Recently the forums has been under constant attack by a few dedicated spammers targeting the mods and server sections. The Minecraft Forum staff have been vigilant to flag and remove the spam as fast as possible. Along with that I have cooked up and installed a few anti-spam plugins.
New users are limited to 10 posts for the first 24 hours. As well, new users can only make one new topic every five minutes until they pass the ten post limit. This is intended to reduce the impact a spammer can have if they slip past the automated anti-spam service.
Our login and registration system now talks to Invision Power Service's free anti-spam service. This service automatically bans well known spammers before they even have a chance to make a single spam post.
There is also an automatic system in place to immediately unapprove any well known spam topics such as scams claiming to give away free Minecraft accounts. If you make a new topic and it does not immediately appear it was flagged by the anti-spam detector. A moderator will see your topic and review it before approval.
This sounds really good Alexia, and I hope it works well. The only thing I don't particularly like is the 10posts/24hours on new members, but it makes sense. Could the posts past the initial 10 be flagged for approval instead of not allowed? As a just in case someone does actually need to make those posts.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
It's hard to follow your dreams when you run from your nightmares. --
This sounds really good Alexia, and I hope it works well. The only thing I don't particularly like is the 10posts/24hours on new members, but it makes sense. Could the posts past the initial 10 be flagged for approval instead of not allowed? As a just in case someone does actually need to make those posts.
I actually collected statistics over the past week about the number of posts made in 24 hours by a new users. All spammers of course made more than ten posts. Most new users rarely broke 5 new posts.
Allowing those posts to go into the approval queue would allow spammers to flood the approval queue. Whether regular users see the spam or not it still takes a significant amount of work to clean up. I am averaging about three hours of sleep a night this week due to spam fighting.
I actually collected statistics over the past week about the number of posts made in 24 hours by a new users. All spammers of course made more than ten posts. Most new users rarely broke 5 new posts.
Allowing those posts to go into the approval queue would allow spammers to flood the approval queue. Whether regular users see the spam or not it still takes a significant amount of work to clean up. I am averaging about three hours of sleep a night this week due to spam fighting.
Alright, this makes complete sense then. I didn't know how much new users post, I was just worried about the ones that might actually make more than 10 posts.
Thank you for your hard work as well.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
It's hard to follow your dreams when you run from your nightmares. --
Thanks for the info!
Even the folks who register to post for whitelisting in the server sections should be happy with this, as few people seem join more than a couple of servers all at once.
I agree with Beltir though, the 10 posts only for the first 24 hours seems a bit over for me, like he said, approval? It would still deter spammers from spamming as the posts would need to be reviewed before they ever hit the forum.
So is there anything stopping older members from spamming? I've seen my share of members driven mad, or otherwise going supertroll and just spamming threads with one word posts. Would this just be a report basis, or do you plan/have a detector that can help us with one word posters? Nothing kills me more than people who pop into every single thread just to post "Nice!" or "FAIL."
I do understand forum games would have problems with this, but I'm just getting it out there that I would love to see some sort of prevention from those types of posts.
So is there anything stopping older members from spamming? I've seen my share of members driven mad, or otherwise going supertroll and just spamming threads with one word posts. Would this just be a report basis, or do you plan/have a detector that can help us with one word posters? Nothing kills me more than people who pop into every single thread just to post "Nice!" or "FAIL."
I do understand forum games would have problems with this, but I'm just getting it out there that I would love to see some sort of prevention from those types of posts.
if you see someone doing this, use the report user function on their profile. That's what I've understood that thing to be for. I'd also report their posts as well, but if it gets to the point where they are obviously just spamming it, report their profile and add them to the ignored users list.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
It's hard to follow your dreams when you run from your nightmares. --
I suppose you could do so. It's just at the point where moderators do not take action nowadays. I've seen a lot of really bad trolls and young children spamming that isn't taken down for days. Had someone post several threads of porn in the Fan Art section, which by the way has no moderators Beltir, and more than 60% of the visitors to the threads reported them and posted saying so.
None were taken down until they reached the upper single digits. I understand Alexia is Curse, and probably not really associated with MCForums, but I'd like to see the Fan Art moderator problem fixed. Being the voted upon king is hard, moderating it myself. /rant
I suppose you could do so. It's just at the point where moderators do not take action nowadays. I've seen a lot of really bad trolls and young children spamming that isn't taken down for days. Had someone post several threads of porn in the Fan Art section, which by the way has no moderators Beltir, and more than 60% of the visitors to the threads reported them and posted saying so.
None were taken down until they reached the upper single digits. I understand Alexia is Curse, and probably not really associated with MCForums, but I'd like to see the Fan Art moderator problem fixed. Being the voted upon king is hard, moderating it myself. /rant
We understand that moderators are currently spread out unevenly across the sections and are working to amend this.
In the meantime, if you see something like porn being posted, go into the #minecraftforums IRC channel and get ahold of one of the moderators or admins in there.
Spitefulfox, Fan Art is actually a really tight community and we work together on stuff like this. I think one of us did? I don't recall. But after I convinced several to stop conversing with the troll we all let it die down.
On topic, I'm glad to see you guys are working on it, I hope to see someone appointed. It'd be awesome to not work so hard to criticize and help new players/trolls.
Anything that reduces spammers is a good thing imo.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Fighting ignorance and false information one post at a time.
For the record if I correct you it's not meant maliciously, but if you whine about it I AM laughing at you.
Now, would you mind working on adding more sectional mods? The entire servers section has only one sectional mod and is filled with rule-breaking threads, and various other sections and forums are filled with spam/crap/trolling.
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” — Albert Einstein
"Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig." — Robert Heinlein
At first, I was reporting like nothing, but when nothing happened I just quit. Also I know that the spammer is one person. He posted in one of the anti-spam threads saying so. But im glad to see that something is being done. Good work.
New users are limited to 10 posts for the first 24 hours. As well, new users can only make one new topic every five minutes until they pass the ten post limit. This is intended to reduce the impact a spammer can have if they slip past the automated anti-spam service.
Our login and registration system now talks to Invision Power Service's free anti-spam service. This service automatically bans well known spammers before they even have a chance to make a single spam post.
There is also an automatic system in place to immediately unapprove any well known spam topics such as scams claiming to give away free Minecraft accounts. If you make a new topic and it does not immediately appear it was flagged by the anti-spam detector. A moderator will see your topic and review it before approval.
It's hard to follow your dreams when you run from your nightmares. --
I actually collected statistics over the past week about the number of posts made in 24 hours by a new users. All spammers of course made more than ten posts. Most new users rarely broke 5 new posts.
Allowing those posts to go into the approval queue would allow spammers to flood the approval queue. Whether regular users see the spam or not it still takes a significant amount of work to clean up. I am averaging about three hours of sleep a night this week due to spam fighting.
Alright, this makes complete sense then. I didn't know how much new users post, I was just worried about the ones that might actually make more than 10 posts.
Thank you for your hard work as well.
It's hard to follow your dreams when you run from your nightmares. --
Even the folks who register to post for whitelisting in the server sections should be happy with this, as few people seem join more than a couple of servers all at once.
I agree with Beltir though, the 10 posts only for the first 24 hours seems a bit over for me, like he said, approval? It would still deter spammers from spamming as the posts would need to be reviewed before they ever hit the forum.
As for the one thread per 5 minutes, nice idea.
I do understand forum games would have problems with this, but I'm just getting it out there that I would love to see some sort of prevention from those types of posts.
if you see someone doing this, use the report user function on their profile. That's what I've understood that thing to be for. I'd also report their posts as well, but if it gets to the point where they are obviously just spamming it, report their profile and add them to the ignored users list.
It's hard to follow your dreams when you run from your nightmares. --
None were taken down until they reached the upper single digits. I understand Alexia is Curse, and probably not really associated with MCForums, but I'd like to see the Fan Art moderator problem fixed. Being the voted upon king is hard, moderating it myself. /rant
We understand that moderators are currently spread out unevenly across the sections and are working to amend this.
In the meantime, if you see something like porn being posted, go into the #minecraftforums IRC channel and get ahold of one of the moderators or admins in there.
On topic, I'm glad to see you guys are working on it, I hope to see someone appointed. It'd be awesome to not work so hard to criticize and help new players/trolls.
http://www.minecraft...t-a-fan-theory/
Someone is clearly observant today. :biggrin.gif:
See the announcement at the top of every forum.
It's actually a link found at the bottom of this announcement thread: New User Posting Restrictions and Spam Reduction. So anyone can find it easily if they're paying attention.
----
Edited to actually have a link, just so you aren't looking for it.
For the record if I correct you it's not meant maliciously, but if you whine about it I AM laughing at you.
Now, would you mind working on adding more sectional mods? The entire servers section has only one sectional mod and is filled with rule-breaking threads, and various other sections and forums are filled with spam/crap/trolling.
"Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig." — Robert Heinlein
Nice work.