General Discussion Destroyed by Spam

[Aurelian]

Spam would just move to the other forums if this one shuts down.

[planner 3]

Hey Warspite, what's so great about a POST Count ? I counted over 10,000 between here and Frisco this week. When you seen one POST you've seen them all. Ask my dog ?

WOOF WOOF (There goes another one)

[Lieste]

ORIGINAL: planner 3

With all of us reporting spammers, how much spam have we created via the REPORTING to MATRIX ?????[:D][&:][X(]

A maximum limit of one per spam post they allow through... [:D]

[ilovestrategy]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Lose our post count? Don't be ridiculous - are you serious? I would frankly rather let Matrix drown in a vat of spam and for the company to cease making games and go bust than for me to lose even one single post.

I can't blame you one bit Warspite. After all, you did use that 5k post count to c*ck block Nate and get that girl!

I can only imagine how you'll do when you hit 10,000. [&o]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: warspite1
These spammers have got us turning on each other - my god they are cunning little devils!

S'OK, mate. I'll not change my behavior to you based upon spammers. I'll treat you with the same (dis?)regard as ever.

Warspite1

Glad to hear it chickboy, and I shall do the same [;)]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Lose our post count? Don't be ridiculous - are you serious? I would frankly rather let Matrix drown in a vat of spam and for the company to cease making games and go bust than for me to lose even one single post.

I can't blame you one bit Warspite. After all, you did use that 5k post count to c*ck block Nate and get that girl!

I can only imagine how you'll do when you hit 10,000. [&o]

Warspite1

Thanks ILS. I am imagining it too [:)]

[Erik Rutins]

We're working on a possible solution - I agree the spam is out of control.

Regards,

- Erik

[radic202]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

We're working on a possible solution - I agree the spam is out of control.

Regards,

- Erik

Thanks so much for looking into this.

[Fallschirmjager]

I have not visited in a while (not for reasons of spam) but the most annoying thing about this is not the spam but the fact that a couple of simple steps could greatly reduce it if the Matrix team would just spend half an hour on forum maintenance.

There are two simple steps that could be enacted to reduce or stop spam.

1. When you register a new account one of the final steps would be a series of pictures with a radio button underneath them. You could have them be military related. 1 would be a plane, 1 would be an aircraft carrier, 1 would be a rifle, 1 would be an artillery piece and 1 would be a tank. There would be a question that asked you to correctly choose the picture of a tank. You then click the radio button.

2. Every new user has to get their first 10 posts approved by a moderator before they appear on the forum. I know this adds work but they could reach out and ask for volunteer moderators to approve these new posts. And no I am not volunteering.


I help moderate a forum for another game company about the size of Matrix and we used to have a problem with spam up until last September.
We upgraded our forum software and enacted by two steps. We went from 70 new users a day (67 of them being bots) and 50-100 spam threads a day down to during the entire calender year of 2012 I can count our spam threads and the number of bots we have banned on one hand


I hate to sound like I am being critical of Matrix but they seem to embody the wargame industry as a whole that they are always 3 years behind the times.
Matrix does not have a marketing budget. These forums are their biggest advertisement for their games.

It is bad for business to let them go to shit.

One last thing, I find it funny that the people on this forum get mad at the spammers thinking there is a real person sitting in a chair advertising by spam.
90% of the spammers are not even people. They are sophisticated software bots created by people in Eastern Europe, Russia, China and Southeast Asia for the purposes of advertising. Every time someone clicks on the link it is tracked and the software created gets a few cents.
They are pretty skilled software engineers who probably live on less per day than we spend on our morning coffee.

But anyways, I have said what I intended and I hope Erik and the rest of the team enacts some solutions to clean up the forum.


And one last thing I forgot. These software bots are getting more and more sophisticated. The usual method of having a .jpg image of characters that you type in is no longer working. These newer bots are able to 'read' the image, pick out the characters and still register an account.
That small step is no longer working and forums are having to go to asking people to answer what is 2+3 or my #1 solution.

[Yogi the Great]

Things look better this morning. Maybe we have turned a corner and will have a lot less spam?

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: Jevhaddah

It seems as if Matrix are being targeted with spammers, possibly from someone with a grudge. I usually wait until the spam has gone, or just scroll passed it to the real posts...

I feel to do otherwise would letting the spammers win.

Cheers

Jev

Ravinhood ring a bell?

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager
2. Every new user has to get their first 10 posts approved by a moderator before they appear on the forum. I know this adds work but they could reach out and ask for volunteer moderators to approve these new posts. And no I am not volunteering.

We're working on a variant of this, where you can post no attachments or links in the body of the post, subject or signature until you reach 50 posts on the forum. Approving the first ten posts would be a backup plan if that does not reduce the spam enough.,

Regards,

- Erik

[Jim D Burns]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager
2. Every new user has to get their first 10 posts approved by a moderator before they appear on the forum. I know this adds work but they could reach out and ask for volunteer moderators to approve these new posts. And no I am not volunteering.

We're working on a variant of this, where you can post no attachments or links in the body of the post, subject or signature until you reach 50 posts on the forum. Approving the first ten posts would be a backup plan if that does not reduce the spam enough.,

Regards,

- Erik

Erik they'll simply create 50 one word posts in a single session. Better to make it time dependant. So no links allowed until x number of months have passed since you registered.

Jim

[ilovestrategy]

ORIGINAL: Yogi the Great

Things look better this morning. Maybe we have turned a corner and will have a lot less spam?

Kinda like the Battle of Midway but with spam wars. [:D]

[Fallschirmjager]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager
2. Every new user has to get their first 10 posts approved by a moderator before they appear on the forum. I know this adds work but they could reach out and ask for volunteer moderators to approve these new posts. And no I am not volunteering.

We're working on a variant of this, where you can post no attachments or links in the body of the post, subject or signature until you reach 50 posts on the forum. Approving the first ten posts would be a backup plan if that does not reduce the spam enough.,

Regards,

- Erik

I would try and utilize my first suggestion too. Our forum software can handle it and this forums software could probably be updated to do it.

Bots don't have the ability yet to identify what a picture is. Just make sure your pictures have no text in them and have new users select the correct one.

I assume it is only a matter of time before software bots are written that can identify the correct answer.