SPAM has gotten rediculous

Black Mesa Archive Website Issues
#1

There has been A LOT of spam lately. Specifically with the advent of the new website.

I propose that ALL newly registered accounts be limited to ONE post for a period of 36 hours and to only make newly registered accounts aware of that rule AFTER they have submitted their first post. (Obviously, moderators should be allowed to bypass that restriction once it’s verified that it’s legitimate.} This way, if it’s spam, there will only be one occurrence of the garbage prior to them being banned. Hopefully, when the ban is put into place it’s not only for the user name but also includes IP addresses.

Thoughts?

#2

The spammer/spambot is beyond idiotic. Do they not realize that absolutely NO ONE is clicking their ads?!?!

Anyway I digress, the spam problem seems to get really bad at midnight, so it’s not a huge problem, but a fix would be nice.

#3

I think limiting new members to one post for almost three days, and only informing them of this after they’ve made their first post, will drive a lot of new people away.

I don’t know how the moderating tools work, but if they don’t have this already, I’d suggest giving the moderators a button they can press to automatically delete every single post a new user has made if they turn out to be a spam bot.

My second suggestion is to remove those deleted posts from the forum instead of turning them white for a while, since they clutter multiple pages while they’re still visible.

#4

I think an short authorization period (or first few posts) would help control the spam, but that would also put a heavier workload on the mods.

If I’m not mistaken, a mod said this is thanks to there being a “trash” as well as “delete” option, the latter of which is apparently not being used entirely. Pretty sure we aren’t supposed to see that by design.

#5

I’ve noticed that all of the spam contains the same number in the heading, could the moderators be given the ability to set that as an automatic deletion key phrase?

#6

Hubicorn will get to it eventually. It takes time to discern a particular sites most efficient method of bot blocking.

There are good ways of blocking bots, which do not adversely affect a new users ability to join in the conversations, for example:

  • Rejecting posts within the first few days which contain an image tag, or a URL. (Our implementation works via post count instead, and posting links or images cannot be done until a user has 10 posts and has been registered for a few days. Additionally, we have a game linked to our forum accounts, and links cannot be posted until a user has a positive score in the game.)
    – This inherently prevents real people from dropping in simply to advertise their personal products or projects.
  • There are new and effective anti-bot methods at registration which can be enabled, whether WoltLab has any built in is another question.
#7

Something definitely needs to be done to mitigate the spam.

#8

Guys, we are aware of the issue. We’ll take care of it soon.

#9

This spam is getting out of hand.

I’m sorry.

#10

If I may add to this, is there any way to make deleted spam threads NOT show up at all, not even with the deleted highlight? I had to click to the second page of threads in the game issues forum just to find the ACTUAL threads that had recent activity.

#11

That better?
Sorry about the mess.

#12

Now they’re posting about black magic experts… how stupid you must be to waste time advertising such things. They’re also doing it at USA’s night which is stupid since probably most people here are from US.

#13

I’m guessing the spambot went “Black Mesa” == “Black magic” decided to target us, and wouldn’t SHUT UP.

#14

The spam has gotten worse! Just now, there were over 40 spam posts and the spammer’s still posting!

There simply HAS to be a way to prevent this crap from showing up every night@#$@##@$@#

#15

And you think they don’t notice this? Just give 'em some time to get it figured out, sheesh.

#16

I just noticed that a number of normal (non-spam) threads seem to have been deleted in the Help and Support forum. Were they bulk deleted along with spam by mistake?

#17

Yep, you’re right. That was my fault. Restored them - thanks for the info. We had a particularly nasty attack yesterday, I deleted over 500 threads, so probably selected a whole page without noticing.

#18

Don’t know about worse, but it still seems to be a problem. I think I’m wearing out the delete button.
Hopefully, not for much longer.

#19

IT’S THE NORTH KOREANS NOW OH GOD

#20

oh boy

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.