Obviously he/she/it came back

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 5:50 am

He tests me until I go to bed and then he does a test and I don't block and then all hell starts.
Dirty SOB.
I got up early this morning.
I got it stopped and I blocked the offending accounts and I can watch for new accounts.

In the meantime...cleanup will begin but the only thing I can do is one at a time...so give me some time.
I can only do one at a time until Ben comes to work usually around 7 AM CST and can help.

Bertha deBlues · Post by **Bertha deBlues** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 7:48 am

I feel bad for you having to deal with this. Your work is appreciated.

Cardsfan · Post by **Cardsfan** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 8:09 am

Thank you for all you do. I appreciate it.

jnk... · Post by **jnk...** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 8:16 am

I think you should be paid double whatever it is that you aren't being paid now.

D.H. · Post by **D.H.** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 9:47 am

Yes, thank you.

Would it be possible to automatically block any posting containing Korean characters? At the moment it's only Korean, but maybe at some point other non-western characters would need to also be blocked.

Janknitz · Post by **Janknitz** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 9:55 am

Another forum I’m on delays a new user’s ability post for 15 minutes after signing up. . That seems to be sufficient to thwart the bots.

Lucyhere · Post by **Lucyhere** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 10:14 am

They don't seem to give up! They/it/she/he must know that 99% of people on the forum can't read the language. What's the point. Can't buy anything because we have no idea what they are selling. Maybe that garbage goes to other sites at the same time.

Sorry you have to be dealing with this for days on end.

RiverDave · Post by **RiverDave** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 10:18 am

Hang in there, Pugsy. I appreciate what you are doing.

mesenteria · Post by **mesenteria** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 11:14 am

Pugsy, I posted this several days back, but the post never showed up.

I used to work as a mod on a hobby forum. A previously banned troll would wait until Friday, and being tech savvy, he'd re-register with a different computer, different and floating IP, and then drag up dead threads and begin to post filth on them. It was like playing whack-a-mole. He would do this for hours until he gave up. Fortunately, I am on the left coast, he in the east, so I could take over from the eastern mod who was doing the battle.

On Saturday night, it would start all over again. It got old really fast.

I offer that commiseration, unhelpful as it is.

Does this forum not have a moderator who can be active later in the early morning, someone in a western timezone? The spammer would have to be unusual to want to attempt this for up to six hours at a go...because between an easterner and a western moderator, that's about what the typical daily coverage could be.

klm49 · Post by **klm49** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:18 pm

Pugsy wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 09, 2018 5:50 am
He tests me until I go to bed and then he does a test and I don't block and then all hell starts.
Dirty SOB.
I got up early this morning.
I got it stopped and I blocked the offending accounts and I can watch for new accounts.

In the meantime...cleanup will begin but the only thing I can do is one at a time...so give me some time.
I can only do one at a time until Ben comes to work usually around 7 AM CST and can help.

Pugsy, Are they using a different email address for verification every time or does it change every time like the IP address?

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:35 pm

klm49 wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:18 pm
Pugsy, Are they using a different email address for verification every time or does it change every time like the IP address?

I honestly don't know because I don't have access to that information.
I would assume new/different email addresses are needed but those are easy to get.

I can see when someone sets up an account...and the time they made the account and how many posts they make...and I can quickly stop them from posting but that's all I can see. I might could look up the IP addresses but haven't bothered (would take some digging) because people use proxy servers all the time. I was told that they were different IP addresses and to block one might block legit people and it wouldn't stop them anyway since most of the time the IP is different anyway.
With the new forum software I used to be able to easily see IP addresses...now not so easy but really doesn't matter because I can't do anything about it at that level anyway.

My powers are limited....block accounts (one at a time) from posting spam ...remove the offending posts (one at a time) which obviously takes time.

Didn't take me long this morning to put a halt to the dude/it/he/she/bot...whatever.
Ben came on line about 6:30 and did the bulk of the clean up because he/she has different powers than I have.

I have zero input as to what anyone is talking about doing in terms of beefing up security. I am not included in that discussion nor really would it be helpful if I was because I don't know much about that behind the scenes stuff.
That's all above my pay grade.

You all know about as much as I know as to what is going on or what has been tried.

If I have time later I will go poke around in a couple of the spammer's IDs and see if I can find the IP addresses.
I know I don't have access to the registration email account information though. It's not available in any of my moderator screens.
My powers are limited which really isn't a problem under most situations. This SOB though...falls under unusual situations.
I can block the accounts as fast as he can make them or maybe even faster. Problem is obviously I can't be here 24/7 to throw up road blocks.

jnk... · Post by **jnk...** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:51 pm

Sounds to me like you've been asked to scrub the gym floor and have been handed a toothbrush to do it.

Perhaps priority #1 for the tech people should be this and this alone for the time being.

Anyone making a choice in what forum to go to who finds this one in that condition may assume it abandoned and never check back here again.

Just sayin'.

I'm not Captain Obvious. Just Private Obvious.

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 1:02 pm

Yeah...well the toothbrush works well most of the time. Been working great until this SOB figured out how to bypass the security protocols.

I can manually delete about 2 posts a minute. I have to open each post first so that I get the delete button available to me.
My computer just won't go any faster .

Here's my usual procedure during the day when I spot the offending post and it's obvious it's the Asian spammer.
1...I go and block him from posting anymore.
2...then I go and delete whatever he posts.

In the mornings when I get here and it's obvious the attack is active and the posts are coming fast and furious then
1...I go and block all the new offender accounts...they are real easy to spot anyway....and then I will make a post that I am here and have blocked them and I will start clean up and when it sticks at the top I know I have stopped at least these new accounts.
2...then I start manually deleting
3...while manually deleting I keep one eye on the forum in case he creates a new ID and if he does that gets blocked and then I go back to clean up/deleting stuff.

edfreeman · Post by **edfreeman** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 1:04 pm

Pugsy wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:35 pm

klm49 wrote: ↑
Fri Mar 09, 2018 12:18 pm
Pugsy, Are they using a different email address for verification every time or does it change every time like the IP address?
I honestly don't know because I don't have access to that information.
I would assume new/different email addresses are needed but those are easy to get.

I can see when someone sets up an account...and the time they made the account and how many posts they make...and I can quickly stop them from posting but that's all I can see. I might could look up the IP addresses but haven't bothered (would take some digging) because people use proxy servers all the time. I was told that they were different IP addresses and to block one might block legit people and it wouldn't stop them anyway since most of the time the IP is different anyway.
With the new forum software I used to be able to easily see IP addresses...now not so easy but really doesn't matter because I can't do anything about it at that level anyway.

My powers are limited....block accounts (one at a time) from posting spam ...remove the offending posts (one at a time) which obviously takes time.

Didn't take me long this morning to put a halt to the dude/it/he/she/bot...whatever.
Ben came on line about 6:30 and did the bulk of the clean up because he/she has different powers than I have.

I have zero input as to what anyone is talking about doing in terms of beefing up security. I am not included in that discussion nor really would it be helpful if I was because I don't know much about that behind the scenes stuff.
That's all above my pay grade.
You all know about as much as I know as to what is going on or what has been tried.

If I have time later I will go poke around in a couple of the spammer's IDs and see if I can find the IP addresses.
I know I don't have access to the registration email account information though. It's not available in any of my moderator screens.
My powers are limited which really isn't a problem under most situations. This SOB though...falls under unusual situations.
I can block the accounts as fast as he can make them or maybe even faster. Problem is obviously I can't be here 24/7 to throw up road blocks.

I moderate elsewhere, and there's a couple tools that might help if the Admins can set them up for you. I have a "One Touch Ban and Clean" button that zaps the user, all their posts, and bans the IP as well. I've also seen forums that set up a sub-forum for newbs to post in until they're verified to be a human instead of a bot. One other thing that I've seen done is dis-allowing newbs to start new threads until verified.
One thing to consider is the genuine new member flow into the forum, if it isn't too heavy, you might be better off to use additional verification steps, like an email click link, as most of the time those bots are using counterfeit addresses.

jnk... · Post by **jnk...** » Fri Mar 09, 2018 1:09 pm

This forum, unlike many forums, is all about having a place for newbs to post a new thread as soon as possible, as easily as possible. It is sort of the point and underlying mission of this place. I believe a sub-forum would be unacceptable to the hosts for that reason, too. It was a traumatic enough step to end guest posts.

But all good points.

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