Implemented Spam and mod activity

[Hill Myna]

To cover the latest spam, maybe you could add "Contact" to the list?

I did a quick title search, seems like it would only be a very minor inconvenience, if at all.

I don't think "Airlines" would affect anyone (although it might not help much as a filter), so maybe you could add that too?

 

[Confused]

Maybe if we sacrifice them to the dark shrine of selfishness they'll turn into doves and fly away-

 

[Odin]

We'll definitely review the most recent spam account that got through to see what we can add to the filter. On the upside, another spam account tried to post 31 spam threads today, all of which were auto-removed! It definitely seems like we're getting most of them at this point.

 

[Pangaearocks]

On the upside, another spam account tried to post 31 spam threads today, all of which were auto-removed! It definitely seems like we're getting most of them at this point.

Yikes! That is excellent to hear, though, and hopefully the filter will prove effective going forward too. It's an arms race and always has been, but I hope not too much will sneak through the cracks. I saw some of the recent spam threads, and this time just blocked the user. If the filter has reg-ex capability, you can try to play around with that too if too much stuff starts getting through. They often use signs and numbers to replace some letters. Here is one site for testing it out, as the 'language' isn't very human-friendly: https://regexr.com/

 

[Odin]

If the filter has reg-ex capability

It does, and we've been making good use of it!

 

[Magically Clueless]

Honestly I feel rather silly that a blacklist didn't come to mind before this. We were kind of trying to figure out how to monitor new users without making it hard on people who are just here to post/ask questions, but doing so requires doing some backflips with how the user roles are and it's much harder to pick out specific people. But, the blacklist is working pretty well and we've added quite a lot to it. Thanks for all your help, and please keep letting us know if you spot some wild spam!

 

[Quirinea]

Another downpour. Fake diplomas this time, I guess (as the only thing that isn't Chinese are US university names).
I think yesterday someone mentioned a wall of Chinese, and today it's there again...

 

[Magically Clueless]

Yeah, we've added a ton to the spam filter but they're somehow getting through despite how the filter should catch them. I think we've gotten to a point where most of them get caught by the filter, but there still may be a few that slip by. Thanks for your patience!

 

[Ereo]

Yeah, we've added a ton to the spam filter but they're somehow getting through despite how the filter should catch them. I think we've gotten to a point where most of them get caught by the filter, but there still may be a few that slip by. Thanks for your patience!

This morning they seemed to make dummy posts, just a combination of 3 letters and a number for both title and text, which later got replaced by the spam text. Do the spam filters check edits?

 

[Magically Clueless]

This morning they seemed to make dummy posts, just a combination of 3 letters and a number for both title and text, which later got replaced by the spam text. Do the spam filters check edits?

I THINK so, but I can root around in the settings some more to make sure things like that get caught

 

[Jayamos]

This morning they seemed to make dummy posts, just a combination of 3 letters and a number for both title and text, which later got replaced by the spam text. Do the spam filters check edits?

I’ve also seen them do two letter title and post and then edit. Couldn’t understand why the two step process.

 

[LRangerR]

Perhaps you guys could assign more mods? 3 mods isn't exactly a lot for a community this size, especially if it's getting bombarded like this. Doesn't need to be supermod status, just something to clean up the clutter.

 

[SurprisedPikachuBob3]

Perhaps you guys could assign more mods? 3 mods isn't exactly a lot for a community this size, especially if it's getting bombarded like this. Doesn't need to be supermod status, just something to clean up the clutter.

Maybe the local legends could have that power?
You all seem pretty trust worthy