Spammers

wellington

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I think what's also important is that we need a mod in a European time zone. Like @Pistachio's Pamperer said, they post early in US time, but meanwhile it's 9 am by me and I easily see at least 4 spam threads. On other extreme days it could easily reach 8. I usually wait and see a few hours later that mods are awake and the posts are gone.
We need a "ban hammer". A member who's only responsibility as mod is to delete spam posts. The member should as stated be in a time zone which is earlier than the US, so it would most likely be a member in the European time zones
Just anyone will not be asked to be a mod. There are certain reasons Josh pics who he does. I do know a couple in the UK had been asked and they turned it down.
We have tried.
Also remember, being a mod is not our life or jobs. We have no mods that sits on the forum 24/7.
When we get the chance to jump on, we do and are trying to mod and participate.
First thing I do and probably others, when I wake in the morning is get my coffee and jump on the forum to see what has to be done.
Usually the spammers run heavy for a few weeks and then they go away for the most part until the next run of them.
 
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Cathie G

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Those are a bit ridiculous to try to scam on a site for Tortoise care. But I've really not seen any of them. Testosterone booster are you kidding me 😁
And Facebook poster to boot hahaha 🤣
 

TheLastGreen

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Just anyone will not be asked to be a mod. There are certain reasons Josh pics who he does. I do know a couple in the UK had been asked and they turned it down.
We have tried.
Also remember, being a mod is not our life or jobs. We have no mods that sits on the forum 24/7.
When we get the chance to jump on, we do and are trying to mod and participate.
First thing I do and probably others, when I wake in the morning is get my coffee and jump on the forum to see what has to be done.
Usually the spammers run heavy for a few weeks and then they go away for the most part until the next run of them.
I agree. To be a mod you need loads of tort/turtle knowledge and the works.
The thing is it's daunting to be a mod, most people even reject the offer because they feel they don't know enough.
That's why I thought it could be better to make a special "devision" in the mod list.
But I do know mods are human, hell, you guys take time out of your day to make TFO a better place, and you do it on your own time as well, with no inscentive, that's what makes this place so great!
But I do understand, the last thing you'd want to do is to give a rando the power to ban people.
The reality is that spammers will come back or adapt. Squash them today, see them tomorrow. They'll adapt, posting different times or finding other methods, so it would be an almost temporary solution
 

Cathie G

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And Facebook poster to boot hahaha 🤣
I should clarify that. If I see a thread posted by a well known member, I'll watch their video from Facebook that's in their post.
 

Sarah2020

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I've only been a moderator here for about 12 hours
But in the other forums I moderate, the spammers are very persistent. They do vast carpet postings of a dozen or more. And always there are a few that get past our latest and most up to date attempts to block all of them.
In one instance just overnight we had over 200 spam posts. All from China. All very similar but worded slightly differently.
Thankfully most spam posts are obvious.
Scam posts are a little more difficult sometimes.
We have two new moderators now in a US time zone that wasn't represented before. So hopefully we can keep more spam out while some other parts of the world are sleeping.
Welcome in your new role.
 

wellington

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If I see scam posts I normally click report and write not relevant. Hopefully this helps someone to see them and clear them out.
Yes it does.
Also if you see someone post a question or something on someone else's thread and you don't think it belongs there you can click the report and if we agree it doesn't belong, we will move it and even start it's own thread so the person can get answers.
Never be afraid to click report on something you think is wrong. It just sends alerts to the mods. We check it out and so whatever is needed.
Just be sure to write the why you reported it so we know what to look for.
 

Yvonne G

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@Josh - The Captcha program (or whichever program we have now) is not working well. Every morning there are two spam threads in "Introductions" and two in "General." Sometimes more.
 

jeff kushner

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I stumbled onto this thread so I'll ask a legit question I've always wondered about spammers.

Do the posters really go all the way through the signup process just to post once or twice and have even those posts, removed for being spam?

Just seems like a very low return-on-investment of time, that's all.

jeff
 

Jacqui

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Yep
I stumbled onto this thread so I'll ask a legit question I've always wondered about spammers.

Do the posters really go all the way through the signup process just to post once or twice and have even those posts, removed for being spam?

Just seems like a very low return-on-investmen

t of time, that's all.

jeff
 

jeff kushner

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Wow Jacqui.....I just didn't believe that some folks would do all that...for so little gain.

There are so many opportunities, even online, to make money, posting spam seems to have an equivalent from the old days.....some of you guys will remember this classic ad;


"Stuff envelopes in your spare time!"

Today, the spammer is simply the modern version?

LOL

I learned my new thing for the day, and it's only 5:42am!
 

jaizei

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I stumbled onto this thread so I'll ask a legit question I've always wondered about spammers.

Do the posters really go all the way through the signup process just to post once or twice and have even those posts, removed for being spam?

Just seems like a very low return-on-investment of time, that's all.

jeff

The process is/can be automated.
 

wellington

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Wow Jacqui.....I just didn't believe that some folks would do all that...for so little gain.

There are so many opportunities, even online, to make money, posting spam seems to have an equivalent from the old days.....some of you guys will remember this classic ad;


"Stuff envelopes in your spare time!"

Today, the spammer is simply the modern version?

LOL

I learned my new thing for the day, and it's only 5:42am!
I always wondered if they get paid per post. We might be in the wrong business lol
 

Yvonne G

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It's fruitful because the more people they can get to click on the links in their thread the further up towards the top of the results their site goes when searching.
 

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