Spam on Nameberry is ruing the site

[name_m]How[/name_m] could we have fun on this site with all these spam?

If you see a spam thread, click the report button. Then the moderators see it and will delete. We ban the user and delete their posts. I know, it’s very annoying!

I done that multiple times. I’m fed up with reporting.

I agree. The spam clogs up each forum for pages, and we have to wait 60 seconds before reporting a new one, and it’s not what anyone wants to be doing with their time.

Total buzz kill :frowning:

I’ve just reported three, all from the same user. It’s time-consuming though, especially having to wait 60 seconds between each one.
I’ve noticed that most of them have user names that are just a string of random letters, e.g. fgfgfgfh or similar, which makes me think it’s a spam bot creating randomly generated usernames, and if so you could get round it by including a ‘Captcha’ (http://www.captcha.net/) when people sign up and create an account. Most other forums I am on use this, some even require it when you post though I think this is a bit [name_m]OTT[/name_m].

I’ve just reported three, all from the same user. It’s time-consuming though, especially having to wait 60 seconds between each one.
I’ve noticed that most of them have user names that are just a string of random letters, e.g. fgfgfgfh or similar, which makes me think it’s a spam bot creating randomly generated usernames, and if so you could get round it by including a ‘Captcha’ (http://www.captcha.net/) when people sign up and create an account. Most other forums I am on use this, some even require it when you post though I think this is a bit [name_m]OTT[/name_m].

I used to think the spam was irritating but not a huge deal. It’s getting out of control. Each wave seems to last longer and longer as well. I know nameberry isn’t this huge site run by hundreds of people, but is there really nothing that can be done? I can’t imagine a new member would stick around after seeing a forum like it is now.

I think nameberry needs a verification process for new users. And although it’s annoying, I think new users should have to wait 24 hours before posting. Perhaps a stricter limit on how many threads a user can make? For example, if users have to wait an hour between the creation of new threads.

I definitely think something has to be done. It’s really clogging up the forums and just generally really annoying.

It’s getting ridiculous now - the first page of the main ‘[name_u]Baby[/name_u] names’ forum has nothing but spam at the moment.

Unfortunately there are a few different usernames so it’s not like it’s juts one culprit who can be removed quickly.
I think Southern [name_f]Maple[/name_f]'s suggestion of getting admin approval for new accounts is a good idea.

I just went through 25 pages of spam threads in the baby names forum. There’s no way to report all of them. :frowning:

I don’t think admin approval for new accounts is a good idea. It would be a huge workload for the admins and the wait/inconvenience could drive new users away.

I’m a relatively new forum user. I would have been frustrated at such procedures.

I do believe that implementing a delay between new threads would help slow down/prevent spam threads. If spam accounts can only post a new thread every 10 minutes, it would certainly cramp their style.

If you couple this with removing the 60s delay between user reports, and maybe increasing the number of moderators, things should come back under control soon enough.

With a thread limit creation (not a post limit), how about something like five per hour and ten per day (at least until a certain amount of time since joining has elapsed and/or a certain post count)? I’d like to be able to post two or three threads (e.g. my name tournament games) within a few minutes of each other - but those limits will help keep massive spam down.

By verification process I meant CAPTCHA or confirming your email address, not some form of admin approval.

It really is ridiculous. I’m surprised it’s been so bad for so long without being fixed. Are the owners of this site still maintaining it? It’s not even just the forums. The main nameberry page occasionally redirects me to virus sites. Luckily I’ve got great antivirus software but I’m starting to think about not going to nameberry anymore because I think I’m really testing the fates and I don’t need malware or a trojan wiping out my system, thank you very much. It’s a bummer because I do love the site but it really needs some attention from the owners.

Still more and more spam.

It might be worth NB recruiting some reliable mods from different time zones to the ones they’ve already got as there’s obviously a gap in when they’re online.

Like just went 10 pages in Baby Names forum before even finding a non-spam post. This is ridiculous and making the forum near unusable at times.

I clicked on new posts and there were only three non-spam posts. I reported one but I don’t have enough time to report all of them. I agree getting more mods in different time zones could help most of them seem to be from the northern hemisphere mainly the US. I know there aren’t any mods in my time zone anyway. Also by getting rid of the 60 seconds between reporting posts would make it much easier to reduce the amount of spam.

Does the “report post” button not work for anyone else like, 90% of the time like it does for me? I click on it, fill out the form, and click submit and it just spins and spins until the page times out. Then if I try to resubmit it gives me a weird error. Sorry, but I’m NOT sitting through that process 100 times.

I don’t think adding a CAPTCHA to the account creation page or asking that new members confirm an email address before posting is that much to ask! We’ve been dealing with the insane amounts of spam for months and I know the admins have been made aware of it. It’s seriously time that something be done, for everyone’s sake.

Ok guys, from now on I’ll log onto Nameberry when I get up for work (7am GMT) and prune all the spam I can get to. That way, when most of our users wake up, the night spam should all be gone :slight_smile:

I’d recommend not bothering with reporting the spam or at least only report one from each spam-user. We clear it all up via the admin panel and don’t need to know specifically where it is :slight_smile:

SarahMezz is our resident Australian moderator :wink: