Lots of spam accounts and posts…

[Lazvon]

Thank you everyone for the reports of spam posts. I try to get to them as fast I can.

The AI Bot posters are definitely active.

In other news, wish I could actually play Rolemaster and participate in the forums, but happy to help out with spam if nothing else. Someday... free time again... I hope.

[Elrich Maltah]

Thanks for your help in keeping these forums under control from spam and bots.

I'm a moderator on another legacy game's forums (defined as one that's still around, but definitely had its IP heyday a decade or more ago), and this is something that we've been battling lately, too. One thing that seems to have helped vs. fake profile creation is changing the challenge questions that registrants must answer. The previous batch was what I would define as "gimme" questions that didn't really require any knowledge of the property. I suggested a longer list of new ones that people who actually played the game would know, but also could be answered by doing general internet searches. This seems to have stumped the bots completely, at least for now. I don't know if this would be a viable solution for these forums (I don't even remember if there were questions when I registered here), but it ought to be an option since you use a newer version of the SMF software than we do.

Another thing I'm doing is closing profiles that have never posted and have never been "Last Active" on the forums. When I started on this, we had more than 36,000 profiles, but over half of those were added after the retail version of the game shut down. This told me that there was obvious bloat and risk of profiles that could be turned to promote unwanted content. The ICE members list is nowhere near that size (less than 9,500 profiles as of today), but I can still see examples that are hiding external sites in their profiles (at least seven with websites in the last 45 days when sorted by registration date). This could be another front to consider tackling in your anti-spam efforts.

[nash]

Thanks for your efforts Lazvon!  Definitely been a surge in spam bots.

A quick question:  Is it helpful when we report to moderator spam posts?  When I see one I report it - but I just wanted to check it actually makes your job easier.

And maybe more VTT support will make it easier to find a game ;-)

[Lazvon]

Yes, please report. Not being active means that is the way I see them.

We definitely had a few logins a few months ago from years ago. Since it wa several accounts, I assume someone just requested "password resets" for email addresses they had taken over, then once recovered spammed with those.

Will see if I have any access to do anything preventive, but will validate with others before doing anything.

[Elrich Maltah]

Will see if I have any access to do anything preventive, but will validate with others before doing anything.

Since your last post, there's been a rash of new profiles created that clearly seem to not have this site's best interests in mind. This is because of the websites that are included in those profiles that show up on the members list. Such website topics include:

"How To Change The Windshield Wiper Blades"
"Cardboard Recyling Ideas For You Personally Personally"
"Raising A Newborn On The Cheap"
"How To Get A Baby Belly - 4 Ab Rehab 'Musts'"
"Losing Pregnancy Weight"
"5 The Things I Learned From Breastfeeding"
"Car Windshield Repair And Replacement"
"Babywearing - Choosing The Right Baby Carrier"
"Automotive Business Choices"
"Moving Boxes - A Necessity For Moving - Storing And Packing Items"
"Windshield And Possibly A Replacement Whether Or Not This Shatters"
"The Benefits Of Playing Poker Online"
"Where To Buy A Lots Roses Online - A Pet Dog Home View Of How To Avoid The Risks"
"Baby Carriers Backpacks - How Did We Ever Live Without?"
"Make Sure Your Glass Is Covered"
"Windshield Repair And Replacement - Ideas For Your Family's Safety"
"Packing Items For Real Estate Removals"
"How Much Will It Cost Me In Replacing My Car Window?"
"Baby Carrier Stroller - Comfort And Safety For Your Baby"
"5 Factors As To Why You Are Better Off Playing Bingo Online"
"Live Online Poker Event - Earning Money On The Net!"
"Online Gaming Establishments Can Capture And Grab You For Keeps"

Whatever permission you need to ask for might be good to purge some of these profiles.

[nash]

FWIW Lazvon; considering the age of the forum software and how bad spamming is on the internet... You guys are doing an amazing job of keeping this place mostly clean!

We appreciate the work you and all the other moderators do to keep this place clean, and I know it's generally a thankless job... So here's a thanks from me!

And you always have a spot at the (virtual) table in my games!

[Lazvon]

Hey, almost a year later and another outbreak of fake users and spam. Trying to clean up right now. It's a LOT.

[Lazvon]

Hard to keep up... I only have the Moderation Privs so I can't turn off New Users or require all New Threads to be moderated for a while. Some threads did get flagged for moderation yesterday, so that was easy to just remove all the spam ones and Post the single real one.

[Lazvon]

okay, I think I got all 10 posts by all 6 spam bot users removed... and all of those users banned. Whew.

[nash]

Thank you!

We all appreciate you guys keeping the boards useable in the sea of ads and AI slop that is the modern internet.

[Lazvon]

You're welcome, another blast today. I'm not sure I can keep up.

Perhaps a Full Admin can setup a New User Moderation queue to not give them posting privileges until they're "Fully Approved" or let them post but their post have to be Approved first, then we can just ban and quickly delete a whole swath of spam messages easier than 1 at a time I currently have to do.

If I had more admin privileges I'd figure one of those out. I run forums for other things and do such things there.

[rdanhenry]

Thank you for doing what you can. It's not good when the spam outnumbers the real posts.

[Lazvon]

Took care of the last batch of reports for last couple of days. Thank you folks.

Just case a Full Admin reads this one... if we can turn on user and new topic moderation for a while, would probably be good. I guess not that user moderation will help much, but perhaps if they have to wait a few hours until I approve, they won't be able to post and their bot will just give up.

New topic moderation, hopefully I can handle pretty quickly at least for a few weeks at least and see how it goes.

Though we have had at least one batch that were replies in known good topics... those were harder to remove due to not be able to select the posts for deletion across multiple pages or something. I can't remember why it was harder now... I certainly don't want to go to Reply Moderation. That's not sustainable for forums... though maybe until a person is manually moved from "New User" to "Accepted User" or something after we've seen non-spam posts... if that's possible...

Hmmm, looks like we really need a 2.1.6 upgrade too. Just came out yesterday.

[Horrors & Heroes]

Hi admins - for ages now I have been posting links to our Rolemaster Actual play YouTube channel, one of the few RM actual plays I am aware of online, into the forums.

I keep posting over the same original post and don't pester anyone else in the forums. Yes for sure I do it to promote our own channel but absolutely its also about trying to show how good the RM system is (the only RPG I play).

Noone has asked me to stop and I hope I'm not being a nuisance but admins please let me know if you want me to can it. I do the same on the RM Facebook page, after first checking with the admins there too.

Let me know if this is considered spam and you want me to stop.

Thaanks

Chris

Took care of the last batch of reports for last couple of days. Thank you folks.

Just case a Full Admin reads this one... if we can turn on user and new topic moderation for a while, would probably be good. I guess not that user moderation will help much, but perhaps if they have to wait a few hours until I approve, they won't be able to post and their bot will just give up.

New topic moderation, hopefully I can handle pretty quickly at least for a few weeks at least and see how it goes.

Though we have had at least one batch that were replies in known good topics... those were harder to remove due to not be able to select the posts for deletion across multiple pages or something. I can't remember why it was harder now... I certainly don't want to go to Reply Moderation. That's not sustainable for forums... though maybe until a person is manually moved from "New User" to "Accepted User" or something after we've seen non-spam posts... if that's possible...

Hmmm, looks like we really need a 2.1.6 upgrade too. Just came out yesterday.

[Spectre771]

On the bright side of all this spam, it's nice to know that the spammers think RoleMaster/ICE is popular enough and reaches a large enough audience to make spamming us worth their while!

[nash]

Let me know if this is considered spam and you want me to stop.

The spam in question is hundreds of Temu signup spam messages.  The mods have done an amazing job of deleting them.

Videos of RM actual play is as on topic as you can possibly get.

[Horrors & Heroes]

Okay (phew) ... Thanks Nash. I didn't want to annoy anyone in the RM community (which I certainly consider my community).

I'll keep on posting then ... Its game night tonight!! Yay!!

Let me know if this is considered spam and you want me to stop.

The spam in question is hundreds of Temu signup spam messages.  The mods have done an amazing job of deleting them.

Videos of RM actual play is as on topic as you can possibly get.

[Lazvon]

You're fine, Chris! Not a problem at all! No, the spam I'm talking about and getting hard to control is the random AI posts... heck, if it was BETTER and actually LOOKED like it was on topic for these forums, would probably slip by even if it sent you to some spam website.

Hi admins - for ages now I have been posting links to our Rolemaster Actual play YouTube channel, one of the few RM actual plays I am aware of online, into the forums.

I keep posting over the same original post and don't pester anyone else in the forums. Yes for sure I do it to promote our own channel but absolutely its also about trying to show how good the RM system is (the only RPG I play).

Noone has asked me to stop and I hope I'm not being a nuisance but admins please let me know if you want me to can it. I do the same on the RM Facebook page, after first checking with the admins there too.

Let me know if this is considered spam and you want me to stop.

Thaanks

Chris

[Lazvon]

The spam in question is hundreds of Temu signup spam messages.  The mods have done an amazing job of deleting them.

Videos of RM actual play is as on topic as you can possibly get.

Thanks! I'm trying! I never get to play anymore, but for the decades of enjoying Rolemaster brought me, is the least I can do to try and keep the forums spam free.

We need the forums upgraded too. Couple of weeks ago was the first release in a couple of years to fix some vulnerabilities that MIGHT be how all the spam if getting through.

[Horrors & Heroes]

Nice one thanks Lazvon and thanks for fighting the good fight for us against the spambots!

You're fine, Chris! Not a problem at all! No, the spam I'm talking about and getting hard to control is the random AI posts... heck, if it was BETTER and actually LOOKED like it was on topic for these forums, would probably slip by even if it sent you to some spam website.

Hi admins - for ages now I have been posting links to our Rolemaster Actual play YouTube channel, one of the few RM actual plays I am aware of online, into the forums.

I keep posting over the same original post and don't pester anyone else in the forums. Yes for sure I do it to promote our own channel but absolutely its also about trying to show how good the RM system is (the only RPG I play).

Noone has asked me to stop and I hope I'm not being a nuisance but admins please let me know if you want me to can it. I do the same on the RM Facebook page, after first checking with the admins there too.

Let me know if this is considered spam and you want me to stop.

Thaanks

Chris