I keep reporting a person for mass advertising - he is up to about 20 consecutive ads

I need assistance. I keep reporting a person for mass advertising - Mr. Propaganda just joined and is up to about 20 consecutive ads in a matter of minutes and I hope that he is removed from this forum.

Also reported. I believe the giant Monty Python foot has squashed this nonsense.

Well I certainly hope they remove the posts as well as the spammer.

Those posts are still up. Jeez, what's the scam? I have no doubt the Big Stomp will occur in short order.

Yes I am off to bed - hoping this bad dream will be gone by morning.  Have a great evening!

The posts were made in a 15 minute period after 9 PM on a Saturday night, on the eve of a summer holiday.

They were up for less than 50 minutes.

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His posts have been deleted and his account closed. Thank you for reporting!

Moderators are volunteers, so sometimes there isn't a moderator online, but we try to deal with things as quickly as we can. Your reporting the spammer really helped. Thanks!

Geeze, that's what happens when I take Saturday night off to go have dinner at a friend's house and play a tough game of Qwirkle.
And I got to cuddle her dog.
And I got ice cream with desert.

But I wasn't around to help the awesome staff, Joseph and Nicole to stomp the nasty spammer. Joseph and Nicole rock! Thanks team!

I just got in from doing the evening chores.   Looks like everything is sorted.

It's important to remember that even though we have a lot of staff, we are all volunteers.   Except paul.   He gets to pay massive server bills for the privilege of being here.

Perhaps one day we will sell enough pie or digital market items to not only break even, but to hire 3 to 5 full time staff to make sure someone doesn't have real life getting in the way of squashing spam.  

Until then, we muddle through.

Reporting helps.  Thank you.
And thanks to the staff who dealt with it.

Good job, folks. Absolutely no criticism intended; I think I spoke clumsily.

We are all quite defensive of this forum and the community it offers. Spammers need not apply. Beware the Monty Python foot. Cheers and goodnight.

For the next spam attack,  one report is enough.   It takes twice as long to deal with each report as it does to remove a spam post.  

And there will be more spam attacks.   It's the internet.

Back when I was a regular user, I found it easier to do one report and go have a cuppa tea or do something offline for an hour while stuff sorted itself out.

Either that or play the positive spam game and see if I could create two helpful posts (like answering questions from the zero reply list) for every one spam post.  Considering how much spam we used to get...well, you can see my post count.  Most of that is from back then.

r ranson wrote:For the next spam attack,  one report is enough.   It takes twice as long to deal with each report as it does to remove a spam post..

Roger Wilco. Thanks for the heads-up! I did not know that.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

r ranson wrote:For the next spam attack,  one report is enough.   It takes twice as long to deal with each report as it does to remove a spam post..

Roger Wilco. Thanks for the heads-up! I did not know that.

In other news, congrats on 1,200 apples!

(I may or may not have given you an apple, noticed it was at 1201, and then took the apple away to get this screenshot, only to give it back you you again )

Nicole Alderman wrote:In other news, congrats on 1,200 apples!

Hey, thanks. Apples are fun.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

Nicole Alderman wrote:In other news, congrats on 1,200 apples!

Hey, thanks. Apples are fun.

I mean, how the heck do you eat all of those apples.....Our pigs could use a few!

But also to add, for a volunteer staff, this place rocks.  I was not even aware of said spammer and if all he got was a 15 min burst of bloviation, then you guys are a lot more alert than our LGDs!  And they are *supposed* to be working the night shift.... Thanks for the work you do and......Douglas....have another apple!

Speaking of fun amounts of apples, John, you now have 666 apples!

Nicole Alderman wrote:Speaking of fun amounts of apples, John, you now have 666 apples!

Whhoooops!!! :-0     I'd better tuck a few of those into my pocket and head for the pig yard! lol....

r ranson wrote:For the next spam attack,  one report is enough.   It takes twice as long to deal with each report as it does to remove a spam post.  

And there will be more spam attacks.   It's the internet.

Back when I was a regular user, I found it easier to do one report and go have a cuppa tea or do something offline for an hour while stuff sorted itself out.

Either that or play the positive spam game and see if I could create two helpful posts (like answering questions from the zero reply list) for every one spam post.  Considering how much spam we used to get...well, you can see my post count.  Most of that is from back then.

My apologies. I don't know what I am doing yet. I panicked. I didn't want anyone else subjected to his garbage he was peddling. I will only report once going forward.  

Now I had a chance to deep dive, it was a pretty small spam attack and they got lucky with the timing.

There was a time when we were manually squashing 100s of spam posts per day.  We have some pretty awesome tools to help with that now.  And the awesome army of volunteers who squish so much spam before anyone else sees it.  Enough spam to end world hunger.

But in the end, there is only one way to prevent any spam from getting through.   It's a bit like this.

r ranson wrote:
But in the end, there is only one way to prevent any spam from getting through.   It's a bit like this.

Oh my gosh! LOL - I am never getting those minutes back in my life!  But that video did make me laugh, nonetheless.  I am in favor of leaving the door open, just for the record.

I don't know how hard it would be to implement, but a lot of forums have a "cool down period". Basically one post a day, until you have a decent reputation. If new people buy PIE that would be an indication that they don't need as much oversight. It shouldn't be too hard to do here since people can't post in the cider press without enough apples. Just extend that system to all the forums for new users.

Peter E Johnson wrote:I don't know how hard it would be to implement, but a lot of forums have a "cool down period". Basically one post a day, until you have a decent reputation..

I have noticed how that has been "gamed" here, where first post is a benign "hi" and the second/third post delivers the spam payload.

From the other side, I've also noticed a lot of shy first-time posters, often long time lurkers, reaching out to this community. They have questions to ask, and wisdom to offer if given the chance.

I guess it's better to open the door and say "welcome neighbour," and have a heavy squad to stomp on folks who demonstrate that they are clearly not "neighbourly."

The anti-spam tools on this site model sophistication, while allowing ease of access. In many cases, spammer indicators show themselves days or years before they start spamming, and Gir-Bot has already auto-handled the issue, followed up by review from a real human.  The general public never sees most of the shenanigans.

We aren't going to go into the details of how the spam features work.  

Although,  we,could make stuff up just to mess with the ...um, advertising executives that are reading this (and they are).

Guys, the secret is tacos.  That's how you get the advert through the filter.

r ransom wrote:And there will be more spam attacks.   It's the internet.

Thanks (and sorry!) to those members that noticed the spam attack this morning. Looks like we're quiet again now. Remember one report per spammer (not each post) is all we need.

I was going to add monty pythons boot, but I can't find it just now... anyway hopefully quiet again now. Let's do something more interesting.

Even better than reporting

play the positive spam game and see if I could create two helpful posts (like answering questions from the zero reply list) for every one spam post.  Considering how much spam we used to get...well, you can see my post count.  Most of that is from back then.

Spammers thrive on quiet sites and are more likely to return wit friends.

This is a thing everyone can help with to reduce future spam.