Curious about how certain accounts get started...

AMann · Jun 25, 2019

How can SPAM messages get posted here? Is it that easy for spambots to automatically sign up?

-also It was time to bump that last message out of the way, too

Thomas B · Jun 25, 2019

It happens when a new user signs up and passes the criteria set in the server. Those have been adjusted several times to reach a “happy medium”. User feedback to admins and mods is always appreciated if a suspicious post/thread is noticed. Thumbswayup

MavicFT1P · Jun 25, 2019

Theres been a lot of them lately. low post/reaction score that just show up mid conversation.

Some creep called Black Shouldered Kite with 0 posts started following me the other day.

It should be harder than a vpn to make new account. My awesome neighbours follow me on forums
and its great that they do because i love them, but yeh signup should require a bit more info.
Age, species, Temperament...

zocalo · Jun 25, 2019

I've reported a few of these, plus general "Spam" threads. The mods usually delete the post/thread pretty promptly, so no complaints on that front - it's a thankless job and sisyphean task, and they're doing it really well, IMO.

The problem with making people jump through hoops to sign-up on forums is that even though you only need do it once per forum it can still deter them from doing so in the first place, meaning a smaller, less diverse, community. As Thomas B said, It's all about balance; if handling the reports becomes too much then maybe crank up the sign-up threshold or implement some other blacklisting techniques. Better yet, turn the additional functionality on or off as required based on the size of the problem.

pross · Jun 25, 2019

Unfortunately these days they tend not to be bots, actual people get paid peanuts to sit in cafes all day creating fake accounts and spamming, so asking stupid questions like what species you are wont stop them.

Texas Mavic · Jun 25, 2019

MavicFT1P said:
I dont think my m8 Thunder (he did have a good humor) has to start any new fake accounts.
im sure he has some left/ongoing..

Yeah he sent me a message from a new account but didn’t tell me it was him and got butt hurt when I said I agreed with the decision made to boot him after I saw why he was booted.

Johnmcl7 · Jun 25, 2019

It's an arms race between the spam bots and the forum software with the spam bots constantly attacking the forums and from time to time they'll get a new way to bypass or get through the forum registration at which point the number of spam posts can quickly go much higher before the forum software is upgraded to stop them again.

MavicFT1P · Jun 25, 2019

Texas Mavic said:
Yeah he sent me a message from a new account but didn’t tell me it was him and got butt hurt when I said I agreed with the decision made to boot him after I saw why he was booted.

Not to digress. But i never thought it was good he good booted.

But i was told i didn't know the full picture, and to be fair this is by people who
have known him in real life/more about goings on
if there was a vote to get him back id be yes, but that's the helpful avatar up all hours who lol'd/liked my
posts. I dont know him beyond that

O look, i digressed. But if he were reading id say..

"Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

paulatkin73 · Jun 25, 2019

So, i would put it simpler - reason #1 i got stuck on those forums here, for time being, were Rob and sar104 - both were/are very useful and provided amazing amount of important information. booting of Rob from here did not help anybody, people did not start liking one another more than before, but, total majority of new users lost access to somebody who had tons of knowledge to share on the hardware side of things. removal of all his posts pretty much removed 50-60% of anything useful this forum had. what could be done to fix things, what should not be done, how to deal with certain issues - all this information is now gone.

as any other sample of the political correctness enforcement, it is just, well, sad. a sad sign of modern times. if you will not let people say what they really think or want to say - it will not make anything better. but, to turn all this flow backwards now is same as to try to piss against the wind - same outcome.