What can we do about this?

[curiousSK]

i'm truly getting fed-up of seeing this link and those which are similar from what i assume to be the same person. Surely there is something we can do about it?!

[Slaveboy90]

New member can only post one post every hour ! that would solve the problem ;)

[Hecate]

By the time stamp I am guessing a timer may work. Say 90 seconds before you can post a new post? Aside from that I would say we throw them into a hornet's nest.

[SexualChoc]

http://www.milovana.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3924
is the link to the official response.

If you see a spam message, please do not reply to it. Spam messages with replies cause our admins a lot more work, because after we delete the spammer and all their posts (which takes two clicks) we have to manually go in and delete the left-over responses. So please don't reply to spammers.

So what to do instead? There is a report function in the top right corner of every post. It's a triangle with a little exclamation mark in it. If you click that you can report the post as spam and it'll pop out for any moderator looking at the forum. Please make sure the post is actually spam though, false reports again cause annoyance for our mods.

the "spam"
button is a ! near the top right inside an upside-down triangle. next to the button marked

click on that, the !

you get 4 options on what Kind of spam it is
> illegal link or software
> advertisement
>off topic
>see description
and it has a Field where you can type.

[les]

there is a timer in place that slows down multiple posters, the delay needs adjusting.
Then the delay reducing after a probationary period of "GOOD" posts.

A spam post appears to be only allowed to be reported once should this not be allowed to show members concern by allowing all reports and then the Admins being more proactive in deleting spam and perhaps have a thread showing banned users and posts to deter others.

[les]

tokkie>>>>http://www.milovana.com/forum/memberlis ... le&u=29494
Joined and posted 18 threads in 10 minutes

Please janmb explain how this is normal behaviour.

The only member who could post this frequently is a person running a Forum game and as such all the posts would be in ongoing threads.
Not all brand new ones with identical names in different forums.

[bhlombardy]

I like the wait time idea as well. But it shouldn't be 90 seconds, it should be more... something like 15 minutes would do just fine. 90 seconds only blocks scripts, but it doesnt thwart the manual spammer.

If I'm serious newbie coming to the site (yet to be verified by admins) then I might return in 15 minutes to post a legit post again... or while I'm genuinely browsing the site out of interest.

However, if I'm one of these hit-and-run spammers, I'm not going to hang around and waste an entire hour just to make 4 posts.

I've also seen forum sites with a cumulative wait-time. Such forums give this timer warning in BOLD FACE lettering upon registration so it's not missed.

If a newbie makes his/her first post, and neglects to wait the 15 minutes to attempt to post again, an additional 15 minutes is added on to what's left of his current queue -- or the timer resets to zero, and a full 15 minute wait begins again and that 2nd post never sees the light of day. (All would be notified to the user so as not to cause undue frustration to legit users.)

But most hit-and-run spammers will miss this and likely get frustrated and leave once their first post becomes their last post.

Another option in addition to (or instead of) is a limited number of posts for newbies. Say a max of 3 total (or perhaps zerp as some sites do) until they've been verified.

[SexualChoc]

I feel the pain of
a massive number posts that are spam
it is annoying as hell.

only thing we can do is report it and wait atm.
and Wait....

it can take a while

I noticed if the post has been reported
you often get a note
<this post has been reported>

then you just need to wait.

[curiousSK]

i know, but having to clicked on about 10 threads so that i can report each of them is just annoying as hell, there must be a way of banning for example a mac address so that these people can't just keep posting and resigning up etc? or can mac addresses be altered like ip addresses can?

[breathplayslut]

Maybe a combination of features would help to alleviate some of the issues. What if the forum combined a rating system for posts (members can "rank" posts, and subsequently the authors of said posts), which would allow for "up" rated posters to post multiple times in a given period, whereas new members would be automatically ranked at zero, and therefore fall under a default limit of three posts in a fifteen minute period, so to speak. This has the benefit of allowing the forum members to "moderate" a to a certain degree, and might even allow for some interesting study down the road.

[Dream_On]

MAC addresses can be spoofed, so even that wouldn't be a foolproof solution. And even if they don't spoof mac addresses all it takes is moving to another computer/smartphone/tablet. It might be a pain, but just keep reporting the spam and the mods will take care of it.

[les]

Why can't a post that has many reports be put into quarantine for a mod to save or kill.
One of my beefs is the time it takes from report to action.
Then posts will be reported instead of assumed it has already happened.

[Banquo]

By the time stamp I am guessing a timer may work. Say 90 seconds before you can post a new post? Aside from that I would say we throw them into a hornet's nest.

The trouble is, it is likely a bot doing this kind of activity, a timer doesn't harm bots, it would just wait and post, and wait and post and wait and post. Or get clever and replicate itself and post and post and post.

Skynet is self aware.

there is a timer in place that slows down multiple posters, the delay needs adjusting.
Then the delay reducing after a probationary period of "GOOD" posts.

A spam post appears to be only allowed to be reported once should this not be allowed to show members concern by allowing all reports and then the Admins being more proactive in deleting spam and perhaps have a thread showing banned users and posts to deter others.

But who decides what a "good" post is? I don't think we can get into a position where we have a probation period where we screen users we don't like, this community is pretty small as it is.

As for being able to report posts that have already been reported? what's the point? aside from being able to complain about it? If a post has been reported then the Admins and Mods are going to be aware of it when they log on. If for example we have this...



And every single Milo user reports it. The Mods would be snowed under. They would need to spend the day wading through the reports before they got to dealing with the spam.

I like the wait time idea as well. But it shouldn't be 90 seconds, it should be more... something like 15 minutes would do just fine. 90 seconds only blocks scripts, but it doesnt thwart the manual spammer.

If I'm serious newbie coming to the site (yet to be verified by admins) then I might return in 15 minutes to post a legit post again... or while I'm genuinely browsing the site out of interest.

However, if I'm one of these hit-and-run spammers, I'm not going to hang around and waste an entire hour just to make 4 posts.

I've also seen forum sites with a cumulative wait-time. Such forums give this timer warning in BOLD FACE lettering upon registration so it's not missed.

If a newbie makes his/her first post, and neglects to wait the 15 minutes to attempt to post again, an additional 15 minutes is added on to what's left of his current queue -- or the timer resets to zero, and a full 15 minute wait begins again and that 2nd post never sees the light of day. (All would be notified to the user so as not to cause undue frustration to legit users.)

But most hit-and-run spammers will miss this and likely get frustrated and leave once their first post becomes their last post.

Another option in addition to (or instead of) is a limited number of posts for newbies. Say a max of 3 total (or perhaps zerp as some sites do) until they've been verified.

15 minutes? are you serious? Can you imagine logging into Milo for the first time and being told

I'm sorry but you may not post for another 15 minutes

Would you be impressed?

That is just an unfair arbitrary amount of time that limits conversation, debate and freedom. Should we really limit our use of the site in order to stop spammers?

Wake up and smell the coffee guys, this is targeted advertising spam, this is clearly a bot, and not someone who is going to be deterred by a time limit.
If this was someone popping up in random threads abusing people making offensive comments and disrupting conversations with off topic posts then it would be the kind of spam that could be dealt with using a time limit, but it's not. It's repeated threads containing links to various web addresses. It's marketing, shoddy marketing, but marketing none the less. It's not some kid who can be scared off by a time out.

Has deleting the posts deterred it? No.

Has deleting it's accounts deterred it? No.

Is giving it a 90 second time limit going to deter it?

There is more chance of the Pope becoming your chastity belt wearing sissy cam slave.

One of my beefs is the time it takes from report to action.

Agreed, my personal opinion is that we could do with a more global mod base, as far as I can see it all our mods are States Side, with little or no action being taken when they are all tucked up in their beds. More mods would mean this kind of thing could be dealt with more swiftly. It's not like they don't delete this crap when they see it, it's just that it mostly (in my experience) appears in the GMT mornings when they are all asleep.

Obviously prevention is better than a cure, but it is clearly very hard to stop this kind of thing. But a time limit that affects vast swathes of innocent people is not the way IMO.
This kind of spam is generally harmless when you ignore it, sure it is annoying, but at the end of the day it is akin to junk mail, annoying, pointless, and it clogs up your letter box. But ignore it and in the end it just blends into the background. Report it and let the mods deal with it and chill out about it. We don't need to turn Milo into some kind of mutated online version of Philip K Dick's Man in the High Castle where we can only post in Haiku's format once every 15 minutes, and new users must be vetted by the Gestapo before being given full citizen privilege just to root out a little bit of junk mail.

Banquo
x~X~x

[les]

I have joined some forums where it can take a day or more to be accepted before being allowed to post.
My point is very few humans would join Milo and immediately post 5 or more genuine posts in brand new threads.

[Banquo]

I have joined some forums where it can take a day or more to be accepted before being allowed to post.
My point is very few humans would join Milo and immediately post 5 or more genuine posts in brand new threads.

That''s what is wonderful about places like Milo, you can join up and immediately join the discussions games etc and see all parts of the site.

I am members of other forums where you have to go through hoops etc. before being given access to this section or that section, it's exclusive, decisive and frankly off putting to new users.