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Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 6:41 pm
by Welch
I noticed on some Snowmobile forums that I post on that they have the EXACT same problem we were having here. So it does not seem to be specific to any one type of community. Those forums are vBulletin though, so its also not specific to certain forum software either. The posts over there though look to at least be generated content on assumed subject material. The best one I saw was a computer generated conversation attempting to describe rebuilding this engine and getting some amazing result out of the rebuild process... The moderators took it down otherwise It would have been interesting to share with you guys :P

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:32 pm
by Yeats
Just popping in to say that I've recently had to report 2 spammers by using the "Report this post" icon, and TR's reponse was swift.

So, thanks Mods! :D

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 3:03 pm
by integer
Around 25 spam-like threads popped up on my RSS Reader since last evening. All of them seem to be removed now. Was there a sudden wave of new spam accounts?

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 4:02 pm
by just brew it!
integer wrote:
Around 25 spam-like threads popped up on my RSS Reader since last evening. All of them seem to be removed now. Was there a sudden wave of new spam accounts?

I think some of them tend to wait for Friday night, assuming that the spam police are paid employees who only work Mon-Fri.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:52 am
by integer
There was recently this post on the Announcements forum.
morphine wrote:
Hi guys, we're going to do an upgrade to phpBB, for the following:
- Upgrade to the latest version
- Try to address the spam problem.

Does anyone have more information on what was done to address spam (assuming it is not classified!).

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 8:08 am
by TaBoVilla
Clearly, the solution here is to include multiple choice rhetorical questions when signing new users, stuff only lurkers know, such as:

Krogoth is..
a. Hot
b. Asian
c. not impressed

SweatShopKing loves..
a. Hot Asians
b. Horses
c. His wife
d. All of the above

Cyril Kowaliski lacks..
a. Facial hair
b. Easy-to-spell last name
c. moar time to write even more awesome articles and reviews

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 8:51 am
by yogibbear
TaBoVilla wrote:
Clearly, the solution here is to include multiple choice rhetorical questions when signing new users, stuff only lurkers know, such as:

Krogoth is..
a. Hot
b. Asian
c. not impressed

SweatShopKing loves..
a. Hot Asians
b. Horses
c. His wife
d. All of the above

Cyril Kowaliski lacks..
a. Facial hair
b. Easy-to-spell last name
c. moar time to write even more awesome articles and reviews


1. c
2. d
3. ??? b & c?

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 9:28 am
by morphine
integer wrote:
There was recently this post on the Announcements forum.
morphine wrote:
Hi guys, we're going to do an upgrade to phpBB, for the following:
- Upgrade to the latest version
- Try to address the spam problem.

Does anyone have more information on what was done to address spam (assuming it is not classified!).

Not classified at all, since it's present in the registration form. We've added registration questions instead of a regular CAPTCHA in order to try to sift out bots. We're currently tuning them.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 9:32 am
by gbcrush
I've been clicking that little warning sign to try and report threads, but I keep getting the "this thread has already been reported message"

It's a little disappointing that I don't get to be "FIRST!" to notice, but after a couple of attempts across various threads I tend to feel good about the TR forums and that we've got concerned citizens here doing their part. I take pride in the fact that I'm doing my part too, even if I don't get to do the report.


And then the intro to the Verhoven Starship Troopers movie (and show) plays in my head. I hear some fanfare and a whole bunch of voices saying "I'm doing my part..." :D

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 9:37 am
by bthylafh
Can we get a "report this post" link for the article comments? There's a spam on the article about Chrome tab syncing, for instance.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 11:56 am
by UberGerbil
TaBoVilla wrote:
Clearly, the solution here is to include multiple choice rhetorical questions when signing new users, stuff only lurkers know, such as:
While these are hilarious, and would obviously work (though like yogibbear I'm a little unclear on the right answer to that last question) it would also work to keep out the people who may not lurk frequently enough to know those answers but may still need to register suddenly to get a technical problem fixed, and you don't want to keep those people out.
gbcrush wrote:
It's a little disappointing that I don't get to be "FIRST!" to notice, but after a couple of attempts across various threads I tend to feel good about the TR forums and that we've got concerned citizens here doing their part. I take pride in the fact that I'm doing my part too, even if I don't get to do the report.
Try reading the forums after midnight PDT. That's when I see spam comments that I end up being the first to report (a couple of times a week on average). Although when there are 8 or more of them in a row it's a bit tedious (it's actually easier to just query the "user's" posts and then just work through that set).
bthylafh wrote:
Can we get a "report this post" link for the article comments? There's a spam on the article about Chrome tab syncing, for instance.
Yeah, that's just one of the ways the front page commenting system is different from and inferior to the forum system (I especially miss the preview button).

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 5:31 pm
by integer
UberGerbil wrote:
gbcrush wrote:
It's a little disappointing that I don't get to be "FIRST!" to notice, but after a couple of attempts across various threads I tend to feel good about the TR forums and that we've got concerned citizens here doing their part. I take pride in the fact that I'm doing my part too, even if I don't get to do the report.
Try reading the forums after midnight PDT. That's when I see spam comments that I end up being the first to report (a couple of times a week on average). Although when there are 8 or more of them in a row it's a bit tedious (it's actually easier to just query the "user's" posts and then just work through that set)

I agree. I've had the most success after 2 AM EDT.

On a related note, am as curious as bthylafh in this post in finding out who has successfully reported the most spam.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 6:03 pm
by Captain Ned
integer wrote:
On a related note, am as curious as bthylafh in this post in finding out who has successfully reported the most spam.

Not currently tracked. The only one here who knows if it's even possible in phpBB would be morphine.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 9:01 pm
by JustAnEngineer
David Letterman wrote:
This is only an exhibition, not a competition. Please, no wagering.
My guess is that Captain Ned has dealt with more SPAM than anyone.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 9:03 pm
by Captain Ned
JustAnEngineer wrote:
David Letterman wrote:
This is only an exhibition, not a competition. Please, no wagering.
My guess is that Captain Ned has dealt with more SPAM than anyone.

Maybe recently, but Kevin was pretty much the sole defense for quite a few years, so he'll always have the crown in my eyes.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 2:19 am
by integer
thegleek wrote:
JohnC wrote:
2) Don't allow links in posts for new users until they make a certain amount of posts (to prevent human "bots" from spamming). Yea, they can just make some "fluff" posts to get their post count up, but honestly, how many will bother doing that, especially if you also enable a timer for such new posters (like only allowing 1 post/hour for them)?
Further potential tweaks: IP range bans for obvious spam posters (some legit users can be caught too, but highly unlikely if the IP range is very narrow and is temporary). Something similar might also work. I definitely disagree with requiring people to pay ANY amount of $$$ to make posts or register on forums.

Yeah the going trend (lately) have been signatures with links.

The last two spam threads today have signatures with links. Not really sure why spam users would enter a signature instead of link bombing a post. However, if that is a trend, would it be possible to at least disable signatures for new users, or request a mod to enable links in signatures? Am assuming most users don't need links in signatures. In this thread, only 5 users have link signatures and 2 of them are TR links.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 4:28 pm
by morphine
Ok guys, we've put new spam-blocking measures tied into our registration form. It's an automatic check against a database of known spammer accounts. This should ease both the forum and the frontpage comment spamming, since they're tied together.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:13 pm
by nanoflower
Yea! Anything that cuts down on the success of spammers is a good move. (Okay, anything that doesn't hurt the usefulness of the site. ;) ) I hope this addition works out for you. I know adding that capability cut out most of the spam that we were getting. More than registration questions or requiring email validation.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:27 pm
by morphine
Thanks for the tips you gave us in this thread :) We ended up doing something slightly different, but it helped put us on the right track when hunting down a solution that fit the bill.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 9:34 pm
by UberGerbil
Thanks for the (endless) effort here. Maybe the solution (and a more general perspective on the battle?) would interesting for a minute or two's discussion on the next podcast?

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:00 pm
by integer
UberGerbil wrote:
Thanks for the (endless) effort here. Maybe the solution (and a more general perspective on the battle?) would interesting for a minute or two's discussion on the next podcast?

Seconded. Am quite interested in any measures taken to fight spam here.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:36 am
by integer
Seems a lot more spam threads and posts have started up. Are spammers willing to get past the additional questions during registration.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 2:44 am
by Flying Fox
integer wrote:
Seems a lot more spam threads and posts have started up. Are spammers willing to get past the additional questions during registration.

Summer holidays in the northern hemisphere, more kids wanting some extra change to buy toys? :P

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2012 12:23 pm
by bthylafh
Maybe you could have a filter that checks for common spammy things like "UFC" in links, since that's a big thing with the local spammers lately.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 4:46 pm
by Firestarter
Is this a good place to report front page comment spam? I couldn't find a report button/link.

This guy says beats by dr dre are the best (haha! HAHAHAHA!) AND posts a link to a store with a glowing recommendation: http://techreport.com/discussions.x/23197?post=651380

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 5:35 pm
by just brew it!
Firestarter wrote:
Is this a good place to report front page comment spam? I couldn't find a report button/link.

This guy says beats by dr dre are the best (haha! HAHAHAHA!) AND posts a link to a store with a glowing recommendation: http://techreport.com/discussions.x/23197?post=651380

Nuked.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 8:22 am
by DancinJack
Are the spam bots this bad on other forums? Has anyone noticed?

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 9:10 am
by morphine
We've spent a fair amount of time looking into solutions. 8-ball says that yes, the problem is real and very widespread, everyone just scrambling as fast as they can coming up with solutions. Been that way since e-mail spam was invented.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 10:31 am
by just brew it!
DancinJack wrote:
Are the spam bots this bad on other forums? Has anyone noticed?

I think it is effectively worse on many other forums, because they get roughly the same volume of incoming spam but aren't as diligent about nuking it on sight.

Re: Whats up with the Spam bots?

Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2012 11:12 am
by DancinJack
Yeah, I wasn't meaning to criticize. I just don't frequent ANY other forum. I look occasionally, but I'm not active really anywhere else. Keep up the good work.