Spam Posts (and what to do about them).

[keithl]

Unfortunately that does not work in practice.
backed up by good moderators who check multiple times a day and remove any that does get through.

This is the bit that doesn't work on this site. There have been more this week that are still there.

[nukecad]

I don't have mod status here so can't use the extra tools available to moderators, but it looks to me from a quick search that they are being removed, just not quickly.

For instance if you do an an Advanced Search for threads that have 'http' in the title, it finds 5.
2 of these are 'genuine' posts, the other 3 are spam, one from today, one from yesterday, and one from 21st October.

Now not all spam posts have 'http' in the title field, but most of the stuff being posted here recently has, so that's a good indication that they are being removed.

I'm guessing that someone has been given the responsibility of removing them at the start or end of each day he/she is at work, so they might be about for a couple of days if that person is not at work.

As said before, just ignore them.

[keithl]

Two more on Saturday and another four today.

[sea queen]

Blimey just logged it - we are being over taken by spam - what's gone wrong!!

[nukecad]

I've just been on Malwarebytes forum.

There are 23 spam posts in the last hour showing there, they seem to be from the same spambot engine that is spamming here.
We don't have it too bad here.

It's obvious to a moderator that the spam here is all originiating from one source/spambot, blocking that source is more problematical.
Spammers are pretty sophisticated these days, using random servers, false IP's, disposable email, etc. they can be dificult if not impossible to block entirely.

I think we have been spoiled here in the past because you hardly ever saw spam posts.

But as I've said before that was because the filters were set to be very strict, which meant complaints that genuine posts also got moderated now and again.

I believe that the current spam situation is because Admin did listen to complaints about posts being moderated, and 'turned down' the spam filters.

Which would you rather have?
No visible spam at all, but some genuine posts get moderated as well.
A bit of visible spam, all genuine posts get through. (Which is what we have now).

In an ideal world all spam would be blocked and all genuine posts not, but since when has it been an ideal world?

I agree though that moderation and spam post removal here could do with upping it's game.
(I can't think of any other forum that only has moderators during office hours).

I've been keeping an eye on it and the spam posts are being removed, but very slowly and sometimes not for a few days.

Maybe the forum moderation policy needs a rethink, but that's for the site owners to decide.

[Number7]

You're being quite kind to the Mods Nuke.

Minutes is all it would take to manually remove the easy identifiable spam.

[nukecad]

You're being quite kind to the Mods Nuke.

That's probably because I've been a forum 'Super moderator' myself for 10 years, so I know the problems that moderators can face when dealing with spam.
Regular members don't see what the mods are doing behind the scenes.

You are right that removing the stuff that is on display should only take minutes, but the spam and other stuff that regular members can't see can take an hour or two a day to keep on top of.
eg. Every post that is blocked by the spam filters has to be read by a person, just in case it is a genuine post that has been blocked by mistake.

Try 100+ new registrations a day that all need their email, IP, and other details checking, banning them if they are spammers. (At 1 minute for each that would take an hour and a half).
(More than once where I moderate we have had to block new registrations for a day or so while we clear up the backlog, at christmas time especially you can get 200-300 new registrations per day and 95% of them are spammers trying to sell something).

OK you can use automatic filters rather than checking manually. But filters always get things wrong, they have no sense of judgement.
The post filters on here often used to block genuine posts, which then had to be read and manually approved.

When you have been modding for a while you develop techniques, and an instinct, that enable you to work more quickly, but diligent moderation still takes a fair chunk of time.

(And I've not even mentioned general forum housekeeping, moving posts, merging posts, removing duplicate posts, sorting out the odd member squabble, etc).

I would volunteer my experience to mod here but the forum policy is to have DLF employees as mods, and not volunteer mods.
(Being a mod can also interfere with giving 'impartial' advice, people see you differently if they know you are a mod).

[mzmps]

There have been a few today. Reported some of them myself, but they seem to getting better at removing them from the board quickly.
Thing is with Spam bots, they do not need sleep.

Don't mind so much when posters can get the answers and guidance, and posts put up to help, get there in a timely fashion.

[keithl]

It is getting worse - only two genuine posts on the first page of this section, and they've started to spam the motoring section now as well.

[beau]

Think the site needs an upgrade as the spam filters are obviously not working.