if it requires more work to delete spam posts I prefer that for the reasons given by Erolz.
TheBrix, that kitten thing looks really good. Hopefully it will improve the situation. I will also recommend it to a German forum I'm a member of.
Erolz: I have seen something like an automoderator on another forum. Not sure exactly what it does but as I understand it checks for posts containing certain words or phrases. Do you know about this? |
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