Spam spam spam

[Sildaekar]

This spam has been getting out of hand the past few days. I respectfully request that a few more moderators be appointed, and that the Hak5 team starts getting behind this, maybe some sort of IPS for spam such as: https://www.invisionpower.com/services/spam-monitor

[Mr-Protocol]

We have enough moderators to handle the spam in a timely fashion spread across multiple countries and time zones. I am just waking up but I believe the spam monitor is already implemented. I will look into some things when I get some time to see if this can be fixed up a bit. Spam like this happens in waves and eventually the monitor will catch up.

[Rkiver]

If I see Spam, I hit the report button. That's what it is there for.

It's normally dealt with in less than a day, and the moderators are more than up to the task.

[cooper]

Same here. Report it when you see it and, at least in GMT+1, things tend to get shitcanned in under an hour.

So, if you think something's spam:

1. *DON'T* follow the link. They might look at their access log, see the referrer and think "Hey, that hak5 forum has quite a few people that visit us. Let's use them more often!" which just makes everything even worse.

2. *DON'T* reply. The spammer won't see it and it probably adds additional load to the admin that's going to come in and remove it.

3. Report and otherwise ignore.

[Mr-Protocol]

Typically right now myself and one other mod almost step on eachother's toes trying to get spam reports handled when they come in haha. I will say though you only need 1 report per account that is spamming.

So the recent one that had lots of threads of spam using the same account, we only need 1 report instead of reporting all the threads. It is a one button push from their account profile to crush it all at once.

[Sildaekar]

Same here, I report the second I see it, night before last I reported ~30 something posts, last night it was <50 posts (and it was at least 4-5hrs before I saw anything hence my post), and so far tonight I'm at 12 :/ But glad you guys are working on it :)

Typically right now myself and one other mod almost step on eachother's toes trying to get spam reports handled when they come in haha. I will say though you only need 1 report per account that is spamming.

So the recent one that had lots of threads of spam using the same account, we only need 1 report instead of reporting all the threads. It is a one button push from their account profile to crush it all at once.

Ok, I wasn't aware that you guys just needed one report per account, I'll stop reporting EVERY thread now lol

Edited May 15, 2015 by Sildaekar

[cooper]

It's good to know the 'Once per user is sufficient' thing. Today is also the first time I see multiple users making multiple spam topics consistently, thankfully restricted to a few subforums rather than all over the place. Is it possible for you to tell if they're automatically bypassing the signup protection or if it really is a live human being drooling in front of their monitor that's doing this?

[Sildaekar]

It all looks like a bot to me, but obviously can't be sure. Seems like it starts around 12:00AM CST and ends usually around 3:30AM-4:00AM CST averaging around 5-8 posts every 5 minutes. Maybe limit the amount of posts individuals with <5 posts can do within 6hrs? or 12hrs? Or just make it so that your first post has to be approved by a moderator?

EDIT:

Well it's 6AM now (CST) and they're still spamming so maybe I was wrong.

Edited May 15, 2015 by Sildaekar

[cooper]

When I got into work this morning and got on the forum for my daily fix, there were no less than 3 of them that were doing about one post every 2-3 minute each, stopping by the time roughly 15 posts were made.

If you want, I'd be more than happy to jump back into the administrator chair and help out, but me personally, I'm quite happy with the way the current set of people are running the show.

[Mr-Protocol]

I have made a change that should help for now. I guess time will tell.

[Sildaekar]

Glad to hear this, seems they tried to start really early tonight -_-, with the way it's going I can only assume it's bots.

[Mr-Protocol]

Always is. Just hit that one. When I decide to go out, they will be very limited. I am going to see if I can add some features later to help the spam issue even more. Baby steps to see if it is worth it though.

[Sildaekar]

Well whatever you did it looks like it worked. Didn't see one post all night.

[Mr-Protocol]

I think I hit one post before anyone saw it around Midnight EST. But much less.