being a mod is such trivial fun sometimes....

johnsonx42 · 2010-09-16, 06:31 AM

So I just came online, found a suspicious looking user "dhfgnvds" in the active user list... sure enough I found him posting gibberish spam posts in old threads in various forums. I deleted his most recent post, the one he was still looking at, perma-banned him and then deleted his other two as well. Bye spammer.

Then I see "welcome to our newest member: jsaber798". I see he's still registering, not even active yet... I watch him for a bit, seem him viewing "General Discussion"... what new user heads straight for General Discussion? Now he's creating a thread there... sure enough, a spam thread pops up. Deleted and perma-banned within seconds of going live. Bye spammer.

Now as I write this, our new friend Michial2010 is registering. He'll be banned in a few moments.

Such trivial fun....

edit: and josh33cook too Wink

johnsonx42 · 2010-09-16, 06:44 AM

looks like josh33cook and Michial2010 gave up. I posted visitor messages for them while they were registering, I guess they figured (rightly) there was no point in starting a thread.

BigMoose · 2010-09-16, 08:23 AM

There's no "thanks" button on this board, but if there was I'd press it! Smile

johnsonx42 · 2010-09-16, 08:50 AM

lol, sneaky bastard Michial2010 came back about 20 minutes later and posted his spam thread. McBainUK nabbed him... score one more for the home team Big Grin

martint123 · 2010-09-16, 10:01 AM

Yes, thanks. (I saw some in emails for posts I was subscribed to)

Do you get to see their IP addresses? could you ban on an IP address if they are the same?
When I used to run a landline BBS, I had a button that stopped new users from posting that ran for around an hour and seemed to stop most of them without upsetting genuine new users. (I didn't get that many new users in an hour Wink

)

johnsonx42 · 2010-09-16, 04:18 PM

IP address bans are no doubt possible, but not within my level of power here. One has to be rather more careful banning IP's since they're dynamically assigned... a bad IP today could be a good IP tomorrow.

***sub*** · 2010-09-16, 05:26 PM

martint123 Wrote:Yes, thanks. (I saw some in emails for posts I was subscribed to)

Do you get to see their IP addresses? could you ban on an IP address if they are the same?

Unfortunately they rarely come from the same IP address, though clearly it's often the same content being posted. I'm not sure if they have a zombie network of infected machines that post spam, or they doing some network trick to make their IP address appear to be something else, or its some dial up ISP with a large pool of addresses.

Fatman_do · 2010-09-16, 06:15 PM

Johnsonx42, I have been there before..They are like army ants.

These guys usually post while I am snoozing, and I see you folks a few hours ahead of me or behind me have caught them.

johnsonx42 · 2010-09-16, 10:56 PM

Fatman_do Wrote:These guys usually post while I am snoozing, and I see you folks a few hours ahead of me or behind me have caught them.

yeah, they always seem to pop up around midnight here, so you've probably already gone to bed in Michigan. Then McBain gets any that pop up after I go to bed.

It's all quite fun for me, I almost look forward to it each night. I particularly like cases like jasber798 where I essentially watch him create his account, move to a forum and then compose his message; many of these posts are 2 or 3 parts, so if I get the first post fast enough and ban the user I get the satisfaction of imagining the guy swearing in chinese (many of the spammers' profiles say they're from beijing) when he finds he can't post the rest of his garbage. Deleting the spam 20 minutes after it's posted is less satisfying, since the spammer is long gone and probably never checks to see if his post stays live for long.... that's just keeping the yard tidy.