Player of 0AD Posted October 7, 2023 Report Share Posted October 7, 2023 Lately this forum has a bigger problem with spam. Maybe a solution would be to forbid new accounts to post links? Like you can't post a link in your first 5 posts, and neither if your account is still quite young. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gurken Khan Posted October 7, 2023 Report Share Posted October 7, 2023 But I want all the info I can get about keto and cbd gummies! /s 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarcoma Posted October 7, 2023 Report Share Posted October 7, 2023 Pontius vs. Pontius Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norse_Harold Posted October 7, 2023 Report Share Posted October 7, 2023 6 hours ago, Player of 0AD said: Lately this forum has a bigger problem with spam. Maybe a solution would be to forbid new accounts to post links? I've recommended this several times. Ideally that policy would also apply to profiles, since many of the spam events are limited to posting links in the profiles. It looks like about 20 spam accounts are created per week, and only a few of them make posts. The rest are changing their profiles to include links and images. Forum moderators are deleting spam and banning spam accounts every day or every few days. It would be great to restrict new accounts by default, although then the problem would just be delayed since the bots would wait until their restrictions were lifted and start posting spam. The person to talk to about this is @implodedok There was a mention of a paid module for the forum that would help to prevent new spam accounts from being created. And, maybe switching to different forum software would provide more spam control features. But, it's not a pain point for implodedok because he doesn't do moderation of the forum from what I can see. It's a pain point for the forum users and moderators like me. We keep squashing spam, but it's reactive instead of proactive. Google indexes it within hours, not days, and it affects our PageRank. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genava55 Posted October 8, 2023 Report Share Posted October 8, 2023 (edited) Maybe we should limit even more the right of new accounts, such as prohibiting the creation of threads, removing hyperlinks in their posts (displaying only the raw url), limiting their posts to a few threads (a general thread for bug reporting, a thread for welcoming new members, an off-topic thread...), etc. 24 hours after their first post, we could lift a few limitations and give the possibility to post anywhere. 24 hours after their 5th post, we could authorize the creation of threads. etc. There is also the possibility to create a trap thread. Those fake accounts are generally robots who don't understand the context. We could have a thread that freeze any account for a few hours if it posts something there. Edited October 8, 2023 by Genava55 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alre Posted October 8, 2023 Report Share Posted October 8, 2023 captchas 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcusAureliu#s Posted October 8, 2023 Report Share Posted October 8, 2023 45 minutes ago, alre said: captchas Select all the squares that contain champion units xD 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyperion Posted October 8, 2023 Report Share Posted October 8, 2023 7 minutes ago, alre said: captchas Indeed, a service meant to play cat and mouse with spam bots can greatly reduce the amount of automated spam. Against humans and the odd spam bot which still makes it through, simply requiring moderator approval for publishing anything will work wonders. Once a moderator is convinced it's a genuine account would be when to removing the needs moderation status. New users often have an issue they can't solve. All those suggested limitations make it hard to get help. Imagine you have to create a dozen post with random requirements before you can actually properly describe your issue. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vladislavbelov Posted October 12, 2023 Report Share Posted October 12, 2023 On 08/10/2023 at 10:47 AM, alre said: captchas We use captcha for the registration on the forum. On 07/10/2023 at 12:26 PM, Player of 0AD said: Maybe a solution would be to forbid new accounts to post links? I'll check what we can do. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panda Posted October 13, 2023 Report Share Posted October 13, 2023 Is it possible to make the link for creating an account only accessible via the game? So that only people who actually downloaded the game and plays the game can open an account here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossenburg Posted October 13, 2023 Report Share Posted October 13, 2023 the best and easier way to stop this gummies seller bots is captcha on login form too, you won't believe how easier it is to make a script that can navigate , login and even perform certain actions like posting or liking by simple headless web crawls or selenium. Spam bot reports were very lower the past two months as compared to current month, the more we ban the more they come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vladislavbelov Posted October 13, 2023 Report Share Posted October 13, 2023 32 minutes ago, panda said: Is it possible to make the link for creating an account only accessible via the game? It doesn't seem to work. For example if a person plays on a computer without an internet connection and uses a phone to download files and visit websites. 21 minutes ago, rossenburg said: the best and easier way to stop this gummies seller bots is captcha on login form too If they can pass registration captcha why they wouldn't for login? Also we don't have a reliable way to distinguish a real person from a prepaid person to spam until they post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemachandra Posted October 13, 2023 Report Share Posted October 13, 2023 5 hours ago, vladislavbelov said: It doesn't seem to work. As far as I know, in MMORPG chats they fight spam by simply not allowing you to send messages containing prohibited words. Perhaps you should ban the use of the words “keto”, “diet”, etc. for a month? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panda Posted October 13, 2023 Report Share Posted October 13, 2023 11 hours ago, vladislavbelov said: It doesn't seem to work. For example if a person plays on a computer without an internet connection and uses a phone to download files and visit websites. True. I didn't think about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obelix Posted October 30, 2023 Report Share Posted October 30, 2023 Today I reported four threads. Is it helpful for forums moderators if those got reported, or do you get mailbombed after every appearance? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vladislavbelov Posted October 30, 2023 Report Share Posted October 30, 2023 16 minutes ago, Obelix said: Today I reported four threads. Is it helpful for forums moderators if those got reported I believe it's useful for posts that aren't on the first page already (when a lot of activity on the forum), because it makes a search faster. 17 minutes ago, Obelix said: or do you get mailbombed after every appearance? I think it depends on a mail service and how to arrange groups. I don't get mailbombed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norse_Harold Posted November 4, 2023 Report Share Posted November 4, 2023 (edited) @wowgetoffyourcellphone@implodedok I found discussion from other Invision Community forum system administrators about how they're fighting spam. I like the idea of enabling content moderation for the first 1 or first 3 posts for all new users. Some admins said that it stopped nearly all of the spam posts. Also, check out the paid cleartalk module. And, there are additional tips, even how to try to prevent spam in profiles. https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/473832-spam/#comment-2941687 https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/474133-spam-attack-suggestions-to-slow-them-down/#comment-2943826 https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/474157-site-being-overun-by-spammers/#comment-2956370 https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/471215-spam-prevention-question/?do=findComment&comment=2952673 Let's do more than what we have done so far, please. wowgetoffyourcellphone said in IRC today that we are getting 20 spam posts per day. He's getting frustrated and asking about changing our forum software. I said that changing the forum software would be a big task, and we should carry out the measures available to us with the existing Invision Community forum software and compatible modules. Edited November 4, 2023 by Norse_Harold 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vladislavbelov Posted November 4, 2023 Report Share Posted November 4, 2023 47 minutes ago, Norse_Harold said: I found discussion from other Invision Community forum system administrators about how they're fighting spam. I like the idea of enabling content moderation for the first 1 or first 3 posts for all new users. Some admins said that it stopped nearly all of the spam posts. Also, check out the paid cleartalk module. And, there are additional tips, even how to try to prevent spam in profiles. That sounds interesting, I'll try to reach implodedok directly. The only downside I see that we'll need to dig through those spams to find a valid account of newcommers. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genava55 Posted January 26 Report Share Posted January 26 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowOfHassen Posted February 10 Report Share Posted February 10 I've had to report a post almost every time I log on. This is ridiculous. I don't suppose we could set it up like the Linux Mint forum, where you have to get approved before your posts appear? That might filter some of it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion.Kanzen Posted February 10 Report Share Posted February 10 (edited) They should be restricted if someone reports as a spammer. What I mean automatically is that we on the American continent are the ones who see this the most in the early morning.Western Hemisphere Edited February 10 by Lion.Kanzen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcusAureliu#s Posted February 10 Report Share Posted February 10 Maybe we could have some " I am not a bot " kind of confirmation before posts are made, by asking a simple question etc. That would at least help if noone does the posts manually. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genava55 Posted February 10 Report Share Posted February 10 (edited) 2 hours ago, MarcusAureliu#s said: Maybe we could have some " I am not a bot " kind of confirmation before posts are made, by asking a simple question etc. That would at least help if noone does the posts manually. It is getting more and more difficult, with the development of AI. Captcha currently doesn't work anymore. Edited February 10 by Genava55 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norse_Harold Posted February 10 Report Share Posted February 10 (edited) @implodedok What do you think about my suggestions about mitigating spam on an Invision Community forum system here? Edited February 10 by Norse_Harold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowOfHassen Posted February 10 Report Share Posted February 10 4 hours ago, MarcusAureliu#s said: Maybe we could have some " I am not a bot " kind of confirmation before posts are made, by asking a simple question etc. That would at least help if noone does the posts manually. Ask a question related to history in the login and have it change every so often. Like: Who was sparticus's father? Or: What did Plutarch call Heroditous? Anyone who wants to register can easily look that up, but I don't think the bots are smart enough to do so. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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