SPAM RELATED: Some new blood...

General Discussion
61

Not sure if my comments are welcome, but I am sure someone will have no problem telling me so if not.
My comments (based on significant experience at the unholy shit I know you’re going through)…

The registration page is wide open to abuse. Its a spammer’s dream. I don’t know what script the site runs on (haven’t even looked) but whatever it is, there is either a dead easy way, or slightly trickier way, to install a captcha (or TWO!). That will turn away 80-90% of spam programs, and reduce your workload that amount too.

Don’t want to teach any egg-sucking, but in case it is not already know (90% sure it is) - when you ban someone, their IP needs to be added to a permanent ban list. The best way to do this is to ban them at server level so they can’t even ever VIEW any SL pages, let alone try signing up.

Revenue could be very easily made out of backlinks on the site. The reason it gets hammered so hard is because the value of a backlink from any page on SL (especially the older threads) is huge. In backlink sales an old site with AUTHORITY is like gold dust these days. Most people know they own a seriously authoritative site and so they leverage that fully. Because SL is more of a community and not run by mercenary mofos (I suspect at least!) it’s great, but it also means the commercial value of the site MAY have been overlooked. If so, get marketing some text backlinks on the site, that will generate plenty of revenue to pay people to deal with spam and moderation etc, and plenty left over I am sure! (and that job shouldn’t be 10-20% of what it is if a few hardened anti-spam techniques are employed/installed.

Finally, if I were running this site myself (I have run a similarly large forum single-handed and went through all this shit myself for years), I would require on the Registration page that people send an email of no less than say 50 or maybe 100 words explaining why they want to join. I know that sounds silly, but seriously, it WILL NOT put off ANYONE who will be a genuine contributor to SL. On the other hand, for people joining to ask, learn, get into shaping etc, they will have plenty to say to fill a 50 word text box! Those emails would go to a specific email inbox (i.e. registration-request@sl.com) where someone would just check them each day, and no reading needed, at a very quick skim/glance it will be blatantly obvious who the spammers are and who the genuine applicants are. If in doubt, I would delete every time. If its a real person with good intentions, they will try again. If its not, they won’t.

Please note, I am fairly sure there will be people among you (the mods etc) who may know every bit of what I just said, so don’t take offence, these are just a few suggestions which I hope may help. If not, i just wasted a few minutes typing and that’s fine by me, especially if it might help keep Viagra vendors off SL! I will shut up now, and wish you luck with it. :slight_smile:

Edit/Add - Re: the IP Ban List - I actually went further and assessed the applications, 90% of the spam was coming from Russia and China. Since my site didn’t offer anything to Russians or Chinese people, I banned the COUNTRIES completely, so ANY IP address in either country just got a “Page Not Found” whenever they tried to access my forum in any way. That REALLY helped. Not sure if it’s practical for SL, but I mention it just in case.

Good luck :slight_smile:

62

Yes! Yes! Let’s go on strike and ask to get paid!
(I can help with this one: I’m French, you know.)

LOL.

63

Air France Pilot? :smiley:

64

Thank you mr helter , I agree lets at least ban everything from russia and china .

65

I’m all for manning The barricades. Just don’t ask me to sing Any of those Patiotic Revolutionay French songs. You really don’t want to hear me singing in English let alone French.

66

I think the 50-word essay (why am I interested in making surfboards) prior to posting is the most practical filter. Most actual participants don’t even post until after lurking a little.

67

yes I think its probably the best purely from a moderating perspective. The point being… instead of approving/deleting sign ups based on the “new users” area, you totally ignore that area. Someone could sign up a million accounts in one day, who caress, ignore it, but just use the ‘essay inbox’ as the ONLY tool for deciding who gets approved each day. on the essay form will be their chosen username, so once you’ve skimmed and seen a genuine application/essay, you go to that specific username, hit approve and forget the rest.

If the idea isn’t favoured by those making the decisions then I would just add that a decent custom “captcha” can do something at least 75% as good. For example:

"Answer the following question with one word…

The art of making surfboards by hand is commonly referred to as Sxxxxxx.

Send an email to registration-test@swaylocks.com with your answer in the subject line"

That would be super quick to sift through, and you would get hardly any from spammers as their bots won’t understand the procedure, I would be surprised if you got one a week. If you do get any from spammers (who will probably write “surfing”, seriously!) instead of just deleting the email, spambox it and you won’t see their emails again :smiley:

Failing that you could just post a thread where you name and shame the IP addresses of the spammers, and the nearest SL member is dutybound to *** Oops, that was my outside voice wasn’t it.

68

It’s always fun reading these suggestions to those who have absolutely no power to implement them (moderators).

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I’ll say again, you can send your suggestions to site owner Mike Paler in a pm if you want them to be read by someone who is actually able to do something.

69

While it wasn’t my main intention, I am glad I provided some fun for you Huck.

You don’t sound like a broken record to me at least, as I have never heard you say that before. No doubt you have, but first I heard of it myself. Never heard of Mike Paler.

70

“It’s like screamin at a wall…” Ian Mackaye

71

Well, checking, I see it was all of 28 days ago I posted this

and 21 days ago I wrote

And a long 4 months ago that I wrote

Anyway its no prob, I do like the suggestions, cuz at least it gives me hope that there ARE things that can be done.

If you haven’t heard of Mike Paler it’s probably bcuz he’s not a regular, active participant here, which is why he’s probably not gonna see anything written as a comment in a thread. Hence I added the designation “site owner”.

If you sense a bit of frustration, it comes from years of dealing with spam, often for many hours a week - like Keith and Balsa, but they’ve been at it longer than me - all the while receiving numerous suggestions on how to improve the sign-up filters, which moderators have no power to implement.

Only recently have I been given the power to “deputize” other moderators, and as you can see, I’m using it to the full.

72

thanks for the deputy badge Huck. I won’t let it go to my head

720×480 37.3 KB

73

Be funny if Mike is posting all the spam to see if you guys are keeping an eye on things.

74

Yes I sense the frustration and totally sympathise with it, even more so if you’re expected to handle such a huge problem without the button under your own finger to take actions to curb the spam. I was just saying I haven’t heard you or anyone else mention it, I haven’t read many threads on here other than specific ones about shaping, and I haven’t even read this thread through fully, i just found it after i got deleted (re: your PM).

“cuz at least it gives me hope that there ARE things that can be done” - absolutely, with admin access there are things which can be done in minutes which would chop the workload down significantly.

“all the while receiving numerous suggestions on how to improve the sign-up filters, which moderators have no power to implement” - yes that must be somewhat infuriating! A suggestion is only as good as someone’s ability to implement it!! FWIW - being asked to take on a task like dealing with spam on a very popular and large forum without ability to take serious actions like the suggestions gave, that seems to me an impossible ask, not so bad if you’re paid to do it it but… you know the rest!

I will look up Mike Paler and drop a PM over, hope it helps, if it doesn’t, and if the spam doesn’t get dealt with (can’t expect people to walk up a mountain every day for eff all in return) then I fear for the forum’s future. Spam can and does frequently destroy some great forums online. I have seen countless examples, they end up filled with spammy backlinks and porn links, which instantly kills all discussion and within a month or two it can be a desert with the odd bit of tumbleweed blowing through and quickly leaving again! Would be a travesty to see that happen to this place, with SO many great people and so much fantastic knowledge and advice recorded over the many years.

Thanks again for all your efforts Huck, and the other mods of course

75

The search function doesn’t do much for me, can’t find a user called “Mike Paler” and can’t find a thread with that username posting in it. I did find one but I can’t access it. Can you let me know his exact username please

76

https://www.swaylocks.com/user/10001

https://www.swaylocks.com/users/swaylock

77

I assume both are him?

78

yes

79

Thank you

80

Gents,

Just getting caught up here. Sorry, but solar has had me sidetracked for like, FOREVER…

The recent uptick in spam is due to the discontinuation of a product/service called Mollom which used to run on the site. Without going into details, it did a ton of work in the background preventing spam. Now it’s gone and I need to find a replacement. I have some time in the next couple days and will look at enabling some new technology on this front. Stay tuned!!

Mike