Spam attacks

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I see there has just been yet another spam attack. Let me emphasise that I'm not criticising in any way, because I'm sure that dealing with these things may be a lot more complicated than a naive outsider might imagine. But I am puzzled as to why WP seems to suffer, uniquely in my experience of admittedly a rather limited number of forum sites, from the bursts of multiple spam submissions, usually from a single "user."

I would have imagined that this would be rather easily dealt with, by imposing something like a 24 hour waiting period after an initial signing up and submission, before any other submissions were permitted. (Or is the spamming bot bypassing all the usual signing-up procedures?) In any case, aren't there reasonably effective ways to defeat these sorts of attack; it must be a problem faced (and usually solved) by many other forum sites?

What surprises me about WP is that exactly the same kinds of spam attacks seem to occur month after month, and year after year. I can see that blocking spam effectively is probably a constant battle of measures and countermeasures, but somehow it seems that nothing ever changes with WP, and it keeps on falling victim to the identical style of spamming every time.

None of the other forum sites that I frequent seem to suffer from any spam attacks at all. Is there some reason why WP cannot adopt the same kind of countermeasures that presumably work well for the other sites?

I can't stand the spam. I wouldn't mind one or two every now and then, but there's tons of them, all in a very small amount of time! And sometimes they take up a few pages. I hate it. It makes the forum less popular than it used to be when I first joined. I wonder if I send a bot a private message involving intense profanity will stop the spam?

Ps. I was joking about the last bit.

Basically if I come on here again and it's full of spam I'll be deleting my bookmark and closing my account.

In the 21stC it shouldn't be like this. No other forum I go on get so much spam.

It's a pity because we help each other by being here, but not at the risk of my PC getting hacked because some loser gets hold of the members IDs and passwords.

Is there an efficient way to report a user? The spammer should be banned right away, all his posts removed. Is there a channel to quickly inform the admins?

The thing I can't understand is why it is apparently possible for a new user to initiate dozens of separate postings on the forums. I would have thought it is obvious that a user who has just signed up should automatically be unable to post more than one new thread until a waiting period of a day or so has passed. (Maybe not even one; they should maybe have to wait until approved by a moderator before even being allowed to post anything.)

Why is it that WP seemingly continues operating a system where a new user can post as many threads as they wish within the first few minutes after they sign up?

I just don't get it. No other forum that I use suffers from this problem.

I've mentioned the same tactic before (mod approval for first few posts) but it was ignored. The whole thing is ridiculous, and IMO I think Alex has a duty to take care of this site a little better, as it helps many people.

All the spam is Friday, From 91 <telephone number beginning, with variations around it>

Can the Mods do a search for Date, From 91 <even if attached to + etc.>

And wouldn't that bring up the whole thing, which you could delete with one big deletion?

I had no idea spam was an issue here. I'm not a member of any other forum but it does seem ridiculous that a new member can post so many new threads at once. I think one should be the limit.

If the problem persists, I'll have to close my account. I really don't want to do that but if it's one thing I'm paranoid about, it's hacking.

Sadly, I am reaching the conclusion that there is no desire by the WP admin to tackle this problem in a serious way. Depending on moderators to come along and clean up the mess after it happens is a very inefficient approach, and, as well as leaving them with a lot of work to do on a regular basis, it also inevitably means that there will be a lot of the spam messages sitting around for substantial periods, until a moderator gets the chance to delete it.

The only effective way to deal with the problem, surely, is to block it at source; stop it from being posted in the first place. I have seen the concern expressed that WP is a support forum and that therefore it should not block a new user from posting right away. That is fine, but there is posting and there is posting. I can see that there is a case to be made for allowing a new member to make one posting (plus follow-up responses on that thread) prior to receiving moderator approval. But I don't see any plausible scenario in which a new member seeking help would need to be able initiate dozens of separate threads within the first few minutes of joining. So limiting a new member to starting one, and only one, thread until they are reviewed and receive moderator approval would seem to be a reasonable solution.

For reasons that leave me completely baffled, the WP admin seems to take the view that it is better to continue with the present system, where GAD (and maybe other forums at WP too? I don't really follow any of the others) are regularly inundated with mountains of spam messages. If nothing is changed in the new-member posting policies, there is every reason to expect the spam problem will persist indefinitely.

Damn these spams just doesn't stop. What's wrong with the forums administration? Why can't they do anything?

I was just loving this forum but the spams are really annoying.

I appreciate that it is very annoying.

There is no risk of hacking. It's disruptive to conversation but these people aren't interested in your account.

I don't want to talk too much about the possible solutions because that can make it easier for the spammers to get around them. I don't think harsh restrictions on new users are the solution - if we completely banned threads from new users then that would shut them out (and potentially cause the spammers to go back to spamming existing topics, which is much harder to deal with), and limiting them to one a day wouldn't stop them because they create new accounts very easily.

Broadly speaking, I think we need a combination of 1) increased barriers towards making an account (nothing that would deter a genuine user but enough to slow down spammers), and 2) automatic detection of spam.

Some of you have said that no other site gets this much. Believe me, they do - they just have automatic detection processes that block most users off from it.

Unfortunately Alex doesn't have much time for the site these days but I know he is aware of the problem and wants to take steps to solve it.

I do understand that there is no single ideal way of dealing with this problem. But isn't it, to a large extent, a matter of fighting a constant battle of measures and countermeasures? Somehow it seems that WP never gets even to the first stage in this battle. At present, the spammers use only a very few usernames each day, and they flood the forum with many new threads per username.

While I can see that indeed, if measures were taken against this, their recourse could be to create many new usernames each day, each with a single posting. But this would presumably present them with a "penalty," compared with the present situation where they can spam away as much as they like, with very few usernames. So then another level of countermeasures will be needed. But if WP won't engage in the battle, then it will certainly suffer all the time as being the obvious soft target.

In the end, I can imagine it comes down to the simple calculus that a webmaster needs to keep sufficiently ahead of the game that it becomes more attractive for the spammers to go and spam on someone else's website rather than his own. At present, it seems that WP presents just about the easiest target available, because almost no measures seem to be being taken to discourage spamming.

Like the joke about the two guys in a tent when a bear comes along, and one of them puts on his shoes to run even though he knows can't outrun a bear, all he has to be able to do is outrun his "friend."

It is rather telling that, as you say, all the other websites who seemingly don't get spammed are probably actually getting a lot of attempts that they manage to fend off before they appear on the forums. Unfortunately, if WP leaves itself as the easiest target, that doesn't fight because it may face a different kind of attack if it does fight, it will get picked on endlessly.

I've added some filters. Hopefully the spamming will stop now.

Thank you very much for doing this! I think it will be very much appreciated by many people on WP.

We'll still probably get some spam while I tweak the filters.