Influx of Advert Acounts

Seems every time I open ETS up there is another acount made to advertise crap, What gives? Will there ever be a way to lower this number?

I see that. Really annoying.

Alright this is scarey i just looked at the newest guys registration date.

alfredm123 Online content
Stranger

Registered: Wed May 19 2010
Posts: 1


2010?????????????? Wtf was this a friggen sleeper cell acount? Jesus how desperate.

Every new registration request is manually processed by me or one of the other admins. We're working hard to prevent spam accounts from being allowed to register and we're quick to ban users who spam -- I banned alfredm123's account permanently this morning. By the way, we really pay attention to message notifications, so please don't hesitate to press the Notify link at the bottom of a post if you think we need to look at it.

It would be nice if the forum software would allow us to truly moderate the first, say, five posts from a new user -- to approve or deny an individual post before it hits the board. We cannot do that, unfortunately.

Other than setting up an entrance application with an essay question I'm at a loss as to how we can do better with the tools we have. If you have suggestions or constructive criticism, please share it in this thread or PM me.


chaosmagnet

Actually, your current procedures are quite adequate, and your prompt response is appreciated. The spam is merely a temporary annoyance; it doesn't do any permanent harm.

Thanks for the kind words, hikermor.

I did a little research. We have over 2700 accounts that have a post count of zero. That's out of a current count of 4573. Another 700 or so have posted less than five times.

Undoubtedly, some of those folks who aren't posting read the board avidly and do so with an account (instead of as a Guest) in order to have the board keep track of unread posts for them. Nuking accounts based on low post count isn't something I would want to do.


chaosmagnet

My experience has been that notifying the moderators gets a VERY prompt response.

So think of that button as your way to personally kill spam.

(There are many other boards that desperately need that feature.)

Agreed. I hit "Notify" on 2 threads yesterday (whoever did that 3-fer of identical posts). Someone beat me to #3.

But, yeah, the mods are on spam accounts "like white on rice." Kudos.

I think the mods are doing a great job of quickly taking down the spam or Google bomb posts, particularly when they are notified. While the active members may notice the spam posts, I wouldn't be surprised if people who don't drop by daily don't even realize there's a problem because the spam posts get cleaned up so quickly!

I must have good timing because I haven't noticed any spam posts lately. Good work mods!

I have not noticed this problem much. Then again, I don't hit up every thread, just the few that highly interest me.

What he said. Danged spammers.

HJ

I also rarely see any spam, so hats off to those working to kill it. I'm afraid that with all the new reality TV flaunting "preppers" (I find that term derogatory), we are going to see more opportunists here that have no idea of who we are or the community that has been built.

Agreed thanks tons guys.

Lee

I'l freely admit to not posting more. Having just recently joined, I've been trying to read a little everyday of the humongous backlog of threads and their respective posts. It's no easy task as there is an insane amount of information here. I also feel that until I've gotten more information, it'd be kind of silly for me to speak about anything here, since I am a newbie to most of this. I just read quietly and learn a little more everyday.

-Jason
*Edit*-spelling...

What "lordnoble" said. I joined the forum years ago but feel that I don´t have much to say. But I log in several times per week to read and get wiser.

We're glad to have you both.

I like Spam. Spam with eggs and cheese. Yummm.

I was going to say to contact you about the problem Chaos. I'm suprised he slipped past you.

People still nuke? That's a blast from the past. No pun intended.

I wasn't a moderator here when alfredm123's account was created. Blame Blast .

Ditto.

Feel free to chime in - not every post (as you probably know) needs to have some sort of technical information. We go off track so often you can probably chime in on every 3rd post.

From my point of view you already do a good job. Entering an arms race against the spammers will hardly be helpful. When the community supports the moderators by notifying about inappropriate posts, the problem should be manageable.
A few spam posts may be annoying but it´s something you will have to live with in a public forum. Maybe it is because of my time zone but I even fail to recall the last spam post I found here.

I would not want that to be done either. I have experienced forums were a monthly number of posts had to be made for staying in. The policy has an extremely negative influence on the quality. People just posted to chalk up the required posts. Towards the end of the month that tended to render the forum unusable.
Anyway people who do not post, do not offend or bother anyone. I am also in a HAM forum where registering for mostly reading members is explicitly encouraged. It helps the owner to judge the reach of the forum.