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Big spam attack

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Armchair Cyclist

Armchair Cyclist

Moderator
Mar 22, 2010
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There were about 10 spam posts this morning, mainly in the "About the Forum" sub forum, all from one new poster. But in deleting his account, it threw up literally dozens of associated accounts (I've never even been alerted to one when I have applied the 'nuke spammer' button before). I don't think any of them have posted to the site, but others may have got through.

  • Bear with me if some spam appears: report it and trust that I will deal with it next time I am at the keyboard. Don't worry about it being overreported: the software collates repeat reactions on one post into one report, so no extra work for me if several people report the same thing.
  • Please do not reply or engage: I may be wrong, but I suspect that they can be alert to any response, and probably regard any engagement as a positive result and encouragement to continue.
  • I have alerted the admins. I have no reason to assume that they will, but maybe they will have to do something with the forum temporarily to address it, so don't be surprised if that happens. At least there aren't as many races as last week if there is some interruption.
@SHaines: anything to add?
 
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Red Rick

Red Rick

Feb 20, 2012
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Armchair Cyclist said:
There were about 10 spam posts this morning, mainly in the "About the Forum" sub forum, all from one new poster. But in deleting his account, it threw up literally dozens of associated accounts (I've never even been alerted to one when I have applied the 'nuke spammer' button before). I don't think any of them have posted to the site, but others may have got through.

  • Bear with me if some spam appears: report it and trust that I will deal with it next time I am at the keyboard. Don't worry about it being overreported: the software collates repeat reactions on one post into one report, so no extra work for me if several people report the same thing.
  • Please do not reply or engage: I may be wrong, but I suspect that they can be alert to any response, and probably regard any engagement as a positive result and encouragement to continue.
  • I have alerted the admins. I have no reason to assume that they will, but maybe they will have to do something with the forum temporarily to address it, so don't be surprised if that happens. At least there aren't as many races as last week if there is some interruption.
@SHaines: anything to add?
Click to expand...
FYI, I've just always deleted the associated bots.
 
Armchair Cyclist

Armchair Cyclist

Moderator
Mar 22, 2010
13,677
9,228
28,180
RedheadDane said:
Well, the spammers are sure making it easy for us...

"Hmmm... I wonder if that post talking about naughty websites is legitimate... no, wait. I don't."
Click to expand...
I got 4 reports for that one*. And was able to see that 39 people had opened the thread...

*: no need to think, "Someone else will have reported it, I won't bother." Multiple reports are collated into one by the software, so I deal with them in one action no matter how many reports there are.
 
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Armchair Cyclist

Armchair Cyclist

Moderator
Mar 22, 2010
13,677
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28,180
There is a nuclear option for spammers that should remove all their posts at once. For reasons I have not yet fathomed, it is not offered on all their posts.

Thanks to those who are reporting: I'm very aware there is a bit of a deluge at the moment, and have made the admins aware.
 
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Red Rick

Red Rick

Feb 20, 2012
49,338
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Armchair Cyclist said:
There is a nuclear option for spammers that should remove all their posts at once. For reasons I have not yet fathomed, it is not offered on all their posts.

Thanks to those who are reporting: I'm very aware there is a bit of a deluge at the moment, and have made the admins aware.
Click to expand...
IIRC there's a threshold for # of posts, under which a spammer can be cleaned fully and above which posts need to be removed manually.

Delete this if I'm spilling deep forum secrets
 
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