Kind of difficult to report posts when you put this insane cooldown on reporting. These spam posts don't exactly show up one at a time.
Wakey wakey mods...
- Thread starter ScottulusMaximus
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Whichhhhh brings us back to the topic of implementing some sort of system to reduce/remove the cooldown timer for trusted people.
What is the cool down? It's been over half a year since I was reporting spam and can't remember the timer.
Oh, and on the topic of reporting spam, if you don't want to deal with a cool down, one report per account will be enough. So if a bot makes 10 threads, you only need to report one of those for us to nuke the bot and everything it has ever done.
The cooldown is the amount of time in between reports for a single person.
And with the "reporting one bot" thing, ... IMO, I don't think that'll work... There are TONS of different bot accounts that can be made in a day. For instance, 10 DIFFERENT bots could post 2 spam posts within 20 minutes, or so... See where I'm coming from? (I know, I know: My example was rather extreme, but you get the point)
Alternately, tighten up registration requirements. Include something that is a question that practically anyone would know but is not guessable by a bot.
For example, as a 'verification that you are a human' question, ask something like:
* What is the company that invented Minecraft
* What is the default name of the male character of Minecraft
* What does FTB stand for
* In what dimension do ghasts spawn (in vanilla Minecraft)
* What icon, by default, is used to identify your health
* What mob has been adopted as Minecraft's mascot
These are the types of questions which anyone who plays Minecraft will know, but a bot will not be able to intuit the answer by scanning the question. Something like this will dramatically reduce the frequency of bots without making it more inconvenient to register.
Alternately, require newly registered users, as their first post, respond to a specific thread in a specific forum that states that they agree to be bound by the rules of the forum, and not permit new users to post anywhere else until they have done so. The bot will fail to post several times and then give up, to be cleaned up by the mods at a later date.
For example, as a 'verification that you are a human' question, ask something like:
* What is the company that invented Minecraft
* What is the default name of the male character of Minecraft
* What does FTB stand for
* In what dimension do ghasts spawn (in vanilla Minecraft)
* What icon, by default, is used to identify your health
* What mob has been adopted as Minecraft's mascot
These are the types of questions which anyone who plays Minecraft will know, but a bot will not be able to intuit the answer by scanning the question. Something like this will dramatically reduce the frequency of bots without making it more inconvenient to register.
Alternately, require newly registered users, as their first post, respond to a specific thread in a specific forum that states that they agree to be bound by the rules of the forum, and not permit new users to post anywhere else until they have done so. The bot will fail to post several times and then give up, to be cleaned up by the mods at a later date.
I meant what was the cool down time, rather than what the feature was. I can't remember how long it is.
And yeah, I understand. But what I'm saying is if you see 50 threads by the same bot, don't worry about reporting all 50 of those, just drop a report in for one of the threads. That way you don't have to deal with the cool down timer (assuming no other bots pop up in that time frame). Worst case scenario is that you end up reporting multiple threads by the same bot. It's no extra work for us to handle, it just subjects you to the timer again.
So, what you mean is that, if there are multiple bots in one thread, and you report 1, mods might go to the thread where the spam is, and check and see if there is any more? I might have misunderstood.I meant what was the cool down time, rather than what the feature was. I can't remember how long it is.
And yeah, I understand. But what I'm saying is if you see 50 threads by the same bot, don't worry about reporting all 50 of those, just drop a report in for one of the threads. That way you don't have to deal with the cool down timer (assuming no other bots pop up in that time frame). Worst case scenario is that you end up reporting multiple threads by the same bot. It's no extra work for us to handle, it just subjects you to the timer again.
What you suggested is very similar to what the wiki did before the Curse transfer they did. It was such a disaster that even I couldn't get registered, and I was staff at the time. The thread suggestion has been tossed around before, but that runs into the problem where the mods have to approve all first posts. We did that for a while, but the backlog got to be a little too extreme to deal with.
Assume bot #1 posts threads A, B, and C. Rather than reporting threads A, B, and C, report just thread A. When the report comes in and we verify it's spam, we go directly to the account profile and handle it through our toolbox there, which deletes everything the account has ever done. So your report on thread A let's us delete threads B and C as well without ever having to go find them.
Edit: Merged posts.
The second suggestion, perhaps, but the easy question block was never used by the wiki. I don't see why it would cause those kinds of problems.
Requiring a mod to act is not going to work, not as busy as this website is, but you could set up an automatic posting restriction on the first post that doesn't require mod interaction.
Alternately, have flood controls preventing a new user being unable to post for an hour after his previous post for his first ten posts. This will at least severely limit how many posts a single spambot can generate.
The flood control could work, but then the issue arises in which the person is, for example, having a LOT of trouble with modded mc and has a lot of questions... I doubt this will happen, but it could, and it could frustrate them.
The wiki did have the question block in place for summer of 2014 in order to make an account. Myself and @Pyure couldn't get past it, and there's probably still a thread asking people to report issues for it in the wiki subforum here. No idea what ftbwiki.org did, in case that's the one you're referring to.
I'll definitely pass the other suggestions along to the team to see what can be setup to minimize the spam that you all see.
Edit: Pyure posting on my profile about the wiki question system breaking (assuming my settings let people see that): http://forum.feed-the-beast.com/members/padfoote.87583/#profile-post-9272
It's 30 seconds. I have an analog watch, and very clearly remember watching the second tick just over halfway around between clicking the submit button for one spam post and clicking it again for the next.I meant what was the cool down time, rather than what the feature was. I can't remember how long it is.
The cool down is half a minute. And I already did that, now reporting the bot as well.
Edit: Derp. Didn't realize SE already mentioned the cool down. Although there is something bugging me about the report system that I don't have in the message posting system. It's long and complicated, and really just vain, but if you wanna know I can PM you or something.
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Take a look at the minecraft logo. Specifically, the A. If people get this wrong, they probably have never booted up the game.
I agree with YX33A's point. I got all of the other questions pretty quickly, but the mascot question stumped me. I don't really agree with calling creepers Minecraft's mascot, since outside the game they're mostly relegated to a particular (although certainly not small) portion of the fanbase. The game's icon in your desktop is either a block of grass or a crafting table, depending on your version, both of which I'd consider to be the game's "mascots". Either that or Steve?.
If you reworded the question to "What's the most iconic mob in Minecraft", I think that'd work better. Either that or "Which mob hisses".
In any case, I don't think this would do a good job of blocking spambots in the long run. Whoever programs them would just hardcode the possible questions and their respective answers.
They're posting spam in Korean on an English language forum. Call me cynical, but I honestly don't think they care enough to do that.
Mmmm... no, still can't see any other mob being called the mascot. However, if you prefer, 'which mob is found in the minecraft logo' would work. If you have ever booted the game up and seen the menu screen, you are looking at the answer.
Well, some of them already figured out a workaround to the "You can't post links in your first five posts without moderator approval" thing. I guess some others have found another workaround by just not posting links.
I think someone fairly accurately compared spambots to the Borg. Anything we throw at them will only work for so long; furthermore, the simpler any given obstruction is, the less time it'll take them to figure out how to get past it.
Do you think this is the first forum to lock down accounts from posting links? That's a common tactic, so of course spammers would take it into account.
Answering specific questions about a specific game to get into one specific forum is not on the mind of people writing these bots.