reporting spam - time factor

[keypeg]

You have to wait "more than 120 seconds" between reports.  So if someone spams 8 places, you have to spend close to 20 minutes.  not ready to do that.

[nilsjohan]

Thanks for pointing this problem out. We will consider changing the time limit for reports.
But it is usually enough to report one spam post by a specific user since we will then look through and clean up all their spam posts anyway.

[perfect_pitch]

You have to wait "more than 120 seconds" between reports.  So if someone spams 8 places, you have to spend close to 20 minutes.  not ready to do that.

I also just wrote 'scummy spammer wrote 7 other posts with same message'. Figured Nils would do the appropriate thing and scrub them all off.

[keypeg]

Thank you Nils.  That makes sense.

[perfect_pitch]

We've got another scummy spammer (by the name of 'sacmen') who has plastered over 20 posts in less than 10 minutes of joining the web-site. Would it be worth not allowing registered users to post for the first 24 or 48 hours?

Only because we all know they just come once, spam their sh*t and then move on. Usually we never see them again. In that 24 hour period however they may forget to come back and post their inane sh*t.

[perfect_pitch]

Again... thought I'd voice my opinion on just reducing the time limit on reporting Spam posts to moderators. Had 2 different users posting their idiotic spam, and must have reported the 2nd person just within the 2 minute time limit and gotten the message.

Don't know if the 2 minutes then restarts again... but if the reporting time limit was removed it would help people message faster about these constant spamming pricks... most of whom are barely on the site for 5 minutes before they post their crap.

[perfect_pitch]

That time limit on reporting spam needs to be removed - I found 6 posts in one visit with spam links in their message or signature, and I don't intend to wait around for an extra 10 minutes to report each and every one of them - that's just tedious.

[bryfarr]

There's a plethora of Troll posts and replies to posts today - - just random non-applicable one sentence posts.

Why would they want to limit the number of spam reports from a single user per minute?  What is their rationale here?  It sounds like there are some dubious assumptions behind it...

[keypeg]

Same situation today - conveniently Christmas day when nobody will be monitoring.  Five adverts (spam) by the same party with gobbledygook messages having nothing to do with music.  Can they be flagged?  Only if you are willing to spend 10 minutes, since there must be a space of "120 seconds".  The spammer, however, can do a rapid-spam.  This problem hasn't been fixed.

[klavieronin]

Has anyone else been noticing replies the look suspiciously AI generated? The posts are relevant to the topic but have a real AI vibe and to me feel substantively empty. Should these be reported too?

[brogers70]

Has anyone else been noticing replies the look suspiciously AI generated? The posts are relevant to the topic but have a real AI vibe and to me feel substantively empty. Should these be reported too?

Yes, they have an AI vibe, and particularly if they come with a link and it's a first time poster, I think they should be treated as spam.

[nilsjohan]

Has anyone else been noticing replies the look suspiciously AI generated? The posts are relevant to the topic but have a real AI vibe and to me feel substantively empty. Should these be reported too?

Yes, please report them even if you are not completely confident they are spam. The reports are always helpful and we do of course check carefully before removing posts or banning users.
But many of you who regularly report spam appear to have a very refined sense of spotting bots so the spam reports we receive are most often correct!

[perfect_pitch]

You need to eliminate the time limit for reporting spam messages. 2 different users posted spam and I'm forced to wait 2 minutes between reporting each user, and if you accidentally post something like this in between reporting users, it again delays you in reporting users.

To be honest - I don't want to wait and hang around to have to report these people; I just want to get it done and move on. Plus, I suspect that if you do try and report user within the 2 minute time limit even if your early by a few seconds, it then resets the counter back to 0 and you have to wait ANOTHER 2 minutes to report the user.

I'm happy to do what I can to report these buggers, but I'm not waiting around for this to be honest. I've been doing it too long and it's quite infuriating.

[ahinton]

Please check posts from member caicoaken joined just today which have nothing to do with the kinds of subject discussed here. Many thanks.

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Perhaps a reduction of the time between reports to 60 seconds could work, while still fulfilling the original purpose of the time limit?
Another thing that could help is adjusting how quickly you can make posts. Currently, you can make posts on the same board every 30 seconds, with no limit for posting to different boards. Making the 30 seconds apply universally could help.
As for the idea of a window where you can't post after joining the forum, 24-48 hours is definitely going to do more harm than good. It could start as 1 hour, then move up to 3 or maybe 6 if that doesn't work.

[perfect_pitch]

As for the idea of a window where you can't post after joining the forum, 24-48 hours is definitely going to do more harm than good. It could start as 1 hour, then move up to 3 or maybe 6 if that doesn't work.

Actually... I don't know if it's possible, but is it possibly to deny them the ability to insert any hyperlinks for the first 48 hours, but being able to post any text as normal?

Please check posts from member caicoaken joined just today which have nothing to do with the kinds of subject discussed here. Many thanks.

Yeah, I reported him yesterday as well as another user who posted a link in his signature. They're still slipping through, aren't they?

[liszt-and-the-galops]

Actually... I don't know if it's possible, but is it possibly to deny them the ability to insert any hyperlinks for the first 48 hours, but being able to post any text as normal?

As long as there's a message telling them that they can't insert hyperlinks into posts, signatures, etc. for the first XYZ hours, then that could also work for most of the spam posts.

[nilsjohan]

You need to eliminate the time limit for reporting spam messages. 2 different users posted spam and I'm forced to wait 2 minutes between reporting each user, and if you accidentally post something like this in between reporting users, it again delays you in reporting users.

Yes, that makes sense. The time limit for reports has now been decreased to 10 seconds.

[perfect_pitch]

Thank you - that will make reporting spam users a LOT more efficient.