Enough of the spam bots!

[UpSideDownCarl]

There actually is already something like that in place for new users (new user filter). These guys are figuring out how to bypass it.

Moderating is not good or bad. It has changed my relationship to the forum. I like to cause trouble and be an instigator. These days I am trying not to do that since I am moderating the forum. And the result is that I am moderating much more than I am posting. I think that is okay.

But, if Dan found 3-5 guys who he felt were reliable who could scan for spam, this stuff would be gone faster since, most of the time, I believe I am the main person who makes the spam that slips through disappear. And I am not on the site when I am working.

I also actually think that people should not be able to post links for the first 10 posts, I think after that, from post 10-50 the links should not be live. If it is a link for something like a video or a TT product, people can copy and paste the link if they want to see the content. If links were dead till after 50 posts, then the spammers will be posting links that are dead and will be removed before they get to post live links. It won't stop them. But part of their goal is live links to increase traffic to their sites and get search engines to rate the linked sites higher. Dead links won't do those things for them.

For the past week, at about 10pm EST (3am GMT) the forum is being bombed by a mass of spammers. Once I am back from work, it usually does not take long to make it go away. 5-10 min at most. The spam deletion tools allow me to make it disappear pretty quickly. And I am rejecting about 20-40 attempted new accounts a night that you can see they are spam accounts even before they have made any posts.

There is actually something good about the new software. Dan thinks the spam that is getting through may be humans tricking the software and then letting their bots take over or something like that. A human can get past the CATCHA tools. But I am also interested in the fact that, when I see new accounts, I can tell if the IP address has been used by other spammers, I can see if the email has been used by other spammers, I can see a bunch of things about the members suspect of spam. The question is, how is the current spam that is overwhelming the system avoiding all the precautions that were working before.

Hopefully Dan and the Site Developer sort it out. And hopefully, we can have a few more people helping make the spam go away so it is gone faster if there are more eyes on it.

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

BTW: moderating.....it is not technically a job. I do it because I like the site. I don't get paid. I just try my best to help the site run well.

I think that is the case for Giang too. But I also believe Giang is too busy these days to do much of the moderation.

 

[latej]

There actually is already something like that in place for new users (new user filter). These guys are figuring out how to bypass it.

How exactly does that filter work?

There is actually something good about the new software. Dan thinks the spam that is getting through may be humans tricking the software and then letting their bots take over or something like that. A human can get past the CATCHA tools. But I am also interested in the fact that, when I see new accounts, I can tell if the IP address has been used by other spammers, I can see if the email has been used by other spammers, I can see a bunch of things about the members suspect of spam. The question is, how is the current spam that is overwhelming the system avoiding all the precautions that were working before.

The thing is, the way you describe it - humans tricking software - it is not the filter I meant. I thought it would be good simply if every new user would have to be accepted by a human admin.

The other stuff I fully agree with you, about the links, about the IPs, emails etc...

 

[codebop]

My understanding is that CAPTCHA has already been added. They have done a bunch of things. But they will find a solution to these guys who are slipping past the spam catcher software.

I honestly think it would not be a bad idea to have a few more moderators on the forum. I have deleted 100s and 100s of spam and spam accounts from the site in the past few days.

CAPTCHA is definitely not in place. CAPTCHA is when the user has to pass a little quiz before submitting their post i.e. "click all the squares that show stop signs", "Enter the letters displayed in this box", etc.

 

[JeffM]

CAPTCHA is definitely not in place. CAPTCHA is when the user has to pass a little quiz before submitting their post i.e. "click all the squares that show stop signs", "Enter the letters displayed in this box", etc.

Ohh that test, even I sometimes can't pass it, depending on how many little squares there are. But if it makes it hard enough to keep the spambots out, then I'm for it by all means.

Perhaps there should be a significant time delay to their first few posts, like 1 day apart (24hours separation per post) so that we can see if what they post is actually relevant to the thread they post in, not just, 'oh I agree' or 'this is an interesting post'. And perhaps make it so that they cannot start a new thread for say unless they have 5 posts. This would mean they can only start a thread after 5 days at least, with 1 'appropriate' post per day.

Right now, the situation is pretty dire. I woke up and come here and see the first page filled with spam posts again regarding Australian Universities. I mean, if you want to know about Australia, you can ask me directly...

 

[UpSideDownCarl]

CAPTCHA is definitely not in place. CAPTCHA is when the user has to pass a little quiz before submitting their post i.e. "click all the squares that show stop signs", "Enter the letters displayed in this box", etc.

Dan said it was. I have not signed up for a new account. So, according to Dan, that is actually in place. He could have said it, but it is not in place. But, I have been told that it was.

In the end, all I can do is let Dan and the software person sort out how to take care of what is going on. But, it is frustrating how much spam there is. The past two nights I sent photos of the forum's "latest" feed after it was filled with spam.

We will see what happens.

 

[brokenball]

There actually is already something like that in place for new users (new user filter). These guys are figuring out how to bypass it.

Ask them to define throw angle or estimate dead time. That will do it for sure. Simple! Problem solved!

 

[JeffM]

This is/was a nice website for tt discussion but not when it is filled with spambot litters all over the front page. I think Dan would agree it isn't a good look for it and would be looking for a solution asap as it would discourage genuine new users from entering.

 

[pingpongpaddy]

One can't help wondering how profitable the TTD enterprise is as a whole. If significant income is being made then professional IT help should be paid for. The site though superficially modern looking is woefully amateurish compared with MYTT.
MYTT has a logical structure which allows you to follow what's going on. Its triumph of using every inch of the screen efficiently. Why Dan cannot learn from this is a mystery to me

 

[brokenball]

One can't help wondering how profitable the TTD enterprise is as a whole. If significant income is being made then professional IT help should be paid for. The site though superficially modern looking is woefully amateurish compared with MYTT.
MYTT has a logical structure which allows you to follow what's going on. Its triumph of using every inch of the screen efficiently. Why Dan cannot learn from this is a mystery to me

Good points! Before I join you at throwing stones, I looked at my website. My website has the same problem. However, my website allows one to enter equations that look good using LaTeX.

I think everyone starts with a package that is meant to work on smaller screens that what are available today. It requires significant hacking to configure the forums to look/work the way you want on screens of ALL sizes including cell phones, tablets and huge monitors. Dan has an excuse. This "hacking" cost money whereas I have someone paid to do it. I am going to talk to our website guru about this too.

 

[pingpongpaddy]

@ bb
just casting pebbles to wake them up a bit!
Tex is certainly a powerful publishing tool. My brother who is a math prof got me interested in it, so I got the Tex book and tried to get my bosses interested in using it for business reports but they were too much into the Windows way.
Maybe Latex could be used for TT tactical and coaching diagrams Overkill I suppose.