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What's with the SPAM — Parallax Forums

What's with the SPAM

Peter JakackiPeter Jakacki Posts: 10,193
edited 2015-08-26 08:47 in General Discussion
Dear Moderators,

This is the second "business card" spam we have had in the last couple of days. Could we have automatic moderation for any first time posters and perhaps any "business card" titles? I also see another spammer with "The installation way for LED Panels" which at least sounds informative but it's still spam.

Comments

  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    Got 'em both. I just had to put the coffee on. It's only 5:00 AM here. :)
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    Peter Jakacki wrote: »
    Dear Moderators,

    This is the second "business card" spam we have had in the last couple of days. Could we have automatic moderation for any first time posters and perhaps any "business card" titles? I also see another spammer with "The installation way for LED Panels" which at least sounds informative but it's still spam.

    Hello!
    Good catch. This saves me from doing it. The other question is the obvious one, of where is all of this stuff coming from.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    The Spam in question was only one hour old before I banned the user, and many times Spam is not seen as I clean out the bad stuff at 5:00 AM EST. Of course our friends from OZ will see them before I do, but we keep our forums clean.

    Were do they come from? The same suspects that are on every forum. Many new users are deleted before they even make posts, based on IP address and user name, so there is pre-moderation that goes on behind the scenes.

    Be assured that the moderators are working hard this form clean. Sometimes one or two slip through. That's the exception, not the norm.
  • koehlerkoehler Posts: 598
    I'm on Rocklin time, and can honestly say I don't think I've ever even seen a spam post here.

    Have a beer Friday, and take Sat/Sun off boys.
  • Peter JakackiPeter Jakacki Posts: 10,193
    I think we had the first business card spam come up and stayed up for days with a few replies including Heater mentioning the only card he was interested in was one with a CPU on it :) I was surprised that the thread was there for days and then we had a second and then the LED installation guide etc. Normally I wouldn't worry about it if it was only up for a day or so.

    Maybe if the business card deal included free beer or fo'rum......

  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2015-08-28 02:42
    IMO, the moderating done by forumista volunteers has always been exemplary and above reproach. Keep up the good work, guys!

    -Phil
  • Peter JakackiPeter Jakacki Posts: 10,193
    edited 2015-08-28 02:50
    Many thanks but no complaints for our esteemed moderators, thought something had broken on the forum that's all.

    You know how the old saying slightly rearranged goes "work, the curse of the drinking class!" :)

    So, keep up the "good work" guys!
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2015-08-28 16:58
    Must pay proper homage to spam. G'day.

  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    Thanks Loopy, always good to see that episode.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Bloody Vinkings.
  • xanaduxanadu Posts: 3,347
    koehler wrote: »
    I'm on Rocklin time, and can honestly say I don't think I've ever even seen a spam post here.

    Have a beer Friday, and take Sat/Sun off boys.

    It's like a meteor shower, try around 3-4am time.
  • TtailspinTtailspin Posts: 1,326
    edited 2015-08-29 04:40
    No one would ever expect the Spamish Inquisition,

    And now, something completely different...

  • Peter JakackiPeter Jakacki Posts: 10,193
    edited 2015-09-17 07:19
    Well here it goes again, spammer just registered a few minutes ago and has posted 7 spam posts already. Where are the automatic spam controls? You only need to approve the first post and if little Johnny has just joined and has a genuine question it will probably only be answered when most users and moderators are online anyway. So autoblock first posts I say.

    EDIT: still more coming. Gimme the moderator wheel and I'll drive these spammers off I say, or else send in the Vikings!
    EDIT: oh man, all the recent posts are being obliterated by this spam flood.
    Ther's not even any bacon or eggs, just spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam
    Screenshot%20from%202015-09-17%2017%3A25%3A05.png
  • Peter JakackiPeter Jakacki Posts: 10,193
    An hour later and he is still on and at it. What is the point Mr Spammer? Why waste the time? You spew all over everyone and you expect that you will get a positive response? Get a life!
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2015-09-17 08:12
    Mr Spammer probably makes money out of it.

    Either spamming works, in some odd way we cannot fathom. Or he is selling spamming software to the gullible who think it will work. Or perhaps selling spamming services to said gullibles.

    Given that actually generating Spam is probably very cheap to do there's no doubt a few dollars to be made out of it somehow.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2015-09-17 11:31
    We frequently had Spam to eat when I was young, during and after the war. Proper meat was difficult to obtain.
  • ajwardajward Posts: 1,130
    I must have good timing. The only spam related things I ever see are some of the regulars commenting about it or Monty Python's great sketch. (Thanks Loopy!)
    :-)

    @
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    ajward wrote: »
    I must have good timing. The only spam related things I ever see are some of the regulars commenting about it or Monty Python's great sketch. (Thanks Loopy!)
    :-)

    @
    I was able to eradicate said SPAM before most humans get up here in the US.

    I guess the SpamBot didn't read the rules about multiple postings. :)
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    Way to go! I was up at 8:45AM. But you're the Moderator here and we all thank you.
  • Peter JakackiPeter Jakacki Posts: 10,193
    Publison wrote: »
    I was able to eradicate said SPAM before most humans get up here in the US.

    I guess the SpamBot didn't read the rules about multiple postings. :)

    Thanks for that but Isn't there anything that can be done about these SpamBots? Whatever happened to moderating a first-time poster?

  • Courtney JacobsCourtney Jacobs Posts: 903
    We have spam filtering in place that catches about 95-98% of spambots before they can post.

    What you see here is only a fraction of what could get through – if we weren't taking any steps to block them, which we are. Although we have measures in place, some bots will always get through, so in those cases we ask you to keep flagging the affected posts so our kind and patient moderators can disappear them as soon as possible.

    Your assistance is appreciated.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    Not really any different from the old software, where I would take down up to 16 Blogs a day. The nasties don't get to linger a few hours, and puff, they are gone.

    It's like the flu. They are ever changing.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    Buck Rogers wrote: »
    Way to go! I was up at 8:45AM. But you're the Moderator here and we all thank you.

    Thanks Buck.

    The people in OZ, (late) and Europe, (early) get to see these before I hit them around 5:00AM EST.

  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    That was really odd -- 85 consecutive postings and entirely in Korean. It seemed more like a denial of service attack than advertising.

    Perhaps the spam filtering could cut off any new poster from so many consecutive postings with a long time out after something like 20 in one day?
  • Buck RogersBuck Rogers Posts: 2,185
    It makes sense.

    What I find interesting is why the bots were writing in that particular written language.

    It was both.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    Unless there was some filtering going on with the Parallax server this was not a DOS attack. Those Korean posts were arriving at about one per minute. Hardly enough for a DOS attack.

    As far as I could tell every post was different. Containing what looked like tables of keys and values. Or user names and passwords. I have no idea. My browser here displayed most of it as square boxes.


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