Bugs, Site Feedback and Suggestions

[Egglick]

As many have noticed, we seem to be getting hit with a funky kind of bot/spammer that re-posts threads from months or years ago.  My suggestion is to implement something like a (5) post requirement before new users can create threads.  I've seen this on several other forums.  It's not overly restrictive and I think it would get rid of alot of bots and drive-by spammers.

[Synchronous Failure]

And for the newbies with legitimate questions it will force them to stick around and participate before they get their question answered. 5 posts isn't a whole lot. I probably make at least that amount every day.

[Ellsworth]

Makes sense to me.

[Natedog51]

Are spammers that bad here?

[Ellsworth]

^ It doesn't seem like it to me, but I don't see any reason not to use Egglick's idea anyway.

[Egglick]

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Natedog51 wrote:

Are spammers that bad here?

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Compared to other message boards, not at all.  However, when you consider the pathetic amount of traffic that we get in here, the copy/paste spammers are creating the majority of the new hardware threads.

Honest to god, I don't understand their motivation.

[bysmitty]

I'll dig through the forum back end and see if that is possible or not.  I must admit that I'm a little hesitant to implement a requirement like that at this time.  Spam really isn't a huge issue here at the moment.  I have to clean or edit spam maybe once a week tops though I admit it would be nice not to have to worry about it at all.  I'm more concerned about the chance of losing potential new members who might be put off by the 5 post requirement.  I know that my first post was a new thread.  It's possible I would have just browsed back to Google and kept on searching if I encountered that.  It is a really good suggestion though.  I'm cool with any consensus we come up with but personally, I think we should see if the spamming gets worse and if it possible to implement or not and take it from there.

...bysmitty

[Egglick]

Yeah.....it's a tough call.  You're probably right; we need new members at all costs.  If this were a larger message board I would say implement it for sure.  In our current situation.......I would look into it and see if it's possible, but hold off for the time being.  

Do we at least have a CAPTCHA during signup?

[Synchronous Failure]

It seems like all of this copy/paste spam is exclusively centered around the hardware forum.

[ZeroGuardian]

I went ahead and cleaned out the threads. No point in leaving them there as they won't generate any meaningful discussion.

[sqitso]

but if you have to create 5 before you can post... how do you post?

[Synchronous Failure]

That's to create a new thread. You can comment on existing threads without the limitation.

[Egglick]

Like I said, do we at least have a CAPTCHA for creating new accounts?  If not, we absolutely should.  It's starting to get a bit irritating.

[bysmitty]

Doesn't look like there is a captcha, just an email check.  I poked around in the forum back end some more and saw a few settings that look like they might help crack down on bots...  or completely eff up the whole board.   Hard to say.  Maybe we have a mod night sometime where we all get together on Mumble and try to make heads or tails of the back end and discuss possible changes.

...bysmitty

[bysmitty]

Yup, it's getting worse.  I'll message Fish and Zero on the topic. 

...bysmitty

[Egglick]

Yeah....I've actually found myself looking in the Hardware forums less, because it's always this spam crap.

Anyhow, as I've mentioned elsewhere, these particular bots are easy to spot because their names are always 10-characters long, and random letters (no numbers).

[Synchronous Failure]

I am completely confused as to the point of these spammers...

[Egglick]

Well......we clearly need to add something to the signup process.  Either some sort of CAPTCHA or a 5-10 post requirement before creating new threads.  Or something else which is very non-restrictive but trips up the bots.

[Synchronous Failure]

Can we have one of the mods/admins please clean up the hardware forum? Some newbies are answering the spam questions and wasting their time.

[jacobvandy]

My guess is, it's the spammer(s) getting "smarter" and making it look more "legit."

[Egglick]

We could use a cleanup.  The top 10 threads in the hardware forum are all spam.

[Stalker_Loner]

Suggestion: give one of our usuals the ability to delete threads (Sync, Egg etc). The hardware section is getting like 5 new old threads a day now.

[ZeroGuardian]

I just cleaned up the Hardware Forum. I'm gonna get with Fish and/or Smitty this weekend to go through the backend and try to figure out a way to fix this on a more permanent basis.

[Stalker_Loner]

Thanks man. I counted like 20 threads not long ago =/

[Synchronous Failure]

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Stalker_Loner wrote:
Suggestion: give one of our usuals the ability to delete threads (Sync, Egg etc). The hardware section is getting like 5 new old threads a day now.

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Oof, then we would ALL be mods. I like my purple name. Red is too common.