Delay In Reporting Spam Postings

Macman45 · Jun 10, 2012

Just an idea...yesterday AM, nearly the whole new post's page was covered in streaming / spam postings. I reported as many as I could, but the 30 second delay is frustrating when dealing with spam attacks of this quantity....Any reason the time couldn't be reduced?

Comeagain? · Jun 10, 2012

Macman45 said:
Just an idea...yesterday AM, nearly the whole new post's page was covered in streaming / spam postings. I reported as many as I could, but the 30 second delay is frustrating when dealing with spam attacks of this quantity....Any reason the time couldn't be reduced?

I noticed that yesterday too. That barrage was one of the most annoying things I've seen online in a LONG time, and it was very difficult to report them, because "they" could post much faster then I/we could report.

annk · Jun 10, 2012

I believe (but am not certain) that reducing the amount of time a member has to wait between each post report would also reduce the amount of time a spammer has to wait between each spam post/thread.

This was discussed a while ago, and Q said something about it here.

The good news is that you don't have to report every spam post made by spammer X, because we'll nuke all his/her posts. And if several reports for spammers come in, we'll be alerted, and take a look at the forum(s) in general to see what's going on.

Macman45 · Jun 10, 2012

annk said:
I believe (but am not certain) that reducing the amount of time a member has to wait between each post report would also reduce the amount of time a spammer has to wait between each spam post/thread.

This was discussed a while ago, and Q said something about it here.

The good news is that you don't have to report every spam post made by spammer X, because we'll nuke all his/her posts. And if several reports for spammers come in, we'll be alerted, and take a look at the forum(s) in general to see what's going on.

That makes sense, never seen it as bad as it was yesterday though...I think I reported around 10 or so, then got demoralised and logged out..!

annk · Jun 10, 2012

Macman45 said:
That makes sense, never seen it as bad as it was yesterday though...I think I reported around 10 or so, then got demoralised and logged out..!

The reports that did come in galvanized the mods - when I logged on this morning, I saw that they'd been working hard while I was asleep.

SandboxGeneral · Jun 10, 2012

I hadn't seen it that bad in a long time, if not ever! I reported a few I think too, but then figured with the large flow coming in, the mods would already be watching for them. Then I was away most of the day yesterday, when I got back in the late afternoon, I pulled up the Spy and saw that it was still happening.

grapes911 · Jun 10, 2012

Macman45 said:
but the 30 second delay is frustrating when dealing with spam attacks of this quantity

Normally I'd say report every post that violates a rule. Due to the 30 second delay and exorbitant amount of spam, concentrate on the spammer, not each thread they create.

I say this because when we see a report with a clear case of spamming, we ban the user and then delete all of their posts. Each individual report certainly helps to make sure we deleted them all, but due to the 30 second delay I'd rather have a report for each spammer than 10 reports for 1 spammer and the others not be tracked.

Ideally I'd love if all posts were reported, but I understand patience can get thin during a spam attack.

Macman45 · Jun 10, 2012

grapes911 said:
Normally I'd say report every post that violates a rule. Due to the 30 second delay and exorbitant amount of spam, concentrate on the spammer, not each thread they create.

I say this because when we see a report with a clear case of spamming, we ban the user and then delete all of their posts. Each individual report certainly helps to make sure we deleted them all, but due to the 30 second delay I'd rather have a report for each spammer than 10 reports for 1 spammer and the others not be tracked.

Ideally I'd love if all posts were reported, but I understand patience can get thin during a spam attack.

Understood, It's actually what I try to do, look for different usernames...There was no way I could have kept up with it yesterday though...BTW Just reported a new one...

grapes911 · Jun 10, 2012

Macman45 said:
BTW Just reported a new one...

Done.

Macman45 · Jun 10, 2012

grapes911 said:
done.

:d

Macman45 · Jun 10, 2012

These would appear to be Bot generated...Just found another one, it's tough to keep track of the usernames. I have never seen such a persistent attack here though.

MacDawg · Jun 10, 2012

Macman45 said:
These would appear to be Bot generated...Just found another one, it's tough to keep track of the usernames. I have never seen such a persistent attack here though.

There was a perfect storm of events that helped create this... NBA Conference championships, PPV fight in Vegas, soccer games. It was an onslaught and you probably didn't see near all of them because I know I personally nuked a number of them as soon as they were generated, as did the other moderators.

blueroom · Jun 10, 2012

Do the spam postings come from a particular IP or country? Do/can you block IPs?

grapes911 · Jun 10, 2012

blueroom said:
Do the spam postings come from a particular IP or country? Do/can you block IPs?

I don't want to give away too much information on how we handle this, but it's not that simple. I wish it was.

Macman45 · Jun 10, 2012

blueroom said:
Do the spam postings come from a particular IP or country? Do/can you block IPs?

I don't think you can, without excluding users....Tha's the problem, it has to be done manually, best course of action is to report different usernames rather than a lot of post's by the same name. That way the user is banned....But of course even a determined individual with 3 or 4 machines and a generator can create them as fast as they are deleted.

These people are spam streamer companies who are pirating upcoming sporting events. A low quality, rip off way of avoiding cable charges. I guess with all the upcoming football tennis etc, it's sort of expected, but not to the extent we have seen in recent days here.

blueroom · Jun 10, 2012

Another batch seems to be inbound.

Maybe use a CAPTCHA for the first handful of postings?

Macman45 · Jun 10, 2012

blueroom said:
Another batch seems to be inbound.

Maybe use a CAPTCHA for the first handful of postings?

I've reported the first 3 usernames...That's the way to report them, don't bother reporting post's with the same username....They will be deleted together, but yep...It's a perfect storm all right...Depending on your idea of perfect..

Comeagain? · Jun 10, 2012

I tried to report individual users, and the ones I saw that started to drift into other forums. It started (at least what I saw) to be mostly in iPad Accessories, then about 20 minutes later I started seeing them more and more in other forums.

annk · Jun 10, 2012

One report per spammer is fine - and enough for us to nuke all their posts.

Peace · Jun 10, 2012

The other day. wow ! All someone had to do was sit on the spy and they could be gone as fast as they post.

Oh yea. Making it harder to register might help too.

But that would take away money from those clicks.

maflynn · Jun 10, 2012

Peace said:
The other day. wow ! All someone had to do was sit on the spy and they could be gone as fast as they post.

For the most part I've been doing that, instead of waiting someone to report it

Of course its going to get crazy busy here tomorrow and watching the spy will be down right impossible, for totally different reasons

Peace · Jun 10, 2012

maflynn said:
For the most part I've been doing that, instead of waiting someone to report it

Of course its going to get crazy busy here tomorrow and watching the spy will be down right impossible, for totally different reasons

Love the wink.

My first report went in at around 11:30PM Cupertino time.

The same spam username was posting at 1:30AM Cupertino time and was reported.

You guys really,really need more Mods.

Nermal · Jun 10, 2012

I logged on at what would've been the early hours of Saturday morning for most of you. I was the only mod online and I couldn't believe how much spam was on there! I must've nuked 50 users over the next hour or so, many of them with multiple posts. Alas, I had to sleep eventually but I was shocked to find them still coming in the next morning.

Macman45 · Jun 10, 2012

Peace said:
Love the wink.

My first report went in at around 11:30PM Cupertino time.

The same spam username was posting at 1:30AM Cupertino time and was reported.

You guys really,really need more Mods.

It looks that way, but the time of day is probably a big part of it too. MOre Mods at "Anti Social" hours of the day?

Comeagain? · Jun 10, 2012

Macman45 said:
It looks that way, but the time of day is probably a big part of it too. MOre Mods at "Anti Social" hours of the day?

That's one thing. When I was reporting spammers, I looked at the "Show Leaders" and the only staff member online was Arn, and he was dealing with the articles on the front page.

Delay In Reporting Spam Postings

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