Reminder on how to deal with spam bots...

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Apache Thunder
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Reminder on how to deal with spam bots...

Post by Apache Thunder »

So I logged in tonight to discover a mess of spam from many different new users which were obvious spam bots. I promptly nuked all the accounts, deleted their posts and banned their IPs.

At this point to better deal with future incidents like this I would like to remind you all now what NOT to do. DON'T post replies to spam bot threads. Report the posts. But most importantly PM a moderator or admin like my self as well to get our attention. If one of the greens don't show up, simply move up the chain and PM a higher up. At some point you'll reach one of us that's online.

If spam occurred in an existing thread it's not as big a deal if you decide to reply to the individual posts. But replying to spam threads especially if you decide to reply to all of them (I'm looking at you Vilespring :P ) makes cleaning up the forums harder for us Admins and Moderators. There's a option for us to delete all of the users threads/posts in one click. However it does not remove their threads of someone replied to it. Which ends up leaving a corpse of a thread with only the thread title and the person(s) replies to the no longer existent thread post.

I have to go in a second time to mass delete the corpse threads. This is time best spent removing other spam users and posts. So please refrain from doing this.

I'm online most of the day actually and if someone PMs me I get a email notice which my Gmail will promptly notify me of no matter where I am on the internet. I was out doing a computer repair job for most of the afternoon, but was indeed home around the time this appeared to have got started. (Looked to happen around 7pm ish in my time zone). Had I gotten a PM I could have responded to this much sooner. Fo0k lives in the UK while I'm in the USA. So it he may have been in bed. But I certainly wasn't. If you notice a mass spam bot occurrence like this in the future, don't be afraid to pass me or Fo0k a personal message or email. You can start with the moderators and if they don't show up, you can move up and PM one of the admins. I live in the CDT time zone for USA while Fo0k lives in the UK. I'm just now about to go to bed and he will likely be waking up in the next few hours in his time zone. So at least one of us two will be awake at any one time. ;)

Either way it wouldn't hurt to simply report the threads and then send us a PM/email. Posting a discussion thread complaining about a mass bot spam isn't going to get us to fix it sooner either. Just keep your cool and we can deal with this in a civil manner. ;)

That is all folks. Carry on! :D
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dudejo
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Re: Reminder on how to deal with spam bots...

Post by dudejo »

Considering what the mess looked like only 12 hours ago, I'd say you did a great job!

I know it's not much but showing gratitude is the least I can do.

Does the user registering use a form of captcha?
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fo0k
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Re: Reminder on how to deal with spam bots...

Post by fo0k »

Good work AT.. heheh yeah I just deleted a few more today.

There is anti bot measures on signup here, which have worked well for years.. (log out, and go to the signup page and you will see)
..but perhaps it's finally cracked.

Lets see if the madness continues over the next few days.. maybe just a meteor shower.
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Bad Bug
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Re: Reminder on how to deal with spam bots...

Post by Bad Bug »

Yeah vilespring isn't the only one who replied to them :oops: lol
Yes my master

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Vilespring
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Re: Reminder on how to deal with spam bots...

Post by Vilespring »

Apache Thunder wrote:(I'm looking at you Vilespring :P )
opps. :oops:
I take full responsibility for what I did. my mistake. I now know what to do when a spam bot comes. I did not want you to go and spend your time deleting corpse threads.

and you did a fine job recovering the forum!
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MarkNL
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Re: Reminder on how to deal with spam bots...

Post by MarkNL »

Dang. Today we also had a spambot on 1942mods.com. Luckily we got rid of it in time. :shock:
One shall stand, one shall fall!
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