Regarding the matter of noisome spam

[The Ghost]

Okay I can see that whatever the case there is no one working with the forum who can stop the spam. Well I acknowledge that clearly you get on to it and wipe it off each and every time it appears and am always grateful you respond so quickly. I realise it must be a chore that you hate as much as I hate seeing this spam.
That being said...you could at least give us an effective means of ignoring posts that we do not want to see. Could you make the forum work in such a way that if I ignore a member their posts just disappear from my screen, never to re-appear. Is that not possible???

 

[Octopus]

That being said...you could at least give us an effective means of ignoring posts that we do not want to see. Could you make the forum work in such a way that if I ignore a member their posts just disappear from my screen, never to re-appear. Is that not possible???

The forum can and does do this already....

Select on the "spam thread"
Select user name
Select "ignore"

Then "new posts" and hey presto.............. they disappear.

 

[electric al]

What do these spammers actually hope to achieve aside from annoying the ---- out of us all big time ?
The level of persistence tells me that there has got to be a greater aim other than posting their ---- on a niche foreign forum .
I just wish they'd ---- off !!!

 

[SparkyChick]

The forum can and does do this already....

Select on the "spam thread"
Select user name
Select "ignore"

Then "new posts" and hey presto.............. they disappear.

This works for me too, BUT... if they've posted enough to fill up the new posts pages, then they'll be blank because the ignore is done when the page is rendered not when the query is executed to get a list of new posts.

Net result, I still can't see genuine new posts.

The ignoring of users should be done in the query that fetches the post lists, not during the rendering of the HTML.

RE: What do spammers hope to achieve... generally 'advertising' in the digital age can cost you nothing (aside from a little overhead associated with having a server etc.). If a tiny fraction of people who see it respond, they make money, it's plain and simple economics. You hit a million people and 0.1% respond positively and you've just scored 1000 customers. If their fake degrees sell for a $300 each that's a lot of wonga for very little outlay.

 

[Octopus]

RE: What do spammers hope to achieve... generally 'advertising' in the digital age can cost you nothing (aside from a little overhead associated with having a server etc.). If a tiny fraction of people who see it respond, they make money, it's plain and simple economics. You hit a million people and 0.1% respond positively and you've just scored 1000 customers. If their fake degrees sell for a $300 each that's a lot of wonga for very little outlay.

Pxssing off us for a start

There must be SOMETHING that Dan can do .???????????????

 

[electric al]

The old numbers game - with the population in China there is a lot of it about. So frustrated with it all I just felt like going on a rant and throwing a few expletives about this morning

 

[Andy78]

Its the sole reason I come on here a lot less these days, and I would imagine it has put many off completely

 

[Spoon]

This works for me too, BUT... if they've posted enough to fill up the new posts pages, then they'll be blank because the ignore is done when the page is rendered not when the query is executed to get a list of new posts.

Net result, I still can't see genuine new posts.

I'm with @SparkyChick on this. It's no hassle ignoring all the spam but then you end up getting about 3 posts listed when you pick New Posts.
I am surprised that with all the technology we have we can't block Chinese text or limit the number of posts someone can post within a given time.

 

[LankyWill]

It just doesn’t seem feasible to keep deleting the posts, surely prevention is better than cure.

 

[marconi]

I suggested something that might work to Dan in a PM and never had a response back. I'll see if I still have the idea ans send again.

 

[Loki]

Out of curiosity I emailed Xenforo asking if its possible to block Chinese characters when posting but all I got back was:



Hi,

We only make the forum software they are using. We don't administer that particular forum. But the software has many tools for fighting spam which the administrator can use.

Jake Bunce
XenForo Support

 

[Squid]

How about all new users ok'd by a mod/admin bod before being allowed to post and a verification email sent out to email addy?

 

[littlespark]

Stop getting your knickers in a twist. What do you do when you get a spam email? You delete and block user.
Just have to do the same here.
No spam filter is 100%. Just imagine how much cr*p there would be without any admin intervention.

 

[Squid]

Stop getting your knickers in a twist. What do you do when you get a spam email? You delete and block user.
Just have to do the same here.
No spam filter is 100%. Just imagine how much cr*p there would be without any admin intervention.

If the users get annoyed they don't come on to the forum, less traffic on the forum then the sponsors lose interest in sponsoring the running of the forum as there is no incentive in it for them.

If you always ended up with two punctured tyres on your van entering a trading estate to go to your wholesalers would you carry on or finsd another wholesaler?

 

[littlespark]

On the grand scheme of things on the internet these days, a few minor annoying spam posts is quite trivial.
I like this forum. It’s well set out compared to some IT and computer subject based ones I’ve been a member of in the past... and they also were plagued with spam. They couldn’t control it 100% and they should know how to.

Anyway, you never know when you might need a masters degree from some obscure American university written in Chinese sometime.

 

[Bobster]

Does all the posting they make count as traffic for the site?

 

[The Ghost]

Well I have heard the bullet proof method of ignore and click new posts. There is only one problem with that, as I have repeatedly said to the point I am going to be sick all over my keyboard if I hear it again, it does not work for me. The other problem is I have put some of the idiots who do this on ignore and they are back again spamming. It says on it "ignored member" however that is not working is it? If I can see ignored members it is not working.
To repeat, for the admin, is it possible to make it when I ignore someone they become obliterated from my sight and their head explodes and all their families get scabies and their pets die please? I don't want to be too vindictive.

 

[GMES]

Just to let you all know that I've been in contact with Dan and Lou and it is being dealt with, just hold in there and hopefully once Dan sets all the filters up correctly it should put an end to it.

It's just as annoying for us, I cleared loads out this morning.

 

[littlespark]

3 cheers for gmes, Lou and dan...

Hip hip......

 

[johnduffell]

The ignoring of users should be done in the query that fetches the post lists, not during the rendering of the HTML.

Unfortunately that wouldn't be possible as the forum has to cache each page so serve the same to everyone who requests it. The server doesn't actually receive a good proportion of the requests as that would make the running of the site a lot more expensive. Only when someone makes a postp the cache would be flushed and then there would be an update to the cache.
I used to be in a team running a well known website and the bill for back end servers alone was thousands a month and the same for bandwidth on top.
Even a small tweak to the caching to improve it saved us 1k a month in bandwidth, so it is important.