The spam seems to be taking over. Is there anyway to limit or eliminate this problem?

My profile claims 71 posts this week - half of them are probably spam reports. Every posting when you first access the site and look at the what's new feature is spam. That must really draw in newcomers. Looking for Luis Vuittonfish?
It's a good community, but it is being throttled by spammers.

LOL.

The best thing you can do is click the red triangle below your name.This helps us to find them.I get up at 6:25 and this is the first thing I do.We try to get the spam out asap but its very hard when they flood the board,to keep it from being seen.

__________________
http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

Not to mention these people are using software that keeps thier IP address changing, the username changing, and automatically puts in whatever junk they are posting. The best thing to do is report it when you see it because the spammers are posting about 5-6 posts to each user name. The mods can go in and just delete them before they get too many posts.

__________________
75g Blackwater Oscar tank, 55g rescued Koi tank, 55g Native tank, 55g Community tank, 29g Community tank, 25g Bolivian Ram tank, 20H GBR tank, 20L Black Convict, 20L in progress, 10g Fry tank, 10g Dragonscale betta tank, 3g Crowntail betta tank.

Thanks for the advice, and thank you to the sites moderators for your efforts. I will be sure to hit the red triangle and report them from this point forward.

The poor mods - I suppose it reflects badly on me but I get up for work at 5:45, and have begun to take a perverse delight in reporting these ^&%^$! spammers while I drink my morning coffee. I'll keep doing it.

Take that, you Luis Vuitton selling adidas swine!

I hate it when they post to new members and the software makes me do that extra step to avoid welcoming them...

The weird thing is that most of the spam consists of randomness that makes no sense most of the time. Maybe we should require everyone to prove they are not a bot by making them type the word that appears in a box. I think it's called captcha

__________________
36 Gallon Saltwater reef tank
Ocellaris Clown, Scooter Dragonet, sandsifter star, Decorator crab, emerald crab, coralline snails, blue leg hermit crab, and horseshoe crab.
Zooad's and shrooms
40 pounds of Live sand, 20 pounds of LR
Canister filter, 1-unit of chemipure
VHO 2-39W bulbs reef sun/actinic

They have programs that work around the captcha I have seen it on many boards. The only way we can stop spam permantly is for either each person to be verified or charge for use of site. Both would be a hassle for both the user and administration.

I wake up a lot at night and I try to get on and delete what can during the night but they still hit hard at time.

__________________
SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build + 62 other tanks.
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

This morning when I logged on to the main page, every single new posting advertized was spam. It made the site appear to have been overwhelmed or abandoned - not a forum I would have even considered joining if I were just looking as a newcomer. It has to drive people away to see that.
It's a shame. I just report them and the mods make them go away...

I get up at 4:20 usually and it is the first thing I do when I get on. I leave my house for work around 5:30 and while at red lights will look for and delete stuff from my phone.

I'd like to know how many threads get deleted on a daily basis. I know some mornings I clean as many as 60 threads before I get to work.

I agree. If I would have seen something like that when I first found this site, I would've thought better of it and moved on.

One of the sites I frequent for RC Helis uses a word in a box kind of deal. Like what you would do to join places, place an order, or it ask a random question that a 1st grader could answer. If you don't answer, you can't post. it goes away after your fist 5 posts, I believe.

I had a thought about it.
Verification can take many forms - the problem is often that too much admin is required to catch the culprits.
What if new user's posts are on hold until a mod has had time to verify the content of a couple of messages? Sure, I know some people might get irritated about someone else looking at the content before they're released for public consumption but that would:
1. Keep the messages off the boards
2. Make it easy for a mod to just cancel a user before the posts appear.

And the chat would still be available - maybe also make Emergencies the one category that users can post to without mod verification- at least they'd be confined.

The reason these people are coming back is that the posts are there for enough time for them to get some visibility - with the above method, there would be next to none and they would go elsewhere.
cb

There's always either closing registering to the forums, or some people just try to make more questions while signing up. Try registering to another forum to figure out what I mean. But there's a few ways to deter spammers.

__________________
Hello world.

I can't remember from when I signed up, do people get an email and have to click on it to verify signing up? That's what most boards have...

I used to like to read the new posts the same way some people read the newpaper.Reading about tropical fish and aquarium-keeping are my favorite topics. I quit logging on for a while because of all of the spam. I was hoping things had gotten better,but I guess not.

If anyone has noticed, its been pretty quiet here concerning spam. Spam has been done by certain names and IP's and I have been deleting them as they log on.

__________________
SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build + 62 other tanks.
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

I work nights and ill sit and read the forums till about 11:00pm-2:00am, that's when I see the most of that god awfull spam

__________________
10g- 3 variatus, 4 guppies, 1 blue mystery snail
40g Breeder- 6 danios, 5 swordtails, 1 Opaline Gourami
"I was born with nothin and I still got most of it left."- Seasick Steve.