Limit the SPAM?

[Xanthe_2871]

The Arabic text spammer who was just here got me thinking. To help limit spam, perhaps a sensible precaution would be limiting the number of new threads a user can open within a given amount of time until they reach a certain number of posts. Say, members with fewer than 100 posts are limited to 5 new threads per hour. Just an idea

 

@ThinkWithPortals

[PRTI]

*Types to comment on this thread*

 

*Oh shit, were sorry but your a lazy asshole without to much threads, try again in 1 hour*

 

I mean its stupid to me since some people wanna chit chat with other people on a thread, for lets say @Dackzy and me chit chat allot about i5's and i7's

[LogicalDrm]

Problem is that forums software sees both threads and normal replies as same thing. So any limit would be applied for both. Now with troubleshooting topics its common to have multiple posts within short time span. Like 5-15 within hour. Also members with under 100 posts is quite broad group and would cause more annoyance in normal users than actually limit spammers. Like yourself. You've been here a week, no way you could have almost 500 posts if there would be limit for members with under 100 posts.

[colonel_mortis]

It is possible to add a limit, but it can only be a daily limit, which wouldn't help, and it can only be applied to posts, not topics. Combined with the points made above, I'm afraid it's not feasible. Even if it was though, the spammers would just post the spam in existing threads, which would arguably be worse.

[Dackzy]

Kek don't care if they did something like this, I am way above 100 or 5000 posts.

23 minutes ago, keNNySOC said:

*Types to comment on this thread*

 

*Oh shit, were sorry but your a lazy asshole without to much threads, try again in 1 hour*

 

I mean its stupid to me since some people wanna chit chat with other people on a thread, for lets say @Dackzy and me chit chat allot about i5's and i7's

true

[Xanthe_2871]

24 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

Problem is that forums software sees both threads and normal replies as same thing. So any limit would be applied for both. Now with troubleshooting topics its common to have multiple posts within short time span. Like 5-15 within hour. Also members with under 100 posts is quite broad group and would cause more annoyance in normal users than actually limit spammers. Like yourself. You've been here a week, no way you could have almost 500 posts if there would be limit for members with under 100 posts.

Very good point, if the software can't tell the difference between a thread and a post then that would be horrible, I do not think new users should be limited by posts. 

[Xanthe_2871]

18 minutes ago, colonel_mortis said:

It is possible to add a limit, but it can only be a daily limit, which wouldn't help, and it can only be applied to posts, not topics. Combined with the points made above, I'm afraid it's not feasible. Even if it was though, the spammers would just post the spam in existing threads, which would arguably be worse.

I know this is a whole different ball game, but maybe a smarter spam filter could look for trends that are suspicious, like a new member posting multiple things in a short time frame that contain mostly non English text or similar text (a lot of the Arabic posts said more or less the same thing just posted over and over again). 

[captain cactus]

Look at this bullshit.

 

Just look at it.

 

Have an Arabic text filter that just insta-bans you when you post this crap.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Perhaps have an auto ban or something for users that get an unreasonably high number of reported posts?

[Wrb]

1 hour ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

Problem is that forums software sees both threads and normal replies as same thing. So any limit would be applied for both. Now with troubleshooting topics its common to have multiple posts within short time span. Like 5-15 within hour. Also members with under 100 posts is quite broad group and would cause more annoyance in normal users than actually limit spammers. Like yourself. You've been here a week, no way you could have almost 500 posts if there would be limit for members with under 100 posts.

Well how hard would it be to diferenciate between them, if the users post is the first one in a thread then they posted it surely?

 

and then you could count the number of posts which were also first in a thread, and ban them that way.

[captain cactus]

Ban Arabic text on this forum. Easy as that. If you try to post it, you're banned. 

[colonel_mortis]

1 hour ago, Xanthe_2871 said:

I know this is a whole different ball game, but maybe a smarter spam filter could look for trends that are suspicious, like a new member posting multiple things in a short time frame that contain mostly non English text or similar text (a lot of the Arabic posts said more or less the same thing just posted over and over again). 

That would be ideal, but is wouldn't exactly be a small project.

18 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Perhaps have an auto ban or something for users that get an unreasonably high number of reported posts?

That is something that I would like to add, with some caveats to prevent abuse, but it would require a substantial redesign of the report system.

13 minutes ago, Wrb said:

Well how hard would it be to diferenciate between them, if the users post is the first one in a thread then they posted it surely?

 

and then you could count the number of posts which were also first in a thread, and ban them that way.

Yes, but the systems that we have available to us only allow limiting by posts, not by topics, and to change that is not easy because, from memory, it's not something that can be easily changed using a plugin.

10 minutes ago, lots of unexplainable lag said:

Ban Arabic text on this forum. Easy as that. If you try to post it, you're banned. 

That isn't a reasonable solution - just because a lot of the spam is in arabic, that doesn't mean that no arabic should be allowed at all.

[LogicalDrm]

31 minutes ago, lots of unexplainable lag said:

Have an Arabic text filter that just insta-bans you when you post this crap.

20 minutes ago, lots of unexplainable lag said:

Ban Arabic text on this forum. Easy as that. If you try to post it, you're banned. 

That has been suggested before and shot down by most of the community. First of all, it wouldn't do much. If its not arabic, it would be hindy, chinese or some nordic language. And when all of them are banned, it will be in plain english. What shall we do then? Ban everyone posting in english? Secondly, while main forums use mainly english, there are threads (Dutch Talk) and PMs where users are free to use any language they like. It would be very discriminating to ban one language just because its used for the recent spam waves.

30 minutes ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

Perhaps have an auto ban or something for users that get an unreasonably high number of reported posts?

 

What might be the correct number for that? I post about 15 posts within hour.

 

23 minutes ago, Wrb said:

Well how hard would it be to diferenciate between them, if the users post is the first one in a thread then they posted it surely?

 

and then you could count the number of posts which were also first in a thread, and ban them that way.

I would assume thats harder to do than it sounds.

 

[iamdarkyoshi]

11 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

What might be the correct number for that? I post about 15 posts within hour.

Reports, not posts. If a user ends up with like 50 reports on their first couple posts, its more than likely a spam user. Perhaps an auto ban feature could have a "If you believe this ban was an error, you can contact staff here: staffcontact.potato" line or something on the super rare occasion that someone legitimate gets banned

[porina]

12 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

What might be the correct number for that? I post about 15 posts within hour.

It was the number of REPORTED posts that would be the trigger. Yes, someone would have to work out some reasonable threshold. Maybe make it independent of the post. If a spam account was created, then reports can get counted against the account not posts, so it doesn't matter if it is a few reports each for a large number of posts, or a large number of reports for a single post.

 

A concern to this system would be attempted censoring of valid if unpopular content. At some point the auto-bans would still be reviewed by a human and determined if valid or not. If not, then the system could apply a penalty point to persons making those false reports, and potentially depreciate or ban them from making reports or other measures.

[manikyath]

ideally you could implement a system that triggers not on amount or speed of posting, but rather on the similarities of the posts. (spammers always copypasta the same post).

 

although, even a coding pleb like me knows that's not an easy task, and not desirable for the sake of the forum running smooth

[LogicalDrm]

3 hours ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

-snip-

3 hours ago, porina said:

.snip-

 

My bad, misread. Still, I wouldn't make it auto-ban. Auto-restrict from posting until member of the staff validates it. Too much risk of misuse and cyber-bullying.

[porina]

24 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

My bad, misread. Still, I wouldn't make it auto-ban. Auto-restrict from posting until member of the staff validates it. Too much risk of misuse and cyber-bullying.

I think there is room for an automated system. Those that abuse it will also get dealt with the same way.

 

Another way might be to arrange extra coverage so there will more likely be a mod available 24/7. Let the sun never set on the Linus empire! I know from other forums modding can be a tankless job. Even if a separate category could be made where they're not full on mods but dedicated spam hunters, it could help.

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, porina said:

I think there is room for an automated system. Those that abuse it will also get dealt with the same way.

 

Another way might be to arrange extra coverage so there will more likely be a mod available 24/7. Let the sun never set on the Linus empire! I know from other forums modding can be a tankless job. Even if a separate category could be made where they're not full on mods but dedicated spam hunters, it could help.

 

247 mod coverage would mean paying people for it. There just isn't any normal people who would cover the timeslot where EU people are waking up and going to school/work and US people are going to sleep. A lot of current spam which isn't dealt within 10-30 mins happens at 7-11am CET.

[Tieox]

Anyone remember the "You are an idiot" prank websites of the good ol'days? 

 

Put spammers on a re-direct to a page which opens 50 instances of that.