There is a lot of spam (mostly for fake passports) all over the forum for over a week now. I have flagged it every time I see it but it remains up. This reminds of the Kitchen Spam on the old Elektron-users website, which got to be a big problem because nobody was cleaning it up and banning spam accounts.
Also, I don’t see updates very often in the science lab forums and the forum in general is still very very slow, seems like there needs to be some more admin activity to keep the site running well?
I’m calling bs and increasing time-out with this now … anyone developing who actually used the forum would do something about this because it’s unbearable … the reason it’s unbearable is because it’s relentless and it is a simple fix (take your pick) - that there isn’t a fix is a great big fuq-you-very-much to all the many sufferers - especially annoying because of the way the ‘forum activity’ view works
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marginally less annoying but sadly impossible to fix is the profusion of vacuous/inane/lazy/whining/entitled posting though …
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sadly, there were a few other insightful posters like yourself anigbrowl, but they seem to have given in fighting with the site, it’s not all bad, for the most part it can be manageable, but it is glitchy to put it mildly … a little polish would go a long way for the many users
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the unofficial science labs were sadly undersubscribed and we only have ourselves to look at for their demise, a few more official ones would be a welcome development, even for smaller ticket items
I’m also very tired of the spam and I’m trying to do a cleanup and banning once a day. The spam is manual and the reCaptcha helped against the bots but not the manual spam.
Reporting spam helps me and Simon a lot and I’m very grateful for you who report.
e.g.
don’t let new users post any kind of link/URL, raise a flag if a new user creates several threads (seriously: can you think of a valid reason why a fresh user should be able to create multiple threads in quick succession?)
this would maybe take an hour or two to implement…
The spam will go in to current threads instead and that is worse to clean. reCaptcha on thread posting will not work since it’s manual spam. I like the multiple threads idea, but it still would not stop spam in current threads.
hmm.
the whole purpose of the spam is some SEO stuff right?
without the ability to post URLs (for e.g. the first 10 posts) spammers should have a hard time to operate efficiently. They would have to make several dummy posts before they could do their work.
any measure which makes posting a higher burden for the spammers should be good, in my opinion.
Another thing is that mods can only delete posts in their assigned sub-forums.
The spammers often post in any sub forum across the board.
and we can only report spam accounts to you, like regular users can, we can’t do anything about them.
If you give us the ability to delete spam accounts with all their created topics with one button, that would help too.
another idea for a mechanism:
a spam blame button for all users (or added functionality for the existing report button).
if an account is flagged by let’s say 3 or more people (maybe within a time frame e.g. 12 hours), the account is reported to admin, all its posts are hidden and the user is blocked from posting, until an admin either deletes the account or unlocks it.
maybe the flagging could only be done by users which have a certain credibility, e.g. user with a certain minimum post count.
how many people actually do report spam? If it’s just a few, this wouldn’t work of course…
Lots of sensible options already tabulated …
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the way i see it, there are wrong-doers and somebody’s gotta take the pain … that should be one individual, the developer, not hundreds of reliable users
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the next best demographic to take the pain is new users, reduced freedoms for a while or force them to introduce themselves in a vetting area, but still prevent selling and linking for 10 posts - perhaps each of those ten posts would need to be rubber stamped by a mod
. how?
smart : automated hiding of suspicious accounts based on posting behaviour or word recognition or duplicated linking
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crude : every new user has a flag next to their first 20 posts, if one mod or two regular users (with excess of 100 posts) flag this user’s post as spam then the whole account is immediately hidden for verification - anyone caught abusing this flag button gets an earful - so basically, worst that can happen is that a couple of users see some dodgy activity, these get flagged, the user’s posts are all withdrawn immediately for review - nice and clean and it doesn’t prolong the annoyance
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we are talking primarily about very obvious spam - there’s no reason why the crude immediate removal method of community censure wouldn’t work at minimising the communal grief !
2 clicks and it’s gone, every post from that user
Remind people that they can click the little flag symbol under a problematic post in order to report it to the moderators.
Refresh the roster of moderators. Many of the moderators don’t seem to be around anymore. I volunteer. I flag every spam post that I see, but I would much prefer to be able to delete the post if it is obvious spam.
Whatever the solution, just do something. Elektron reps periodically come on these threads and indicate that it’s an insurmountable battle. It’s not. It should be a simple economic equation: your forum is pissing off people who spend lots of money buying your products. This is bad for business. Fix it.
as do others, but it’s still a pain to browse because reporting the bleeding obvious is basically a pointless impotent act - it’s incredibly obvious what constitutes spam, no more than a few sensible users should have to witness it before it gets zapped
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using a special spam button (only visible on fledgling posters) to instantly banish all their contributions from view (subject to review) is the level we need to be at - decisive community action, not feeble reporting - it should not be requiring the action of a moderator - there must be loads of reliable members who have posted more than one hundred times - give them the power to banish - simple, effective, expedient
as do others, but it’s still a pain to browse because reporting the bleeding obvious is basically a pointless impotent act - it’s incredibly obvious what constitutes spam, no more than a few sensible users should have to witness it before it gets zapped
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using a special spam button (only visible on fledgling posters) to instantly banish all their contributions from view (subject to review) is the level we need to be at - decisive community action, not feeble reporting - it should not be requiring the action of a moderator - there must be loads of reliable members who have posted more than one hundred times - give them the power to banish - simple, effective, expedient[/quote]
If Elektron were to give moderator status to a few of the loads of reliable members who have posted more than one hundred times, the problem would be solved with no need for coding special spam buttons or special powers.
as do others, but it’s still a pain to browse because reporting the bleeding obvious is basically a pointless impotent act - it’s incredibly obvious what constitutes spam, no more than a few sensible users should have to witness it before it gets zapped
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using a special spam button (only visible on fledgling posters) to instantly banish all their contributions from view (subject to review) is the level we need to be at - decisive community action, not feeble reporting - it should not be requiring the action of a moderator - there must be loads of reliable members who have posted more than one hundred times - give them the power to banish - simple, effective, expedient[/quote]
If Elektron were to give moderator status to a few of the loads of reliable members who have posted more than one hundred times, the problem would be solved with no need for coding special spam buttons or special powers.[/quote]
lol Elektron wont even give out reliable info on product updates
they are NEVER going to allow “impartial users” to moderate.
they dont think “we” are bright enough no matter how reliable, simple or expedient someone may be.
The spam will go in to current threads instead and that is worse to clean. reCaptcha on thread posting will not work since it’s manual spam. I like the multiple threads idea, but it still would not stop spam in current threads.
More ideas against manual spam?[/quote]
consult some other forum admins, that dont have this problem?
in the 5 or so other forums i visit, i never see this amount of spam
and as insulting as this sounds, its a bit like OB, seems you guys are out of your depth??
Maybe that’s only something to ask personally to Olle & Simon… [/quote]
There are already quite a few moderators and still lots of spam to endure, there would need to be quite a few moderators which would be a hassle in itself. Removing multiple posts could be a pain for a moderator - assuming global delete is not an option
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I declined an invite to be a moderator before it was introduced, i’ve still no interest in it, everyone except the newest members should police this, any abuse of that should be dealt with appropriately
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A simple system where established elektronauts can use common sense to eradicate obvious spam is fool proof - even merely reacting to 3 or 4 reports using the existing system of flagging should be enough to auto-banish a new user’s posts (to be reviewed) - so either 1 flag from a moderator or three flags from (long term, high post) normal users should be enough to remove it from sight - there’s no scope for abuse or error here - if a new user is being multi-reported it ought to be removed (assuming automated methods are not implemented to detect the very obvious patterns of spamming)
