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ATTN MODS: What is being done to stop the flood of sports spam currently underway on DN?

over 4 years ago from

I think it's high time to step up the countermeasures folks. I deleted my earlier topic on spam as it was inundated with dozens of spam comments.

Literally every post on the recent front page right now is infected.

It is fruitless to report each comment, we would be here all day. And once the accounts are deleted, new ones are immediately created. The solution needs to start with the account registration process. Temporarily turn it off completely if you have to. A twice a day manual removal of spam isn't going to cut it.

This is ridiculous and is damaging the community. I guess it won't be long before this post is infected as well.

Come on DN, this is a full stop, all hands on deck situation in immediate need of a solution. Your website is under attack.

34 comments

  • Ismet TrakoIsmet Trako, over 4 years ago

    Give us invite-only system back. Permanent ban spammers/people who invited them. Guess it should be simple.

    Just checking, spam posts are 7-8 hours there and nobody deleted them.

    23 points
    • Ken Em, over 4 years ago

      Mods recently stated that they only check and delete spam twice a day. So in the meantime, it just sits on the site. Unacceptable.

      5 points
      • Jim SilvermanJim Silverman, over 4 years ago

        the thing is, this site is owned by http://tinyboards.co/ the focus is not managing a community forum, it's generating traffic to the job board.

        6 points
        • Ken Em, over 4 years ago

          Then shut down DN and have it just be a job board. Or sell it to someone who can give it the proper care and feeding. No false pretenses.

          -2 points
          • Account deleted over 4 years ago

            Dude grow up. It's been a week and it's a free forum which is traditionally pretty slow to implement changes. If you don't like it ask for a refund.

            -7 points
            • Ken Em, over 4 years ago

              Calm down, sport. I'm free to voice my frustrations. If you don't like it, scroll on by.

              -9 points
              • Aaron Wears Many HatsAaron Wears Many Hats, over 4 years ago

                Jesus christ calm your bitch flaps.

                -17 points
                • Ken Em, over 4 years ago

                  Maybe you and Todd can go have a cup of chamomile or something. Relax.

                  -15 points
                  • Aaron Wears Many HatsAaron Wears Many Hats, over 4 years ago

                    M9, you posted a complaint thread, then continued to complain in comments . When others tell you to calm down, rebutting with 'calm down' yourself is a little tedious to read.

                    7 points
                    • Ken Em, over 4 years ago

                      If this is triggering you that much, maybe sit this thread out. I'm expressing frustration over the site getting spammed to death. I can't help if you have a problem with that. You need to deal with your own reaction over it. Maybe try disagreeing respectfully instead of this "calm your bitch flaps" crap.

                      -10 points
                      • Aaron Wears Many HatsAaron Wears Many Hats, over 4 years ago

                        See, this is what I mean. It's hardly "triggering" me, or anyone, except for yourself clearly.

                        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_policing

                        1 point
                        • Ken Em, over 4 years ago

                          "Jesus christ calm your bitch flaps" sure reads as triggered to me.

                          -4 points
                          • Aaron Wears Many HatsAaron Wears Many Hats, over 4 years ago

                            That's because you're actively upset about the content being posted on DN right now, and in this state of mind most things you'd read would be interpreted as people being as upset as yourself. That's not unusual, tbh. The effect can be especially apparent if you're not usually used to hearing/reading someone who swears colloquially.

                            In actual fact I don't give a shit, as almost everything posted on DN is effectively spam anyway, and content moves so slowly here that it's almost welcoming to see movement on threads. Even if it is pointless 3rd party robospam.

                            However I just like to kick the soapbox out from under someone who clearly needs it done to them.

                            5 points
  • Matthew Hollingsworth, over 4 years ago

    Yes Ken, it's been a bit chaotic for us over the past few days trying to find a solution. I spent most of my time deleting spam while the dev side tried to find a better solution. We certainly were not ignoring it. The thanksgiving weekend (in Canada) was spent trying to figure out what to do and how to solve it.

    I know this sucks, and I appreciate the community's patience with it. It was easily the worst spam attack we've seen and we were caught a bit off guard.

    We're genuinely sorry. I understand this was frustrating and turned people away. All I can say is that we're doing the best we can, and need all the help we can get.

    Matt

    12 points
    • Ken Em, over 4 years ago

      Thanks for your efforts, much appreciated,

      0 points
      • James LaneJames Lane, over 4 years ago

        Ken I think you should join us as a mod - you always seem to be reporting users for good reason and I end up banning them. It would make sense that you could ban them yourself. You keen?

        0 points
  • Dirk HCM van BoxtelDirk HCM van Boxtel, over 4 years ago

    We have a message thread in our slack group to talk about this.

    Mods aren't really in the position to do much other than remove stuff where we see it. It's more an admin task to put some coding/design hours into this vessel to steer us clear from the cliffs.

    So bear with us.

    7 points
  • Thomas Michael SemmlerThomas Michael Semmler, over 4 years ago

    Well, I agree with you. And I also agree with you realising that this site is only here for generating traffic. Designers are, absurdly enough, very easy to target and to harvest.

    3 points
  • James Young, over 4 years ago

    RIP inbox notifications...

    3 points
  • Dylan SmithDylan Smith, over 4 years ago

    Yeah, this is the final straw for me. What a wasteland. I’m out.

    2 points
  • Johan Ronsse, over 4 years ago

    Yes. What is going on...?

    1 point
  • Catalin CimpanuCatalin Cimpanu, over 4 years ago

    Banning now

    0 points
  • David ThornDavid Thorn, over 4 years ago

    Honestly, just skip over the spam and it'll get removed at some point. Not sure how anyone on the internet can get so worked up over something that has been a core "feature" since before I was even born.

    If you survived the era of pop ups, I'm sure you can handle some obnoxious sports links for a few days.

    -7 points
  • Joel Sinnott, over 4 years ago

    Incidentally the people in this thread are actually worse than the bots.

    -8 points