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.

[dasein]

Should we all be looking to make a mass move to another forum?

A cynical soul might imagine that that's precisely the condition that the admins want to achieve.

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

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, because the very highest-level poobahs don't give a crap.

(Pondering: do the young 'uns have any idea what the phrase "broken record" is meant to convey?)

Our numbers are not the issue, its the fact they send us to a gunfight armed only with a water pistol.

If spamhunters have to remove individual spams manually, I have to imagine that such a task would be less mechanically burdensome if it were distributed among a larger base of folks. I know that I got really (really) tired of reporting spam yesterday, and basically gave up after several dozen. My thought (perhaps inaccurate) is that spam removal is at least as cumbersome and time-consuming as spam reporting.

But hey, you're the spamhunter. If you say that you three have it covered, I take your word for it. Though I seem to recall a great deal of flourish about appointing a fourth spamhunter; apparently that didn't quite work out.

To all the good members who report spam, thank you

What about us bad members who also happen, quite by coincidence, to report spam?

In all seriousness, I meant what I said above. I think that FDN spamhunters do an absolutely amazing job, given how badly hamstrung you are by "highers-up."

[nadir]

Funny too that a moderator has got the time to close a real thread,
but at the same time ignores the spam-problem.
Yeah, that one single thread with a bit of blah-blah is a serious problem these days ...

I send an email to admins/stuff/etc and asked if anything could be done about the spam problem.
By the way (aka: it won't hurd if others do that too. My reputation ain't the best ever seen on earth):
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7928

[confuseling]

The spammers are now addressing their spam to the other spammers.

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=92911

The circle is complete, the spampocalypse is Nigh.

[cra1g321]

Looks like the spammers have been evolving -

[dasein]

Yet again this afternoon (PST), nearly half of the first page of "active" topics are new spam threads.

Can't speak for anyone else, of course. But for myself, this is starting to get old. I suspect that others may be feeling the same way.

It'll be sad if this board ends up going under because the admins won't arm the spamhunters with adequate tools.