I noticed in the Action notes you mentioned a spam button. Why not make a provisional spam button available to a few of the regulars that would just quarantine spam until a mod could check it out? Not me, but there are a few regulars that might fit the task.
It's probably not possible with the software, but I think that such a feature would be awesome. A system that'd allow for members to report spam attacks like the shit we've seen the last 9 or 10 days that'd make a new "member" be quarantined early on if, say, their first 2 or 3 posts get reported as spam. By quarantine I mean that the new "member" will only be allowed to post in the thread they initially started. The thread might still get bumped but it'll not end in 196+ separate threads per spammer that needs purging. One can only hope such a feature exist or get developed. Edit: Or a limit on how many threads can be created by a member in a time period?
I'm not into the technicalities of IT but that seems that it may work. How hard would that be? Say one thread an hour. If the first is obviously spam, it should be seen that way and than cesspooled. We certainly dont want more episodes like we had last night and the night before!
I have no idea if any of these suggestions is possible with the current forum software - I'll poke at our Admins and see what they say Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Vinaka. I mean I have certainly posted on the rare occasion, two or maybe three threads within one hour, but like I said rare. And that would have been a good day for Interesting articles from physorg. I'm sure if the one an hour limit could be implemented, I would survive. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Paddo is pretty active in the science forums during the time when the attacks occur. I nominate Paddo for Spam Hunter!
Thanks, but no thanks tashja. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! My active times are in the morning and a look in in the arvo and evening. When I looked in last night it was a total mess! With a maximum of one thread per hour, at least they can be curtailed somewhat until discovered, and only able to spam their own spam so to speak. Vianka anyway...Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Last time it was astobaba110, then astobaba111, now it's astobaba112... I wonder how many more are going to assault the forum?
I have made several suggestions to Admin about this issue. I was told they were onto it. Since the spambot attacks continue, I don't know what, exactly, they have done. We can be thankful they are no longer as bad as that initial night, which was the worst I have ever experienced as a poster and moderator here. That was truly insane. There have been many which have been IP banned by admin (I would assume), but these aren't regular fly in fly out spammer. They log in and for as long as they are online, they are posting multiple threads of spam. And they are very fast. So these are people who do this for a job. The trick is to nab them as they sign up. I have taken to having a separate window open where I can monitor people signing up to the forum and if I notice a spammer (we can pick them out very easily) registering to the site, I ban them straight away. Those of us who do that do reduce the attacks somewhat.
And here's another attack by half a dozen spambots, all at once. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I nuked three more - found a much easier way to do it thank all that is holy Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
If you could institute a waiting period between registration and posting it might eliminate these spambots.
several dozen posts struck and moved to cesspool - caught one IP with three spam accounts on it - banned em all
It worked. Obviously, I didn't ban the entire internet at once. I've added our latest batch of spammers to the IP ban list. This will not be a one-step solution, but a gradual decrease over time, while we let the spammers tell us what their IP addresses are.
Ah, that makes sense. Well then, keep up the good work, guys. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!