Moderating questions

Ok, so caught my first little spammer.

Not sure how you like 'em handled but since he started a thread, I deleted the thread (soft deleted, in case this isn't the preference). Also wasn't sure if you like to ban hammer these members so they don't keep doing this crap, and either can't find where I can do that OR, as He-Man might lament, I don't have the power. His user name is idkrruu if anyone cares to put a more permanent stop to his insanity. Or point out how I can. Thankies.

Edit: ooooh I found how to ban him, so I did a perma ban on him. Just lmk if this is the protocol, I simply assume it is. Thanks!

Chris here...

Hey Angie - yep, the protocol is to ban spammers, as they're the spawn of Satan! :D Thanks so much for all your help! :thumbsup:

Take care... :)

Yesterday i figured out how and i banned 3 Spammers. Actually it's easier than i expected

Purssia, check out at the VBulletin, the 'View Banned Users', there is an analytical report there.

I'll be able to do my job very well when i learn the ropes!

It's still very early but i am looking forward to more duties:liono

Perma ban is the protocol...I hate spammers and once you do it for a while you have a good feel if it is a spam account or not.

One tip to get rid of spammers is look at the people currently viewing the forums and look for unusual usernames. I believe mods are able to view their profiles through the mod control panel. If you look at the email and and it is obviously something out of the ordinary feel free to put a perma ban on them.

After a while you will get a good feel of spam accounts just by looking at their email addresses that they used to sign up.

For example, you search for the user Stypemonynete using the moderator control panel and you are able to view all the info contained in the profile. If you notice the entire profile something doesnt look right. Check out their homepage...that is obviously a spammer coming from Russia that used a gmail account.

Thanks for the tips Manny. I found similar tact useful moderating my own board. I have my settings put so that I have to pre-approve everyone, and the user name and email are big tip-offs to trouble. Problem with that set up (the pre-approval) is I think it discourages some legit people from bothering to sign up. I think it's better to do it this way since you have enough mods to police it :)

I tried the pre-approval thing but we're getting so many new registrations that its very hard to scrub each profile for spammers. Plus now with more mods we have more eyes on spammer accounts so it should be easier to catch them

Couldn't agree more, Manny.

I've actually been going thru the list of newest members and some of them, even though they haven't made a post yet, I preemptively banned. I mean, one had an email that started out "cialispills" lol Pretty safe to say he was gonna be up to no good.

Hope I'm not getting mod power drunk :p but I think if it's that obvious, why not nip 'em in the bud before they can even post their trash?

"Purrsia, post: 32800" said:

Couldn't agree more, Manny.

I've actually been going thru the list of newest members and some of them, even though they haven't made a post yet, I preemptively banned. I mean, one had an email that started out "cialispills" lol Pretty safe to say he was gonna be up to no good.

Hope I'm not getting mod power drunk :p but I think if it's that obvious, why not nip 'em in the bud before they can even post their trash?

ROFL, I thought spammers were getting smarter, not dumber, lol. Good idea on checking new accounts Purrsia, I think banning the obvious ones would not be a bad idea.

If you anyone sees any that are obvious and even some that upon first look they look like spammers...for example emails that have random characters, numbers, etc then more than likely they are spammers then do a permanent ban.

Since the influx of spammers is getting harder to stop. And i expect to get even worse. Every time i log in, i have to ban at least 5 of them devils!!

Have you thought of locking the instant access to membership?
I mean, maybe we could put them is a state of quarantine and control prior to becoming members. Then the moderators will be able to check which is spammer or not and act accordingly.

I don't know if that's feasible but will save us time and imminent threats.

Yup, MannyC I saw a few of those random weird number emails and got rid of those guys too - usually their location was Russia so that was two red flags which is good enough for me to call foul :thumbsup:

Since the influx of spammers is getting harder to stop. And i expect to get even worse. Every time i log in, i have to ban at least 5 of them devils!!

Have you thought of locking the instant access to membership?
I mean, maybe we could put all the prospective New members into a state of quarantine and control prior to offering them access to become active members. Then the moderators will be able to check which is spammer or not and act accordingly.

I don't know if that's feasible but will save us time and imminent threats.

There isn't a way to view all of the recently registered accounts is there? I've been trying to keep an eye on the newest member whenever I refresh the forum page, and there have been a few that looked suspicious but not obviously a spammer. For example:

fesBeeque
a.l.uhii.g.i1.2.6.1.1 @ gmail.com (added spaces to kill the auto-link)

The E-mail looks odd. But this one does throw a flag for me because I know one of the other recent registrations had an E-mail that started a.l.uhii...

There was another one that had a link to something about a tattoo in their signature that I almost did a preemptive ban, but then I thought about were-cat and decided to let the tattoo person go.

New one, like above:
rerEnercecymn
a.l.uhii.g.i1.2.61.1 @ gmail.com

Unfortunately the option to actually view newly registered viewers is only available on the Administrator panel. I do trim lots of spammers using that. Its a never ending job guys.:lionomad:
Merged Post:
Ive thought about ways to trim spammers even further. My thought is that actual users typically validate membership through the email that is sent to them within the first 2-3 days. I will allow a 7 day grace period and those that do not validate their acct after 7 days are pruned.

Spammers typically do not validate their accounts through the email sent to them so this could be a way to trim them

Makes sense to me.

I'm going to start banning accounts I see starting with that "a.l.uhii.g.i" followed by numbers. I've probably seen 10 today and none seem to have posted anything. But they are showing as board members so they are getting past the E-mail verification step.

I'll be upgrading vbulletin to 3.8.x tonight. Didn't realize we were behind. Might be worth shelling out the cash for 4.0 if it shows that spammers can't get through. I'll think about it ;)

mcss - I've been banning those people with that weird email. I'm 99.9% sure they're spammers

Email opt-in will probably deter a lot of the spammers, I think.

Manny, let me know if you want to take donations for the software upgrade. I have a paypal, I can help a little with that if needed.

"Purrsia, post: 33073" said:

Manny, let me know if you want to take donations for the software upgrade. I have a paypal, I can help a little with that if needed.

Even though i am going through a rough period financially I'll be glad to donate in order to upgrade the software, please Many let us know.

Well done for the overall job

I agree. If we all chip in a little, it'll help lower the financial strain. Count me in on a donation too.

Chris here...

"Manny, post: 33024" said:

I'll be upgrading vbulletin to 3.8.x tonight. Didn't realize we were behind. Might be worth shelling out the cash for 4.0 if it shows that spammers can't get through. I'll think about it ;)

Well done on the software upgrade, always worth updating to the latest version whenever possible IMO! :)

However, in the upgrade we've lost all our custom forum graphics! :( Any chance these could be re-added? :)

Take care... :)