Spam Controls

[TCampbell]

Gisele and I are all too aware that there's been a rash of spam topics on the P&A forums of late. I've had problems banning the offending IP address, because the way our site is currently set up, everybody's IP address gets filtered through the main system-- meaning everyone's IP address looks the same!

I'm going to speak to my hosts about the problem today, but it may be a little while before this gets resolved to everyone's satisfaction. In the meantime, don't encourage any spammers with a reply. I'll delete their threads as soon as I spot them.

[TCampbell]

Test post-- this may have fixed things.

[TCampbell]

OH YEAH, IT TOTALLY DID.

[TCampbell]

LOOK OUT, SPAMPOSTERS.

[TCampbell]

PAPA'S GUNNIN' FOR YA.

[daanton]

To quote T a la Dwayne Johnson:

JUST BRING IT!!!

[Ollie]

Is there any "report post" hack available? It'd make getting rid of the spam faster (maybe) if an alert is sent to the admin's e-mail when things like that are reported.

[Ollie]

Sorry for the double post, but...

Why not create a Forum-forum? Like a Site Issues forum to discuss site and forum issues. We can have a thread to report spambots.

[TCampbell]

Don't worry about it too much, Ollie. I check this forum every day, and I can see the spam posts for myself-- I don't need to see a spam post AND a post telling me there's a spam post! Y'all can e-mail me through the link at the homepage, but it shouldn't be necessary for this.

[Freemage]

Don't worry about it too much, Ollie. I check this forum every day, and I can see the spam posts for myself-- I don't need to see a spam post AND a post telling me there's a spam post! Y'all can e-mail me through the link at the homepage, but it shouldn't be necessary for this.

I agreed with this statement until today--NSFW images embedded IN the damn spam-posts!

It may be time for stricter measures, T; does this set-up allow for a 'first post' screening? I know it's more work for you guys, unless you appoint a moderator, but.... Dammit, I was AT work!

[TCampbell]

I've been working on this behind the scenes. Just asked Joey Manley for some advice. Unfortunately, according to him there is no easy way to resolve this-- I'll keep on it, but it's going to be a process.

I'm afraid I did indulge a bad habit this week and just deleted spam posts without blocking the IP address too-- that definitely won't happen again.

[TCampbell]

I'm considering extending moderator privileges to one or two readers. If this interests you, let me know.

[Sebastian]

What about using an e-mail confirmation to activate new account like they does in some forum/message boards? Ask for a valid e-mail address (like this forum already does), send a e-mail to it with a link that must be used to activate your account, it would probably reduce or even eliminate spammers, but I don't know how easy it would be to set up.

[Ollie]

I'm considering extending moderator privileges to one or two readers. If this interests you, let me know.

Is timezone relevant?

[TCampbell]

I'd actually slightly prefer to get moderators in different time zones, but that won't be a deciding factor either way.