The Ghost Of Phils Society Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 PhotoNet has had a 60% increase in spam posting since the migration of the forum platform back in October. Literally from day one, there has been a problem. Available tools have been few--relying mostly on the work of our stalwart moderators. We now have a new tool, you! An automatic moderation rule has been put into place. New spammy members are now subject to being wiped out of the boards and galleries by a simple click of the "Report" button. When someone has been newly registered for under a certain amount of time; has less that 5 posts-- a member report 'hides' all of their content until such time as a moderator or administrator can review it. Then comes the banhammer. When you spot spam, use the report tool on it immediately. Consider yourself an informal part of the moderation team, and help keep our image galleries free of rubbish! 😉 11 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels - NHSN Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 Thank you! That seems like an excellent way to crowdsource moderation. Niels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samstevens Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 Most sites have a built-in spam protector whereby new members can't post until they've uploaded x number of photos or been approved in some way. While this is a reasonable after-the-fact solution, a before-the-fact solution, in my opinion, would be optimal. 1 "You talkin' to me?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCL Posted February 5, 2023 Share Posted February 5, 2023 Good news! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin McAmera Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 Did one of these this morning. Doesn't take effect immediately, so dont be discouraged! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Michael Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 1 hour ago, Dustin McAmera said: Did one of these this morning. Doesn't take effect immediately, so dont be discouraged! Thank you. It works, even if there is a delay. Additionally, although I am not 100% certain of the exact process here: in another forum site, refreshing the page after a few seconds of taking that action gives the updated view (i.e. with the post will be Hidden). WW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
William Michael Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 25 minutes ago, Normanski said: I did about 20 earlier and after reporting the post I refreshed my Unread Content view and the post disappeared. Thank you. I suspect those 20 are part of the >300 posts, images and new members which are now gone. 25 minutes ago, Normanski said: It would be nice to mark a user who is spamming the system as a spammer (20 airline posts) and have the system hide all their posts rather than report every post The function did not work that way, in this situation, as you point out: My Theory: Blitz Spamming obviously broke the criterion of fewer 5 posts, before you had a chance to report one post. My Opinion - In the case of Blitz Spamming, which we have had for the four hours, it could be a useful functionality but only in so far as Hiding all the posts of the one user would be a more pleasurable sight for the other Members - and I suspect a good feeling for the Member who hid the whole batch of them. Probably good to remember - just one report of one post from a Blitz Spammer is sufficient for a Moderator or Administrator to address ALL that reported Member's content, and remove all content and the Member, if necessary. Thank again. WW 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ghost Of Phils Society Posted February 6, 2023 Author Share Posted February 6, 2023 Members would be surprised at the number of things forum (and other net platform) software does in the background. These are called 'cron jobs' and they are automated routines that do things at different times. Many of them are called "batch" processes, such as sending any email notices, refreshing the system cache, cleaning out temporary files, etcetera. The refresh on the cache is set to a default of every 5 minutes. Depending on how close one is to when that cron job runs will determine how fast the rubbish disappears from the pages. Clearing the browser cache will not hurry the process, but sometimes that can help with other things! The spammy spam is actually hidden immediately. Thank you to any who is participating in this crowdsourced community policing. Nearly 50 were cleared out in a hot minute and sent to the digital dumpster. 4 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Parsons Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 Are the 'Removed Members' also going to the dumpster ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy Vongries Posted February 6, 2023 Share Posted February 6, 2023 When I cleared the log this morning, there were 181 Spam reports, and a double handful that had not yet been found who were added. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
httpwww.photo.netbarry Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 On 2/5/2023 at 6:30 AM, TGOPS said: PhotoNet has had a 60% increase in spam posting since the migration of the forum platform back in October. Literally from day one, there has been a problem. Available tools have been few--relying mostly on the work of our stalwart moderators. We now have a new tool, you! An automatic moderation rule has been put into place. New spammy members are now subject to being wiped out of the boards and galleries by a simple click of the "Report" button. When someone has been newly registered for under a certain amount of time; has less that 5 posts-- a member report 'hides' all of their content until such time as a moderator or administrator can review it. Then comes the banhammer. When you spot spam, use the report tool on it immediately. Consider yourself an informal part of the moderation team, and help keep our image galleries free of rubbish! 😉 Look at the Digital darkroom just now(2.22 a.m PST) 2 full pages of spam ads and it happens on the site nightly PDT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels - NHSN Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 (edited) There must be a way to limit the numbers of posts a new member can make? One a day for the first weeks or until approved by a moderator? I just reported a new member that had posted 30+ spam messages in an hour or so. A better approach may be to delay posting by new members post until after approval - at least until the user has shown their photo related intent. Most of the messages I see are not spam as such, but rather SEO mining. It is possible that the spammer has benefit from the fact that the post appears on the site even if it is quickly removed. Photo.net has high ranking on google and is therefore very frequently scanned by their bots. I have seen new answers show up in Google searches less that 30min after they they were posted on photo.net. The SEO crowd knows that and may continue to blitz spam because the likelyhood of being noticed by the search bots is very high. Edited February 7, 2023 by NHSN 1 Niels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin McAmera Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 19 minutes ago, NHSN said: One a day for the first weeks or until approved by a moderator? +1 for that! 'Probationer', then 'Member'. (then 'Regular', 'Veteran',.. ooh and there could be badges!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Parsons Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 Just spent an enjoyable ten minutes 'de-spamatizing' (or do I mean sanitizing ?). All airlines, except for Yahoo Mail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Parsons Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 1 hour ago, Dustin McAmera said: +1 for that! 'Probationer', then 'Member'. (then 'Regular', 'Veteran',.. ooh and there could be badges!) 'We don't need no stinking badges !' (Sorry !) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemorrellNL Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 Fully agree that flagging posts as Spam helps a lot to clean up Spam. Invisioncommunity offers additional spam prevention measures in the Admin Control Panel. Such as Q&A challenges. Not all of these were implemented on Jan 28 (see link to my Jan 28 post below). I'm not sure how many of these have been implemented since then. I also read about the 'Honeypot' approach (a registration form field invisible to humans but not to bots) to distinguishing between legit members and bots. In a recent Invisioncommunity/forum thread, (other) Invisioncommunity admins also report a recent deluge of Spam despite implementing anti-spam measures. One admin (Luke Z) suggested investing $12 a year on a CleanTalk plugin. I don't know it, but it claims to distinguish between spam and legit 'registrations'. It also check IP-addresses against a continually updated database of 'Spam' IP-addresses. Perhaps worth checking out. So while I too continue to flag spam, perhaps there's more admins could do to tighten up our spam prevention measures. Mike 21 hours ago, TGOPS said: Members would be surprised at the number of things forum (and other net platform) software does in the background. These are called 'cron jobs' and they are automated routines that do things at different times. Many of them are called "batch" processes, such as sending any email notices, refreshing the system cache, cleaning out temporary files, etcetera. The refresh on the cache is set to a default of every 5 minutes. Depending on how close one is to when that cron job runs will determine how fast the rubbish disappears from the pages. Clearing the browser cache will not hurry the process, but sometimes that can help with other things! The spammy spam is actually hidden immediately. Thank you to any who is participating in this crowdsourced community policing. Nearly 50 were cleared out in a hot minute and sent to the digital dumpster. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Parsons Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 (edited) Someone calling himself 'Mikechap' has dumped almost 50 lots of spam in the last hour : https://www.photo.net/profile/1005314-mikechap/ 13:51 - now 60 posts. I have reported all I have found. Edited February 7, 2023 by Tony Parsons More data Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin McAmera Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 The Borg have adapted to our phasers; we need to rotate the polarity. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Parsons Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 Just now, Dustin McAmera said: The Borg have adapted to our phasers; we need to rotate the polarity. If I get my hands on the Borger I'll rotate his polarity for him 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin McAmera Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 1 minute ago, Tony Parsons said: If I get my hands on the Borger I'll rotate his polarity for him Ooer missus! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Parsons Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 1 minute ago, Dustin McAmera said: Ooer missus! And now - The Prologue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Parsons Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 Mikechap seems to have desisted - we now have a spammer called Yadoc, if anyone wants to take over reporting duties. Just click on the name, and a list of posts comes up. Then all you have to do is open each one and report it. Fun, eh ? Don't forget to keep refreshing so you can see which have been reported, and which need treating. I'm going shopping - for tranquilisers ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin McAmera Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 If the spam report thing works at all, one report per spammer is supposed to be enough, but it needs to be before they have got properly started. I need to get outdoors soon too. Maybe a filter against strings of numbers in the subject? Obviously Leica will then bring out the M123467... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Parsons Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 Maybe we could get our own bot to bounce each of their posts back 100 times each ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dustin McAmera Posted February 7, 2023 Share Posted February 7, 2023 I'm going to phone the number and ask them politely to stop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now