Why do we need to wait 5 minutes(?) between two reports?

[xJustxMegx]

Hi,

No clue what the exact time is, not 5 minutes for sure but why do we need to wait so long to report users?

There is no way to report all spam profiles that are currently happening, maybe also make registering a bit harder? hCaptcha is already possible to do automatic.

Maybe approve the first post before it's viewable by the public? If they post more, all go into queu.

 

[Puonti]

The delay is 1 minute for me, but I don't know if it's different for different members. I've reported all of the spam users now.

Maybe there will be a retrospective on what happened. This seems like an unusual amount of spam account activity.

 

[squawk7000]

going by the amount and spread of spam this morning I think its a set of bots that are in action. The moderators look to be acting as fast as they can, but seems to be an uphill task.

 

[xJustxMegx]

Yea true, one minute between a report is too long and the current register page just can go automatically for bots. It's not anti bot.

 

[Puonti]

It's interesting that some of the accounts are editing their posts some time after posting their original garbage. Seems like it's trying different tactics.

 

[xJustxMegx]

And reporting is useless, you report one and three come back.

 

[Puonti]

I don't believe it's useless until MacRumors staff tell us it's useless. I'm fairly sure the reports they've been getting have gotten their attention.

I imagine the reason why they're not deleting the spam accounts right now (they were a while ago) is because the solution is not to delete accounts, but to block the source. They need to figure out.

 

[Regulus67]

...
I imagine the reason why they're not deleting the spam accounts right now (they were a while ago) is because the solution is not to delete accounts, but to block the source. They need to figure out.

I sure hope they will be able to fix this

 

[S.B.G]

^ No. There just aren't any staff online right now. Once someone comes online they'll see the reports and take care of them.

Usually the spam filter catches the vast majority of the spam, but not always.

Pro Tip: You only need to report a spammer once per account. So if one account made multiple posts, you only need to report one of them and then the staff can easily ban the account and delete the posts. There is a 1-click system to handle that.

 

[Boyd01]

We are quite aware of the problem I have deleted literally hundreds of spam posts, starting around 6:00 AM eastern time this morning and there have been over a hundred user reports of spam. We certainly appreciate reports, but the time limit is a good thing IMO. When a mod logs in, the spam is very obvious during an attack like this. We work as fast as possible to clean it up using the tools we have.

Don't hesitate to report these posts, but be aware that it's something we work hard to clean up and there's a good chance we already know about the problem. I understand it's annoying to see all this spam - it's much more annoying to the mods, because we have to clean it up. Worst case, spam might be visible on the site for a few hours before we catch it.

I have made a suggestion for a change that might help in the future, but such things are well above the pay grade of a moderator, so let's see what happens. In the meantime.... back to the fight. In the time it took for me to write this, we have several new user reports and a handful of new spam. I'm working on it, please be patient!

 

[Boyd01]

One other note, when we use our most effective tool against spam, it bans the member and deletes all their posts, also looking for similar ones. This will automatically resolve any open reports on the spammer(s) without sending any alert to the member(s) who reported them. We've discussed this before, and I just checked again and couldn't find any way to change this behavior in the Xenforo software.

When there are just a few spam reports, I go out of my way to send alerts to the reporter. But that takes quite a few extra steps and just isn't practical during a full-on attack like this morning. So please realize that we appreciate the reports, but you may not get any acknowlegement when we are involved in a major clean up.

 

[xJustxMegx]

Hey @Boyd01,

Thank you for the answer(s), I appreciate this.

I don't care if I don't get a notification for a report (when it's spam) but I do care about the fact that you (the team) does stuff to avoid things like this in the future.

 

[squawk7000]

Thanks @Boyd01 for the cleanup and feedback on processes. Today's attack was probably the worst I've seen, and it was becoming impossible to find real posts

grateful thanks

 

[Boyd01]

We've had a few attacks where spammers breached our defenses in my time here as moderator. There was a very bad one in September 2023 that stands out in my mind. This one is certainly way up there on the list though, might be the worst.

 

[xJustxMegx]

We've had a few attacks where spammers breached our defenses in my time here as moderator. There was a very bad one in September 2023 that stands out in my mind. This one is certainly way up there on the list though, might be the worst.

Did you ever discuss to get a better system to avoid it? A better captcha, that isn't 'hacked'?

 

[adrianlondon]

I agree it is frustrating when I'm trying to report a few spams (by different "authors") but then I assume everyone else is also reporting them and hence in future I'll just report the odd one, else we end up spamming the mods with reports ourselves 😁

 

[Boyd01]

Did you ever discuss to get a better system to avoid it? A better captcha, that isn't 'hacked'?

There's an ongoing effort to improve how we deal with spam. The moderators are like the cops on the beat, we can only try to catch the bad guys and send suggestions higher up to improve the system. We can't install new sofware or change the configuration of the site.

Not going to get into any specifics about what we are doing or might do, but will say that IMO this isn't a captcha issue. We have a variety of defenses against spam and they are constantly tweaked when we find a pattern that gets through. One thing to consider is that MacRumors isn't all alone, it's one of many forums on the net, and there are ongoing efforts to improve spam detection across us all.

 

[S.B.G]

@adrianlondon When multiple users report the same post or thread the reports are all merged into one report. So it's not really a bother to report posts.

 

[annk]

Did you ever discuss to get a better system to avoid it? A better captcha, that isn't 'hacked'?

It's the nature of spam that spammer adapt their methods to get around our efforts to limit it. So regardless of how many steps we've taken and will take in future, there will most likely be occasional outbursts of spam.

 

[xJustxMegx]

It's the nature of spam that spammer adapt their methods to get around our efforts to limit it. So regardless of how many steps we've taken and will take in future, there will most likely be occasional outbursts of spam.

True that, but do the spammers get put into a shredder and then send over to the sun?

 

[IowaLynn]

Shame this problem still exists, the amount of work that goes into keeping a forum and site working. Maybe a good time to help out via paid account would help?

Restricting and blocking based on string of characters, phone numbers, etc.? "They" may be hitting every site using sae software, and aren't even targeting this site. Or be able to trace back to where it came from.

 

[StumpyBloke]

The mods are doing a great job but I really think the rules on allowing new users to post immediately has to change! I understand this is probably not up to the mods to decide, but someone needs to make the decision.

 

[xJustxMegx]

The mods are doing a great job but I really think the rules on allowing new users to post immediately has to change! I understand this is probably not up to the mods to decide, but someone needs to make the decision.

I do agree with you here, their first post (if they post more) they all should get into a queue and be approved or deleted before the public can view them.

 

[adrianlondon]

The mods are doing a great job but I really think the rules on allowing new users to post immediately has to change! I understand this is probably not up to the mods to decide, but someone needs to make the decision.

I've been a mod on other forums, and that is a big trade-off.

People often join forums only when they have an immediate question to ask, so for a while we tried making the first few posts go into a "moderator queue" for us to check before they could hit the group, but that gave us so much work we decided it was easier to remove spammers after they post 😁

An option I have on Facebook is to hide posts that have been reported x number of times. I can then check those at my leisure and reinstate or delete.

 

[I7guy]

I do agree with you here, their first post (if they post more) they all should get into a queue and be approved or deleted before the public can view them.

IMO, that would deter new users from becoming a part of the site. Nothing like putting roadblocks into a user experience.

What may be something to do is to limit the rate at which new users can post. There are already, if my memory serves, some restrictions on links in posts.

Also if 100 users (and these users are bots) decided to enroll simultaneously there isn't much that can be done as you can't stop legitimate users from enrolling simultaneously.