Has anyone else noticed this?

[jbennet]

Lately there has been a lot of spam threads from users where it is thier 1st post, advertising porn sites, viagra etc..... They usualy have just one link to it and thats it in the post

Ive reported it but its becoming a problem

[Dani]

I tried replying to your IM but you had already signed off by the time I got to my computer. The mod team is well aware of the problem, but unfortunately, the more we grow, the more we get onto the radar of all of the big spammers out there.

The following is what we've already done to help the problem:

• We do IP bans of all of the big spammers but it's near impossible because they all use proxies.
• It's required to validate your email address before you can post.
• If a new member registers and then their welcome email bounces, they're permabanned.
• Many of our moderators have volunteered to help curtail spam in forums they typically don't visit (such as the IT Water Cooler).

[jbennet]

sorry i signed off but it was like 12:00 :)

[Dani]

It's 3 am right now but I couldn't sleep so I just got out of bed to get a last dose of DaniWeb before I start counting sheep again.

[jbennet]

i was already in my bed. was posting from my PDA lol

[Ancient Dragon]

From my observations it doesn't look like spam and porn stay up on DaniWeb very long -- there are now a lot of moderators from all over the world (timezones) who can delete those posts within the hour or less.

[The Dude]

Spam is becoming a BIG ISSUE on many sites lately....

I think it would be a good idea to start filtering all posts on users that have less than 10 posts..

[John A]

If I may quote happygeek's blog entry:
http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1056.html

80% of spam that targets Internet users in North America and Europe is actually generated by a small hardcore group of no more than 200 professional spam gangs.

:(

Someone should just go and arrest those guys...

[jbennet]

they did. Did you hear about the massive raid in britain a month or 2 ago?

[WaltP]

they did. Did you hear about the massive raid in britain a month or 2 ago?

Then why is it still happening? ;)

[happygeek]

The real problem is that the main players in the spam game are, seemingly, above the law.

Just as the main players in any organised crime gang tend to be rather hard to catch, even though law enforcement are well aware of who they are and where they are.

I suspect the fact that many of the major spam gangs are based in Eastern Europe doesn't help much, as certain countries here have a very poor reputation when it comes to helping in the investigation and arrest of suspects in computer related crime. Given the other problems many of these countries face, I guess spam is not high on their list of priorities right now.

[WaltP]

It's probably producing income for the country... :-|
And the way they spell it's obvious that English is not even a second language with them! :twisted:

[happygeek]

I suspect that the 'balck economy' and the 'real economy' are rather closely related in many an Eastern European country, to be honest.

[roryt]

Just an idea:

Many forums stop you from posting any threads until you have say 10 posts. The only problem I can think of (it is quite a big problem) is that there is a high number of interesting support requests on a users 1st post. Like I said just an idea.

[Dani]

> Many forums stop you from posting any threads until you have say 10 posts.
This used to be true very long ago but just in the Webmaster Marketplace (buy/sell/trade services). But what was happening was, to get around this, everyone was just posting in other random forums hoping the moderation team would move their thread for them. Very few posts actually made it through. It ended up just being 10000 hours of unnecessary work for the moderation team, and the rule was done away with as it stifled growth too much.

[roryt]

Aren't people on this forum clever and evil. I would never thought of putting it in a different thread and hoping it would get moved.

I can see why it would effect the forum growth.

[John A]

Aren't people on this forum clever and evil. I would never thought of putting it in a different thread and hoping it would get moved.

Unfortunately, many forum newbies still tend to do this; they'll dig up some old thread that was posted 2 years ago or something, and then piggyback the thread with a somewhat-unrelated support question, and creating extra work for some moderator.

Luckily, I haven't seen this happening recently.

[WaltP]

Unfortunately, many forum newbies still tend to do this; they'll dig up some old thread that was posted 2 years ago or something, and then piggyback the thread with a somewhat-unrelated support question, and creating extra work for some moderator.

Sounds like a job for SuperDeleteButton Man :mrgreen:

[Dani]

Noooooo! We never ever ever delete such posts. If they're way off topic we split them off into new threads. If they're not way off topic then we leave them be :)

[roryt]

CSCGAL comes to the recue....

It is pretty funny when you answer someones question that is at the top of a thread when someone has bumped it up by posting another question and you realise that it is about 2 years old....

[Dani]

Huh?

[John A]

I think he means replying to the original poster of a 2-year old thread, only to find out that it was just bumped by some newbie. :D

I always get suspicous when I click the "view new posts" button for a thread that I don't remember seeing recently, and it jumps me right to the last post... I then double-check the date before replying.

[~s.o.s~]

Hello there.

I always get suspicous when I click the "view new posts" button for a thread that I don't remember seeing recently, and it jumps me right to the last post... I then double-check the date before replying.

No harm in replying to bumped posts as long as you can contribute something of importance or something which would help out a person.

Earlier we used to close bumped threads (oh those days), but nowadays with the dictum of "let conversations flow", we are not encouraged to close bumped threads and if possible allow people to add useful content to the threads.

So no need of double checking, if you feel there is something you must point out, do so. No one will say you anything for replying to a bumped thread. After all, we mods can just take the bumped questions along with your replies and create a new thread out of it.

Thank you.

[John A]

Earlier we used to close bumped threads (oh those days), but nowadays with the dictum of "let conversations flow", we are not encouraged to close bumped threads and if possible allow people to add useful content to the threads.

So no need of double checking, if you feel there is something you must point out, do so. No one will say you anything for replying to a bumped thread. After all, we mods can just take the bumped questions along with your replies and create a new thread out of it.

Oh, ok. In the other forums I've posted at, there are usually strict bumping rules. Personally I dislike the bumping of old threads because there's discussions that hang around forever, even when the original content is often outdated. I always assumed that DaniWeb had the same no-bumping policy as other forums, but I guess I was wrong. ;)

Thanks for the info.

[roryt]

Yeah, most forums don't like you bumping back the oldies but I can see why sometimes that is useful. What is annoying is wen someone bumps an old thread by saying, "yeah, i agree" . Newbs will be Newbs

[happygeek]

Yeah I agree...

[~s.o.s~]

I always assumed that DaniWeb had the same no-bumping policy as other forums, but I guess I was wrong.

Ah...it really was fun when the policy was strict against bumping threads. Me and Wolfie really had fun closing the threads with a really cool comment ( "Dont ressurrect dead threads like a Shaman" ;) ).

Oh those days.........

[jbennet]

i restarted a 2002 thread once and got a PM telling me it was a dumb idea so obviously somne mods still care

[roryt]

lol. SOS said it used to be that way.

[happygeek]

It's not a matter of 'not caring' but rather one of wanting to foster debate, conversation and a feeling of belonging. Rather than just be a dry place where you ask a question, get an answer and then disappear we are trying to make DaniWeb the kind of place where members care enough to want to ask a question, get an answer and then enter into informative and interesting discussion based around it.

If that makes sense.