Please flag the spam !
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blankiefinder wrote: »why can't they get at them via their IP address?
The spammer could be using a botnet...no single IP address to use.
But....they could do a couple things to cut this down.
1. Put a time limit on new accounts to post...(say 1 every 5 min)
2. When an account less than x days old get's flagged for spamming 1 time, autodisable the account
3. Captia on creating new accounts to slow the spammers down
I might add geoblocking India, since the bulk seems to be coming from that region.
Ah, I see! Thank you for explaining.
1-3 sound like wonderful ideas! (I might let someone get a few more flags before autodisabling, just because sometimes people are posting in earnest but don't know how things work here, and some users are kind of flag-happy.)
4 would exclude legitimate India-based users, so not sure about that one.
I know you're right Tomatoey about #4, I think it's just pure frustration at this point
Yeah the spam is frustrating, for sure0 -
blankiefinder wrote: »why can't they get at them via their IP address?
The spammer could be using a botnet...no single IP address to use.
But....they could do a couple things to cut this down.
1. Put a time limit on new accounts to post...(say 1 every 5 min)
2. When an account less than x days old get's flagged for spamming 1 time, autodisable the account
3. Captia on creating new accounts to slow the spammers down
I might add geoblocking India, since the bulk seems to be coming from that region.
Ah, I see! Thank you for explaining.
1-3 sound like wonderful ideas! (I might let someone get a few more flags before autodisabling, just because sometimes people are posting in earnest but don't know how things work here, and some users are kind of flag-happy.)
4 would exclude legitimate India-based users, so not sure about that one.
I know you're right Tomatoey about #4, I think it's just pure frustration at this point
Yeah, I wasn't "serious" about #4, but it is just amazing how much is very India specific.
There appears to be two different campaigns going on, actually, but both seem to be centered towards Indian audiences for some reason.
They can't be getting tons of clicks or calls from these spammy posts that last minutes, can they?
I suspect it's not even a conscious targeting of MFP by the spammers. They probably scanned around for sites using certain underlying forum software . They're probably hitting many different sites and don't even know which ones get hit.
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Ozzzzzzzzzz wrote: »Ive flagged a bunch tonight
Me too. It seems the spammers have enhanced their software faster than MFP ever could. The spammers do seem to concentrate on the Introduce Yourself forum, though?
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blankiefinder wrote: »why can't they get at them via their IP address?
The spammer could be using a botnet...no single IP address to use.
But....they could do a couple things to cut this down.
1. Put a time limit on new accounts to post...(say 1 every 5 min)
2. When an account less than x days old get's flagged for spamming 1 time, autodisable the account
3. Captia on creating new accounts to slow the spammers down
I might add geoblocking India, since the bulk seems to be coming from that region.
Ah, I see! Thank you for explaining.
1-3 sound like wonderful ideas! (I might let someone get a few more flags before autodisabling, just because sometimes people are posting in earnest but don't know how things work here, and some users are kind of flag-happy.)
4 would exclude legitimate India-based users, so not sure about that one.
I know you're right Tomatoey about #4, I think it's just pure frustration at this point
Yeah, I wasn't "serious" about #4, but it is just amazing how much is very India specific.
There appears to be two different campaigns going on, actually, but both seem to be centered towards Indian audiences for some reason.
They can't be getting tons of clicks or calls from these spammy posts that last minutes, can they?
I suspect it's not even a conscious targeting of MFP by the spammers. They probably scanned around for sites using certain underlying forum software . They're probably hitting many different sites and don't even know which ones get hit.
Ah, got it, makes sense. And all that's probably very cheap, so a low return doesn't matter.0 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »I think we should stop flagging the spam. It would suck, but maybe the innundation, and the refusal of members to be responsible for the regulation of it, might make UA get off their azzes and do something to stop it. The forum technology to check for real people (all the spam is from 'bots) has been around for over a decade. It's just that the developers are using substandard programming.
As much as it pains me I agree with you, I am almost at the point of stopping the flagging, if we all stopped hopefully MFP would improve their spam prevention.
I already left one of my favourite sites due to the daily mass spamming which the site did nothing about, though at least MFP has the flag system.
MFP uses an off the shelf spammer product to fight the spam which presumably can be customised...Olivia mentioned the name of it on another post, I can't recall what it was.
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tiptoethruthetulips wrote: »Alatariel75 wrote: »I think we should stop flagging the spam. It would suck, but maybe the innundation, and the refusal of members to be responsible for the regulation of it, might make UA get off their azzes and do something to stop it. The forum technology to check for real people (all the spam is from 'bots) has been around for over a decade. It's just that the developers are using substandard programming.
As much as it pains me I agree with you, I am almost at the point of stopping the flagging, if we all stopped hopefully MFP would improve their spam prevention.
I already left one of my favourite sites due to the daily mass spamming which the site did nothing about, though at least MFP has the flag system.
MFP uses an off the shelf spammer product to fight the spam which presumably can be customised...Olivia mentioned the name of it on another post, I can't recall what it was.
I wonder where additional spam controls falls on the list compared to fixing the disaster of a web recipe tool, and bringing back the ignore feature. It does appear to be to the point where you could spend all your time on the forums flagging spam.
Introduce yourself forum link for anyone interested in meeting and flagging the spammers: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/categories/introduce-yourself
I do agree they should give more active users in this time zone modship to at least delete spammers.0 -
Copied and paste from the new forum feedback thread.Alatariel75 wrote: »@Olivia what is being done about the spam? It's ludicrous, the whole front page of Recent was spam just now. Leaving it to members to flag is ridiculous, especially since there have been very simple codes to install human checkers and catchpas for more than a decade.
In addition to the flagging of spam we use a system called Akismet. I will talk to our forum partners to see if there is more we can be doing with Akismet or with another system or tool.0 -
tiptoethruthetulips wrote: »Copied and paste from the new forum feedback thread.Alatariel75 wrote: »@Olivia what is being done about the spam? It's ludicrous, the whole front page of Recent was spam just now. Leaving it to members to flag is ridiculous, especially since there have been very simple codes to install human checkers and catchpas for more than a decade.
In addition to the flagging of spam we use a system called Akismet. I will talk to our forum partners to see if there is more we can be doing with Akismet or with another system or tool.
All they need is a Catchpa/real person test on sign up. It would solve 98% of the problem.0 -
Linked spam gone0
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The property one is gone - I killed it.
The acne one needs two more.0 -
^^^ it's finally gone too now0
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blankiefinder wrote: »why can't they get at them via their IP address?
The spammer could be using a botnet...no single IP address to use.
But....they could do a couple things to cut this down.
1. Put a time limit on new accounts to post...(say 1 every 5 min)
2. When an account less than x days old get's flagged for spamming 1 time, autodisable the account
3. Captia on creating new accounts to slow the spammers down
I might add geoblocking India, since the bulk seems to be coming from that region.
I like all four of those ideas!! @bpetrosky for the win! @Olivia @Rachel
Hey folks - I apologize that the spam bots are getting worse. I love most of the ideas and will continue to talk to our forum partner about the need to improve spam controls and upgrade Akismet. A suggestion I have seen that I think would be great and is in our control, is to add a moderator in the Australian time zone.0 -
4 would exclude legitimate India-based users, so not sure about that one.
True, my local city IT system blocked *.in domains and the local Asian population couldn't get Visas to go home via the library computers.
Blocking postings with +91 in might be a start, nobody should be posting phone numbers anyway.
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They're at it again
All 6 gone!!
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community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10188965/http-diabacordoesitwork-com-neo-hydrate-gold#latest
community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10188961/you-recognize-girls-forever-having-worry-regarding-obtaining#latest
Added:
community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10188969/facts-about-bodybuilding-supplements#latest0 -
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A suggestion I have seen that I think would be great and is in our control, is to add a moderator in the Australian time zone.
Yes please
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