A Note About Spammers & Site Management

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admin

Smoking a Pipe Right Now
Staff member
Nov 16, 2008
8,764
4,932
St. Petersburg, FL
pipesmagazine.com
This post was prompted by this thread:

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/tamp-and-puff
I started over there by saying -
It's a frustrating situation [SPAMMERS] for both site members and forum / web site administrators / owners.
You guys don't see it, but the level of spam is immensely, ridiculously, unrelentingly never-ending.
In the above referenced post, a guy had his IP address blocked for being a spammer ... except he is not a spammer.
The simple problem there is that even when you have a fixed IP address from your ISP, they still change every once in a while. He probably got a new IP that had formally been used by a spammer.
We have had the same problem here. I have had to unblock some legit members.
I spend about 8-hours a week managing spammers - deleting accounts, banning IP addresses, deleting spam messages, spam comments on articles, etc...
And that is with programs in place to catch the spam before it is published, or to catch user accounts before they become active.
I could write a book on this stuff, but I'm keeping this brief.
Here are a few stats for you -
November 2011 - 5,000 spam comments were captured and filtered out before they could be published in various articles here on PipesMagazine.com. This was the peak in automated spam comments.
I made some changes in the site structure to make it more difficult for spammers, then the next month spam comments were cut in half to 2,500. Then after more changes, we have been averaging 300 - 400 spam comments that are caught by the filter, even to this day on a monthly basis.
Month-to-date, for January 2013 - we are at 161 spam comments automatically filtered out.
The smaller number means that fewer spammers are actually able to use their automated "bot" tools to get into the system. We catch 99% of the spam comments before they go public. So we have cut back significantly on the number of spammers that are able to breach the backend of the site - which you guys never see.
Still, every single morning when I login to the admin, there are an average of 6 - 12 new spam comments.
The 8-hours a week I spend currently is dealing with live human spammers, between PipesMagazine.com and http://cigarchronicles.com/.
For some reason, CigarChronicles.com got on one or more spammer lists, and has been severely under attack.
I had to install a new system over there, and still have to manually remove about a dozen spammer accounts a week.
The automated system reports -
"Stop Spammers has stopped 22,840 spammers since installation" - (which was August 1, 2012) - so that is an average of 4,152 spammers per month - meaning people that tried to make an account so they could leave spam links.
The same person signed up 4 times in a row over the weekend after I deleted her. I think I finally got her fully blocked as she hasn't been back since.
Anyway, it's a constant "arms race" with spammers. You find new ways to keep them out, and then they find new ways around the system, and it goes on and on and on.
Unfortunately, there are the occasional innocent bystanders as well.

 

atboth

Might Stick Around
Dec 7, 2012
58
0
Hi Kevin,
My own site gets close to eighty spamvertisements for Christian Louboutin, Ugg and assorted shmatte per day. In addition to other crap. Fortunately Google recognizes everything with url chop suey as potential spam, and dumps it in a spam folder for eventual review. Still, given that it is very doubtful that any of my readers has a serious fashion accessory fetish, I wonder why the spambots even try.
Keep up the good work.
Regards,
---Atboth

 

rmbittner

Lifer
Dec 12, 2012
2,759
1,994
Yes, the behind-the-scenes work is greatly appreciated. (Imagine what it would be like if every legitimate user had to wade through all of that garbage every time we logged in! I think I'd give up after a single visit.)
Bob

 

taerin

Lifer
May 22, 2012
1,851
1
Your one standup guy Kev, sorry about all the spam, they are scum of the net.

 

cynyr

Part of the Furniture Now
Feb 12, 2012
646
113
Tennessee
Wow. Come to think of it, I have never seen a spam on the forums or articles. We don't see all that goes on behind the curtain.

 

kris

Can't Leave
Sep 16, 2012
433
1
You're not working hard enough. I still see Harris trying to convince me to spend all my hard-earned on new Rads!!!

 

lankfordjl

Part of the Furniture Now
Sep 29, 2011
611
2
Texas
Thanks Kevin! It really sounds like a headache. This site is a great tool and an inviting place because of all your hard work.

 

spartan

Lifer
Aug 14, 2011
2,963
7
AllTheThings_back.png


 

crk69

Part of the Furniture Now
Jun 30, 2012
751
1
It just goes to show how many have nothing better to do with their time then spam forums, boards, and other sites trying to promote products or advertisements. (Which most of us probably wouldn't want or need anyway) Thank you Kevin for all that you do to make our time spent here enjoyable.

 

tjameson

Lifer
Jun 16, 2012
1,191
4
You are doin a great job I have only seen two spam comments in the time I've been here and they were promptly removed.

 

hans

Starting to Get Obsessed
Dec 3, 2012
189
1
It just goes to show how many have nothing better to do with their time then spam forums, boards, and other sites trying to promote products or advertisements. (Which most of us probably wouldn't want or need anyway) Thank you Kevin for all that you do to make our time spent here enjoyable.
Most of the time there is no actual human doing the spamming. that is why it is so intense.

Most spam is made by "bots" which are run by unknowing people who've had their computers affected by worms.

This is another reason innocent users get labeled as "spammers".
So this should be a good reminder for everyone to sweep their computers clean and to run anti-virus software as much as possible. Especially if you are using a windows pc.

 

pflan

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jan 3, 2013
120
0
I am an IT Technician at a local IT Services/Computer Repair company. This being said, these numbers do not surprise me one bit. I see so much malware, spyware, viral entries, and spam.. it is absolutely incredible. This stuff spreads quickly and I STRONGLY agree with hans in that it would everyone, including Kevin if we always have an updated Antivirus program. A couple of free Antivirus programs that I strongly recommend are Microsoft Security Essentials and Avast Antivirus. Also, some programs to run to keep your computers clean and quick are Malwarebytes, Glary Utilities, and CCleaner. All of these programs can be downloaded for free at www.download.com.
Sorry for the tech rant guys. Here's to everyone having a wonderful evening and a great week.

 
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