I have deleted weiweis posts but one in hopes of restoring the original thread order. She (?) still has to be banned, though - just mentioning because now, it might appear as if she'd posted only one post. (There were ten.)
I'd like to delete the other spam spree, too, actually, to restore the thread order. Any objections? I'm just asking because Ba already edited those posts, removing the links. I think in such spree cases unbumping (deleting their posts) is alright, though. The user in qzestion is Tcrubuyggo.
I think we can delete spam without needing to edit it. I suppose in terms of fairness we should refrain from deleting all examples until the account in question has been banned, their IP black listed, their home address traced and set on fire, and the bodies of their childhood pets dug up and violated... but on the other hand i don't see any reason to doubt the word of a moderator who dealt with the threads.
Made me smile Should I mention that i saw a great deal on penis enlargement the other day. I think I'll rush out and get one...
I'm glad the latest spam was quickly taken care of. Text only porn spam is easy to ignore. When it includes a picture... not so much.
I kind of didn't notice the report button when I tried closing the window that contained the picture of a penis...
Just as a note, MsTBSoX needs to be banned for spamming. :smile: In case someone wonders about all the deleted messages.
Correct protocol As I remember, there hasn't been much need to raise this point but for my aged brain and probably the benefit of others what is the recognized procedure when spam/advertising/abuse is spotted? I spot... I press report... I wait. Is there anything else, apart from sending a PM to a sweeper, that needs to be done?
Actually, when you press report, there's a mail being sent to all sweepers -which are several, as you know - and as far as I remember, you can include a short message after pressing the report button. (It isn't necessary though, as obvious spam speaks for itself.) That means there is no need to write pms to the sweepers or caontact them by any other means, because most of us check their mails first when we go online. There is still the matter of people registering to advertise Discworld related stuff, because the intention is that of a spammer, though of a more benevolent one, and we never quite cleared wether it should be treated just like the obvious spam advertising porn, wigs, and dating sites, or wether we should ignore it as long as it isn't getting annoying (say, twenty posts just for the sake of advertising something vaguely interesting, and no other contributions to the board). So, we have no real protocol for those cases where someone posts about a Discworld convention or about the fact he wants to get rid of his Discworld collection via ebay. But when it comes to the obvious spam, the protocol is: Don't answer, press report, wait. PS: Thanks for those who bother to report spam, anyways.
Could ideejewe also be banned, or better even, found out in person and be staked the proper, traditional way? What a pest.
We seem to have a rash of spammers at the moment, some one seems to have devised a new way to do it or found a loophole. I think you can add BBgrave and girscex to the list.
Indeed. More automated "new friends" with every passing day, lately. I believe we have a random question during registration as a kind of bot-capture method? It may be that we need to, ah, bolster our defenses a little, so to speak. Or at least look into our current ones to see what's making them falter.
NetpigsBang posted four spams in three minutes. I think he should get a reward. Can anyone guess what it is?
This is getting annoying. Mal, any ideas of what we can do? (Besides reporting?) I've been on boards with a 24 hour and even a 7 day waiting period, there are "intelligent" captcha's (Like 2 pictures of dogs and one of a cat and the question is to identify "the one picture that is not a dog"), and there is the slightly time consuming human approval option, which is pretty safe... Here's info about "Askimet" (The WordPress anti-spam plugin) for vBulletin: http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=118421 And here's a way to setup spam filtering only for new users (with Askimet): http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showpost.php?p=1013953&postcount=18 But I guess we could moderate the first 5 posts by hand? (And yes, I AM volunteering for spam filtering.)
Yes, I find myself deleting about a douzen spam posts each morning, and I don't even know about the other mods. A catch question or something like that would be nice.
Now laserguru just bumps thread by repeating "Your post rocks". Strange kind of spamming, seeing there's not even a link to something.
Might be one of several things: 1) A test to see if automated posting/spamming works, but with an "innocent message". 2) probably later to be used for bumping spam. 3) Posts to be later converted to spam.
Just so you know all these people are being banned as they're reported. If you're reporting them in this thread it saves a bit of time if you link to their profile like Hsing is mostly doing, then it's just a click-ban process. I added another 2 human verification questions to see if that makes any difference, and we can try captcha instead if it doesn't but I think we talked about tryin g to avoid that in the past? Also, if the spammers are actually humans it doesn't maker any difference. P.S. The Akismet plugin is nearly a year old and not supported by vbulletin, but there's probably something similar we can do.
Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: granted ...needs to be banned. I found him to be online after his first spam post and added infraction to see wether that would stop him/her/ it from actually posting more spam. I didn't really know what I was doing there...
Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: Teetdiro ...needs to be banned, clicked infraction while it was still spamming to spare me a few deletes.
I am sure all mods got the reported post message. It is blatant advertising, but we still haven't decided what to do in those cases the advertisement is Discworld related! Could we -at least two or three mods- agree upon what to do with that thread, and on what to do about DW related spam in the future?
There's no links or anything is there, I think it's okay kind of advertising seeing as we'd be interested in it. P.S. I'm assuming we're talking about the blu ray Discworld stuff etc, not Katcal's Igor thing?
lol... yes, yes we do. Besides, one out of five hundred posts with a commercial link -to entertain- is something completely different than four out of five - and I say that without any irony.
I think this sounds a bit presumptous: "I'll be on the boards over the next couple of months, so look out for some competitions and promotions that will start appearing soon!" - as if they're supposed to be here and one of us has agreed to it, which they have not, without any introductions. Maybe to the DD with it?
I just noticed that Buzzfloyd already mentioned to them about posting just to advertise, so off to the DD with them.
Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: jeffturner ...needs to be banned; the only post was just pointless, and slightly insulting, and ortographically challenged, the spam (Viagra etc) was in the sig.
Mal, can you delete the account of benjonson? I've deleted two posts that were clearly spambot generated and moved one to the DDs.
Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: abdelkaderfethi ...needs to be deleted for spamming...
Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: abdelkaderfethi ...was here again. One visit a day, or something like that. He posts advertisements.
Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: vladica ...blatant spam for a travelling service in her signature, under a post that seemingly referred to the thread's actual conent. This is the offending link: Urlaub für Senioren, entspannend oder auch aktiv.
Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: melinda ...needs to be banned. (SPam in signatures.)
Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: melinda ...is it the same person? She (?) not only spams but also insults.
Terry Pratchett Books Unseen Message Board - View Profile: BuffaloHeating needs to be deleted. ...by now I wish there was a more creative way to say it. :bunny:
How's about 'Send the miscreant to the scorpion pit? Or any combination of abusive terms in the language of your choice?
