A question for the moderators.

[fmw]

I get a couple of spam posts (pornography, drugs etc.) on my little forum each day. It is a recent phenomenon which started just a couple of months ago. Sometimes just 1 and sometimes 4 or 5. They are posted by a person because the person registers and logs in to post them. I just delete them and move on. I'm wondering if the same thing happens here. Is there something I should be doing or some software I should implement to reduce this. Or should I just delete them as they appear as I have been doing. How do you handle it here?

 

[Arch]

yes it happens here alot... we get plenty of spam... we just delete it when it appears, sometimes our members see it first and use the 'report bad post' message box. After we delete it we ban the spammer responsible... if he signs up under a different name we block the IP.
I think your always gonna get some kind of spam on a forum... as theres no real way of differentiating between a spammer and a regular member.

 

[Orgnoi1]

Being an admin on another site I can say the only way currently is to be proactive (and your other mods and admins be proactive as well) in watching the people joining and what they do and post. One of the keys is that *most* of the spamming bots register with the birthdate of March 28, 1983... its a VERY easy way of keeping a handle on it. Also checking the emails can be a good way. If the email is [email protected] then obviously either the person doesnt want to register properly or receive emails from the forum, so its also a redflag. I have to say that on my forum its easier then most as we are specifically a photo forum for the Northeastern USA, so when I see someone join from Russia, India, or elsewhere it automatically will make me double check the user... that isnt the way on the larger boards such as these since the members are from around the globe.

If you have a question about a member when they are joining dont be afraid also to google the name... a lot of my mods find spam members by doing that as it usually isnt the first forum they have spammed with their names...

Hope that helps ya out!

 

[fmw]

Thanks. I don't want to take the time to review registrations for approval. I don't even want to spend the time banning the user names unless the problem gets worse. A few spam posts that are posted during the night survive until morning. But the other ones are gone within 15 minutes or so. I've asked the users not to click on the links from those posts if they see them before a moderator does in the event any action on them might motivate more posts. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. I always hope that spamming will go away for lack of interest but I still get 300 or 400 per day in my inbox that I have to delete. I guess my hope is a long way from being fulfilled.