What to do about Spam?

MtKlima · Post by **MtKlima** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:56 am

Hi all,
I dont know what to do about all of this. I know it has been discussed in an earlier thread.

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Pobastardder43

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Forum: Oolite-Linux Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:47 pm Subject: adrienne barbeau clips
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Pobastardder43

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Forum: Testing and Bug reports Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:47 pm Subject: adrienne barbeau
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Pobastardder43

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Pobastardder43

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Forum: Testing and Bug reports Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:46 pm Subject: offset custom HUDs
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Really, on most days, I just play for about half of an hour. When my wife gets ready for work in the morning, and gets ready for bed at night, I check out the boards. I just don't need to see porn / ads for perscriptions/ ads for anything at that point.

Perhaps I am just feeling militant right now (I may be channeling Captian Tigh, just watched the latest BSG), but is anyone in charge of membership of the boards?

I am not volunteering to clean things up. I think that it would be very wrong to have a single person in charge (censoring) the boards, but is the a multiple person solution to this? Or would they just change their login name and keep coming.

I do think that the best thing to do is to ignore any of their posts, and not to respond in any way (just make the smart a$$ comments in your head, that is what I do) Certainly, don;t follow the link, you can find porn on the net elsewhere.

Any thoughts,
Michael

Rxke · Post by **Rxke** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:12 am

It's not only spam, the site tries to install keycodec.589.exe, a virus....

Now that Giles is taking a break, we could use some moderators, if only for pruning out these spam-messages...

Post by **winston** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 9:45 am

Someone needs to be made moderator of all the other boards. I can look after the Linux one since I've been given mod access to that. I did ask Giles if he could make someone a moderator of the other boards, but I don't know whether he's been able to read email or deal with the board recently.

Roberto · Post by **Roberto** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:24 am

Good call - it's getting v annoying. Selezen has already offered to help maintain the BB (on Giles's Livejournal thread), though he does say he wouldn't do any moderating - whether that means he wouldn't presume to or he flat-out wouldn't want to, I don't know. But if he's not up for it, I'm sure someone would be. (Ahruman? Murgh? Rxke? LittleBear?)

stevesims · Post by **stevesims** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:33 am

I think that a decent solution would be to have multiple moderators.

These days I check the board fairly frequently, and roughly know my way around phpBB, so I'd be willing to occasionally wipe spam messages and users. However I cannot guarantee that I will always be frequent visitor... It all rather depends on my workload.

If we had half a dozen or so trusted folks around here with global moderator privileges then that should provide us with coverage.

Star Gazer · Post by **Star Gazer** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:54 am

I'd be pleased to help out as well - I've moderated BBs before, and still visit this forum at least once or twice a day.

Rxke · Post by **Rxke** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:59 pm

Also pleased to help out, if there are others, and only for wiping out spam.

I've been a moderator on New Mars for quite some time now, if you need credentials

Star Gazer · Post by **Star Gazer** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:37 pm

So, we have enough volunteers here - ideally, if we appoint 4 people to moderate this BB, that should give enough flexibility, and avoid undue feelings of stress... ...so, who's got the hat...??

Murgh · Post by **Murgh** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:50 pm

Giles put in a lot of time de-weeding the bb in the past, so this has gotten pretty ugly in his absence. it would be very nice to get the bb back to its previous state.

sure, I too volunteer.

Selezen · Post by **Selezen** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 4:28 pm

Yeah, I offered to keep on top of the admin stuff in Giles' absence if that was OK with everyone. I've been doing it for another couple of forums and it's an endless joy of deleting spam users.

I'd rather steer clear of the moderating, since Giles and I have had a couple of different opinions on certain incidents, and I don't think I'm as easygoing as he is. This is a good, friendly forum and I wouldn't want to interject my inquisitorial precepts on the place.

However, I'm fairly good at weeding out problems and have built up a fair bit of knowledge of phpBB and its quirks, so if an admin is desired I'd be honoured to be considered for it, even if it's just to combat the spam.

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:08 pm

I think that having a 'Moderating Council', which consists of an odd number of Moderators would be the way forward. That way the Mods can agree a series of rules and regulations regarding what can and can't be posted in a fair and amicable way, without deadlocking over matters.

I've personally taken a peek at the Member lists and found about fifty (in the first couple of pages in order of joining, most recent first) that had links to suspended (i.e. highly suspect) or drug, loan or car sales websites and a fair few link sites. I think that these accounts should be removed or at least suspended, pending an e-mail from the account holder. Though I doubt there would be a response on that front....

Captain Hesperus
"I don't care how maneouvrable it makes my ship, replacing my forward Beam Laser with a thruster is not what I call a worthwhile overhaul!"

TGHC · Post by **TGHC** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:59 pm

My vote is for those who are willing and offered, and also those who have previous experience, I guess it's not difficult, as Selezen says mainly weeding out the spam.

Apart from Announcements there are 8 boards, so anything between 4 and 8 moderators would be ok.

I don't know much about the inner workings, but is there a hierachy, does it not need Giles in the first instance to allocate?

Dr. Nil · Post by **Dr. Nil** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 11:41 am

If it's possible to turn on Visual Confirmation without reinstalling the entire forum, it would do a lot to stop the bots. The visual confirmation has an option for the visually impaired (which all users of a pc and lcd combination soon will be without some equipment to enhance vision when we scoop cargo and try to spot dark ships

) and it only needs to be used for registering a new user, not for posting, to keep new bots from registering. Those already here can then be weeded out over time.

Wolfwood · Post by **Wolfwood** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:12 pm

Actually, the visual confirmation thing doesn't help a bit - the bots communicate directly with the registration scripts and do not fill up registration forms like normal users.

What we are currently using at HookedGamers.com is Anti-Spam ACP - a very effective mod for phpBB forums.

Captain Hesperus · Post by **Captain Hesperus** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 5:02 pm

How about manual docking for Visual Confirmation? I'd like to see a 'bot manage that...

Captain Hesperus
"When it comes to docking time, my crew has to assess their loyalty and faith in my flying. Plus if they use the escape pods, they lose their wages for the whole month."

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What to do about Spam?

What to do about Spam?

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