A better spread of moderation powers.....

[Galahad/FLT]

Probably the fourth night in a row i've reported spammers, clearly the same twat doing it every night. Actually i've consistently reported spammers ever since i've been here.

done the same again tonight, 3 green moderators online and 1 brown global moderator online.... spammer posts are still there.

Either the green moderators don't have enough powers outside their own specific sections and can't act, or people are leaving it to others to do.

So a suggestion then: Give more moderation powers to a few others (yes i'm putting my name in the hat), to stop these tossers in their tracks.

Either to delete the user and remove the posts, or, to put a temp ban in place and with the ability to edit the spammers posts until a Global mod confirms they are a spammer, and then removes them permanently.

Either the moderation rules are not encompassing enough, or there isn't enough mods to police.

Probably time to do something about it?

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

and 1 brown global moderator online.... spammer posts are still there.

I wonder who that was; cause I'm sad

Thanks for you thread Sir Galahad; let me explain what I / we GMs have seen.

Anyway, over the past few days we have been hit by the *same* spammer constently. His / her post are exactly the same and always posted to the "Amiga.scene" section

We'll keep on permanently banning this fool time and time again; he / she will give up eventually...

[Retro-Nerd]

Automated bot scripts, i assume? Or does creating an EAB account needs some manual actions now, like complex captchas?

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Automated bot scripts, i assume?

Maybe...

Originally Posted by Retro-Nerd

Or does creating an EAB account needs some manual actions now, like complex captchas?

Not sure; like you I haven't needed to create a new account in over a decade

RE: spammer; thing is it's been quite a barage over the last few days; I think in total we have deleted threads / permanently banned 9 times.

...and it's definitely the same spammer rejoining.

[DamienD]

...and there we go again; same rubbish from a different user name

I caught him / her in the middle of creating another thread.

Dealt with

Guys, just keep reporting... We will deal with it when we can and as already said; he / she will get eventually get bored.

[Leffmann]

How are they able to post anyway? What happened to having to post in Support/New/Introduction before being allowed to post elsewhere? I thought RCK made that change years ago when the discussion was up.

[DamienD]

There's nothing anyone needs to do after joining before being allowed to post sadly

...discussion has occurred in the moderators' forum about say, redirection for new members to the Rules --> then an "accept" tick box.

I'm sure this would stop the majority of spambots

[DamienD]

Oh shite; he / she is back again

This time as: calibervitor.

Always from "ny", always creating threads under the "Amiga.scene" section...

Dealt with; and before he / she could even created a new thread

...back to my movie.

[meynaf]

Isn't there a way to check the IP address, and, if it's the same every time, issue a ban based on it ?

Another idea ; if some post has been reported as spam, make that fact visible in the post itself so the same post doesn't get reported again and again ?

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by meynaf

Isn't there a way to check the IP address, and, if it's the same every time, issue a ban based on it ?

We can see IP addresses of members in the Moderator console; unfortunately though I don't think we can blacklist by IP address.

Also, it's easy for people to use a proxy / VPN to change their IP address...

[DH]

iirc there are 12 images (Amiga game images) where you have to select one of them that is described in the question before you can continue registering, thereafter I have no idea as to what's in place.

I think it's just a case of a long haul ahead with whoever this person is doing the spamming, all we can do is keep on banning them until they eventually give up I'm afraid

[RCK]

We can also close new registration until something better is coded.
It's awesome how those bot bypass the captcha and use valid email to come here...
Or maybe they are using some tapatalk api backdoor.

[idrougge]

It would help a lot if newly registered users can't post links.

[Ian]

How about this?

New users can only post in one forum, which only new users and moderators can see, when they post in there and it's not complete rubbish, then they get bumped up to junior member status and can post elsewhere.

End result is little different to a mod, end result for users is we never see it and think our utopia is safe.

Also, if there are mod opportunities, I'll do it again for you RCK, not that I am an active poster these days, but always have a read a few times a day.

[BippyM]

I think the new member forum is a good idea, however it should be visible to all, and once they have 5/10 posts maybe auto-bump to regular member

Originally Posted by Ian

How about this?

New users can only post in one forum, which only new users and moderators can see, when they post in there and it's not complete rubbish, then they get bumped up to junior member status and can post elsewhere.

End result is little different to a mod, end result for users is we never see it and think our utopia is safe.

Also, if there are mod opportunities, I'll do it again for you RCK, not that I am an active poster these days, but always have a read a few times a day.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by BippyM

I think the new member forum is a good idea, however it should be visible to all, and once they have 5/10 posts maybe auto-bump to regular member

^+1

[Ian]

Don't see the point of it being visible to all as it doesn't really deal with the issue Galahad has raised, we will still see all the spam messages, just they will be in the new user forum rather than off-topic or amiga scene.

Maybe continue as is and set all users with less than 5-10 posts to require their posts to be approved by a moderator before they appear on the forum for all to see.

[emufan]

Originally Posted by BippyM

I think the new member forum is a good idea,

this way eab mutates to the a1k style, where you have to lengthy introduce yourself,
convince mods about your intention and such ...

bad idea.

[Graham Humphrey]

I think a lot of these suggestions here are akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Whilst the current influx of spambots is hugely annoying, they do tend to get dealt with very quickly. Damien in particular has managed to stamp out a lot before they even create a post, and there's usually at least one of us about in waking hours to swiftly act on reported posts - and of course we normally spot them ourselves if they happen to post when we're online (I've certainly taken down several within a minute or two of their posts appearing in the forums and some have even had the good grace to submit their posts in the News sub-forum so they have to be seen by a moderator first).

I think making it harder for genuine new members to post, and creating more work for moderators in the process (if, say, we had to approve the first few posts of all new members), would only serve to be counter-productive.

The best way is to try and deal with it 'at source' (i.e. during the registration process) but they always seem to find a way round it in the end unfortunately.

[emufan]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

I think a lot of these suggestions here are akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
...
The best way is to try and deal with it 'at source' (i.e. during the registration process) but they always seem to find a way round it in the end unfortunately.

this sounds much better, IMHO.
for the registration, can you not just use the google captcha thing, with cars and street signs?!
not sure how good that works with bots, but I have to retry sometimes to pass it