Kessil

Can we please do something about the spam?

tr1gger

tr1gger

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BARcard
I know you guys are busy or whatnot. But spam is out of control. Posts, user registrations. It makes the site look horrid and not much if anything is being done about it.
 
It would be nice.
But it is not that easy.
Especially since some marketing firms are now hiring people in other countries to beat the verification Captchas.
Only a few pennies, and impossible to fix.

Perhaps a potential user should be asked some simple reef questions.
What is the salinity of sea water or similar.
 
rygh said:
It would be nice.
But it is not that easy.
Especially since some marketing firms are now hiring people in other countries to beat the verification Captchas.
Only a few pennies, and impossible to fix.

Perhaps a potential user should be asked some simple reef questions.
What is the salinity of sea water or similar.
Click to expand...
That's a good suggestion.
 
we should just do what other sites do, create a noob section where they can post a thread introducing themselves and once they have a post count of 10-15 posts (somewhere in there) then they can post in the rest of the forum. That way even if we get spammed it's in the noob section and isolated from spreading.
 
HiFidelity said:
we should just do what other sites do, create a noob section where they can post a thread introducing themselves and once they have a post count of 10-15 posts (somewhere in there) then they can post in the rest of the forum. That way even if we get spammed it's in the noob section and isolated from spreading.
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Another good suggestion here and I've seen it done before. It's not exactly fixing the root problem but rather the symptom. Either way, it's a suggestion well appreciated.

I'm open to hearing any other ideas.
 
Maybe have to manually OK a membership. Instead of a capcha, have a box that has a single question, "why are you interested in posting to BAR?" any response that is reef/fish/knowledge related you can OK, if random overseas guy earning 12 cents a day at a computer has no idea what BAR is, then you might get gibberish. If they want to go through the effort of figuring out what BAR stands for/means then they're going to demand more than 12 cents a day :D
 
rygh said:
It would be nice.
But it is not that easy.
Especially since some marketing firms are now hiring people in other countries to beat the verification Captchas.
Only a few pennies, and impossible to fix.

Perhaps a potential user should be asked some simple reef questions.
What is the salinity of sea water or similar.
Click to expand...


I think NVR does this. Asking questions about Ocellaris and saltwater. Good idea. +1
 
Coral reefer said:
Any ideas Dan?
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Better captcha systems for the ones that are bots, better questions/answers, moderator approval on new accounts.

How many real accounts do we get a month? I am sure it would be easy to weed out the ones with fishy email addresses and locations.

Oh, and how about more moderators. I see on average 2-6 spam posts a day and I have to report them so someone can come in the next 24-48 hours and delete them.

I really don't expect much anymore on the BAR forums though, we don't even have a home page or a logo on the forums after months and months.

So as far as ideas, there are just a few to start. Let me know if you need more ;)
 
I don't new them at all. Reading on here is about as much computer skills as I got!
If you wanna help out by all means step up to the plate. If its worth it enough to complain then maybe its worth it to lend a hand?
 
Well I'm not sure what's holdin things up. Can't speak for anyone else, but I'm tired of deleting spams and agree we need out logo up. I'd like to see a dbtc tracking system as well. I don't know how to make any of it happen. Please try to keep the negativity at bay tho. If you'd like to pm me we can talk more about how to get you involved. If you are willing that's probably all it takes!
 
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Coral reefer said:
New
Well I'm not sure what's holdin things up. Can't speak for anyone else, but I'm tired of deleting spams and agree we need out logo up. I'd like to see a dbtc tracking system as well. I don't know how to make any of it happen. Please try to keep the negativity at bay tho. If you'd like to pm me we can talk more about how to get you involved. If you are willing that's probably all it takes!
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tr1gger said:
I have tried on quite a few occasions to be involved. Here is one.

http://www.bareefers.org/forum/index.php?threads/home-page-mock-up.15528/
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I also offered to help with setting up the database for dbtc, but denzil never got back to me.
 
Hey guys, let's try to keep this in perspective and not make mountains out of molehills. Since the July re-launch, there has been over 1,100 spammer accounts that did not make it past the security measures at registration. If we assume two spammers get through in a given week, that's still >96% efficacy.

Prior to the new forum software, everyone who registered had to wait until the Secretary manually approved the user. That took considerable time and effort, and it was a major pain for new users to not have the capability to post immediately. Personally I'm okay with having a spam post now and then, particularly since most spam is easy to spot from a mile away (Cialis Viagra Your Massive Polyp Extension Will Poke Out the Eyes of All Passing Fish!!!). ;)

That said, there's room for improvement with the site, and there's enough work for the role of webmaster to be a full time job. I appreciate that there have been so many folks who are eager to volunteer to work on the site, however please bear in mind that all these components are part of the whole, and it takes time and effort for the architect to consider how all the pieces will fit together.

Perhaps we could do a video conference for anyone interested in helping to improve the site, walk through some of the backend to familiarize ourselves with what we're dealing with, so that we can all be on the same page for planning the next phase of improvement. How does that sound?
 
I think the spam is probably a bigger issue for those that subscribe to the welcome forum as they get emails immediately from the post. I've seen 4 or 5 spam posts on some days just browsing the forums in the morning, so if those were landing in your inbox every day...

I'm happy to help if you need some extra hands moderating or rolling out some features. I built a wordpress server and developed our company intranet from scratch. I can probably figure out xenforo and help with a wordpress homepage.
 
Sounds like you have skills. I'd say the best way to help is to come to the December meeting and see if we can make a plan for how best to get things done. Coordinating multiple people can be half the battle sometimes! If you really want to help there is work that can be helps with for sure! If you can't make the meeting and want to help maybe start a conversation with Denzil and I and we can go from there?
Thanks for the offer!
 
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