Spam Posts - Cemetech | Forum

KermMartian
Site Admin (Posts: 64052)

27 May 2016 10:48:54 am

Comments2010 wrote:

azbirthday is suspicious

Check their post
Check their profile

Sorted; thank you!

oldmud0
Power User (Posts: 416)

27 May 2016 12:45:18 pm

Where is the report button? I'm sure there's a reason for its absence but I can't seem to find that reason using the custom search.

CVSoft
Expert (Posts: 676)

27 May 2016 12:46:08 pm

There isn't one; that's why we posf here.

Eightx84
Power User (Posts: 320)

28 May 2016 10:36:30 am

https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=249539#249539
https://www.cemetech.net/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=15733

I'm not sure if this classifies as spam: The website looks legit according to Google and whois, but it's written like a bot posted it. Either way, the username looks suspicious and it looks like advertising.

Alex
Official Cemetech Site Manager (Posts: 7912)

28 May 2016 02:33:11 pm

Sorted.

oldmud0 wrote:

Where is the report button? I'm sure there's a reason for its absence but I can't seem to find that reason using the custom search.

I've brought that up in staff discussions but the general consensus is that we get hit so rarely with spam, and we're a pretty small and tight-nit community that a report button is a moot addition. When we grow in size we'll likely consider the addition a bit more heavily or if we ever update the forum to another package it'll likely include the ability to report posts.

CVSoft
Expert (Posts: 676)

NEW RECORD?
28 Jun 2016 04:36:19 am

https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=250267#250267
https://www.cemetech.net/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=15952

[edit] almost a month without spam?

Eightx84
Power User (Posts: 320)

05 Jul 2016 07:15:09 am

https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=250431#250431
An ad, the website is for professional (?) 3D interior design services, renders look original (Google can confirm).

CVSoft
Expert (Posts: 676)

holy mother of edits
14 Jul 2016 01:33:36 am

https://www.cemetech.net/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=15998
Suspicious profile details are suspicious.
[edit] profile details changed while I posfed this. Still suspicious.
[edit2] sure enough, spam.

[edit3 and edit4] Another spammer:
posf, user, content source
What a shame user ID 16000 was wasted on a spam account.

CVSoft
Expert (Posts: 676)

31 Jul 2016 06:06:09 am

https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=251137#251137
https://www.cemetech.net/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=16069
Note profile details.

Alex
Official Cemetech Site Manager (Posts: 7912)

31 Jul 2016 09:04:27 am

Taken care of. Thanks!

CVSoft
Expert (Posts: 676)

06 Aug 2016 04:58:20 am

https://www.cemetech.net/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=16095
They're "posting a message" as I write this.
https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=251314#251314
[edit] i'm an idiot

Alex
Official Cemetech Site Manager (Posts: 7912)

06 Aug 2016 08:53:47 am

CVSoft wrote:

[edit] i'm an idiot

Could you clarify? The post is gone but the user is still here. Was it not spam? Was it? Were they not posting a second message? I'm still confused, because even when we delete a post their word count doesn't go back to 0.

CVSoft
Expert (Posts: 676)

06 Aug 2016 12:25:05 pm

oh
I put an [edit] tag before the URL without editing my posf.

Alex
Official Cemetech Site Manager (Posts: 7912)

06 Aug 2016 03:17:23 pm

Ah, okay. I checked IRC in the meantime and the user never posted and their profile is devoid of any spammy context. I'll leave the account up.

CVSoft
Expert (Posts: 676)

Nonposfing spam users
20 Aug 2016 08:00:57 am

Alex
Official Cemetech Site Manager (Posts: 7912)

20 Aug 2016 09:05:13 am

Wow, I'm amazed that someone actually took the time to do this. I will certainly double check these accounts and then pass off the account numbers to someone who can likely make an automated script to delete them, cause I really don't want to do this one by one. Haha.

Thanks so much for this list. I'll certainly take down pertinent information before the account are deleted.

The anti-spam isn't perfect but user profiles take up so little space in the database that it isn't the end of the world and the few posts that get through are easily cleaned up. I would rather let a few spam accounts slip through the registration process than prohibit interested individuals from registering. The suggestions you make in regards to "coupons4share" and stuff are certainly great filters to use. Additionally, we can probably cut down on spam posts by implementing a system that prohibits new users from sharing links: in posts, in their signature and, in the website field of the profile. This restriction could lift after 10 posts or something, perhaps we make a new user rank. "Advanced Newbie" at 40 posts is the next rank after "Newbie." Perhaps at a low post count, the aforementioned 10, we have a new rank called "Accepted Newbie" or something and when users hit that rank they are capable of sharing links and images.

I'm not capable of implementing such a feature but it is a suggestion. Perhaps I'll cross-post this into the Suggestions topic.

CVSoft
Expert (Posts: 676)

20 Aug 2016 04:38:56 pm

Those are just 2016 users, I'll go through the rest (either 6 months or one year at a time) when I reach a similar level of boredom.

I'm not concerned about database space; rather, Cemetech is linking to those spam websites.

Nik was working on a filter, but I'm not sure what happened to that project. That was back when we were receiving a few spam accounts per day, all from the same source. I don't think any of these are from that source. What we have now is robot detection; it doesn't stop humans whose job it is to spam.

On my forum, we (only) use a plugin called StopForumSpam, and it has stopped something like 99.5% of spam account signups (roughly two to three a day), and a spam account has not signed up in over five months. It'll even catch the accounts that don't fill in any user information. I am not sure if it is compatible with the version of phpBB used at Cemetech, but it can certainly be ported as the plugins are open-source. If we can get IP-based filtering working (like StopForumSpam), we shouldn't need to put weird restrictions on new users.

mr womp womp
Official Cemetech Cat Manager (Posts: 1777)

26 Aug 2016 06:54:46 am

https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13020&highlight=
https://www.cemetech.net/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=16326
looks like spam

KermMartian
Site Admin (Posts: 64052)

Re: Nonposfing spam users
26 Aug 2016 08:57:30 am

CVSoft wrote:

I might have too much time on my hands... These are mostly nonposfing spam accounts, but some have posfs that have not been removed. At the very minimum, URLs from these accounts should be removed. I also encourage administration to review user profile contents, as some more or less legitimate accounts may have slipped through the cracks.[snip]

Wow, thanks for doing this, CVSoft! I hope we have rel="nofollow" on our profiles to prevent that sort of abuse of the Website field, but it's definitely better to have those accounts cleaned up. comic, did you have a chance to take care of this?

mr womp womp wrote:

https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13020&highlight=
https://www.cemetech.net/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=16326
looks like spam

Sorted. Thanks for the report.

MateoConLechuga
2
Official Cemetech Lettuce Manager (Posts: 3914)

28 Aug 2016 09:36:01 am

https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=251939#251939
https://www.cemetech.net/forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=16348