Increase in Spam

[Joe4]

Just an FYI, we have noticed the increase in Spam lately (I know because I end up removing a lot of them!), and as such we have added some more Moderators to the team (which you will probably notice soon).

Thanks for everyone's efforts in reporting Spam and trying to keep our boards as Spam-free as possible!

 

[Smitty]

Thanks Joe,

Being on the West Coast I'm usually the last one to catch spam/open reported posts, but it's nice to know we'll have some more people to fill in (especially as I've been on the road for the past 3 weeks). Just being able to handle time zone differences and not let the stuff sit will be huge, although I think the mods do a pretty good job of tackling it now.

I know the first thing I do when I login to the board is check the Reported Posts, and other than the "waves" mentioned it ususally gets addressed pretty quickly (generally before I can get there). I've got to give a huge thanks to those who are East of me and catch most of the junk, because I know it takes a lot of time away from actually participating on the board.

 

[Michael M]

Ahh, Smitty, you may have hit on something......
I'm in Australia, therefore we are the first time zone to get the Spam, I think.
I hate time zones !!
Anyway, that's probably why I started the thread, because we seem to see ALL the spam, whereas you are in the last time zone....so see very little !!

 

[Smitty]

Remind me not to take my laptop next time I go to Sydney!

 

[Peter_SSs]

I've noticed a significant increase in Spam posts lately,...

Michael, you are probably right. However, it may have seemed a bigger increase than it really was. I have been away from the board for about a week and it seems my absence coincided with other Mods being away or busy with other things and not spending as much time here as usual. Hence the reported spam may just not have been cleaned up as quickly as usual.

So if there are other posts by the same member, it should be sufficient if you just report one ...

I agree. The Mods would normally do a search for other posts by the spammer anyway. We also mark each of your 'report' posts as 'resolved' when we have dealt with it so only having to read and mark one instead multiple is a saving for us.

I'm in Australia, therefore we are the first time zone ... we seem to see ALL the spam ...

Michael, it may seem like that but I'd have to disagree. I log on most days at about 7 or 8 am in the same time zone as you and one of the first things is to check for reported posts. Although there often is some, I generally notice that the Mods from other time zones have also dealt with plenty while we have been asleep.

Anyway, sounds like we are about to get a few more Mods to help deal with these issues as quickly as possible.

 

[Michael M]

Hi Peter
Lucky you...getting away for a week.
Like I said, I hate time zones...but after Smitty mentioned the East Coast / west Coast thing, it struck me that we are the first time zone to see the "new" spam.
Anyway, I'm not complaining about our Mods, or our Forum, and you're right there is plenty of stuff getting done in the dead of OUR night.....I guess I was having a ponder out loud....and it DID get a few people thinking.

 

[Joe4]

We do get Spam throughtout the day and night, but I do notice a few "heavier" times - there does seem to be a pattern. The good news is that we are adding Mods from different time zones, including from Australia.

So Peter will be able to take a holiday every now and then and we will still have some coverage from Down Under!

 

[Hermanito]

I think the mods are doing a great job... a very big thumbs up to all of them for keeping our board experience virtually spamfree (certainly compared to other boards).

A good distribution of mods over all timezones will probably work best, I'm not sure if it's one of the selection criteria, personally I think we're being monitored and only those with 12hrs or more online per day get to be moderator

 

[Taul]

Would it help if the board upgraded from vBulletin 3.8.7 to one of the more recent releases of the software?
I'm not sure if that would assist in reducing the spammers or not, especially if they are real people taking the time to post

 

[Smitty]

Would it help if the board upgraded from vBulletin 3.8.7 to one of the more recent releases of the software?
I'm not sure if that would assist in reducing the spammers or not, especially if they are real people taking the time to post

I'd have to defer to Tracy on the Board upgrade, but it seems that a lot of the spam we get is from real people. Most likely the ubiquitous "make money from home posting crap online" stuff.