# Off Topic > Suggestions for Improvement >  >  Spam, spam, spam, spam...wonderful spam

## Glenn Kennedy

We seem to be undergoing a sustained attack by test0ster0ne-peddling spammers...  Currently 6/21 posts on the first page of new posts are spam.

Is there a simple way to increase the size of the pool of of those select individuals who can kill these threads and bar the spammers?  Is the active admin/moderator pool large enough?

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## tim201110

Or is there a way to hide them from feed?

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## AliGW

If you hide them, we can't deal with them.

Honestly, it's nothing. Another forum I frequent (not as a moderator) had three pages of it this morning, and that's a daily event.

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## AliGW

Are there enough moderators to cope with the SPAM we get? Yes. That is not to say that there should not be more moderators! Please bear in mind that it's Saturday, and whilst I'm at work, most in the UK are probably pottering or contemplating brunch, and our US cousins will still be a-bed.

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## tim201110

There a tool to move threads.  In this case even there is no need to indicate it.
i'd recommend to name a new subforum as Excel diversification

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## daddylonglegs

Whenever spam threads are spotted or reported we delete them and ban the perpetrators as quickly as we can, please keep reporting any spam posts you find

We are investigating whether we can do more, e.g. don't allow new users to post links

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## AliGW

> There a tool to move threads.  In this case even there is no need to indicate it.
> i'd recommend to name a new subforum as Excel diversification



I don't know what you are trying to suggest, Tim, but spammers need banning, not a forum section all of their own.  :Wink:

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## dominicb

This post was originally posted by me in the moderators' forum back in May 2014, after a particularly prolonged spell of fitted kitchen spam being posted that some of you may remember.
The subject matter of the spam has since moved on somewhat, but the relevance of this post is the same as ever.  But come on, it's nearly four years ago now, and we're still no nearer despite countless suggestions and requests. 





> OK.  There are new measures in place to stop spam getting through, and it clearly isn't working.
> Apparently, we aren't the only forum suffering from the attentions of the kitchen fitter from hell and all his mates, so clearly it isn't the TT's fault ('cos they seem to get a fair amount of flak over things like this).  Why not change the way it's dealt with once it gets through and not focus on stopping it at source.
> 
> Can a "Spam" sub forum not be set up?  It's not as daft as it sounds and some other forums (fora?) have them.  Allow respected members (gurus etc upwards)  to be able to move spam there as and when they find it, rather than having to report it.  A mod / admin then have a mass clear-out (delete and ban) once a week.  Doing it this way would be far speedier than doing it on the ad-hoc basis going across different forums (fora?) the way it has to be done at the moment.  Also it would save respected members of the forum having to report the issues and give them a little extra responsibility as well.
> 
> Thoughts
> 
> DominicB

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## Glenn Kennedy

Tim/Dominic's suggestion sounds sensible.  There are plenty of us who'd be prepared spend a bit of time to help keep the place tidier....

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## sandy666

my 2 cents: without: wait 60 secs

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## AliGW

And what exactly does that mean, Sandy?  :Confused:

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## sandy666

If I report 1st spam then next I see: wait 60 seconds.This is wasting of my time if there is more than 1 spam

*edit:*

60seconds.jpg

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## bakerman2

On this issue I concure with sandy666.
When I'm at work at night and I have a few minutes to spare I tend to race to my laptop to see what's going on.
A few nights ago I spotted 3 or 4 spam threads which I could have delt with in 10 seconds. Now it almost took me 5 minutes just to report them.
Therefore Dominic's suggestion doesn't sound that silly at all.

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## AliGW

Something went wrong there, Rudi - there are no newly reported posts by you.

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## sandy666

@post #12 
If I am too fast i see vbBulletin Message. Every time I need wait...  :Frown:   :EEK!:

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## AliGW

If there are several SPAM posts, just report one and say how many others you have seen in your report - we see them, too, so all the report post feature does is draw our attention to them. In fact for us, having multiple reported posts is a bit of a pain, as each of them has to be marked solved separately - there is no batch function.

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## tim201110

https://www.excelforum.com/excel-gen...nt-muscle.html

where should one report to?

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## Glenn Kennedy

Click report post to right of add reputation button.  If no button visible, it's already been reported.

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## tim201110

Большое Спасибо!

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## Glenn Kennedy

Tá failte romhat.

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## tim201110

I always wonder how people live so close and still they are so different, even in language.

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## AliGW

Not that surprising really when you consider the rate at which language is susceptible to change.  :Smilie:

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## Pepe Le Mokko

Lots of spam again recently. usually appears round 0800 Western European time

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## Glenn Kennedy

Recently introduced restrictions on posting hyperlinks  may help a bit.  I am coming round to the view that a sub-forum, visible only to a wider group (suggest Guru  Mod and Admin) should be set up.  Spam posts should be moveable to that sub-forum by anyone in that Group.  The spam pattern xan be checked.  Do names recur, or are they single-use.  If the latter, maybe no need to ban 'em.

Advantages.  A larger group of us policing this would lead to the more rapid removal of spam from general view.  If they're humans, the spammers may be put off by the rapid disappearance of their efforts.


If they're machines, could a Captur be included in either new subscriptions or logins?

Disadvantages????

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## FDibbins

Glenn that exact suggestion is currently being discussed, where all new members with be "quarantined" for their 1st post, in a sub-forum.  These would then be audited by mod.admin and either banned or approved

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## Glenn Kennedy

Good luck....

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## Pepe Le Mokko

Has the possibility of having the first post from a new member approved by mod/admin before publishing already been discussed? ( especially if it contains any link whatsoever)
As there seem to be mods/admin from different parts of the world on this forum, approval shouldn't delay answering possibilities for long
Are spammers banned on username or IP?

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## FDibbins

> Has the possibility of having the first post from a new member approved by mod/admin before publishing already been discussed? ( especially if it contains any link whatsoever)
> As there seem to be mods/admin from different parts of the world on this forum, approval shouldn't delay answering possibilities for long
> Are spammers banned on username or IP?



That is pretty much what I meant in post #25

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## bakerman2

Ford, I'm afraid this could cause a delay for OP's in getting answers since I assume that there are times that no admin or mod is present at the forum.
Therefore I'd rather support Glenn's idea while there's always on or the other Guru present around the clock.
Also the 60 sec. delay is a pain in reporting spam posts while I noticed 2 just a while ago that took me approx. 3 min. to report while it could be done in 20 sec.




> approval shouldn't delay answering possibilities for long



I tend to disagree because when I report spam at night (it's now 9:20 AM here) it sometimes stays there more then several hours before removal.

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## FDibbins

There probably wont ever be a "right" answer, and atm, its just under discussion.

Also, only mods/admin have the ability to ban/delete threads

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## dominicb

> Are spammers banned on username or IP?



Pepe, users are banned by username only.

It has been discussed (multiple times) to ban by IP level, but ultimately, it was decided that this way would introduce too much "collateral damage", with many innocent users ending up locked out as a result.
I dare say any spamming bot (or person, if that's the case, but I would doubt it) already has its originating IP address masked through a VPN or something similar?

DominicB

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## macropod

> If there are several SPAM posts, just report one and say how many others you have seen in your report



Trouble is, a lot of the spam is hit & run, with the miscreants making just one spam post per username, then creating another username to make another, similar, spam post, and so on.

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## AliGW

You are missing my point, I think, Paul, so I probably didn't explain it well enough. What tends to happen is we get a run of one-off SPAM posts, probably posted by the same person or group of people. When this happens (say seven or eight within a couple of minutes), we only really need alerting to one of them - the rest are easy to spot if one has been reported and the others are referred to in that report. Remember, you see them, so why wouldn't we?

The reason that so many reported posts is a minor problem is that, on top of dealing with the SPAM posts, we also have to mark each and every reported post as solved, as this can't be done as a bulk operation, so it more than doubles the time we have to spend dealing with the problem. Plus it takes you a long time to report them all!

I hope this better explains my point.

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## Glenn Kennedy

If they are one-offs, why not simply move them to a sub- forum invisible to general users and then simply forget about them??

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## PaulM100

I think that plugins can be used, like AutoIt Anti-Spam or something similar. Also Project Honey Pot can be a good option.

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## macropod

> If they are one-offs, why not simply move them to a sub- forum invisible to general users and then simply forget about them??



Because that doesn't stop them coming back and posting more spam under the same username.

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## Glenn Kennedy

The key word in my comment was one-offs.  If they are *one-offs*, they probably don't even record their passwords....  However, if the spam is moved rapidly (and I mean rapidly) moved to a sub-forum where the spammer (and the normal user) can no longer see/access them... where's the issue?  No need to mark as solved, no need to ban the spammer, just ignore them.  they'll get bored and pi$$ off (maybe).

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## pjwhitfield

Dont most spam pots post in the first forum they find?

It could be worth creating a new forum group which is placed at the top of the forum list but named so users know not to bother with it.

Chances are most of the spam will be posted in there and not cause an issue to the general users. Mods can then just work through that board when they get a chance rather than having to react to the posting.

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## macropod

> The key word in my comment was one-offs.  If they are *one-offs*



You seem to be missing my point that you don't _know_ they're on-offs unless they _never_ post again...
Besides which, what you're suggesting is actually more work than banning them from the outset.

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## macropod

> Dont most spam pots post in the first forum they find?



Some of those responsible for the recent spate go through multiple forums, making a spam post in each. Some do that under the one username; others seem to change username for each post.

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## FDibbins

There does seem to be a spate of them now and then.  I logged in and banned 6 or 7 spam posts (different ID'), answered a few Q's, read this thread, and I updated the thread list, there were 4 more.

To be honest, I dont even bother to check IP's or really even names now, I just click and ban

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## Pepe Le Mokko

Lots of spamming going on. Spammers must love this site...

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