The recent flood of porn spam

[Dean C]

I know we can't expect your staff to be around 24/7 but there's been a post in the lounge with pornography in for 5hours now. Some of us browse this site from work and public computers during the day, and we can get in a lot of trouble if this kinds of content/language pops up on our screen.

What is the administration going to do to address this ongoing issue?

[nexialys]

it's actually the second or third porn post in the last hours... :)

the guys do not want to add more products to the installation, your only guess would be to report these posts...

(or stop clicking the links where you see pussy, ++++, ++++ etc in the title!)

EDIT: add pussy in the swear filter please.. lol

[Dean C]

Well reporting isn't working is it. Something else needs to be done. At the end of the day vBulletin customers, some minors, are being exposed to this content. I find that unacceptable, and actions need to be taken to prevent it.

[Paul M]

You answered your own points, the site is not monitored 24/7, spam will be dealt with as and when it is reported (or spotted) by any available staff. Just like it always has.

[King Kovifor]

I actually preemptively banned several spammers last night when I signed on.

[Dean C]

There are things you can do: scraping of posts for content, using the forum spammers db. There's plenty of things out there to help with this. Seems to me like you're not even interested in looking into them.

[nexialys]

i feel someone is grunting loudely in his living room...

[Shelley_c]

There are kids on this forum exposed to this material and staff have always stated they rely on members reporting spam which you don't feel too bothered about when there are script preventions you could implement. There's not a lot that really bothers me but when it comes to children and pornography being exposed to them as a human you do anything to prevent this and for you to dismiss this amazes me when intelligent people advise you what preventions to take even though you know yourself that they need to be taken

I even suggested cutting the report times for each post from 60 seconds to 30 seconds and whether you like it or not you know yourself this is a beneficial move to take.

Maybe we can't expect you to do anything, but jelsoft themselves will have to step up to the plate by either implementing the morale preventions and/or upgrade this forum to the latest software which has additional sercurity.

Nexy also suggested stopping unlicensed members posting in the general area? To me, this is a good precaution. it's going to cut down on the spam and it's going to give you more time to deal with other issues or spend your time eleswhere. What is the harm in working with these suggestions? Your doing your part in eliminating these dirt vulgar spammers that are posting these images on the forum.

I'm not having a go at you paul, I'm asking on this one occasion you listen to the members and do something about this. This isn't your average "we want this" this is to cut down on the spam pornography here which we can both agree on has no place here.

[Paul M]

What amazes me is the never ending ability of the same few members to keep having a go because we dont bow to their every wish.

Spammers come and go.

We are not going to start making wholesale changes to the site just because we got four spam threads for porn, three of which were dealt with well inside an hour. If it becomes a proper issue, then we will look at things. ATM, the current system for dealing with spam posts is fine.

[nexialys]

wholesale changes... cool, some new expression to quote in the future.. ;)

[Wired1]

I'd be curious to know if this forum uses any of the spam mods listed on this very forum. While specifics would be great, I'd assume a yes / no is the best we could hope for in an official response.

[nexialys]

answer is no... spam filtering is home made... lol

[UKBusinessLive]

I'd be curious to know if this forum uses any of the spam mods listed on this very forum. While specifics would be great, I'd assume a yes / no is the best we could hope for in an official response.

Perhaps they are not good enough :erm:

A simple one whould be to prevent newbies from adding a url or pictures unless they have x number of posts, once added that would cut down alot of the pictures which most members are finding offensive, That don't require any input from staff members at all, so no excuse there really.

Makes me wonder how we can't give a good honest answer to a problem that this board has got without being accused of starting a riot, Thats not what this is about, so i don't know for the life in me why some people think it is.

If a member on my board came to me with a solution to a problem i'd certainly look into it and do or say something a little contructive :erm: I don't think anyones looking to take any credit for implementing this, just putting forward an idea to a problem in a polite way.

[nexialys]

the problem, UKBL is that everybody here think they have the solution. people want to replace the staff, the admins, the engine, the addons... it's just replacement.

the mean here is that if all these people -- me included -- would use their time on their boards instead of passing 6 hours per day on vb.org, there would be a lot less complaints and whines... there would also have less job for the moderators who are forced to moderate all of us.

people complaint about what is to be done here, but how is it done on their site?... do they have to face 20 000 users' activity? mostly not. i have 3 boards with more than 50K active users, and i merely see the job to listen to each suggestions made on these forums... so having to read from admins all the time (because we're all admins here) is just harassment... everybody have the touch.

[Dean C]

Don't put me in your group nex. I don't want to see a change of staff. I couldn't care less about that.

I want to see a change in policy so I don't end up signing on here at university again, and having the page blocked, and facing potential disciplinary action because the forum contains porn.

[calumn]

I am confused, do you not have to have a valid vb license to post here? If so, how can they post I assume they don't have a license?

[Shazz]

I am confused, do you not have to have a valid vb license to post here? If so, how can they post I assume they don't have a license?

No you don't have to have a license to post

[Dismounted]

I am confused, do you not have to have a valid vb license to post here? If so, how can they post I assume they don't have a license?
Some areas can be posted in by unlicensed members.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Makes me wonder how we can't give a good honest answer to a problem that this board has got without being accused of starting a riot, Thats not what this is about, so i don't know for the life in me why some people think it is.Let me try to give an answer to this.

From the first post of this thread:
What is the administration going to do to address this ongoing issue?
This single line make a few assumptions:
- There is an ongoing issue that has been a problem for some time.
- Administration failed to address this issue.

The "ongoing issue" is stated as a fact, but i don't see the proof of this claim. Usually spammers are handled without much delay, often even before any member viewed or reported it. Not a real issue in my view.

Last saturday we had a situation where no staff was online for a longer period of time. This is not common and should be seen as an exception. This same day we had a sudden increase of porn spammers. Very unfortunate coincidence, but not a structual problem as we usually do not get that many porn spammers (probably school holiday in some countries) and we do have staff that handles this spam within a reasonable time.

Now here is where the irritation starts on both sides. Staff don't see this as a problem that needs to be addressed (or need to be addressed on short term), and members "accusing" staff of ignoring the "problem".

Yes suggestions are welcomed, but please don't go search for problems where there are none (or none structural/severe) and then blame staff if they don't want to spend time on a problem that doesn't exist.

[nexialys]

thumbs up for Marco on this... the official answer.

as i always say, if you really think the administration fail, make it so it is not failing on your own site... you're all admins for god sakes, not regular members... you know what it is to be behind the desk.

anyway... where is the button for a strike?

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2009/03/49.jpg

[Shelley_c]

Let me try to give an answer to this.

From the first post of this thread:

This single line make a few assumptions:
- There is an ongoing issue that has been a problem for some time.
- Administration failed to address this issue.

The "ongoing issue" is stated as a fact, but i don't see the proof of this claim. Usually spammers are handled without much delay, often even before any member viewed or reported it. Not a real issue in my view.

Last saturday we had a situation where no staff was online for a longer period of time. This is not common and should be seen as an exception. This same day we had a sudden increase of porn spammers. Very unfortunate coincidence, but not a structual problem as we usually do not get that many porn spammers (probably school holiday in some countries) and we do have staff that handles this spam within a reasonable time.

Now here is where the irritation starts on both sides. Staff don't see this as a problem that needs to be addressed (or need to be addressed on short term), and members "accusing" staff of ignoring the "problem".

Yes suggestions are welcomed, but please don't go search for problems where there are none (or none structural/severe) and then blame staff if they don't want to spend time on a problem that doesn't exist.

Marco, are insults also welcomed?

Take a look at paul ms second response. Secondly, take a look at all my responses in this thread (civil and respectful) and most importantly, very sound suggestions esp by dean c who has made valid points. In return, we get insulted by paul (which is fine by me) if he likes the same kind of treatment that he gives to members. Not once in both threads have we had a go (as paul states) but suggestions ways of counter act the porn spam here.

It's not a coincidence that there wasn't staff present here at the weekend, they are always saying there is life outside of vb.org and are rarely here at the weekends. Fine, if we are dealing with your average spam, but we aren't dealing with your average spam. We are dealing with fully frontal vulgar images which are left here longer and longer each time and if it weren't for the members reports it would have went noticed longer.

I'm waiting for a response by a general manager at jelsoft rather than here because up till now, paul has been showing an increase in aggressive behavior which has been noticed by other members here who have pointed this out.

The pornography spam really needs to be dealt with where areas if it were you average "nokia" mobile phone spam it wouldn't be such an issue.

There's been two threads created with countless amount of suggestions (which are reasonable) and threads have remained civil which I feel the staff should go back again and read the abundance of suggestions that have been put to them by the members of this forum. Merely, just a suggestion.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

If you think paul's 2nd post in this thread was insulting, then please explain how it is insulting, as i don't see it.

About the rest of your points, did you read my response? You are again complaining about the porn spam last saturday. As i explained in my post above this was an incident and not something that happens on a regular basis, and for that reason we don't see the need for a change. Also on most weekends there is enough staff to handle all issues in a timely manner. If we would have a problem with porn spammers all the time, and with adult images staying too long on our forums, then you would have a point, but i think if that where the case, some action would have been taken long ago.

[nexialys]

hum, actually, as it's one of the first time we see porn images in spam here, it's something to evaluate for the next days/weeks... there will be more of that spam because the bot/person was abilitated to post... there was nothing stoping it from posting, so in their log, vb.org is accessible... they will come back.

you see, it's not only to delete the porn or spam, it's also to block them from posting. these are intelligent engines, if they are able to post, they come back.

do not tell me that there is enough staff to handle this... we already know. the problem is that the staff is not hired to delete spam, they are here to help in the mood of the site, and from what i see, there is more job on the spam done than on members...

i've had to face this in china in the last weeks, as the net is now more open, there is more spam from asian sites... but now, it's americans spoiling asian forums with Cialis and other meds... (like chinese need cialis in bed!)... they can not avoid that spam but they can control how much is posted...

EDIT: i would prefer to see my comment in a thread to help people find solutions on global spam, not the spam on vb.org which i really don't care... i see more offending porn on google than here!