Getting hacked off with spam

[Bass]

Hi,

I appreciate that the world is not perfect, but over the last few weeks, the level of spam appears to have risen.

Could the forum consider having posters first post moderated? or something similar?

Bass

[micseydel]

Could the forum consider having posters first post moderated? or something similar?

We've done it in the past, and it's more work for us and slows things down for posters. I don't think it's bad enough to warrant that; I'd want to try more mods before resorting to that again.

I'm curious if anyone else has perceived an uptick. I haven't been as active recently, but I haven't seen too much of an issue.

[sparkz_alot]

We try and catch as many spammers as they pop up, the problem is that "spam" is rather subjective.  If you think we have missed one, we encourage members to point them out to us. We can then look at the post and see if it violates the forums rules and if so, take the appropriate action.

Thanks for taking an active interest in the forum. It's much appreciated.

[snippsat]

I'm curious if anyone else has perceived an uptick.

There has not been a uptick in spam,it come in ways so some weeks more than other.

Could the forum consider having posters first post moderated? or something similar?

As mention we done some  restriction in the past,but this will only create problem for regular users and not spam users.
To do moderation of all first post to prevent spam is of course something we will not do.
The spam has a are very short lifetime on this forum,and i think that users that are not here regular here will not have seen any spam at all.

[metulburr]

Looking at the recent spam that was deleted today, is unusually more than normal. Some days we get 1 spam post, some days we get 20.

There will inevitably be a larger amount of spam now that we are referred from python.org as a few months ago give or take. But there are a lot more real users as well.

You cant stop spam 100%. If you do then you are blocking real people that just might sound spammish, but do not mean to be. We have a lot of anti-spam countermeasures. And that is blocking 98% of the spam. The rest just have to be mopped up as they post it from moderators and admins.

We usually have a lot of team members on, but it only takes 1 minute of no admins and mods on the forum for a spammer to go crazy. Ive seen where they hang out and wait for admins and mods to leave before posting.

I think the best approach is also to add more mods. I think we do a good job at removing spam when it appears. Ive seen forums where spam will reside on the forum for 12+ hours. This includes the MyBB help forum. I feel like this forum, spam wont reside more than 20 minutes and thats giving spam a lot of credit.

We encourage users to report spam. The first mod or admin that shows up after the report, will remove the spam.

[ichabod801]

It seems like there is more lately to me, but not so much that it's a huge problem.

[Larz60+]

Spammers are usually caught pretty quickly. I see no need for change in how it's done.

[Kebap]

 If you think we have missed one, we encourage members to point them out to us.

You can do this by clicking the little "report" button to the bottom of each post. Thank you!

[Bass]

Thank you for all the replies. All of which are useful and thoughtful.

I think the problem for me is that I recieve an email of new posts (maybe others do as well) and therefore I seem to be spending time trawling through my gmail inbox deleting the spam. I guess I need to look at look at switching this off to avoid these notifications.

I accept that there needs to be a balance struck between allowing people to post easily with the realisation that "spam" (especially on a Pythin site ) exists. I do report spam as and when it happens, but the inconvenience of the spam has already happened, so the only solution to *prevent* the spam as far as I can see is to moderate a members first posts. But I accept that if this is seen as an overkill then I just need to use the delete key on my inbox!

Thank you for all your responses.

Bass

[metulburr]

I think the problem for me is that I recieve an email of new posts (maybe others do as well) and therefore I seem to be spending time trawling through my gmail inbox deleting the spam.

Can you get email notifications for new posts? If so i was unaware of it. I was under the impression you could only get email notifications of subscribed posts...which are threads you posted to, or specifically selected subscribe to.

Personally i now just use the unread posts link on the forum for finding new posts. And i just come to the forum randomly throughout the day, when i want to read them. Sometimes, some threads i am interested in i'll subscribe and set to PM on the board. But i hate getting email notifications consistently from anywhere. Even the same forum i am most active in.