Spam threads

[Franrose]

Is there any way to stop people signing up en masse just to spam these forums overnight (US time)? Or are they real people putting some effort in, rather than bots? I can't believe how many variations of the same name keep signing up tonight, there's at least 19 accounts spamming right now - and it's not terribly time efficient reporting them all (just the different profiles) when there's a 30 second wait time between each report. (I do it because I assume it makes it easier for mods to find and delete spammers' threads).

 

[Franrose]

...In the time it took me to type that, ten more profiles have appeared to post another 30+ more threads. It's crazy - spammers can create profiles faster than we can report them.

 

[macraven]

Use the report button
It will be dealt with and removed

 

[Franrose]

Hi Macraven, as noted above, that's what I have been doing. As I mentioned, there's a 30 second forced wait time between each report, so say you have 30 spam accounts - that's 15 minutes to report them all. I gave up, lol.

 

[macraven]

I know what you mean
It’s like having a second job reporting all of them

I’m up to 40 now ...

 

[Franrose]

I feel for the person who'll have to remove them all!

 

[macraven]

And more spam grows as the minutes pass...

 

[Franrose]

It's crazy. I don't think I've seen it this bad (I'm posting Australia time, so I'm used to seeing it appear during our afternoon/evening. But today/tonight takes the cake!).

 

[macraven]

It is after 2 am for me right now in Georgia

I have insomnia and wanted to read some threads as nothing on tv

Instead I read spam
Lol

 

[Franrose]

Oh no! Not the most fun way to deal with insomnia, lol.

 

[BadPinkTink]

this has been discussed many many times before. They are spam bots ie computer programs NOT real people. It seems to happen in about the hour before and the hour after the forum goes down for daily maintenance. It is most likely something to do with the security wall weakening during this time.

Ive been using internet messageboards and forums for almost 20 years. I have NEVER seen any other messageboard go offline on a daily basis or be hit by spam bots on a daily basis!!

 

[Franrose]

I figured they were spam bots, but I know there are ways to prevent spam bot sign ups (having new profiles answer a question, for eg, or requiring admin approval). I don't know if this board can be configured that way of course. But I'm sure it would save someone a lot of time deleting threads... especially after tonight's round lol, which has gone on much longer than an hour.

 

[WebmasterKathy]

There is no “security wall weakening”, these are garden-variety spam accounts. Just a lot more of them than usual lately. We’re looking at solutions now. Finding the balance between making it difficult for spammers to create accounts while not restricting actual legit new members is our goal.

 

[Franrose]

It must be a huge waste of time to have to go through and weed them all out. They certainly were having a grand old time last night, lol! I'm sure the timing has much more to do with whatever daytime hours are in the country of origin than anything else.

 

[WebmasterKathy]

Clean up is actually quick and quite easy.

 

[macraven]

The spam I reported in the past hour has now disappeared

Well except for the new 3 posts a few minutes ago

 

[Toolulu22]

And the whole bunch since then.

 

[Franrose]

@WebmasterKathy, can the flood block (30 second time out) be taken off the report function?

 

[Franrose]

Although with the amounts appearing at the moment... I think reporting it all is a bit pointless, lol. You could sit there all day.

 

[WebmasterKathy]

@WebmasterKathy, can the flood block (30 second time out) be taken off the report function?

No need to report lots of the spam threads- if you report one or two, it’s easy for us to find the rest.