Question about spam posts
 

If a "moderated post" appears that is pure spam, can I just delete it as spam and also check the "delete other posts and threads started by affected users", especially if the user name is something like, say, "efgh519"?

That's what I do. I figure that if someone posts an obvious spam message as his first posting here, it's practically certain to be a spam bot.

Alex

[QUOTE=akruppa;168483]That's what I do. I figure that if someone posts an obvious spam message as his first posting here, it's practically certain to be a spam bot.

Alex[/QUOTE]OK, thanks. I didn't know how heavy-handed I needed to be....

It's spam, unless you need "Juicy Couture t-shirts"

Or "Abercrombie jackets"

Boycott annywholesale

[QUOTE=schickel;168484]Boycott - www . annywholesale . com[/QUOTE]
You should break that link!

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;168488]You should break that link![/QUOTE]Ooops.....sorry, didn't even think of that!

Frank, three questions:

1. Why did the spammer try to reserve a [strike]sequence[/strike] post for spam in the aliquot sequence forum, of all places :wink: ?

2. How come the spam was in an already-moderated post?

3. Why hasn't efgh519 been banned?

[QUOTE=10metreh;168532]Frank, three questions:

1. Why did the spammer try to reserve a [strike]sequence[/strike] post for spam in the aliquot sequence forum, of all places :wink: ?[/QUOTE]Probably a spambot: randomly spewing junk with no thought as to where it lands.

If it knows how to spem spam in a vBulletin forum, they landed in our area by random chance.....[QUOTE]

2. How come the spam was in an already-moderated post?[/QUOTE]Not being intimately acquainted with the forum software, I can only guess, but I would guess that since there were 3 posts, but the user stats showed "0 posts", the posts only appeared for me and would not show up to a non-mod unless and until I approved the post.

When I clicked on the "find all posts by this user" in the stats panel, it showed 7 posts but only listed the three in the Aliquot forum. That indicates to me that only mods could see the posts, and since I can only abuse mod powers in the Aliquot forum those were the only messages I could see....
[QUOTE]3. Why hasn't efgh519 been banned?[/QUOTE]Banning is probably only available to super-mods, and if I was designing forum software, I would probably put a user who had a mod delete posts as spam in a forum on a list to see if all the posts by that user were spam to allow banning based on mods' actions in disparite forums....probably when someone checks such a list, if it exists, they will end up banned.

He's banned now.

[QUOTE=schickel;168543]Banning is probably only available to super-mods, and if I was designing forum software, I would probably put a user who had a mod delete posts as spam in a forum on a list to see if all the posts by that user were spam to allow banning based on mods' actions in disparite forums....probably when someone checks such a list, if it exists, they will end up banned.[/QUOTE]

You don't have the option of banning the user when you delete posts as spam? In that case it might be better to leave spam posts to super-mods, so we can ban them right away.

Alex

[QUOTE=akruppa;168587]You don't have the option of banning the user when you delete posts as spam? In that case it might be better to leave spam posts to super-mods, so we can ban them right away.

Alex[/QUOTE]As I said, I'm not familiar with the ins and outs of vBulletin, but, no, it didn't give me the option of banning the user.

I didn't even realize that a new user could post in other than the information forums, although I guess it makes sense if they register that they have to be able to start somewhere.

How deep is the moderation queue, and does my deleting posts as spam in one forum affect posts in other forums? If the queue is very deep, a delete followed by a PM to a supermod could relieve some of the load, assuming I ever run across this again. I'll do whatever is best for the forum....I'd like to keep it clear of spam, since it's nice to visit [i]somewhere[/i] that's spam free.

[quote]You don't have the option of banning the user when you delete posts as spam?[/quote]There is always the option of just logging out and deleting a random account. The odds that the spammer's account ends up being the random account are slim, but weirder things have happened.