New Spam attack

[gwilki]

You will see this morning that there has been and maybe still is something of a spam bot attack on the forum. Please be patient. It will be resolved.

In the meantime, feel free to flag any offending posts.

Grant

Update from Chris (Sienci Co-founder and CTO) July 3rd

@chrismakesstuff

Alright y’all, as far as I can tell the spam war/tsunami is now over!

First and foremost: my greatest thanks to the indelible and masterful @gwilki Grant Wilkinson for helping head the charge holding back the onslaught as well as all the rest of you for helping to join in on flagging and reporting offenders - it’s been greatly appreciated and helpful.

Here’s how some of the final numbers look like:

• Luckily, even on the tsunami of posts 3 days ago, I found tons of posts that the automated filters already caught.
• We had a second wave at midnight last night which was much smaller but still a notable 20-30, but some of the new rule changes I already put in place seem to have caught most of them already which is great news! I’m about finished putting the rest of the changes through to hopefully catch the rest moving forward
• In total we cleared somewhere around 600-700 spam posts removed and deleted 415 total spam accounts after the combination of user community flagging, some more careful user inspection for accounts whose posts got missed, or some who didn’t post at all and just continued to lurk in the shadows. There may still be stragglers, but I feel confident we’ve sniffed most of them out. I will say, and I’m a bit sad to report this, probably one or two new Forum members might’ve gotten caught in the crossfire of this purging due to the increased sensitivity of new rules we’ve had to enact - but hopefully those people will be able to reach out and I’ll be able to get them set back up again.

Now this was certainly a big attack on our typically easygoing Forum, but I feel pretty confident we’ll be better sorted for next time (though I’m not going to reveal all secrets in case bad actors are reading over this very post):

1. We’ve got more strict rules on account creation which should only impact malicious actors
2. Our ferocious-flagging community members have now been given more power to shut down spam posts right out the gate
3. For those trying to sneak in quickly and do lots of damage, I’ve added more blockades to slow that process down and limit spammy behaviour
4. We’ve found some other juicy patterns in how malicious actors tend to create new accounts, and have put in new measures to make their lives harder

I think the combination of all these changes will make for a much better environment for discussion free from intrusion, and for those looking to act maliciously I hope they find the juice is not worth the squeeze so they can leave us to our peaceful CNC discourse.

If y’all have any more concerns, observations, etc. about this whole thing then definitely let me know. I’ll ad this same text to the top of this post so that newcomers can read it right away. Hope you have a great Thursday

[Spamming_Eddie]

If you like your (new) inbox clean, like I do, you can always click on dismiss new.

Does it keep it clean? Nope, but this topic got bumped and that’s worth something.

[Jens]

Thanks for reminding us … I have not seen this feature before but will look for it. It’s exactly what is needed!

[beerbarrel]

I thought it was Spamming Eddie!

[gwilki]

@beerbarrel @Jens @Spamming_Eddie I believe that I have deleted all the BS posts and the $#%%^$# that posted them - at least until next time.

edit. I take that back. I am not even close. I’m done for today at least.

[Jens]

So why do I still see hundreds of posts in the ‘latest posts’ view , even after a refresh of the web page?

[gwilki]

@Jens See my latest edit, Jens. I was delusional.

[Jens]

LOL …
I will start flagging again once my ‘flagging count’ has reset and I am allowed …

[Chucky_ott]

@gwilki Does it help you at all when posts are flagged as spam? I just flagged upwards of 50 and it seems there are many more to go. I’m not getting any limits like @Jens and @Spamming_Eddie

[Chucky_ott]

Never mind. Just got the limit error.

[Spamming_Eddie]

Me?!! I would almost never!!1

[gwilki]

@Chucky_ott In normal circumstances, it does help, just in case I miss them. In this ridiculous situation, it really doesn’t. That said, I truly appreciate the efforts. The process t o delete the messages and the users is a one-at-a-time thing. So, I spent some hours today and there are still likely hundreds to get rid of. I’m hoping that @chrismakesstuff has a more efficient way to wipe them.

[Spamming_Eddie]

Yeah, this seems like a higher upper thing to solve.
The raid is over, the forum is bumping back.

It’s now a storie we’re gonna tell..
App.. it’s now a story we’re gonna app to our grandchildren, one day.

Can’t wait!

[Spamming_Eddie]

For what I have picked up, one or two flags give a head up to the mod team on the post. Given enough flags, removes a post from the visible pages.

With a spamtzunami like yesterday, that wont help keep the forum clean, but I believe when spam attemps start, it can buy some time and be somewhat discouraging when the spam isn’t an automated generated one.

according to this theorized function, enough people do indeed make a crowd.

[chrismakesstuff]

Alright y’all, as far as I can tell the spam war/tsunami is now over!

First and foremost: my greatest thanks to the indelible and masterful @gwilki Grant Wilkinson for helping head the charge holding back the onslaught as well as all the rest of you for helping to join in on flagging and reporting offenders - it’s been greatly appreciated and helpful.

Here’s how some of the final numbers look like:

• Luckily, even on the tsunami of posts 3 days ago, I found tons of posts that the automated filters already caught.
• We had a second wave at midnight last night which was much smaller but still a notable 20-30, but some of the new rule changes I already put in place seem to have caught most of them already which is great news! I’m about finished putting the rest of the changes through to hopefully catch the rest moving forward
• In total we cleared somewhere around 600-700 spam posts removed and deleted 415 total spam accounts after the combination of user community flagging, some more careful user inspection for accounts whose posts got missed, or some who didn’t post at all and just continued to lurk in the shadows. There may still be stragglers, but I feel confident we’ve sniffed most of them out. I will say, and I’m a bit sad to report this, probably one or two new Forum members might’ve gotten caught in the crossfire of this purging due to the increased sensitivity of new rules we’ve had to enact - but hopefully those people will be able to reach out and I’ll be able to get them set back up again.

Now this was certainly a big attack on our typically easygoing Forum, but I feel pretty confident we’ll be better sorted for next time (though I’m not going to reveal all secrets in case bad actors are reading over this very post):

1. We’ve got more strict rules on account creation which should only impact malicious actors
2. Our ferocious-flagging community members have now been given more power to shut down spam posts right out the gate
3. For those trying to sneak in quickly and do lots of damage, I’ve added more blockades to slow that process down and limit spammy behaviour
4. We’ve found some other juicy patterns in how malicious actors tend to create new accounts, and have put in new measures to make their lives harder

I think the combination of all these changes will make for a much better environment for discussion free from intrusion, and for those looking to act maliciously I hope they find the juice is not worth the squeeze so they can leave us to our peaceful CNC discourse.

If y’all have any more concerns, observations, etc. about this whole thing then definitely let me know. I’ll ad this same text to the top of this post so that newcomers can read it right away. Hope you have a great Thursday

[Spamming_Eddie]

I bumped into one of the walls erected to slow down.. let’s call them “Eddies”.
I get it, but I am proun to type in raw posts and edit them afterwards into more forum friendly and readable final posts. It would be nice if that function would be available for posts under moderation. Or, maybe even a review post option that doesn’t post a draft yet?

Edit: Never mind, I stuped again. I’ll work around it some other way.