The spam seems to be increasing. Tonight many of the active topics are spammed. Can anything be done?
Mass spam
Sat, 2014-07-05 21:13
#1
Mass spam
Sat, 2014-07-05 21:17
#2
I certainly hope so. I get up early as I have clients in Europe. On this site, I face a morass of spam. Often very insulting to serious topics.
Sat, 2014-07-05 22:01
#3
I think this is a record in my time on Babble. In a little over 2 hours, I count 38 different spam entries. A slightly different modus operandi, too - mostly opening completely new threads rather than inserting spam messages on existing threads. Notihng to be done, I presume until one or another of our trusty moderators gets home from the jazzfest or comes in from the BBQ ....
Sat, 2014-07-05 22:18
#4
The spam seems to be increasing. Tonight many of the active topics are spammed. Can anything be done?
Yes, the forum could require new posters to confirm their registration by giving a valid email address and clicking on a link. All automated. Live every single other forum in the known universe.
But our system is better. We use real live people to spend their time usefully chasing the spam.
Nuff said.
Sat, 2014-07-05 22:22
#5
This system is better, it allows for human workers instead of another machine/robot taking a human's livelihood away.
Sun, 2014-07-06 09:22
#6
"Order cod online" - what's not to like?
Sun, 2014-07-06 11:46
#7
Catchfire
Lol, sherpa! I was just about to make the same joke. What do y'all have against cod anyway?
Cheque, credit or cod? I'll take number three EVERY TIME.
And yes, that was an awful lot of spam.
Sun, 2014-07-06 11:49
#8
there is still spam at the end of many threads
Sun, 2014-07-06 15:32
#9
Catchfire
Where shartal? I don't see any.
Sun, 2014-07-06 19:15
#10
I think she's referring to these threads:
http://rabble.ca/babble/babblers-helping-babblers/do-canadian-conservati...
http://rabble.ca/babble/babblers-helping-babblers/underground-network-wh...
http://rabble.ca/babble/babblers-helping-babblers/questions-about-odsp-a...
http://rabble.ca/babble/babblers-helping-babblers/when-your-resume-on-file
Sun, 2014-07-06 19:33
#11
Thanks.
Thanks also to Rebecca or whoever has to clean up the morass of shit.
Sun, 2014-07-06 23:08
#12
a little more tonight under anxiety
Mon, 2014-07-07 08:22
#13
It's not just someone posting with one name - the identical post is showing up multiple times with completely different poster id's.
Mon, 2014-07-07 08:46
#14
Where shartal? I don't see any.
Impressive work, there is even more spam than before.
Mon, 2014-07-07 09:13
#15
Where shartal? I don't see any.
Impressive work, there is even more spam than before.
Hire more mods! Canada's Economic Action Spam!
Mon, 2014-07-07 09:51
#16
ha,
but what I don't get is: who posts this stuff?
it's not like the authorship of viruses, which is likely bored hackers trying to wreck things,
but who can make money off cheap ridiculous looking ads like these??
Mon, 2014-07-07 09:58
#17
They probably link to phishing sites that ask for financial information, credit card info, etc. Essentially criminals plying their craft. Not so far removed in intent from all the NDP threads that proliferate here.
Mon, 2014-07-07 10:13
#18
everything johndavid is spam
Mon, 2014-07-07 10:14
#19
all the active topics are spam all the names are more spam. Babble is closed
Mon, 2014-07-07 10:24
#20
Pogo
Repeating the same message over and over. Paying little attention to what is already posted. Where would anyone get the idea that this was acceptable on babble.
Mon, 2014-07-07 13:07
#21
If only to get a somewhat 'legitimate' Babble thread back to to top of the Active Threads listing .... here for old time's sake: Spam, spam, spam and more spam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE&feature=kp
Mon, 2014-07-07 13:14
#22
Yes, the forum could require new posters to confirm their registration by giving a valid email address and clicking on a link. All automated. Live every single other forum in the known universe.
But our system is better. We use real live people to spend their time usefully chasing the spam.
Nuff said.
I suspect the issue is more a case of resources. Facebook spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on user experience. Rabble spends almost nothing on Babble's user experience.
Since Rabble is not flush with cash, they need to spend what they have wisely. Since Babble is only a small part of Rabble, Babble doesn't really get much resource-wise (other than the excellent moderators).
IIRC a chunk of the web development work required for Rabble is donated (volunteered) time by web developers. Perhaps these web developers would rather donate their time to a less ornery crowd, as they are attacked more viciously than Stephen Harper.
Mon, 2014-07-07 13:15
#23
Double entry
Mon, 2014-07-07 13:18
#24
it is still happening . there are a few more during the last 5 min.
Mon, 2014-07-07 13:32
#25
Catchfire
Hey, best thing to do (besdie listen to wage zombie) is to email Rebecca or me the next time a rash of these hit (usually earn a quicker response than the abuse queue, which I'm pretty sure the weekend's spamn attacks murdered)
catchfire[at]rabble.ca, rebeccawest[at]rabble.ca
Also, I blame the new anti-spam legislation. Government attacks your livelihood and peeps still gots to get paid.
Mon, 2014-07-07 13:35
#26
Well done, Rebecca + Catchfire.
As you were, Babblers.
Tue, 2014-07-08 18:47
#27
Oops. Who went off to watch the World Cup and forgot to check for SPAM?
Tue, 2014-07-08 19:12
#28
I blame Germany.
Sat, 2014-08-23 19:23
#29
Well, it's been a delightfully spam-free summer, but THEY'RE BACK!!
Sat, 2014-08-23 19:37
#30
alan smithee
This spam attack comes courtesy of your tax dollars...Count on it.
Sat, 2014-08-23 19:59
#31
#BlamePutin
Sat, 2014-08-23 20:07
#32
Are you sure its Putin I thought it might be Hamas but I can't tell. However you never know it could be the Chinese.
Sat, 2014-08-23 20:44
#33
alan smithee
Laugh all you like.
This is not beneath the Conservatives.I'd put money on it.
Sat, 2014-08-23 20:52
#34
Both Harper's nasty boys and predatory capitalism could be the culprits. Is there really much of a difference?
Sat, 2014-08-23 21:13
#35
Laugh all you like.
This is not beneath the Conservatives.I'd put money on it.
alan my free improvisation was not intended in any way to disparage your suggestion. Nothing would surprise me as there's clearly no low our pols won't go. Nor apparently gulls that continue to vote for them and believe whatever they or their lying media say.
Sat, 2014-08-23 23:39
#36
There might be no one on this board who follows the NFL closer than me, but even I don't want to watch preseason football.
Sun, 2014-08-24 01:23
#37
ODA my wife is a fanatical (and I do mean fanatical) Eagles fan who has gotten into fights at games
Even she doesnt care about preseason
Sun, 2014-08-24 03:40
#38
Perhaps an independent right winger - or even someone who hates politics - with a hobby winding this place up.
Do we have a pattern of times? Lots of lonely Friday and Saturday nights?
Sun, 2014-08-24 07:04
#39
Do we have a pattern of times? Lots of lonely Friday and Saturday nights?
If its a conservative plot, I think we'd have to consider the weekdays as well.
Sun, 2014-08-24 11:45
#40
Incredible. For each spam post they would have to enter a captcha code. Have they found some loophole around this?
Sun, 2014-08-24 13:22
#41
The classic method is to embed it on another site. People think they're being asked to enter a CAPTCHA to see porn or download video games or something, but really, they're helping spammers break into Rabble.
Sun, 2014-08-24 15:57
#42
bagkitty
Belgians...
Sun, 2014-08-24 15:58
#43
Maysie
People think they're being asked to enter a CAPTCHA to see porn or download video games or something, but really, they're helping spammers break into Rabble.
That'll piss people off for sure. 
Sun, 2014-08-24 16:31
#44
The following might be the best approach--
You have to recognize that Rabble does not have the people to instantly police these attacks so if you force spammers to expose themselves over a longer period it is hard for them to do much damage.
TO PREVENT SPAM POSTING OF NEW THREADS
1) If days from registration < 30 replying to threads allowed but creation of new forum topics not allowed
2) If total number of replies to existing forums < 25 not including last 30 days, creation of new forum topics not allowed
This would prevent spammers from creating new forum topics as even if they register and do nothing for 30 days they wouldn't have the posting history and even if they registered and lurked for a month and then did 25 replies their posting history would be too recent. The chance of being able to spam 25 times and not get caught in the following 30 days is extremely low. I don't think it is unreasonable for new posters to have to get used to existing topics before posting new threads. If they have a topic that does not fit in an existing thread then they might have to wait a month or send a message to a moderator who could open the topic for them.
Preventing spam posting within threads is a little harder but not as critical.
If the prevention of new threads as outlined above would not reduce the problem enough, it could be possible to reduce the number of posts a person could make per day during the period that new forum topics are not allowed (ie until they have a history of more than 25 posts more than 30 days ago).
Obviously there is a cost to this coding -- but I wonder how much that cost could be as these are already things that are measured on babble so they could be simple if/then conditions that should not require extensive coding. I would have thought a captcha would have been harder to set up.
****
As for the idea that these are politically motivated. I don't think so. Rabble has a high SEO ranking. Links from Rabble will improve the ranking of other sites. This is the motivation of scammers who sell improvements to SEO rankings of websites. Contacting the owners of the site being linked to might be worth attempting as it is possible that they would not want to pay for false SEO ranking obtained in this way and might disclose who is doing their SEO work.
If these are not attacks but really a part of an SEO ranking scam and Babble is nothing more than low hanging fruit, the measure I suggested above might be very effective.
I think that this is the case since if the purpose was to disrupt Rabble from a malicious rather than a profit objective I think the links would be a lot worse than to a NFL viewing site.
Sun, 2014-08-24 17:10
#45
People think they're being asked to enter a CAPTCHA to see porn or download video games or something, but really, they're helping spammers break into Rabble.
That'll piss people off for sure.
Hahahahaha you kill me Maysie!
Sun, 2014-08-24 17:21
#46
alan smithee
The following might be the best approach--
You have to recognize that Rabble does not have the people to instantly police these attacks so if you force spammers to expose themselves over a longer period it is hard for them to do much damage.
TO PREVENT SPAM POSTING OF NEW THREADS
1) If days from registration < 30 replying to threads allowed but creation of new forum topics not allowed
2) If total number of replies to existing forums < 25 not including last 30 days, creation of new forum topics not allowed
This would prevent spammers from creating new forum topics as even if they register and do nothing for 30 days they wouldn't have the posting history and even if they registered and lurked for a month and then did 25 replies their posting history would be too recent. The chance of being able to spam 25 times and not get caught in the following 30 days is extremely low. I don't think it is unreasonable for new posters to have to get used to existing topics before posting new threads. If they have a topic that does not fit in an existing thread then they might have to wait a month or send a message to a moderator who could open the topic for them.
Preventing spam posting within threads is a little harder but not as critical.
If the prevention of new threads as outlined above would not reduce the problem enough, it could be possible to reduce the number of posts a person could make per day during the period that new forum topics are not allowed (ie until they have a history of more than 25 posts more than 30 days ago).
Obviously there is a cost to this coding -- but I wonder how much that cost could be as these are already things that are measured on babble so they could be simple if/then conditions that should not require extensive coding. I would have thought a captcha would have been harder to set up.
****
As for the idea that these are politically motivated. I don't think so. Rabble has a high SEO ranking. Links from Rabble will improve the ranking of other sites. This is the motivation of scammers who sell improvements to SEO rankings of websites. Contacting the owners of the site being linked to might be worth attempting as it is possible that they would not want to pay for false SEO ranking obtained in this way and might disclose who is doing their SEO work.
If these are not attacks but really a part of an SEO ranking scam and Babble is nothing more than low hanging fruit, the measure I suggested above might be very effective.
I think that this is the case since if the purpose was to disrupt Rabble from a malicious rather than a profit objective I think the links would be a lot worse than to a NFL viewing site.
I like that idea
Sun, 2014-08-24 19:07
#47
Where's the spam attack? I haven't noticed, I've instead been catching up on watching NFL games!
Sun, 2014-08-24 20:34
#48
Where's the spam attack? I haven't noticed, I've instead been catching up on watching NFL games!
;-)
Sun, 2014-08-24 20:46
#49
Hey Sean, do you plan to catch the Vikings versus the Bills?
Sun, 2014-08-24 21:12
#50
I don't watch Football actually but I enjoyed your post
Sun, 2014-08-24 21:18
#51
I don't watch Football actually but I enjoyed your post
Thanks. I don't watch NFL football either.