Update on Spam Threads
Posted: Sat Mar 23, 2013 3:53 pm
I have created this thread for the explicit purpose of consolidating further discussion on the issue of Spam Bots and their threads, we have had quite the drama over them and I wanted to give the official viewpoint on this issue, as well as the new countermeasures enacted by myself.
To start, since the inception of this new forum spam bots have been a big issue for the Moderators and the Admins (Yes Regalis sometimes bans spam accounts), until recently our only main counter measure was basically damage control, to delete and ban spam threads and accounts as they are created. However deleting Spam Threads means we have to wait until they are created, and deleting the Spam Bots is a tiresome task to do. Until recently I was content in having my "underlings" delete the spam threads (Insert generic Evil moment here), while I dip into the Administrator Control Panel (ACP) and alter settings to stem the flow, however I finally decided that I had to find a permanent solution to this problem. So I decided that I had to enact a drastic measure that would solve this problem for the foreseeable future.
Before I delve into that here are some images from the ACP to show the effects of what I have done. These images are taken from the ACP's "Moderator Log's" list, basically every action preformed by a Mod/Admin is kept here, I want to show this to explain how an average day of Moderating the forums is for the Mod team, and how these new measures have drastically altered it.
Before the new measures were enacted -
Please have all discussions on the issue of Spam Bots kept on this thread, thank you for your patience and I think I have basically cut most of the Moderator's work out.
- Steelpoint, Administrator.
To start, since the inception of this new forum spam bots have been a big issue for the Moderators and the Admins (Yes Regalis sometimes bans spam accounts), until recently our only main counter measure was basically damage control, to delete and ban spam threads and accounts as they are created. However deleting Spam Threads means we have to wait until they are created, and deleting the Spam Bots is a tiresome task to do. Until recently I was content in having my "underlings" delete the spam threads (Insert generic Evil moment here), while I dip into the Administrator Control Panel (ACP) and alter settings to stem the flow, however I finally decided that I had to find a permanent solution to this problem. So I decided that I had to enact a drastic measure that would solve this problem for the foreseeable future.
Before I delve into that here are some images from the ACP to show the effects of what I have done. These images are taken from the ACP's "Moderator Log's" list, basically every action preformed by a Mod/Admin is kept here, I want to show this to explain how an average day of Moderating the forums is for the Mod team, and how these new measures have drastically altered it.
Before the new measures were enacted -
Spoiler
A snippet of my actions as I am undertaking my measures - 
Spoiler
A look of the past few days, up until I logged in to get these images - 
Spoiler
I think you can see the big change between the first and third image. I won't go into details but basically new users can't make new threads and need three posts before they can. Also as you can see in the second image I deleted a huge swath of Spam Accounts (Over 1800). 
Please have all discussions on the issue of Spam Bots kept on this thread, thank you for your patience and I think I have basically cut most of the Moderator's work out.
- Steelpoint, Administrator.
