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Old 05-03-2012, 05:13 AM   #1
RyanW
 
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Default Spam sandwiches

There's been a sudden uptick in spambots this morning. When we get multiple spams in one thread, should we report each one, or will a single report be sufficient?
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Old 05-03-2012, 07:17 AM   #2
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Default Re: Spam sandwiches

If they're all from the same spambot, I do a single report and a single "# posts from $foo reported" posting. That appears to be sufficient notification.

Edit: I don't just say "spam reported" - theres a lag between a spambot's entire posting history being deleted and the "reported" posts being deleted, so some folks might wonder why I appear to have reported an on-topic post. I always include the spambot's "name" in my post - but I never quote the spam itself.
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Last edited by robkelk; 05-03-2012 at 07:35 AM.
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Old 05-03-2012, 08:49 AM   #3
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Default Re: Spam sandwiches

Quote:
Originally Posted by robkelk View Post
I always include the spambot's "name" in my post
Very useful idea. I'll have to remember that. Thanks! ;-)
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Old 05-04-2012, 01:29 AM   #4
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Default Re: Spam sandwiches

The fight against spam has taken an ever harder turn with the invention of things like amazon's mechanical turk, where a spammer can pay someone a pittance for every post they make on a forum hawking some product, it also makes things like captcha less effective :(
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Old 05-04-2012, 10:58 AM   #5
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Default Re: Spam sandwiches

Quote:
Originally Posted by robkelk View Post
Edit: I don't just say "spam reported" - theres a lag between a spambot's entire posting history being deleted and the "reported" posts being deleted,
*nod* It's because many of us can delete all a spammer's posts in one swell foop! But that doesn't catch the reports-of-the-spammer's posts; those can linger for quite some time, till someone with deletion power notices them and cleans them up.

Especially when the spammer did, like, 40+ spam posts in different threads before being caught. Ugh.
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Old 05-04-2012, 11:55 AM   #6
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Default Re: Spam sandwiches

Would it help to have a convention for "reported as spam" text or tags for which to search?

Compliance makes that problematic, so a better solution would be forum software that creates that "reported as spam" post when you click the "report as spam" button, and ties them together so that they mutually annihilate when the mod okays the report.

(And now the nuclear reactor sense of "moderator" is stuck in my head.)
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Old 05-04-2012, 12:01 PM   #7
Archangel Beth
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Default Re: Spam sandwiches

Personally, nah, it wouldn't help that much to have people try to conform to a report format. I mean, searching on "reported as spam" should be fine if I think to do it. O:> (But thank you for the thought!)

People can also delete their own spam-reports if they see them [orphaned], of course, and I've seen some reports reported as unnecessary (and I went and tidied them), though I don't know how the other mod-capable folks feel about those.

(I do note that if it's me doing the spam-catching, I ban first and clean up afterwards. If you see spam from someone who's got the strikethrough and "banned" on their name, give it a few minutes before reporting the post -- chances are good that it'll vanish on its own.)
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Last edited by Archangel Beth; 05-08-2012 at 05:04 PM.
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Old 05-08-2012, 08:34 AM   #8
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Default Re: Spam sandwiches

Regarding post deletions: while I can ban any spammer, I can't delete posts outside the GURPS jurisdiction, nor do I get reports from outside it. And I see the most spams in Roleplaying In General. I usually sweep RPiG for bans on EU mornings. No idea how often their actual posts are deleted.
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Old 05-14-2012, 10:59 AM   #9
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Default Re: Spam sandwiches

Quote:
Originally Posted by vicky_molokh View Post
Regarding post deletions: while I can ban any spammer, I can't delete posts outside the GURPS jurisdiction, nor do I get reports from outside it. And I see the most spams in Roleplaying In General. I usually sweep RPiG for bans on EU mornings. No idea how often their actual posts are deleted.
Perhaps you're a higher level moderator than I am, but I've never found any way to ban people on these forums. Where would I look for that feature?
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Old 05-14-2012, 11:02 AM   #10
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Default Re: Spam sandwiches

Quote:
Originally Posted by Armin View Post
Perhaps you're a higher level moderator than I am, but I've never found any way to ban people on these forums. Where would I look for that feature?
Infraction -> Spam. That is a de facto permanent ban.
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