my296 is at 325 posts and on line right now. Iguess we will need to change the rules.
Get the IP address and trace him/her down.
I just PM'd Mr. Admin about this, but yes: Automatic ban after 5 messages marked as SPAM would be a good solution.
The Admin should build a facility which stops a person can post more than 5 topics in an hour.
my296 is up to 385 posts and counting. Anyone who has ideas on how to handle this please contact the Adminstrator. I'll just about go along with any fix.
The site can't really be used with the posts jumping around like this.
Mr. Admin is offline right now, so there's not much we can do. :(
When he comes back he will perma-ban spammers IP, but that doesn't help preventing any future attacks.
Restricting post counts for new members / N posts in hour / whatever would harm ordinary users, and that's what we don't want to do (still remember the other forum?)
So, IMHO, the best option is to somehow restrict user accounts based on SPAM marks they receive. (See my suggestion above)
Or, if possible a strict limit on posting rate and a flat ban on posting identical messages multiple times in an hour.
I don’t see how anyone could gain from spamming that much. Do they get paid by the post or what? Man this reminds me of getting nuked on IRC in the 90s…
I think they are just trying to raise their presence on Google search.
To me the solution needs to be something that stops them in the first place rather than waiting for them to spam 5 times.
In that case does it take 5 members hitting the spam button, one member hitting it 5 times, 5 different messages… I thought this was supposed to be resolved the last time this happened. Why do we have the spam button when it does nothing (apparently).
Just restrict a new member in some way that is less offensive than the CPF way. Just because CPF does something doesn’t mean we have to do the opposite and continue to have to deal with these mass spammers.
It isn’t like this is the first time it has happened. It happens all the time. The only reason we’ve had a brief break is due to the Chinese holiday.
The offensive thing about the CPF policy is the red banner and the way that it is implemented.
Just make it so that a new member can’t post more than 5 times an hour. Or moderate their first few posts. Make several people on here moderators just for that purpose with no other “powers” and that solves the problem completely in a friendly way and is proactive rather than reactive.
It’s not like these “moderators” would need to use any discretion. It’s obvious which user/post needs to be disallowed.
I'm a moderator on a forum and we've been getting hit with a lot of spam in the last week or so.
Or when 5 or more of your posts gets deleted for spamming your posting privileges are suspended for a day.
It does. As soon as five different members push it for that specific message, the message goes into "not published"-mode => can't be seen, doesn't harm us anymore.
I like the idea of a short ban after 5 spam posts, but I expect the spambot to manage to do an end run with something like multiple signups.
One idea: please don't post a reply on an old thread after a spammer has brought it up. That way, Mr. Admin can successfully knock the old thread back into the past... otherwise, it's got a current response from a real user, so it'll still float up to the top of our lists. (Another forum I use has had a similar problem... they delete the spam, but the old threads linger, and it truly wrecks everything.)
+1000!
Well, the way I look at it that’s not doing anything. It takes one spammer and 5 members to counteract each post…who is going to win that battle?
As you can see it doesn’t work. The spammer who leaves one or two messages isn’t really the problem. The fact that one can continue to spam hundreds of times is the problem and the spam button does nothing to prevent that.
Yeah, never understood the urge some people have to post something to spam-threads, like random pics or trolling messages...
Just mark as spam -> let it sink.
Post limit per hour would be good one.
On regular users, I bet it could be lifted in case of need to do so.
On new users it could be mandatory to have it for some time or some postcount. Just to see if bot or not.
I bet management will come up with some simple yet effective solution swiftly.
In that case, in addition to the CAPTCHA, registration should also ask an easy random question like what does U stand for in USA.
Same here, marking as spam.
There is no effective way to stop spamming. If the program can limit a user a number of posting in a certain time then spammer has to register with multiple names, it will frustrate them a bit.
Secondly, as Ruffles suggested , don't reply to the old thread that the spammer brought up.
Thirdly, change the Terms and Conditions, take the spammer to the Court.
If Admin needs advise to catch the crook, let me know.
Me, I can think of a good use for a 6D Maglite on this guy. One with the head filled with lead first (It wouldn't be significantly dimmer).
Marked every single one of his posts as spam. Boy, that was tedious...