Spammers are Back

[beau]

Flooding in now the gates are open.

[jdtaylor]

There’s three washing machine threads which look like spammers from India. Also would it be possible to have a mod at weekends, would someone consider keeping an eye on things and removing spammers st weekends? It wouldn’t have to be the same mod but would mods be prepared to watch over weekends?

[beau]

I'm afraid the DLF personnel who moderate only work Monday to Friday office hours. It would make sense for them to have volunteers to cover the weekends only even if they refuse to have them during the week.

We have had this question raised before and there has been no positive outcome.

[nukecad]

As said above it's not just here.

The Malwarebytes forum has taken the step of removing the post edit button for 'normal' users to help stop it there.
'Advanced' users can still edit their posts.

They were getting a load of Chinese university/'diploma mill' spam by way of edited posts.
(With certain forum software edits to an existing post do not go through the spam filters).

If Malwarebytes are struggling to stop spam on their own forum it shows how difficult it can be.

[beau]

Nukecad, then why is the forum I moderate on not had a spammer for as many months as I can remember.
Also, new members have to be moderated and approved.
Why can't that be done on here?

[nukecad]

Approval of new members before they can post is a way of stopping most spambots.
It doesn't prevent human spammers though.

There is also the fact that it means a delay that can put new members off.
They want an answer for their problem ASAP, if they have to wait to be able to post they will look elsewhere.
For instance if someone joined here on Friday evening they wouldn't get approved and be able to make a post until Monday.

Most fora use a middle ground, let new members post straight away but restrict what new members can do until they have a certain number of posts under their belt.
eg. No weblinks or attachments will show, unless approved, until you have made 10 posts.
Some go further and need any attachments from any member to be approved.
You see it on here where attachment of images etc. needs aproval before they show.

In my opinion any forum can't just rely on filters.
You need a good team of mods who are availabe 24 hours and can take spam down quickly.
(An international forum is best at that, there is always someone online).

It's the old dilema - you want people to use your forum, but if you restrict their ability to post then they will go elsewhere and your forum dies.

[phillee]

The forum is only just getting "back to normal" after the last blitz by spammers and it seems it's back to square one again.
Would have thought the moderators would be aware of the damage to this wonderful site had occurred with a lot of members now missing and probably gone elsewhere never to return would have made arrangements over and beyond normal office hours to prevent this happening again.

Looking at yesterday and today's posts they, the spammers, are really taking the michael, could have said p**s shame on you for not being more pro-active.
Phil

[mikeydt1]

does look like the moderators on here haven't been around for a week as those posts have been here since beginning of last week.

as for the other forum they keep the site clear of scammers and spammers but downside is that they keep deleting ordinary members forum posts who have been supporting them which is a big no in my book so am staying clear of that until they get the situation remedied, pointless having ranks if you can never achieve them and not just that you find that you cannot then refer back to original posts, sorry to have to say it.

[Wrathie83]

I've offered in the past to help remove spam posts at evenings/weekends, and offered again yesterday.
(I've been modding elsewhere for over ten years).

A potential problem with that is that if someone is getting paid to mod then creating unpaid volunteer mods could be seen as 'Job Substitution'.
This may/will be resisted because other staff will fear they may be replaced by volunteers.
It can be a tricky subject, - would you be happy if you were dismissed and replaced with an unpaid volunteer?
(It could even lead to unfair dismissal claims).
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/nonpro...nteers-2502582

Of course if they were to offer to pay me for removing spam posts and banning spammers........

Yeah true, didn't think of that, if it wasn't the case of treading on people's toes, i'd offer too .

[beau]

Looks as if the spammer problem has been sorted, thank goodness.