Moderator instructions...

[Peter van Es]

Procedure for dealing with an obvious spammer

These instructions are for moderators. If a spammer has been reported by an eagle eyed member, and the spammer is a recent member on the site, and the spam is obvious (links in message or signature to other sites) then the recommended procedure to deal with this is to:

• Report the user to www.stopforumspam.com first
• Click on their username
• Under actions, select Check this member. You will need to enter your admin password. You may have to use the BACK button on your browser to get the list with just one member. Click the select field at the end of their record, and then press the Report These Members button. The details (IP, e-mail address, forum name) are then added to the Stop Forum Spam database, which prevents them from registering on any forum around the world.
• Then Ban the user, on all ban triggers
• Click on their username
• Under actions, select Ban this user. Enter a reason (e.g. forum spam) and Notes, and select Full Ban, and select all ban triggers (IP, e-mail and username). From now on that ip address cannot be used again by the spammers (who frequently use similar IP addresses). Save the action.
• A summary screen appears. Verify the ban summary. Now click on the BLUE username in the ban summary.
• The members account page appears again. Now we will delete this account, including all his posts and topics. Select the option from the menu on the left.
• Remove posts made by this member, select Topics and Posts. Select the Delete Account option. Accept the warning. Press Delete

The advantage of this method, rather than just deleting the account, is that the ban on this IP, e-mail address and username remains in effect even though the account is deleted. The same IP address cannot be used to sign up a new member again.

This may hurt some people (trying to sign up from the same IP address) but that is very unlikely to be a legitimate member.

We've recently been seeing a large number of spamming members sign up. If this continues and we keep getting this, the only other option is to require more restrictive sign up practices, such as active approval of new members. Since that will make our group less attractive, I hope we do not have to introduce that,

Peter

[Richard Madison]

Peter:

I've been using the gentler "Delete This Account" when I see a commercial signature or a link to a commercial website in a new member Profile. I was not aware that the same IP's were being used repeatedly.

I used Delete Account as I was concerned about the "innocent" new member who owns a Pagoda but also sells shoes, as an example. He signs up and includes his shoe website because he's very proud of his shoes. If we ban his IP, he's out forever.

I once wrote to a new member who obviously owned a car and seemed legitimate except that his Profile had a link to a commercial website. I explained that commercial links were not permitted. He immediately replied, apologized and removed the link. He's been a "good boy" since.

Under your new guidance, he would still be on the rubbish heap.

So do we immediately ban the IP and lose few good guys, or do we take it slower if we think the member can be saved?

Also, I've been moving threads to more appropriate forums but I don't post a Moved notice. Is this OK or do you want Move notices for every move?


Richard M  

[Peter van Es]

Richard,

your policy is fine. However, you can easily spot blatant spammers:

• multiple links in a message, with names that do not match URL names
• a location with rubbish in it (adding location is special for our forum, and kept a lot of robots out, but when they add rubbish like ",,ppdfd"  you know it's not legit. Legit members have a location or just ",,"
• a signature with a URL in combination with one of the above signs
• e-mail addresses with nonsense names and a series of numbers, either hotmail or gmail

If 2 or 3 of these signs are there, I just ban them and delete them. If these signs are not present and they only have a single link in a message or in their signature, I also PM them first... if they don't reply, then I ban them.

When moving topics, I usually do NOT leave a moved topic message. Today I did because I first split a topic, and then moved the newly split topic to a new board. Normally I don't leave that "Moved"  message, and there's no need to do that either.

Peter

[Peter van Es]

I have just installed a new anti-spam modification. New registrations are now checked against a database in http://www.stopforumspam.com/ before being accepted. That, coupled with a whole host of other measures should reduce the spam registrations significantly.

To other moderators: If we find new spammers now, please leave them for me to deal with and report to the database of the above website. In our current user list it identified 73 spammers that have since been deleted.

I am very pleased to report though that our number of paying members keeps increasing, now at 508 members!

Peter

[mdsalemi]

Thanks for the diligence.  I'm sure we don't know but a fraction (if that) of what you have to deal with, with this thankless chore.  Oh, by the way--thanks!

[Peter van Es]

Up to date instructions in first post of this thread. Please all moderators... please read and follow!

If you have any problems, please let me know!