About all the spam …

[Patty]

I’ve been reporting spam posts as spam, and also reporting the offending “members” as spammers. No doubt many of you have done the same. Is there a way to make it more difficult for these fake “members” to register?
If they’re robots, a captcha device in the registration process might work. If they’re actual people huddled over keyboards somewhere, maybe make registration more stringent?
Or at least make them pay a small fee to join, refundable or donated to UU after a period of good behavior. These a**holes wouldn’t be so quick to seize on this forum if they had to pay, say, $5 a pop.

 

[Tin Ear]

I’ve been reporting spam posts as spam, and also reporting the offending “members” as spammers. No doubt many of you have done the same. Is there a way to make it more difficult for these fake “members” to register?
If they’re robots, a captcha device in the registration process might work. If they’re actual people huddled over keyboards somewhere, maybe make registration more stringent?
Or at least make them pay a small fee to join, refundable or donated to UU after a period of good behavior. These a**holes wouldn’t be so quick to seize on this forum if they had to pay, say, $5 a pop.

Probably robots. Seems more prolific lately. I have been hitting the report button then ignore member so I don't have to see all extraneous baloney. I would think registration steps brought up to better tech standards, captcha and such would do the trick ?

 

[man0a]

I think other groups will moderate new members (have a human approve their posts) until they reach a certain level of trustworthiness. The new forum already has some kind of "points" system that maybe could be used for this. Any kind of moderation system will of course need more volunteer moderators to do the work.

 

[merlin666]

I have posted suggestions in separate thread. Maybe a restricted welcome ares for first posts where Moderator will have to approve first post to get into other areas. Not sure if this can be automated. May need volunteers with approver status.

 

[KohanMike]

I don't feel like there's all that much spam, it's been a few weeks since I saw any. I Reported the ones I saw last night and they're gone today. Seems our great people are staying on top of it. My guess is that Captcha has a cost that might not be affordable.

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Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
8 tenor cutaway ukes, 4 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 16 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 40)
•Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
•Member The CC Strummers: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers

 

[don_b]

Maybe we can just make a "Spam" subtopic forum so all the spammers know we want them to post there instead.

 

[EDW]

I think other groups will moderate new members (have a human approve their posts) until they reach a certain level of trustworthiness. The new forum already has some kind of "points" system that maybe could be used for this. Any kind of moderation system will of course need more volunteer moderators to do the work.

Yes, some forums will require the first few posts from a new user to be moderated. Sometimes it is set up so that a someone's to write a few sentences on their interest. Any of that works, but yes, would require a bit of work.

Perhaps at the very least, maybe there is a way to set it up automatically so that new members could not post links until after a certain number of posts. It seems that many if not all of these are for links to junk sites.

 

[don_b]

Yes, some forums will require the first few posts from a new user to be moderated. Sometimes it is set up so that a someone's to write a few sentences on their interest. Any of that works, but yes, would require a bit of work.

Perhaps at the very least, maybe there is a way to set it up automatically so that new members could not post links until after a certain number of posts. It seems that many if not all of these are for links to junk sites.

The inability to post links would also stop the ability to provide photos, so that would cut down on first time posters selling ukes in the marketplace too, which I think is one of the forum rules. Good idea.

 

[Tin Ear]

I remember when it was this :

 

[kkimura]

I remember when it was this :


View attachment 139709

Should we be surprised that the site attracts spam?

 

[don_b]

It's always been interesting to me that Spam doesn't take issue with companies naming their products things like "Spam filter" and "Spam control." I get that they can't stop people from associating their product with a general adjective for "anything annoying to the point of being useless trash best queitly discarded via automation" but they'd be within their rights to pursue places like Microsoft and Google, who use this nomenclature in their official documentation.

I don't know, am I wrong here? I guess email spam has evolved passed its original association with the food, and possibly many dont even consider the terms origin. Maybe its better for them to just let it go.

 

[Arcy]

It's always been interesting to me that Spam doesn't take issue with companies naming their products things like "Spam filter" and "Spam control."

Hormel tried and lost.

Spam Arrest wins trademark case vs Hormel

Spam Arrest LLC, a provider of software and services aimed at stopping email spam, on Wednesday said it won a five-year legal battle against Hormel Foods Corp <HRL.N> to keep its trademark.

www.reuters.com

Spam Arrest said a three-judge panel found that Hormel’s trademark “does not extend to computer software for filtering spam.”

They also went after the Muppets for the character Spa'am in Muppet Treasure Island (Judge favors muppets in spam vs spa'am), and found a sense of humour in time to cross promote with Monty Python's Spamalot. I can't find any references to an official reaction to the original Monty Python sketch which formed the basis of the modern internet usage, but supposedly they play clips at the SPAM museum (TIL there's a SPAM museum).

 

[don_b]

Hormel tried and lost.

Spam Arrest wins trademark case vs Hormel

Spam Arrest LLC, a provider of software and services aimed at stopping email spam, on Wednesday said it won a five-year legal battle against Hormel Foods Corp <HRL.N> to keep its trademark.

www.reuters.com

They also went after the Muppets for the character Spa'am in Muppet Treasure Island (Judge favors muppets in spam vs spa'am), and found a sense of humour in time to cross promote with Monty Python's Spamalot. I can't find any references to an official reaction to the original Monty Python sketch which formed the basis of the modern internet usage, but supposedly they play clips at the SPAM museum (TIL there's a SPAM museum).

Wow, thanks for doing the research. Super interesting.

 

[antoniolara]

Probably machines. now seems to be more prolific. To avoid having to read all the unnecessary nonsense, I have started clicking the report and then the ignore member buttons. I would assume that bringing the registration process up to modern tech standards, including captcha, would be effective. Heardle Game

 

[ksiegel]

The spiced ham meat product is SPAM®; the crap that we see on computers is spam.

And yes, the name came from computer geekery.

The same folks who, when giving a generic program name, would often used the phrase foo_dot_bar (foo.bar), alluding to the military acronym for "F**cked Up Beyond All Recognition". and were Monty Python's Flying Circus Fans.