Suggestions to the Site

[nunogato]

Hi,

Do you have any suggestion to improve the Forum?

What if there is a chat? maybe new style?
Are you unhappy with something?

Suggest some products and maybe we can start selling them.

In conclusion, any suggestion you have please let us know.

Regards,
Nuno Gato
--RoboSavvy

[mantrid]

Can I sugget you stop sending plain text copies of passwords during registration?

Given that many people use the same password for everything
this is a serious security issue IMHO.

I would suggest you not send any password at all. Encrypted or not.

TIA.

[PaulL]

Moderate new user sign-ups. Moderate their first few posts until it's demonstrated that the new user isn't a spammer.

[limor]

indeed very annoying these recent (removed by spam filter) spammers

[PaulL]

Agreed, Limor - I'm not sure why, exactly, this site seems to get spammed so much. Do these people really believe their advertising is doing them any good here?

[l3v3rz]

I don't think the adverts are for us . they simply post the links to sites to get them picked up by google search engine. If the system blocked URL being added to posts (for new people) then it might stop the spammers

[PedroR]

good idea regarding url in first post although spammers will always have the upper hand. The only solution is humans removing spam.

[PaulL]

@l3v3rz - Hadn't thought about that aspect of it, but do they really think a few posts on Robosavvy are going to bump up their ranking enough to make a difference? I get that this is one out of how many they spam, but there are certainly better ways to block them!

@Pedro - You can't be serious!!! Surely, letting spammers post then deleting their posts isn't the only solution - there are lots of forums out there that don't have this level of spam, so what's different? Post moderation for all posts is the extreme. But, there are better ways. Blocking URL on the first 5 or 10 posts would be one measure, blocking particular URL's / Links posted would be another measure (ex, post links to gold or (removed by spam filter) or shoes and get your account locked).

Some of this might be of use:

https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/advanced_block_mod/

[i-Bot]

I think there is already some blocking of URLs for new accounts.

I usually ban the user accounts when I delete the spam, but they just add new users.

These (removed by spam filter) spammers use phone numbers as well as URLs. They have already a web wide reputation for spam and worse.

I will continue to clean up after these guys. Please everyone keep posting the good robot stuff

[PedroR]

Hi

My post of June 2nd was actually not me but I guess someone using my PC at the office who didn't notice they were logged in as myself.

Anyway, to answer your messages, if you read back on my posts there was a discussion on how to address the aggressive spam attack we were under last Christmas.

At the moment several layers of protection are in place:

1) New users are forbidden from posting links in their first posts. This is quite annoying for new users and they sometimes complain but this is the best we could do.

2) There is post throttling for new users: new users can only post a very limited number of posts per day until they go up in rank.
This is meant to throttle down spam activity and proliferation at times when the forum is unsupervised.

3) Finally there is IP cross-checking on banned accounts/deleted posts: if posts from a certain IP have been removed or users banned in the last days there's further throttling of posting and hardening of posting limits (up to automatic suspension of posting from that IP).

All the above are automatic levels of protection.

However as i-Bot mentioned, spammers are very clever and have very sophisticated systems:

You'll noticed for example the generic posts on threads saying "very nice", "great work"; most of these are spammers working their way up in rank to be able to then post URLs.
However because we can't be certain if they are spammers or legitimate users, most of the time we let this go until they actually spam, and ultimately get banned.

There has also been a debate about improving the captcha system although, from experience, spammers are so sophisticated today that it does very little to prevent it.

What appeals to spammers on our forum is is probably the good google ranking. By association, spamming us is always better than spamming some unknown or a poorly ranked forum.

We'd expect that with all these measures in place, by now spammers would have realized it's not worth the effort but they keep coming for some weird reason and we keep fighting back the best we can.

(the next step would be manual approval of posts which we do not agree with as it throttles and delays user interaction, so we're not going there yet).

Best,
Pedro

[mantrid]

just an idea

have you thought about just blocking messages with the word "(removed by spam filter)" in the subject line?

[PedroR]

the word (removed by spam filter) has been set to be removed by the word censor.

I've noticed each post is made a different person, so it's being a very coordinated attack with multiple accounts (since the spam filter won't allow more than 1 post per day for new users).

Our webmaster is out of the office this week. He would be the best one to have a closer look at newly created accounts with no relevant posts to block all of them.

Pedro.

[PedroR]

Yes, we can change it to *(removed by spam filter)* .

this is quite a broad approach as it may catch other unwanted words. just us know if you find some post where it's being too "cautious".

I'll make the change now.

Regards
Pedro.

[PedroR]

Hi

I've added a significant new number of word sensors.

I've also hardened a number of anti spam measures, checks and throttles.
(I'm not detailing which publicly for the simple reason that knowing what you're up against gives you some advantage)

Therefore from now on whenever we harden the antispam system and you feel it's blocking legitimate posts, please let us know by emailing webmaster@robosavvy.com


As a side note: I don't know if you noticed they actually write their phone number on the posts.
I've taken the time to call them and let them know it's just pointless; we'll just keep deleting everything.
The answer I got was "the marketing team is out" and then when trying to explain the situation I got the feeling I wasn't the first or second to call...
Oh well.
So far I was also able to determine the hosting provider where they have their domains names (it's a US based company) but they don't have a a way to reach them (although they have a department to do so). Tried reporting them but was unable to get to it.
Amazing.

I'd just really like to know if this constant spamming actually works business wise. Philip Kotler might want to rewrite his book lol


Pedro.

[PaulL]

Thanks, Pedro!

I looked them up on the 'net, seems they have a nasty reputation for doing the same elsewhere, and they don't stop. Worthless company, worthless service they provide, worthless marketing strategies they employ.