We are under attack by a Spammer today [Wednesday 18/10/2023]

[PallasAthena]

We have a determined spammer loose on the forum at the moment. Initially posting as ADOROSHOES they managed to spam a dozen or so threads before EXC blocked the poster and they have now started again as NANIOFFICIAL and at last count had spammed 17 threads (has been reported).

When blocked under that name I expect they'll be back under another.

[EXC]

Thanks, if they appear again under another username I'd be grateful if you could post a link to one of their posts here.

[atticus]

Yes, I reported a couple of their posts this morning. The site team appear to be pretty good at killing spammers.

[EXC]

The report function isn't that great on this version of vBulletin and doesn't proactively alert us so it's actually quicker to tag me, then I can deal with it straight away - at least when I'm around.

[ULA]

It was a bit like wackamole this morning I have to say

We try our best to cut them off quickly and appreciate you altering us to them when they do try to invade.

[Huxie]

The report function isn't that great on this version of vBulletin and doesn't proactively alert us so it's actually quicker to tag me, then I can deal with it straight away - at least when I'm around.

Tagging you - is that just with regards to spam attacks or spam posts in general? There’s quite a few spam posts I’ve reported in the past that still remain. And, if I may ask, is the policy to make the spammer’s account inactive or just to delete the offending post?

[EXC]

Tagging you - is that just with regards to spam attacks or spam posts in general? There’s quite a few spam posts I’ve reported in the past that still remain. And, if I may ask, is the policy to make the spammer’s account inactive or just to delete the offending post?

We've been discussing this internally on the best way to deal with this, here's what we've come up with:

For single spam posts (i.e. someone registers and makes a single spam post) please use the report post function identifying it as 'Spam'. That way we can remove it within 24 hours.

For multiple spam posts (i.e. someone registers and posts two or more times) or a single spam post that's clearly inappropriate (i.e. racist, flogging drugs or anything of an adult nature etc) then please post on that thread and tag both me and Ula. That way one of us can remove it ASAP.

Yes our policy is to both remove the spam post and the offending user, although I appreciate that sometimes doing both gets missed.

Also, just to say, we're really grateful to your eagle eyes spotting spam especially when it's an invisible link!

Any questions just shout.