Spammers, new posts bug

[Lurker8]

Hi there

Long time reader and lurker

I see that we have a new board format. I also see a LOT of spammers jumping on board as well. On a similar message board I frequent, they have set it so that a person must have at least 10 posts in existing threads before they can make a new thread. This cut down a LOT on spam. Maybe that might work here too?

There also seems to be a bug with "new posts" - when I click it, it might show I have 5 pages of new post threads to look at. I click page 5 and it says no search. I hit the back button and new posts consolidates into 1 or 2 pages. I don't know why it keeps generating ghost pages. Anyone else have this problem?

Cheers,
Lurker8

[tmso]

One of the reasons we upgraded was because we are under siege. The spambot have been attacking for over a month now. We will take your suggestion under consideration. Thanks for the pointer!

[ian_sales]

It's getting pretty difficult to find new messages for all the spam. Any idea when it will be dealt with?

[DailyRich]

It's getting pretty difficult to find new messages for all the spam. Any idea when it will be dealt with?

Indeed, it's getting hard for me to do my clothes shopping with all these science fiction and fantasy posts getting in the way.

[tmso]

We are trying our best...

[Hobbit]

Apologies all. We're in the hands of the owner who is working something out. Not sure when exactly it will be, but we hope as soon as possible.

For now, we clear the spam as soon as we notice it. Realise that with a global network the times will vary: depends on whose shift!
But as tmso has said we have been a target for a few weeks now. The answer's not simple and it's trying to make sure we deal with it effectively without crashing the website. Understand your annoyance!

[Mostlyharmless]

Since what spammers want is to get you to follow links, the critical thing is to stop new posters posting links. We do not want to stop people asking if anyone remembers a book for their first post but we do want to stop them posting a link to their website.

[JunkMonkey]

Mods, does it help if we mere mortals report spam, as and when, via the little alert triangle icon on the bottom of each post? or does this just add to the confusion?

[Hobbit]

Always happy to get a hint, JM: there can be the odd one we miss ourselves.

Usually it's more a case of who's on and when, but we try and get to them as soon as we can.

Thanks again for your understanding and patience.

M.

[Mostlyharmless]

There is some discussion of my suggestion at https://www.vbulletin.com/forum/arch.../t-403894.html . I am not sure if it is easy or even possible but others have obviously considered it.

[Hobbit]

Thanks, Mostly.

A lot of the Spammers we are now getting are the Human ones, sadly. Little else to do but kill the posts when we see them.

Have passed on your link to the owner, though.

[Hobbit]

Slight update: we've now added something called Typepad antispam, which will scan the first 10 posts people make for spam. Dag's also added more Human verification questions. And finally some settings have been changed so that people will not be able to post blog entries before they have posted 10 posts in the forum.

Work in progress, we realise, and there is more we have to do: but hopefully it will be a start.

[Lurker8]

Well, it could be the time of day I am coming on, but I am seeing a lot less spam to wade through of late

[Mostlyharmless]

I have just seen an example of what may be a way of evading spam controls on another forum. The trick is to post an innocent question, wait for answers and then edit the initial post to add the spam link. I haven't seen an example here yet.

[Hobbit]

Thanks MH. We have had some try: often a discussion about shoes, randomly! But we are doing our best to keep an eye out. Appreciate the heads-up.