Getting rid of idiot spammers/bots.

[racedirector]

Hi guys

Have you ever considered installing the Glowhost Spam-O-matic addon available at vbulletin.org? I installed it on my own forum, albeit being v4.x, and it pretty much stopped all the spam posts dead in the water. ([GlowHost] Spam-O-Matic for vB 3.8 (StopForumSpam, Akismet, Auto-Moderation and more) - vBulletin.org Forum)

Here we seem to be overrun by spammers/bots ruining the latest posts to the point of totally tainting the Todays Posts page and thread subscriptions. Every single one of them do the same thing, they quote/post someone elses post and try to attach images to it.

I just thought a somewhat automated system like Spam-O-Matic would help in controlling these intrusions on our reading pleasure.

Cheers
Bruce

[HorridHenry]

I wouldn't worry about it as they have very little to talk about, if this is what they do all day then you have to feel sorry for them in a way.

[txcncman]

I dunno about bots. Their are spammers and fluffers. Spammers attempt to advertise something inappropriately to draw users away from the forum. Fluffers "fluff" a thread without adding any useful information, usually by repeating previous postings.

When you encounter one, report it and let the admin people handle it. When the admin people feel overwhelmed, they will search for another way to handle the situation.

[racedirector]

Thx txcncman. Yup, I have started reporting them, just annoys me how I have to spend my time even reacting to the idiots when I would just like them to dispappear, plus they screw up my enjoyment of this forum. I got sick of them on my forum so I went looking for a solution, thought the admins/mods here might be interested in the same thing

Cheers
Bruce

[Mauser]

I've run into a bunch of those "Fluffers". They appear to be coded incorrectly because while the notifications show they tried to add a link, the only thing that shows up is the text copied from an earlier post.

The big problem was that it took a lot of hoops to file a report.

[txcncman]

I've run into a bunch of those "Fluffers". They appear to be coded incorrectly because while the notifications show they tried to add a link, the only thing that shows up is the text copied from an earlier post.

The big problem was that it took a lot of hoops to file a report.

Should not take hoops. Click on the red triangle with the exclamation point of the post you wish to report. Type in why you are reporting it ("User is a fluffer on several threads.") Click on the submit button.

[racedirector]

Ah, yup - I know that. Have run a vBulletin forum for the last 10 years My point was why should we take OUR time to deal with them at all when an automated system could do 99% of the work. Isn't that what technology is for? I would rather spend my time reading the forum than having to report these morons all the time....

[CNCadmin]

I run almost every hack to stop spammers and believe me they still get in so, with a site this large they do everything to get in.

[txcncman]

Ah, yup - I know that. Have run a vBulletin forum for the last 10 years My point was why should we take OUR time to deal with them at all when an automated system could do 99% of the work. Isn't that what technology is for? I would rather spend my time reading the forum than having to report these morons all the time....

I think we should take our time to clean up because it is the right thing to do. The basics of this site are provided to you for free. Why is putting in some effort to make it better wrong?

[Mauser]

Should not take hoops. Click on the red triangle with the exclamation point of the post you wish to report. Type in why you are reporting it ("User is a fluffer on several threads.") Click on the submit button.

Ah, I see. I was reporting them on a per user basis, rather than per message. But that should work.

[dertsap]

If someone said someone else was a fluffer , then spammer wouldn't have came to my mind .
Seems to me that spam gets picked up pretty quickly on this site , it happens but it tends to get wiped out within hours if not minutes




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