Spam?

By Ian S.
in Site & Forum Issues

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Grand Master

Nick H. Supervisor

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  • Supervisor
Posted

Hi all,

There's a problem with the spam service. I'm not sure if we've found the source of the issue, but the guys are working on it. In the meantime I think it's worth thanking our moderators for their quick action, as well as thanking those of you that are reporting the spammers when you see them. As I always point out, we [staff] can't be everywhere at once so receiving those reports definitely helps us. (Y)

Why the Koreans think that we'd be interested in playing at their online casinos is beyond me. :no:

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Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

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Some forums battle spam by putting a system in place whereby the first few posts by a new member have to be approved by a mod before they are reflected in the actual forum. Whether this is feasible/possible or not for Neowin is a different kettle of fish.

Yep, but that would make response times awful.

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Grand Master

Skiver Veteran

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It wouldn't be that bad with so many staff would it?

 

Please let us have some form of life  :cry:

 

I think If I was a new user, signed up and gone through all the captcha stuff etc and was then greeted with this instant suspicion I possibly wouldn't want to come back. 

 

Now, excuse me... a nice member on here let me know where I can get some amazing fake Korean passports and I need to get my order in!

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vanx

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I think If I was a new user, signed up and gone through all the captcha stuff etc and was then greeted with this instant suspicion I possibly wouldn't want to come back.

So where do you strike the balance: do you make the initial sign-up more hassling to deter spammers or do you make people jump through hoops once you let them in the door? An automated spam detection system would be great, but it's not without its faults. Do you then crowdsource spam protection by relying on people to report? While some members are happy to do so, others may think that it's not one of their responsibilities (regardless of the moral angle).

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Grand Master

Skiver Veteran

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So where do you strike the balance: do you make the initial sign-up more hassling to deter spammers or do you make people jump through hoops once you let them in the door? An automated spam detection system would be great, but it's not without its faults. Do you then crowdsource spam protection by relying on people to report? While some members are happy to do so, others may think that it's not one of their responsibilities (regardless of the moral angle).

 

Ultimately this is something the Admins are juggling with a lot at the moment. The problem is we had a nice balance before this strange wave hit us and has not yet stopped. Sure we got Spam but it was maybe one or two users a week. At the moment there are multiple users per day who literally post in every nook and cranny until a mod stops them. 

 

As Nick mentioned a few pages back an Issue was discovered that led to some stuff being looked at. I know one issue was resolved but I don't think that was the answer to our issues (obviously).

Additionally with a forum upgrade on the cards that has already seen estimated drop dates come and go, I think it's a bit of a chicken and egg scenario. Do you focus on Spam issue, fix it only to have the issue re-opened after the upgrade or push ahead with the upgrade, hope that it may make things better and then pick up with whatevers left once done?

 

For the time being all we can ask is that you hold on, we will continue trying to do our best to make sure accounts have the hammer dropped asap and if out users spot it - flag it :)

Yeah you make a good point about being a new member. As for having a life, I didn't mean to come across as rude about it, only asking. One other idea would be to put the post in the mod que if the post has selected keywords in it.

 

Don't worry you didn't I was more making a joke :)

Again I think its possible to add keywords - whether that can only be applied to "new users" for the first x posts is another question though. If not it could mean a lot of overhead on the servers if every post is being checked.

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Grand Master

Steven P. Administrators

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Don't want to sound like a broken record, but we also hope IPB 4 upgrade will solve this, but it can't happen for at least two more weeks. As I am not a coder or even the person responsible for the upgrade, don't expect anything more concrete than that :p

  • MikeChipshop, Nick H. and Skiver
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MikeM97

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Posted

Don't want to sound like a broken record, but we also hope IPB 4 upgrade will solve this, but it can't happen for at least two more weeks. As I am not a coder or even the person responsible for the upgrade, don't expect anything more concrete than that :p

Glad to see the upgrade idea still up on your mind.

P.S:I'd like to take it in private,as Daniel would,but I can't send you any other messages due to the ''nasty'' things I caused to you. (You've choose to not receive any new PMs from me via your settings)

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Grand Master

MikeChipshop Member

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So where do you strike the balance:

 

Personally i think Neowin has the balance spot on. They don't rely on any of the arcane, unwelcoming methods of deterring spam that a lot of forums do, and at the same time even with this sudden spam influx, it's still a lot more controlled and less than the majority of communities.

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Grand Master

Elliot B.

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Posted

Don't want to sound like a broken record, but we also hope IPB 4 upgrade will solve this, but it can't happen for at least two more weeks. As I am not a coder or even the person responsible for the upgrade, don't expect anything more concrete than that :p

I, for one, am looking forward to seeing some nice IPB 4 skins...
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Grand Master

The Evil Overlord

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A modification of vanx's proposal, why not auto flag all less than 5 posters so all a mod would need to do would be to go and look, if there's no spamming, the mod just deletes the notifications

(at the very least, it would auto direct staff, and genuine new members wouldn't know any different)

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