Spam filter

[Buckman]

Over the past 10 days it seems that the forum has been hit with a lot of spam postings. Much more than normal. Have settings been removed as every day there seems to be one or more spam postings?

 

[RogerL]

I'm guessing that it's difficult to set the right level of restriction without also restricting genuine contributors - particularly in relation to newcomers with very low post counts.

 

[Sam Vimes]

It's not as bad as it was a couple of weeks back and we did notify the Admins who seemed to calm things down a bit.

Virtually every day Mel and I will get a list of suspected Spam which we have to manually delete.

Even so it's so easy for bots to try and flood forums that some will get through.

 

[toad a caravan]

I felt sorry for you, couldn't of been much fun,, however with due diligence and an abundance of determination you solved the problem

 

[Buckman]

No fun trying to stop bots. Maybe a filter could be set up for first time posters to filter out first time posts if there is a link in the first post, the post/account is rejected.

When registering first time on a forum, most forums send an email with a link to activate the account. In the email you are also advised that links, photos cannot be posted until at least 2 posts are made or you have introduced yourself.

Both car forums plus others that I have joined requested this. On one or two you could not post until you had posted introducing yourself. Never seen spam on either although it may happen.

 

[RogerL]

No fun trying to stop bots. Maybe a filter could be set up for first time posters to filter out first time posts if there is a link in the first post, the post/account is rejected.

When registering first time on a forum, most forums send an email with a link to activate the account. In the email you are also advised that links, photos cannot be posted until at least 2 posts are made or you have introduced yourself.

Both car forums plus others that I have joined requested this. On one or two you could not post until you had posted introducing yourself. Never seen spam on either although it may happen.

The bots just post enough times without links to "qualify" - then add links to their posts - that's why we seem so many the same before the mods delete them.

 

[Beachball]

What great work Sam and Mel the moderators do for keeping the spam down and deleted 🙏

 

[Buckman]

What great work Sam and Mel the moderators do for keeping the spam down and deleted 🙏

I thought it was filters that did most of the work? Those that slip through are the ones that give the mods a hard time.

 

[Beachball]

I thought it was filters that did most of the work? Those that slip through are the ones that give the mods a hard time.

I know where you are coming from but the admins are trying to stop them and they still getting through .

 

[Sam Vimes]

There are spam filters that block most and we never see them as it goes on in the background. We also get an Approval Queue list in which there can be genuine requests to join or post - an add in the Marketplace for instance. However, most of them are spam and are flagged as such because they appear on global lists, but for some reason they are not automatically blocked. Mel and I have to do this manually.