Dragonbox Pyra - Spammer initiated

[Wally]

I did a recent sample of new members, there was 2 - 3 out of 20 members that were legitimate, it's quite low. If we could jig up a moderation queue for new members until we can work on a long term solution.


It inconveniences new people a little bit but it means we don't spend as much time cleaning up spam and can target offenders quite easily.

 

[Kippykip]

View attachment 31093

I'm sorry sebt3, but you posted an impact font meme...

 

[WizardStan]

1. Post something relevant to gain 'trust'.
2. Spam like hell.
3. $$$

???

That kind of how it worked on the C++ forum I used to admin. Bots would post seemingly relevant questions, they'd get an answer but obviously never return. Weeks later the post would be edited with the spam in question. When I went back turned out we were getting about 3:1 of fake questions to real. Couldn't find a way to prevent it; forum software didn't have the ability to restrict editing at the time.

 

[Dark Pulse]

I did a recent sample of new members, there was 2 - 3 out of 20 members that were legitimate, it's quite low. If we could jig up a moderation queue for new members until we can work on a long term solution.


It inconveniences new people a little bit but it means we don't spend as much time cleaning up spam and can target offenders quite easily.

There might be the possibility of either settings built into the forum, or a mod, where new users can be set to be in a mod-watched userclass, where mods can see their posts, but the users-at-large cannot until a mod approves it.

I know on a vBulletin forum I run, we've got new users set up to be restricted in multiple ways (can't view other user profiles, some features like PMs disabled) until they make 20-25 or so posts, for example. Since most spammers won't ever reach this threshold (or will get sniffed before then), by the time someone graduates, it all but guarantees they're a legit member - spammers either won't bother once they see how restricted their privileges are (especially since they can't pull contact/IM info from user profiles), or get sniffed by posting pattern. (That said, that forum is also considerably larger, with about half a dozen moderators and several admins, including myself.)

XenForo might have something similar. Have EvilDragon look around one of these days... after the Pyra's issues are mostly resolved, of course.

 

[Wally]

Agreed, it's probably worth considering the mod queue approach to start with (It'd be also nice to have some more permissions to look at stuff a bit deeper at least whilst @EvilDragon is busy)

Not sure how they're finding this forum though, maybe it's related to the google bots.

 

[levi]

These boards are linked from all over the internet; from the dragonbox shop links, from dev pages on github, from that eurogamer thread. Therefore it'll be well known to the search engines.

On a ddg/yahoo search, 'pandora xenforo' gets to us on the 4th and 5th items from the top, with 'pyra xenforo' it's the top three.

 

[rygD]

Agreed, it's probably worth considering the mod queue approach to start with (It'd be also nice to have some more permissions to look at stuff a bit deeper at least whilst @EvilDragon is busy)

Not sure how they're finding this forum though, maybe it's related to the google bots.

If limited permission can be granted to help with that, I am willing to help out. I don't want to be one of the forum cops, though.

 

[Wally]

Just gotta get ED on board..

 

[sm0kew0n]

Jeez, there's so much spam and spammers who don't post but put urls in their profile. I agree with rygD, regular responsible users could have limited powers to weed out them out.

 

[torpor]

If there is gonna be a mod team, please let it be relatively open and not a clique, because that kills community pretty fast.

 

[rygD]

If there is gonna be a mod team, please let it be relatively open and not a clique, because that kills community pretty fast.

You better watch what you say, or the secret mods might pay you a visit one night. We don't hear much from users after that happens...in fact, they seem to vanish.

 

[Caine]

Reminds me of that Craig fellow who opposed the mods... he was never heard of again.

 

[rygD]

Have you noticed that people who mention him too much also vanish?

 

[Caine]

Must be your signature at work

 

[rygD]

I was kinda worried about him, as he hasn't been doing by much lately. The secret mods don't work for you, do they?