topic Re: Spammers in Community Site Feedback

Spammers

SpendLessTime — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 12:42:27 GMT

Well, the professional spammers have found this open to all forum and I have reported 2 posts in the last 10 minutes as obvious spam. This could get ugly and make this forum unusable very quickly.

Plusnet are going to have to tackle this with real resources, and not expect mods to tackle it.

Re: Spammers

Oldjim — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 12:44:51 GMT

This possibility was pointed out at length during the initial feedback and ignored

Re: Spammers

Anonymous — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 12:46:33 GMT

Yep I saw those as well, but but the time I tried to read one it had been removed, so someone's on the ball. Obviously I'm using my account from the old forum, but when signing up for an account are there any bot protections in place?

Also I've noticed what I think is about 400 new users since launch, but the post count on the site don't really reflect this.

Re: Spammers

MauriceC — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 12:47:45 GMT

I've reported a few this afternoon too. When will Plusnet learn to LISTEN not ponificate?

Re: Spammers

Anotherone — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 12:53:41 GMT

@SpendLessTime

Where were or are they? I haven't been looking about too much.

Re: Spammers

SpendLessTime — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 12:55:09 GMT

I think we all knew it would happen when the new forum was announced, and I seem to remember yourself and others saying it had been raised as a major concern.

Shame as it is unfair to expect unpaid volunteers to manage spam.

@Anonymous

It is very cheap to get people to spam so you don't need bots although it is cheaper again if bots are used.

@Anotherone

One was in the Business forum and one in the "My Router" about snoring aids

Re: Spammers

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 11:58:03 GMT

Yes, that's the truth of it, but you would have thought with all of the guests online there would be more posting.

Re: Spammers

Anotherone — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 13:05:22 GMT

I don't think that number of guests is that uncommon, but I dare say there will be a few members who can't get logged-in properly yet due to the password reset etc issues.

Re: Spammers

Anotherone — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 11:28:04 GMT

I assume a mod has noticed all the spam just appeared on Chit-Chat & Broadband! I will report this post as I'm not opening the spam.

Re: Spammers

Strat — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 11:43:58 GMT

I believe I've dealt with all the spam and banned the 'poster'.

If anyone spots any more, please report it.

Re: Spammers

Anotherone — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 11:45:31 GMT

A load on the broadband board.

Re: Spammers

Strat — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 12:10:15 GMT

I think I have all those now.....thanks.

Re: Spammers

Townman — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 15:28:42 GMT

@Strat wrote:

I believe I've dealt with all the spam and banned the 'poster'.

Dick,

Edited to not give clues: I hope you'll get the means to make the work of mods less arduous!

Re: Spammers

billnotben — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 13:17:30 GMT

It's ironic that spammers have already joined the forums while some genuine members are still struggling with the password reset debacle.

Re: Spammers

rongtw — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 13:18:30 GMT

The tool is called Mambers only

Re: Spammers

Mustrum — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 17:05:08 GMT

Perhaps a dumb question, but I have seen a few of these spam posts now, but how do you report them?

No doubt when someone says it will be obvious, but I have not found an option yet!

Re: Spammers

Oldjim — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 17:08:12 GMT

Post Options - Report to Moderator

Re: Spammers

Mustrum — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 17:15:38 GMT

Cheers Oldjim, knew it would be obvious!! I had been look at thread options.

Re: Spammers

southerner — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 06:36:50 GMT

Are there any automated spam management tools for Lithium? I find Stop Forum Spam quite effective for Vbulletin but I don't think it supports Lithium. Having a Q&A for HVM used during signup rather than Captcha etc works well too.

Re: Spammers

jaread83 — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 17:57:40 GMT

Hi @southerner, there is a built in tool that the admins can use that will automatically flag up suspicious posts and threads. It is currently not activated but we are looking at enabling it as I have seen and reported a couple of posts myself. We got a few mods and admins monitoring everything so they are being picked up and dealt with quickly but to have a more automated approach for this would make it easier on them. Just need to make sure it doesn't flag up too many legitimate posts and thus causing more work than it did before. Hopefully that will not be the case but we will have to see.

In the meantime feel free to report any posts you feel are suspicious in nature and the mods and admins will have a closer look to see what action needs to be taken.

Moderator's note by Mike (Mav): Full quote of preceding post removed as per Forum rules