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They've started a new technique: They're adding comments to ongoing threads, not just opening new ones.
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They've got a new twist: adding spam to ongoing threads, not just starting new ones.
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soon we cannot tell the spammers from the posters.
Even worse: posters are making the spam headlines permanent by replying to them with snarky jokes.
When there is a reply to the spam thread, the headline becomes permanent in the forums, so that even if staff 'delete' the thread, the reply becomes the OP and the subject lines stay visible.
If there is no reply, both the OP and the headline are removed
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And now it's an autoimmune system attack: someone, somehow, posted the identical post 10 times within just a couple seconds.
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Nuke em from space its the only way to be sure.
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I also see that they've started diversifying: I just flagged 1 in Rules Questions, 1 in Forum Games, and 2 in General Discussion.
Edit: Added 1 more in Off-Topic Discussions.
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"The Spammers are getting better at anticipating our moves.
I underestimated the hacker. The previous attacks were clumsy, but this one was swift and overwhelming."
"TO SPAM A WEBSITE YOU MUST KNOW IT. NOT SIMPLY ITS DISCUSSION FORUM, BUT ITS THREADS. GAMES. USERS."
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soon we cannot tell the spammers from the posters.Even worse: posters are making the spam headlines permanent by replying to them with snarky jokes.
When there is a reply to the spam thread, the headline becomes permanent in the forums, so that even if staff 'delete' the thread, the reply becomes the OP and the subject lines stay visible.
If there is no reply, both the OP and the headline are removed
Yep, if you just flag the offending spam post, eventually your flag of spam becomes marked as flagged- so you can tells that you already got to it, in case you forgots that you gots it. ;)
PS. Whenever them spammers show, I invoke my internal mental autoplay of Donny Osmond's version of Disney's Mulan's, I'll Make a Man out of You I'll Flag that Spam outta here. ;)
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Flagged 3 more in General Discussion -- back to their favorite place, but still all different user names.
Edit #1: Added 1 more there and 1 in Forum Games.
Edit #2: Added 4 more in General Discussion.
Edits #3, #4: Each added 1 more in General Discussion.
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God, how I hate hackers.
Please don't misuse the word hackers in this way. The term 'hackers' refers simply to people who enjoy messing around with the internals on their own computers. It's like the way we use the term 'gamers' to refer to our own hobby. Hackers are not 'crackers' (those who break into others' computers for fun or profit) or spammers.
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God, how I hate hackers.Please don't misuse the word hackers in this way. The term 'hackers' refers simply to people who enjoy messing around with the internals on their own computers. It's like the way we use the term 'gamers' to refer to our own hobby. Hackers are not 'crackers' (those who break into others' computers for fun or profit) or spammers.A noble attempt, but in vain.
Language shifts and this fight has been lost. The meaning of hacker has changed.
No, it does not work that way. The media does not get to take one group's term of self-identification and apply it to someone else's bad behavior, and the rest of us just have to smile and accept it.
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...soon we cannot tell the spammers from the posters.
As a poster, I'm offended. I am easily an order of magnitude more obnoxious than any spambot.
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Things were going clean for a while, and then all of a sudden had to flag 3 more in General Discussion and 1 more in Forum Games.
Suddenly, I wish I could flog them . . . .
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I have personally wished for the ability to reach through a computer and Slap someone for a long time now.
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Seems like they come in waves. Flagged 2 3 4 5 7 more in General Discussion.
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Flagged 14 more.
And they're back as of about 5-10 minutes ago.
I second the idea of blocking posts in certain characters (unless that would screw up using the page through translation software).
As for "hackers," everyone knows those are labor horses that pull transports such as Hackney cabs, or "hacks." Duh.
And I have never heard the word 'cracker' used outside of academic discussion.
And I've never heard it used in one.
Or maybe I'm just hungry?
:(
Was hoping the new site might be spammer proof. At least the flagging function is working fine..
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Bear in mind that on some level all forms of communication are just random grunts and noises that people just sort of agree on what means.
Hacker means what the person hearing the word hacker believes hacker to mean, and to claim anything else is to forget that one's cognition is a more important part of reality than reality itself.
Which is basically a fancy way of saying 'lol nothing matters,' I guess, but what ya gonna do?
And they're back as of about 5-10 minutes ago.
I second the idea of blocking posts in certain characters (unless that would screw up using the page through translation software).
{. . .}
That will just induce the spammers to use non-blocked characters. Now, if you were to moderate the 1st 5 posts of new users, or even just the 1st 1 post + any following posts made before the 1st post was moderated, that would really put a crimp in their dirty work. (of course, you would need to have a decent user interface so that the moderators could Shift-Click a whole range of spam posts to deny their posting much faster than the spammers can make them.)
Edit: And here I have had to flag 8 13 14 16 18 21 of them in General Discussion (they seem to have stopped experimenting with branching out, but they still seem to come in waves).
^And 3 more.
^And 6 8 9 more.
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That will just induce the spammers to use non-blocked characters.And they're back as of about 5-10 minutes ago.
I second the idea of blocking posts in certain characters (unless that would screw up using the page through translation software).
{. . .}
They could also have been already posting in roman characters and made their posts fit in more. They're clearly a Korean group looking for Korean targets and this would put a wrench in their plans. Even if only temporary, I'd say it'd at least buy the dev team time to devise better solutions.
Now, if you were to moderate the 1st 5 posts of new users, or even just the 1st 1 post + any following posts made before the 1st post was moderated, that would really put a crimp in their dirty work.
I would support this. I would also support measures that prevent posters from posting more than once every, oh, three minutes or so. This would also force trolls to maybe stop and think for a second before posting the same argument over and over again within 30 seconds of each other (they still will try, but still).
I would also support better account screening techniques, e.g., a new user cannot post until an admin manually views and approves their account. They could use the store but not post.
One thing that is really strange is that the only non-Korean characters in these spam posts appear to be referencing websites owned by Montenegro in Yugoslavia.
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None of this targets people here on the forums. All of it is targeting the aggregators that search engines use to gather information about what terms have the most hits. The more sites an online casinos name appears on, the higher it is rated by search engines and the higher up the list of results it is displayed.
Customer Service Manager
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:(
Was hoping the new site might be spammer proof. At least the flagging function is working fine..
Unfortunately I'm waiting on an update that lets me see the aggregate of flags (my Flag Queue tab accidentally disappeared when we updated to the new design). In the meantime, definitely flag stuff that's a problem as the more flags it has, the more I am likely to see it from my Forum Overview.
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Unfortunately I'm waiting on an update that lets me see the aggregate of flags (my Flag Queue tab accidentally disappeared when we updated to the new design). In the meantime, definitely flag stuff that's a problem as the more flags it has, the more I am likely to see it from my Forum Overview.:(
Was hoping the new site might be spammer proof. At least the flagging function is working fine..
I’d flag posts even if nobody was watching. I find it strangely therapeutic. :)
{. . .} I would also support measures that prevent posters from posting more than once every, oh, three minutes or so. This would also force trolls to maybe stop and think for a second before posting the same argument over and over again within 30 seconds of each other (they still will try, but still).
{. . .}
That wouldn't stop the spammers, since they only seem to use each account once (originally they used each one twice, but they seem to have quit doing that a long time ago).
(Ongoing edit) Flagged 7 11 15 17 more in General Discussion, 2 in Community Use, and 1 in Ultimate Intrigue Playtest.
Suddenly, I realized that The Last Jedi missed a major opportunity when they had the expedition to the Casino planet, especially when they got the underdog code-breaker -- after this, spam should have been popping up all over the remaining Rebel Alliance ships.
^And 2 more in General Discussion.
And, after a long absence of paired posts, 2 more in General Discussion from the same user name.
at least its easier to ignore with the new format.
That wouldn't stop the spammers, since they only seem to use each account once (originally they used each one twice, but they seem to have quit doing that a long time ago).{. . .} I would also support measures that prevent posters from posting more than once every, oh, three minutes or so. This would also force trolls to maybe stop and think for a second before posting the same argument over and over again within 30 seconds of each other (they still will try, but still).
{. . .}
I still endorse that for discouraging trollspam.
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...I would also support measures that prevent posters from posting more than once every, oh, three minutes or so. This would also force trolls to maybe stop and think for a second before posting the same argument over and over again within 30 seconds of each other (they still will try, but still).
Though it would make asking multiple questions to some Ask-Me-Anything threads, as some of the thread starters want each question to be a separate post.
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A lot of PbPs use foreign characters, though, for other languages. Plus, what happens when someone quotes me? Or someone asks a legitimate question in another language? A blanket ban on foreign characters would just mean our new spam would be in English.
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I still endorse that for discouraging trollspam.That wouldn't stop the spammers, since they only seem to use each account once (originally they used each one twice, but they seem to have quit doing that a long time ago).{. . .} I would also support measures that prevent posters from posting more than once every, oh, three minutes or so. This would also force trolls to maybe stop and think for a second before posting the same argument over and over again within 30 seconds of each other (they still will try, but still).
{. . .}
This would be a major inconvenience for people involved in several PbP games. It doesn't always take 3 minutes to type up a basic attack. I at least open in a new tab each game where there have been new posts, and read them all. Then I go and type up and submit my actions in each, and these are not often 3 minutes apart.
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Good lord, it looks like there are hundreds of them!
Spam really Infuriates me - it’s a scourge and I wish there was a way to stamp it out.In Paizo’s case, it seems like disallowing posts using foreign characters might be a good first step ...
I hope never disallow posts in foreign characters: they’re a mainstay of Play-by-Post!
Hmm
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Unfortunately I'm waiting on an update that lets me see the aggregate of flags (my Flag Queue tab accidentally disappeared when we updated to the new design). In the meantime, definitely flag stuff that's a problem as the more flags it has, the more I am likely to see it from my Forum Overview.:(
Was hoping the new site might be spammer proof. At least the flagging function is working fine..
How about some way of flagging without opening the message?
Or, how about a flag icon that appears outside the message?Similar to the (1 New) it could be (1 Flag) with an actual flag instead of the word?
This would be a major inconvenience for people involved in several PbP games. It doesn't always take 3 minutes to type up a basic attack. I at least open in a new tab each game where there have been new posts, and read them all. Then I go and type up and submit my actions in each, and these are not often 3 minutes apart.I still endorse that for discouraging trollspam.That wouldn't stop the spammers, since they only seem to use each account once (originally they used each one twice, but they seem to have quit doing that a long time ago).{. . .} I would also support measures that prevent posters from posting more than once every, oh, three minutes or so. This would also force trolls to maybe stop and think for a second before posting the same argument over and over again within 30 seconds of each other (they still will try, but still).
{. . .}
I post to a lot of PBPs too. Personally I'd be willing to make the sacrifice to just wait, if it otherwise improves quality of life elsewhere on the boards. I recognize others may NOT be willing to make the same sacrifice, just making my preferences known. The admins may not want to make the change for any number of reasons anyway.
As regards characters, I think people could live without at least Korean characters--IF and ONLY IF it doesn't bork a genuine user's translation software. (I also don't really see the point of using other scripts for other languages in PBPs, but that is a conversation for another time and different forum.) (Edited for unnecessary commentary.)