Forums / Maintenance / Report Problems

Well here I thought I'll never make a thread on this part of the forums again. As you can tell from the tittle there's a spambot infestation on the general section of the forums. I keep seeing the same names and along with the same advertisement threads almost every time I come to the forums . I know that some of you are going to ask why don't I tell the mods about it? But the thing is I have, but no matter how many times these guys get banned they allows come back, so I'm asking is there a permanent solution to this problem?

No.

Even if the forum were to set up a delay time for new users to post, there would still be spam bots. They would simply keep attempting to post until it succeeded, or be set up to only post after a certain time. The only way to control them further would be to seriously hinder forum users altogether, and it doesn't seem all that right to punish normal users for the workings of programming or spam contractors that just don't care. The best way to deal with them is to have a forum mod team that cleans up when they can. However, people have their own lives and can't spend every minute of their day moderating KYM – especially when it's done completely voluntarily.

I didn't know that thanks.

I apologize. I was sleeping later than usual (8:30). After I get my computer up and deal with those threads, feel free to grab the cat-o-nine tails, and i'll begin the self-flagellation.

I'll leave this up as I have a comment to make. No worries, it's not mean-hearted or anything.

Alright, I think I got all of them. I'll have to check through the Advertisements thread after this. I'm a little out of practice with regards to my ad thread and spambot catching.
 
Anywho, I'm not sure if you were around then, and I'm not sure how bad this last "spree" was, but I think this deluge takes the cake.. So yeah, I wasn't too worried with what I just saw, even after I woke up.

From the linked fiasco, I believe James implemented a 15-minute restriction on creating new threads for that one instance that kept users (and bots) from making several threads in only a few minutes. It just required a little more diligence on behalf of the forum mods.

Currently, along with Moonface, I think what we have in place is fine. On the whole, we have forum mods (literally) awake and checking in on the forums.

I'm on the East Coast of the North America, and opspe is on the West Coast of North America. RM is in Europe, and a few others are in Australia and the New Zealand area (or are up at about that time, like madcat.)

There may be days and nights for us where we're out or doing something else, but as long as users report the thread, we'll come around to them before the forum is unusable or is very dangerous for users to frequent.
 
It is a bit disappointing to see spambots come back over and over again, and yeah, sometimes they have the same names. But the IPs should be different (as a true ban is an IP ban), and I don't mind myself personally. I sorta check in on the forums, in part because I'm looking out for spambots. I come by even if I don't have anything to post (which hasn't been very frequent as of late : / ) because I try to keep things neat and tidy.

It keeps me on my toes, in a way.

Now if'n you'll excuse me, I need to get to my weekly penitence for neglecting KYM, and this barbed whip won't swing itself.