OMMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forum Archive - from http://theuniversal.net
Locked
User avatar
killkill
Posts: 199
Joined: Sat Jan 20, 2007 10:32 pm
Location: trying to buy shields... too bad pirates wont let any1...

OMMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Post by killkill »

there r freakin spammers here that giving u websites 4 dirtyspammer movies that prolly give spyware i mean WTF is going on here?!! thes forums r bout games not friggin dirtyspammer vids that ppl under 21 might f-ing see

-Edit-
not only dat, f-ing spammers have posts w/ stupid searches like trouble sleeping and how to make money. spammers include; Adeesetap78,TroubleSleep and some others i forgot
User avatar
Fooli
Staff
Staff
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 2:38 pm
Location: Mars

Post by Fooli »

Alright, we agree of course. But calm down.

Our problem with spammers has actually got a lot better recently. We recently updated the registration process in an attempt at least to stop the automated spammers. There's not a lot we can do to stop actual people registering and posting spam manually (I'm assuming they are people, and that our registration process hasn't already been circumvented, which'd be a real pain).

There have been recent suggestions about members not being able to post until they've been with us for a certain amount of time: I've no idea if that's technically possible but I'll ask our codemonkeys.

Anyway: you joined the forum in January during a period where we were halfway through the registration change. What that mean was, all applications for forum accounts had to be processed manually by the staff. That's actually a very good way of preventing spammers from joining the site at all: it's usually pretty obvious from their username and/or profile whether they're genuine or not. So during that time - about when you registered - we had no spam at all. It was great.

Unfortunately that's not a practical solution: we were getting several hundred registrations a week, and we all have lives to lead. We can't process that volume of registrations manually on a part-time basis, and after all, this is a free site. Also, the manual validation thing meant many genuine people weren't getting their accounts validated quickly, if at all.

Until we find a better solution, the best we can do is to be vigilant about spam on the forums: any spammer is banned and deleted as soon as we can do it.

To that end, it's really useful to have genuine forum members point out spam to us. The best way to do that is to email the staff directly (particularly me and magic), making your message short and sweet. Something like:

Subject: Bad post on The Universal forum
Text: (URL of the problem thread)

I'm "fooli" and magic is "magicfinger", and of course we're both "at" theuniversal dot net.

You can also email the "abuse" at address - I think we both pick that one up too.

In the meantime:

Don't reply to spammers.

Don't click on any URL they post - whether it's seemingly innocuous ("Car insurance") or something that's obviously illicit.

DO let us know if you see something dodgy.

I spend a good hour or two a day doing this stuff; Magic does too, and I believe even Mit sometimes deigns to do a bit of forum admin :] If it were up to me I'd just kill the whole forum until some free or cheap solution to spam could be found... but I guess you guys wouldn't like that much either.

f
User avatar
lensman
Posts: 153
Joined: Sun Apr 30, 2006 7:13 am
Location: Land Down under ( I is a Sandgroper )

Post by lensman »

I was just thinking. ( Which is not too often ).
Is there some way you can have the registration username linked to the, in game username. This way they must down load the game start playing. ( start the game the norm way. ) Then they can register for the forum.
This should stop those who just register for the forum only to spam.
So if a player spams the forum there account is deleted from the main game as well.
EG: My in game username is lensman, my forum username is lensman.
Foot note: I will need to buy a new computer or use a different one, if I want to play the game. Some how the comuter is linked to the first down load of the game.
User avatar
Fooli
Staff
Staff
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 2:38 pm
Location: Mars

Post by Fooli »

Another good idea, and one we've been chatting about for a while. I'd like to see one username for the forum, space, worlds, everything. Not so much for spam as for gameplay benefits. As far as I can see, the only reason someone needs more than one name is for the fun of it (largely irrelevant) or to cause trouble/masquerade as someone else/etc etc. If it could potentially stop spam too, that'd be worth considering. No idea whether it could or not but again, i'll talk to the codechimps and maybe they'll have some ideas :)

f
User avatar
zaroba
World Owner
World Owner
Posts: 7257
Joined: Fri Oct 10, 2003 11:06 pm
Location: Hereford, PA
Contact:

Post by zaroba »

instead of the e-mail thing, what about a way in-site to report bad posts?

i've seen other forums with mods where the post would have a 'Report Post' button on it. a user could click it, and the post would be reported to the forum mods and admins. maybe via a pop up message or pm, maybe via e-mail, i don't really know. could probably set it up so a person would have to give a reason for reporting it.

besides spam, it could also be used to report flame posts and other posts that would normally need to be moderated (like smithy's post about SR)
User avatar
Fooli
Staff
Staff
Posts: 1957
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 2:38 pm
Location: Mars

Post by Fooli »

Another fine idea. I'll see what Magic can do.
f
Locked