A quick comment on spam

[KlodsBrik]

I wonder.

Is there a way to se if ive already reported a spam post.

I mean, sometimes it takes some time for a regulator, moderator, admin and whoever else can do this stuff to delete a spam post.

Im thinking that it must also be annoying for you to get several reports on the same post from the same member. ( offcourse not as annoying as those spam posts themself).

Anyhow i was just wondering.

KlodsBrik

[Peppermint_M]

Reports stack, so instead of there being 6 seperate reports on one spam post, there will be a "6" marked on the report. It isn't a problem, it just means we know members are on the ball.

[THERIZE]

Are spam reports coming in like PM's that pop up in your screen?

[Hinckley]

I get email notifications.

[BrickJagger]

Whelp, now we seem to have people just straight-up spamming us with "Counterfeit Money" advertisements.

Not only that, they're stupid enough to list their emails.

[obsidianheart]

Whelp, now we seem to have people just straight-up spamming us with "Counterfeit Money" advertisements.

Not only that, they're stupid enough to list their emails.

Wouldn't it be a shame if someone passed that info on to an organization like the FBI?

[xboxtravis7992]

Wouldn't it be a shame if someone passed that info on to an organization like the FBI?

To quote an old Looney Tunes short, "Shall we? Will we? Let's." It would make for a fun time turning over spammers with illegal schemes to the Feds!

[MGCJerry]

As a 'newer' member I was happy there wasnt some "waiting period". I remember how annoying it was on Fanfic. 3 day waiting period to post stuff? I never submitted anything so instead I saved my story as pdf, and emailed it to people who wanted it. As a primary lurker, sites that do this are enough for me to turn around and walk away.

Personally I'm fond of the "walled garden" (not sarcasm). First x posts need to be approved by admin. You can see them, but nobody else can. Also prohibiting from having clickable links until a specified time and/or postcount (I published a mod for some forum software YEARS ago and it wasnt hard to create or implement). I have also run into a site where new members also had to wait 5 minutes between posts. I do know how annoying forum spam is and understand the battle is a hard fight and usually when I see spam I hit the report button. I havent had to do that here yet. Seems EB is enough on top of things where this forum probably wont turn into a bot spam warehouse. CAPTCHA is also another now failing technology as OCR abilties have improved exponentially in the last couple years. Some CAPTCHA OCR can read them better than many people.

Finding a balance that doesnt push away introverted users (like me), and stopping the crap is always a delicate difficult balancing act.

Edited December 1, 2015 by MGCJerry

[fred67]

I vote we consider responding to EVERY SINGLE new user post with "welcome" in order to boost your post count to be a form of spam.

[Space Police XVIII]

That's hilarious, he only went back to the beginning of October.

[mediumsnowman]

I vote we consider responding to EVERY SINGLE new user post with "welcome" in order to boost your post count to be a form of spam.

Wow. I just went and looked at it. That's crazy, I'd definitely classify it as spam.

[dr_spock]

I think that falls under posting in "old" topics per the site guidelines versus actual spam.

[mediumsnowman]

I think that falls under posting in "old" topics per the site guidelines versus actual spam.

How bout both?

[Bob De Quatre]

That falls under being stupid...

[xboxtravis7992]

Haven't seen spam here in a few days: to quote the homeowners in Tucuman Argentina after repealing a motorcycle gang during the police strikes of 2013:

"Hemos vencido los ladrones!!!" ("We have beat the thieves!" Get it, Spammers=thieves? Ha ha ha... -dodges tomatoes-)

Edit: Update December 10th

The Spam is Back! For posterity sake it looks like the author of the spam doesn't know English that well:

"It is this, consider not simply the stock from your huge, overall Skin Care brands. (Like Revlon.) There square measure always Associate in Nursing amount of little producers WHO affirm what makes a fair Skin Care thing, who've a bit (however advantageous) working wherever charges square measure safeguarded 'approach down, and whose consideration frameworks square measure less expensive and savvy. perhaps parts higher than the overall models, in an exceedingly style of routes in which." -Spambot

Bwhahahahahaha. That sounds like a second grader trying to speak science jargon!

Edited December 11, 2015 by xboxtravis7992

[Pimbo]

When I signed up this week, to complete the signup form I only had to answer the securityquestion "what does the L in AFOL" stand for. How about asking, instead, several and more difficult questions? Surely spammers would not be motivated enough to go figure out "how many monorail sets with minfigs did Lego release?" or "what year did Lego switch old grey to bluish grey?" and upon a wrong answer, block the signup for 30 minutes or whatever..

[xboxtravis7992]

When I signed up this week, to complete the signup form I only had to answer the securityquestion "what does the L in AFOL" stand for. How about asking, instead, several and more difficult questions? Surely spammers would not be motivated enough to go figure out "how many monorail sets with minfigs did Lego release?" or "what year did Lego switch old grey to bluish grey?" and upon a wrong answer, block the signup for 30 minutes or whatever..

I don't know which monorail sets had minifigures... I'd need to pull up Brickset and research for a few minutes first. And the color change was in... 2004? Just guessing. (If I'm wrong, sorry...)

Not every AFOL was born in the 80's or 70's... There weren't any monorail sets produced when I was alive! But then again for my generation of AFOL's born in the 90's it would be easier to ask: "What mask power was the Kanohi Hau?" That would be easy! (At least for me...)

Edited December 11, 2015 by xboxtravis7992

[Pimbo]

Well, a motivated AFOL would gladly spend 2 minutes researching the answers to these more difficult questions, but would a spammer pull up bricklink and search the set database just to post an advert for some dubious product that's going to be deleted within the hour anyway? I doubt it.

[xboxtravis7992]

Well, a motivated AFOL would gladly spend 2 minutes researching the answers to these more difficult questions, but would a spammer pull up bricklink and search the set database just to post an advert for some dubious product that's going to be deleted within the hour anyway? I doubt it.

True. But do legitimate fans of Lego need to jump through hoops to prove they are not spammers? Then again, they probably would :)

Edited December 11, 2015 by xboxtravis7992

[fred67]

But do legitimate fans of Lego need to jump through hoops to prove they are not spammers?

Yes. Sadly. It's what the world has come to. Should honest people have to buy locks and security systems? Should honest people have to go through TSA security checks at the airport (or be extorted out of time and money to bypass)?

So when the idea to have a waiting period (I think I said a day or so, but even an hour would work) gets shot down, I don't get it. If someone's a fan of LEGO and wants to participate on this board, they'd happily register, maybe reply to a confirmation email, and have a short waiting period. I think the only people it would put off are the ones not really serious in participating anyway, others would wait.

But if, instead, the people that run the board want to ask a few minor questions, then yes, that's what we now have to put up with.

[xboxtravis7992]

Lots of Spam today in the General Discussion forum. Surprised it hasn't been removed yet.

[dr_spock]

Lots of Spam today in the General Discussion forum. Surprised it hasn't been removed yet.

I guess the spammers came back from Christmas holiday vacation. Just hit the old "report" button and Peppermint-M will take care of the rest when she's available.

[Peppermint_M]

Looks like this has been dealt with!

I catch a lot of the Spam in my morning time before work (7-8 am GMT) and try to figure out the e-mail providers we can block without affecting members.

Like dr_spock said, report it and any member of staff will be notified. Someone who has the time (we're all volunteers after all) will zap it as soon as they can.

[KlodsBrik]

Its all very random and seems like average spam as other websites experience. Sometime the flow of spam aint to hostile, sometime it is.

As i offcourse dont have acces to IP data and email i wont be able to calculate on that, and they prolly use proxies as well . The only pattern i do se is that it does seem to be actual people creating the spam as its most likely to occour when no mods or admins are online.

Still it could be that even though when im here ( which is pretty much all the time when in front of my laptop ) its getting deleted faster than i can observe, does look like its posted when no "reds" are online.

To top it, which is probably only a matter of making it look legal, mostly their nicks are english. Bet it wouldnt be profitable to post all this sh*t if one lives in Europe unless its ones own company.

My 50cent so far.

Edited January 12, 2016 by KlodsBrik

[ZCerberus]

Moderators are *real* people?! ;-P

Nope. We're super heroes! We just have secret identities. Duh.

Spam is super easy to remove if it is reported. It's that simple. See it, report it.

Spam pops up everywhere, but I would guess the general thread gets a little less moderating since the rest of us are generally in our own forums a bit more.

We won't do things to stop new members from posting, even if it opens the door for spammers. We want to make it easy for new people to join.