Poll spam sorted (1 Viewer)

[Jon]

I have reconfigured the backend so that newly registered users go into a probationary "Noobie User" usergroup to start off with. They are not allowed to post polls. After 10 posts, they can.

Hopefully this will cut down on most of the poll spam.

If it has affected anyones ability to post a poll, let me know.

 

[Minty]

An excellent solution to the issue @Jon

Have a house point

 

[Gasman]

Thank you Jon.

 

[Micron]

Jon, always appreciate the improvements. Any thought on whether or not it is possible to know that a post has already been reported? Some kind of flag? I think that was mentioned when the recent spam poll was brought up.

 

[Jon]

Not that I am aware. It might be by design though. e.g. Someone doesn't like anothers post, so they flag it. Yet the post may be fine. And perhaps flagging a fine post may annoy the person flagged.

 

[Jon]

Just checked, there is no built in feature for this.

 

[Micron]

Someone doesn't like anothers post, so they flag it.

Nay, that's not what I meant. To clarify, if I saw a spam post and reported it using the reporting link, I don't believe there is anything that tells me that this has already been done, thus I imagine a mod could get several reports of the same thing. I was just interested in not being someone who piles on the reporting - kind of like spamming!

 

[Jon]

That is the same thing? If you saw a flag next to the post you considered reporting, you decide not to report. But the person who made the post might not like seeing their post having a flag next to it. Make sense?

 

[Micron]

Gotcha. I meant in the reporting window, not beside the post. Then again, it would have to tell you why it was already flagged, and now that's getting too involved.
Time for me to move on...

 

[Jon]

All good.

 

[isladogs]

For info, where several users report the same post, all are grouped under the same heading.
So we only have one report to deal with, even though it may have been reported more than once, as has indeed happened a lot recently with the numerous spam threads relating to various supposed health supplements.
Whilst I welcome the spam poll restriction, only a minority of these spam posts have had polls added.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I would think that it is counter-productive to have the ability to see from the post itself that someone else reported it. It is possible, as Jon points out, to have someone flag a post for non-forum reasons. Consider YKW from so recently. A "grudge" post could occur for any reason. But if one post accumulates five or six flags independently, then when a moderator DOES get around to looking at it, you have a built-in indicator that the post was really objectionable.

 

[Gasman]

For info, where several users report the same post, all are grouped under the same heading.
So we only have one report to deal with, even though it may have been reported more than once, as has indeed happened a lot recently with the numerous spam threads relating to various supposed health supplements.
Whilst I welcome the spam poll restriction, only a minority of these spam posts have had polls added.

Really Colin?
From the ones I have reported I believe they have all been polls, since Jon implemented the 10 posts rule for links?

 

[isladogs]

I delete multiple spam posts each day and I expect other mods do so as well.
Some are with polls, others without. Whether more have had polls since the 10 post link rule was reinstated I couldn't say,
Either way, unfortunately this type of spam isn't yet declining in frequency.

 

[Jon]

I am curious if anybody has seen much poll spam since I implemented the changes recently. It seemed to be on the up. Can anyone give me some idea?

 

[Gasman]

I am curious if anybody has seen much poll spam since I implemented the changes recently. It seemed to be on the up. Can anyone give me some idea?

I've not had to report one since you did that. Good job

 

[Jon]

I haven't seen any myself yet either. I'm hoping its gone for good.

 

[deletedT]

I've not seen them for a while. Good job.

 

[Jon]

I remember on the old forum, at one stage we were getting like 50 spam messages per day. Lots of custom configuration in the backend helped with that. Nowadays, with this new software, when I come across spam, by the time I clicked the Spam button that moderators see, its already been removed by someone else! Nice slick software.

We can never get rid of it all. But at least right now, its at a low level.

 

[Minty]

@Jon We've just had a new one weirdly!