Board Spam

[Mehdi]

There's been a lot of board spam lately (pills, porn stuff, etc). Installed anti-spam software on the forum. Shouldn't happen anymore.

-Mehdi

[holvoetn]

This was bound to happen since the traffic increased steadily the last months.
(saw some of the spam and was happy to notice it was already reported)

I am a super-mod on a US tech-related board already for some years and have some experience with this.
Don't even think adding SW will stop everything. They always will find a way around.

Best way to fight spam is to have a vigilant mod-team and members reporting each and every occurrence.
Preventive measures can also be taken:
- check members names and registration mail addresses, sometimes these are a clear give-away of their intentions
- check IP addresses of spammers to see if they are not being used by other non-posting members, they might just be waiting to hit
- check for multiple registrations from the same IP address with more or less the same registration mail
- ...
but be aware, this is time consuming ... you might have to review who can do what to assure it doesn't all end up on your shoulders.
Worst thing that can happen is if only one person is able to do some things about spam. If that person is not responding (or even away), the spam stays in the air.

[Mehdi]

This was bound to happen since the traffic increased steadily the last months.
(saw some of the spam and was happy to notice it was already reported)

I am a super-mod on a US tech-related board already for some years and have some experience with this.
Don't even think adding SW will stop everything. They always will find a way around.

Best way to fight spam is to have a vigilant mod-team and members reporting each and every occurrence.
Preventive measures can also be taken:
- check members names and registration mail addresses, sometimes these are a clear give-away of their intentions
- check IP addresses of spammers to see if they are not being used by other non-posting members, they might just be waiting to hit
- check for multiple registrations from the same IP address with more or less the same registration mail
- ...
but be aware, this is time consuming ... you might have to review who can do what to assure it doesn't all end up on your shoulders.
Worst thing that can happen is if only one person is able to do some things about spam. If that person is not responding (or even away), the spam stays in the air.

Thanks for the help holvoetn. People are reporting spam and moderators can & do remove it. I upgraded forum software last week, but forgot to also reinstall antispam soft. Normally the botspam shouldn't happen anymore now (was almost daily during last days).

[nburge]

Thanks for the ongoing improvement to the site Medhi. Every board member also has a duty to stay vigilant on this so the site can remain operational and useful for each and every one of us. I'm personally not offended by the spam but it does annoy me to think a worthwhile response has been posted to one of my questions when it's only some spam.

We all appreciate your efforts - if only the spammers would put their minds to helping others by setting up sites like this, rather than creating rubbish and exploiting people.

[Mehdi]

Thanks for the ongoing improvement to the site Medhi. Every board member also has a duty to stay vigilant on this so the site can remain operational and useful for each and every one of us. I'm personally not offended by the spam but it does annoy me to think a worthwhile response has been posted to one of my questions when it's only some spam.

We all appreciate your efforts - if only the spammers would put their minds to helping others by setting up sites like this, rather than creating rubbish and exploiting people.

You're welcome. Yes members are doing a great job reporting threads all the time, makes our job even easier.