Spam Bomb!!!

[Narada]

Dear Moderators,

If you haven't noticed, the board now has two full pages of spam. Please don't delete any of my stories while ridding us of this garbage.

Narada

[Johnny B Pooed]

Though it should be pointed out that Mr. Spammy-Guy did effectively shit all over the forum... which seems oddly apropos.

Albeit very annoying!

[Narada]

SUPER annoying. For a second, I thought we'd got a welter of new posts, then I realized it was spam ! Ugh...anyway, at least it's all gone now.

[Wet Set]

Yes, you bet it's super annoying, and unfortunately we're in for more!

Last night we were attempting to delete 9,000+ new spammer accounts awaiting moderation when the admin panel crashed and made a whole load of them registered!! I guess 9,000+ put it in overload!

There is no way to know who these spammers are, as many of them have totally normal looking email addreses. We have deleted any with suspicious emails, but there are still loads left, and the only way to know who they are is when they post spam - ugg!

As they post, they will of course be banned, and therefore weeded out. We have also put some stricter controls on who can sign up, so assuming we don't have another admin panel crash, we will hopefully not have the same problem again once they're all gone.

Paul
Wet Set

[Drying]

Yes, you bet it's super annoying, and unfortunately we're in for more!

Last night we were attempting to delete 9,000+ new spammer accounts awaiting moderation when the admin panel crashed and made a whole load of them registered!! I guess 9,000+ put it in overload!

There is no way to know who these spammers are, as many of them have totally normal looking email addreses. We have deleted any with suspicious emails, but there are still loads left, and the only way to know who they are is when they post spam - ugg!

As they post, they will of course be banned, and therefore weeded out. We have also put some stricter controls on who can sign up, so assuming we don't have another admin panel crash, we will hopefully not have the same problem again once they're all gone.

Paul
Wet Set

If this becomes a real problem, it is possible to run a small script or maybe just a simple query on the database to ban or delete users which registered in a certain time slot...

[Wet Set]

I think we might have deleted them all now - fingers crossed! Maybe there are just a few left.

I studied the profiles of the ones we knew were spammers, and found patterns in some of the details that could be used to find others.

So I'm hoping that there are very few registered spammers left now.

Paul

[pissed_myself]

Dude!!!!!!!

We thank you SO VERY VERY MUCH for your efforts controlling this board... Really.. THANKS SO MUCH.

[Narada]

I wish you lot could bring back the old posters as easily as you rid us of the spam! Mudman, Maria, Lucibelle, et al, where ya hiding??

[Wet Set]

I wish you lot could bring back the old posters as easily as you rid us of the spam! Mudman, Maria, Lucibelle, et al, where ya hiding??

So do I! But they have probably moved on, got different lives, lost interest etc. Just like in real life when you lose touch with people who you once had something in common, but no longer do.

And I think we have a whole new generation of internet users now, with a completely new attitude to it. The first net users were adults at the time the internet came along, and it was new and exciting and they appreciated what a wonderful technology it was, and they respected it!

Now many users take the internet completely for granted, and it's become ho hum. They believe it's their entitlement and the net is there just for them! They have no respect for it nor for other net users, and think everything should be free, because so much is.

We're sounding old!!

Paul