Big spam attack

[Armchair Cyclist]

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?

 

[Red Rick]

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?

FYI, I've just always deleted the associated bots.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

FYI, I've just always deleted the associated bots.

Yeah, I spent nearly ten minutes doing nothing but that: repeating the three click process to remove associated accounts

 

[Rob5091]

Even the spam bots warming up before the Tour?

 

[RedheadDane]

FYI, I've just always deleted the associated bots.

Wait... hold on!
You can do that, despite not being a mod anymore?
What are you? Some sort of undercover mod?
Secret mod?

 

[Red Rick]

Wait... hold on!
You can do that, despite not being a mod anymore?
What are you? Some sort of undercover mod?
Secret mod?

No that was before my fall from grace.

 

[RedheadDane]

No that was before my fall from grace.

Oh, I misread it. I thought you said you'd just done it. As in; deleted the bots from the recent attack.

 

[RedheadDane]

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."

 

[Rob5091]

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."

Did you make sure it was for naughty websites?

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

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."

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.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

One spammer got through the automated blocker this morning and left about 8 posts: thanks to those who reported.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Welcome to Spamalot.

 

[RedheadDane]

Hey, @Armchair Cyclist.
When we're reporting the spammers, do we need to report every single post in order for you to find them, or is reporting one post by the spammer enough?

Just to be clear; it's no problem for me, especially since the spammer is nice enough to work with 4-5 minutes intervals.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

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.

 

[Red Rick]

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.

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.

Spoiler

Delete this if I'm spilling deep forum secrets

 

[RedheadDane]

That was quickly solved.
Nice work, AC!

 

[RedheadDane]

Just to be absolutely clear;
We don't need to report all the individual posts in a spam-thread?

 

[Netserk]

Just to be absolutely clear;
We don't need to report all the individual posts in a spam-thread?

When it's the same account, I only bother to report the first post of that account.

 

[RedheadDane]

When it's the same account, I only bother to report the first post of that account.

I thought we needed to report all the threads.

 

[Red Rick]

I thought we needed to report all the threads.

SPAM cleaning does it automatically, but this one has so many most need to be deleted manually cause it exceeded the spam threshold.

 

[RedheadDane]

SPAM cleaning does it automatically, but this one has so many most need to be deleted manually cause it exceeded the spam threshold.

So... report each individual thread it is?

Well...

 

[Red Rick]

So... report each individual thread it is?

Well...

Not really, you can just click on a poster and and find all their posts, that's way faster.

 

[RedheadDane]

Not really, you can just click on a poster and and find all their posts, that's way faster.

Wouldn't that still lead me to the threads. Where I'd then need to report?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

This is why we can't have nainhs things. I'm starting to get quite sicoophyk.

 

[Netserk]

This is why we can't have nainhs things.

Only on Temu.