Welcome to our New Moderator, Merlin!

[dfrecore]

1: submit lots of spam using VPN
2: volunteer to be moderator to help delete spam
3: ...
4: profit

How exactly does he profit?  Are they paying him some fantastic amount of money to moderate?  If so, I'm happy to step up and help as well!  If I'd have known that I could become rich being a moderator of a free forum, I'd have done it years ago!!!

The only profit that a moderator can expect is the satisfaction when removing the spammers and scammers from the message board. That and being able to help the community by moving messages around and cleaning up mistaken posts and such when necessary.

I figured Merlin!  But just in case...

[SweetSecret]

Thanks for stepping into help!

[cookderosa]

Thanks!

I figure that instead of complaining about all the spammers and scammers we've been getting lately, it was time to step up and help take care of the problem. Plus considering how much I'm on the boards anyway, it seemed like a no-brainer particularly given how the forum was short-handed on the mod front.

congratulations!!

[AwardTour]

Thanks!

I figure that instead of complaining about all the spammers and scammers we've been getting lately, it was time to step up and help take care of the problem. Plus considering how much I'm on the boards anyway, it seemed like a no-brainer particularly given how the forum was short-handed on the mod front.

Congrats to Merlin, he has helped me and countless others on this site.

Now about the spammers.....

I've turned in a few spammers that I have found myself on this site. I have been on multiple message boards over the years and this is one of the few places where I still see MANUAL spammers in 2018. The last spammer that I turned in spent multiple days building up a "rep"/street cred by participating in multiple threads. These were not automated messages (if they were then they should be writing code at Twilio). Anyways, after a few days of real participation they post a number of links (some malicious, some just affiliate marketing/referral codes). 

I just do not understand the continued motivation of manual spammers targeting this site in 2018. Yes, I understand if you are in a 3rd world country operating out of an internet cafe that a few bucks from a product referral code can go a long long way. 

Why the heck do these scammers and spammers view this site as such a target rich environment? Many people here are cash strapped trying to finish school in a streamlined and budget conscious manner. It is just odd, if you can view IP addresses then I would be curious to know which countries these manual spammers are coming from. Aside from the obvious guesses of Nigeria or India I would actually bet it is some poor area of Eastern Europe or the Philippines.

[jsd]

Most of the ones that look like they're participating in random conversation aren't really participating in meaningful ways. It picks up a few keywords in a comment and then makes a reply that seems related by is extremely general and not directly related to the thread itself. Those type of bots have picked up quite a bit here. 

I'm not sure how rigorous the new user registration is now, it's been years since I registered. But maybe some additional checks could be added at that point, as well as putting in some sort of post count limit before a user can add a link into one of their posts (just like you need 12 posts or so to change your signature -- no URLs/links in your comments until you're more established).

On the message boards I've run, the post count limit alone does wonders. It is still susceptible to the random posts described above, but usually you can tell by 10 or so posts if the activity is legit or not.

[Merlin]

I think putting limits on new accounts is probably the best way to curtail spammers and scammers. Though I don't know how much the forum software itself can support out of the box.

I've run a number of community forums over the years in support of my own products, and in those forums, one of the ways we cut down on this kind of stuff was by making email validation a requirement, and by setting limits on posting.

For example, we could set a limit where a new account cannot post at all for the first 24 hours, or can only respond to existing threads (not create their own new threads) until they've met a post count. I also like the idea of not being able to post hyperlinks, or at least not until an account has been verified as legit one way or another.

Again, I don't know if anything like this is doable, but I have made the suggestion.

[jsd]

I wish we would have migrated to SMF instead of upgrading a new version of MyBB. SMF takes care of a lot of these issues by default, and the mod community is very active and it's easy to find simple solutions when you need them. I've never had good experiences as an admin with MyBB, and the experience as an end user with MyBB is even worse.

I know you as a mod don't have control over that, but it just came to mind.

[Life Long Learning]

 I also like the idea of not being able to post hyperlinks, or at least not until an account has been verified as legit one way or another.

I like adding links as proof in discussions.

[jsd]

 I also like the idea of not being able to post hyperlinks, or at least not until an account has been verified as legit one way or another.

I like adding links as proof in discussions.

At 1300+ posts, i think you've hit the threshold to have proven yourself as a real user 

[Life Long Learning]

 I also like the idea of not being able to post hyperlinks, or at least not until an account has been verified as legit one way or another.

I like adding links as proof in discussions.

At 1300+ posts, i think you've hit the threshold to have proven yourself as a real user 

I am thinking quality (facts) not the quantity of the discussions