WTF with the spam?!

[Pick2]

Anyone ready to take a more pro-active approach to the spam problem ?
Or will you wait till the forum falls down around your ankles ?

[confuseling]

Any news on getting the ability to actually ban spammers?

I supposed it's a self limiting problem, we're going to run out of letter permutations for usernames soon enough...

[Rifester]

WTF is an understatement...

[dasein]

Gotta feel sorry for the spamhunters. They are vastly too few in number, and their hands are basically tied by "don't care, don't have to" attitude of the admins. But how much easier would their job be if they could simply nuke a spammer's account, instead of having to delete >150 (and counting) individual messages.

[Rifester]

It is a very simple problem to correct... Stupid that nobody will fix it.

[dasein]

It is a very simple problem to correct... Stupid that nobody will fix it.

At the risk of sounding cynical, I think admins (not mods/spamhunters) may secretly do the happy dance when the forum gets hammered like this. There's a lot they could do to combat the problem, or to empower the "front-line defenders" to be able to do more. But the admins simply do not show any signs at all of caring.

[Bulkley]

At the risk of sounding cynical, I think admins (not mods/spamhunters) may secretly do the happy dance when the forum gets hammered like this. There's a lot they could do to combat the problem, or to empower the "front-line defenders" to be able to do more. But the admins simply do not show any signs at all of caring.

I've wondered about that for a long time. There are any number of technical modifications which would prevent 99% of the spam without any need for daily administration. So, why not?

[heminder]

We had a similar spam problem at our free software forum at uni. Our legendary admin put some cat pictures on the signup page and a small quiz relating to them. Never was a spam bot to be seen again.

[dasein]

So, why not?

Because they don't care. I doubt that an admin (any admin) has so much as visited the forums in months. (Which admittedly leads to a very odd definition of "admin".)

One of the admins started a "how to improve the forum" thread almost a year ago, but began by saying pointedly that suggestions related to spamfighting were not among the improvements being solicited.

AFAIK, there are fewer than a half-dozen people (mods and spamhunters) who have the power to nuke the spam. And for reasons passing all understanding, mods/spamhunters no longer have the ability to simply delete a spammers' account (and presumably all the associated posts as well). IIRC, that power simply vanished one day, without comment, warning, nor public explanation. So pity the next spamhunter who logs in, only to find 200-300 reported messages, each of which has to be deleted individually.

I want to be clear here: the moderators and spamhunters are not the problem. They do a difficult job under equally difficult conditions, and yet one of them actually took the time and effort to send me a PM a while back thanking me for my spam reporting efforts. The root problem is is forum admins, who either are genuinely indifferent, or do a positively amazing job of faking it. They won't do their job, and they ignore/resist any suggestion that others should be empowered to do it, either.

[Randicus]

The root problem is is forum admins, who either are genuinely indifferent, or do a positively amazing job of faking it.

I believe the complete lack of interest is simply due to "Forum Administrator for x-number of years" looking good on a resume. I can think of no other plausible reason.

[Bulkley]

This has been a great forum but at times it gets almost strangled with spam. Should we all be looking to make a mass move to another forum? One that has the capacity and the will? Is there one?

[nadir]

This has been a great forum but at times it gets almost strangled with spam. Should we all be looking to make a mass move to another forum? One that has the capacity and the will? Is there one?

http://www.debianhelp.org/forum
But you know that, no?

[Randicus]

This has been a great forum but at times it gets almost strangled with spam. Should we all be looking to make a mass move to another forum? One that has the capacity and the will? Is there one?

The answer is yes, but that is the wrong question. The question should be; Is there a viable forum with the capacity and will? The answer to that is none that I am aware of.

[arochester]

I asked about the spammers last month and the message that came back was "There is a problem with the forum ban function, hopefully it will be fixed soon."

What is the problem and why isn't it fixed yet?

Two Forums I know (Kubuntu Forums and linuxforum.com) use the Spam-O-Matic system which seems to work very well - http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=248042

On the Ubuntux Forum members can be removed or blocked.

[4D696B65]

Gotta feel sorry for the spamhunters. They are vastly too few in number, and their hands are basically tied by "don't care, don't have to" attitude of the admins.

,
There are only 3 of us active, saulgoode, deltaflyer, and myself. Our numbers are not the issue, its the fact they send us to a gunfight armed only with a water pistol.

What is the problem and why isn't it fixed yet?

When we try to ban a spambot, we get directed to a blank page. The admins are aware of the problem, ask them why it isn't fixed yet.

To all the good members who report spam, thank you, it helps us more than you think.