Man I'm tired of this shit.

n.

Sorry, just tellin' it ike it is.

n.

The website is neglected and abandoned. Punchcut should really let someone else take over it.

Punchcut should really let someone else take over it.

Agreed.

What is the chance of success reporting spam to either the web site owner (for spammer "obd4u.fr", this would be KEY-SYSTEMS GmbH, Im Oberen Werk 1, DE-66386 ST. INGBERT, Germany, info@key-systems.net) or their URL registrar (in this case, GoDaddy.com, cctldinfo@godaddy.com)?

As a side effect: surely finding names and e-mail addresses mentioned in a thread about spam will not be good for business! Unless they proscribe to the old adage, "A bad reputation is better than no reputation at all”.

Punchcut should really let someone else take over it.

Sad to say, also agreed.
Choose wisely though, lest we get bigger problems than spam...

hhp

> reporting spam to ... the web site owner

{Comment editted by moderator. C'mon, James,
you know better.}

Well, folks could always return to the newly updated Type Design Forum which has been available for a little over a month, type-design dot p90 dot net. Steven has done a great job of reworking it and former members are welcome to go back if they wish.

Or perhaps Steven could just take over this mess and clean it up.

Wow, I had no idea! Thanks for the good news.

And that suggestion isn't half bad...

hhp

Switching from one terrible Drupal board to another terrible Drupal board? ;-)

Setting up a new board is not the problem. Anyone can do that within minutes.
The point is that Typophile.com is a huge knowledge base and an archive of important discussions from well over 10 years. This archive needs to be maintained and kept accessible.

I wonder what Punchcut guys think of making Typophile archives public. Even if it's just through not objecting the site to be scraped by a crawler rather than providing a copy of the database.

Has this been discussed before?

Guys,

We appreciate your attention to this issue. It is a shared concern and frustration that we at Typophile are continuing to investigate on a daily basis. We are considering several options, and will post an update within a week’s time.

We'll be waiting.

hhp

It is a shared concern and frustration that we at Typophile are continuing to investigate on a daily basis.

Awesome that you'd make an effort to edit the title of this thread and keep spam alive right straight across the forum Jared.

Keep up the good work ;)

And if you get serious about having a moderator around who absolutely hates spam/spammers and loves to see it/them get nuked to hell ... give me a shout.

neil at graphicdeclaration dot com

You need at least a half dozen moderators. Ideally it would be great if they were located in different times zones around the world. Poor Chris must be fried /insert sinister laughter here/

n.

@Spam: “Poor Chris must be fried /insert sinister laughter here/”

Caldwell, N . (2013, February 3 ). Re: F—ck spam! [Online form comment]. Retrieved from http://typophile.com/node/100191#comment-541979

You're alive! Awesome, we thought the spam bots knocked you down for the count!

n.

Neil, you know we shut down any spam as soon as we spot it. But the Typophile has many more eyes than we do. If you're seeing spam on the site right now that we aren't addressing, post the link here and watch it and the spammer disappear.

@Spam: And while we’re at it…

Jared, I've moderated some of the hottest most meanest nasty messg boards out there and I'm not questioning what spam you've spotted. I'm more concerned about mods that sit around and let spam live. All forums are to be checked/scoured at least every 4-6 hours by your current Mod squad.

I'll pick up the slack from Prince Dean, and post linkage as you suggest.

Let the hunt begin ...

n.

The most efficient way is to post user URL of the bot’s Typophile ID.

But you can't fight bots with humans.

hhp

Just a first look on every pg.1 of every forum...

General Forum

http://typophile.com/node/100031

http://typophile.com/node/100074

http://typophile.com/node/100112

http://typophile.com/node/100127

http://typophile.com/node/100129

Build

http://typophile.com/node/21034

Bitmap Display / Script

http://typophile.com/node/32527

Blackletter / Uncial

http://typophile.com/node/92919

http://typophile.com/node/89331

Display

http://typophile.com/node/90440

http://typophile.com/node/96874

Logos / Corporate ID Design

http://typophile.com/node/55722

http://typophile.com/node/98556

http://typophile.com/node/96064

http://typophile.com/node/99331

http://typophile.com/node/94608

http://typophile.com/node/91614

...fry em' up lads!!!

In the immortal words of the Mr. James Brown ... I FEEL GOOD!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Mz6SfBhA1g

n.

But you can't fight bots with humans.

hhp

Technically speaking you're right. But, you can contain it, and then nuke it! Also, setting a time limit between posts really helps to slow down bots. Another technique I'd like to try is to run a duplicate site where content is automatically up loaded to a replica site off-line. So when bots strike simply upload a copy of the replica site.

Blocking whole blocks of IPs gets out of hand, and dynamic IPs come with the territory, so vigilance is our most effective weapon.

n.

Stopping spambots with humans is totally a losing battle, but it's a stop gap.

Stopping spambots with humans is totally a losing battle, but it's a stop gap.

Exactly, that's why …

If you're seeing spam on the site right now that we aren't addressing, post the link here and watch it and the spammer disappear.

… sounds like a strange suggestion.
If I click »track« in my account and have 15 threads with new content and then read each of them, just to find out all 15 new posts are spam, this just doesn't work anymore. And reporting these 15 threads each and every day is no solution.

My suggestion would be to migrate that old system to a “real” full-fledged discussion board software, which comes with tons of options to fight spam.
Or they can be as simple as: New users would be added to a "validating group" until they have a certain amount of approved post. Before that, their posts will have to be manually approved by a moderator. Hardly any spam would come thru this way …

Just add the damn "Flag as spam" link to each post.

Add a database table to track per-post flags. Once the count goes over 3, move post to a mod-only section of the forums for review. You already have a function for that.

Done. All existing spam will be cleaned up in a matter of days. All new spam will be flag and removed as it appears.

---

Once you have this in place, contemplate other options. But this one is dead simple and very effective. Just let your annoyed users help you.

> New users would be added to a "validating group"... their posts will
> have to be manually approved by a moderator.

A group I used to help moderate worked that way and it eliminated spam BEFORE it appeared.

Almost all spam here is 1) from new accounts and 2) contains external links. Can't the software be configured to hold such posts for manual approval before they appear?

Almost all spam here is 1) from new accounts and 2) contains external links. Can't the software be configured to hold such posts for manual approval before they appear?

Some kind of Bayesian filtering would probably work even better. Anything marked as spam gets sent to a moderation queue; if it's confirmed as spam it gets added to the database. (It would need some training with a large sample of legitimate and non-legitimate posts before being put into production, of course.)

Just a first look on every pg.2 of every forum...

Logos / Corporate ID Design

http://typophile.com/node/47796

Typography / Composition

http://typophile.com/node/56717

Hebrew Typography & Type Design

http://typophile.com/node/59833

...fry em' up lads!!!

Too much fun :)

n.

Quick spam grab...

Logos / Corporate ID Design

http://typophile.com/node/55722

kaney2021
31 Jan 2013 — 1:09am

...nuke it like you can!

n.

Simply posting the user ID should take care of it = http://typophile.com/user/208124

Go find yourself some spam Prince Dean... all hands on deck.

n.

Got a hungerin' for some more spammer...

Logos / Corporate ID Design

Search Marketing Logo - something missing?

http://typophile.com/node/77762
baermhares
23 Jan 2013 — 11:51pm

sellylohan
3 Dec 2012 — 3:04am

express delivery company logo

http://typophile.com/node/16302

john-curtter
6 Jan 2013 — 8:56am

Sidecar Sticker

http://typophile.com/node/2510

Gardner
24 Dec 2012 — 3:18am

Mallard Signs

http://typophile.com/node/4561

MichaelCalkins
11 Nov 2012 — 6:31pm

...fry em' up nice and toasty like!!

n.

x_x

:)

Couldn't help but to sneak a wee spam grab...

Design

Psd to Html issue.

http://typophile.com/node/89589

shandy-spammer
14 Nov 2012 — 2:31am

Autodiagnose
24 Jan 2013 — 10:26pm

...pop it like a zit on prom night!

n.

x_x

Hrant: But you can't fight bots with humans.

Not a Mann vs Machine fan?

I meant in real life. :-)

hhp

But you can't fight bots with humans.

Can we fight bots with bots?

Slam spam party grooves on...

Build

Fontlab errors when modifications are made to font

http://typophile.com/node/99737

azxs
19 Jan 2013 — 12:43am

Chinese Fonts & Adobe Software

http://typophile.com/node/19200

demondthomas193
29 Jan 2013 — 3:46am

demondthomas193
29 Jan 2013 — 11:47pm

mack_non
30 Jan 2013 — 2:29am

mack_non
30 Jan 2013 — 11:56pm

ryancrabe
31 Jan 2013 — 12:09am

Release

Quicksand, a free sans serif typeface

http://typophile.com/node/50437?page=1

sulumanca
2 Jul 2012 — 11:48am

Transferring ownership of a typeface currently distributed as free

http://typophile.com/node/96297

gordonabigail
17 Dec 2012 — 12:06am

...slice and dice em' like you can!!

n.

Almost went hungry until I smelt this little tasty nibblet...

Display

Tourism Seems To Be Growing Every Year

http://typophile.com/node/99741

..fry until crisp!

n.

...put it in context ;)

n.

Spampire in me sniffled out festering yet tasty nibble...

Fashion Logo

http://typophile.com/node/97190

athlascrish
28 Jan 2013 — 10:15pm

...kill!

n.

Spamalot has sent forth a victim...

http://typophile.com/user/208046

...kill!

n.

Lovin' the new Submit spam option :)

n.

Lovin' the new Submit spam option :)

Since I participated in this thread, it will show up in my track function each day now and I can't unsubscribe.
So I am not so happy that this is now a report spam thread.

Hey guys,

A quick update on this front. As you've probably seen from this thread, we've “deputized” @5star and @apankrat to help us out on the spam front. Please join me in wishing them a warm welcome to this new duty.

We're also looking at enlisting a few new moderators from around the world to help try and keep eyes on the boards 24/7 as we've had in the past. In the meantime, new account creations are passing through a vetting process, and that's already been instrumental in helping us see which accounts are humans and which are clearly bots. I'm also bringing in some local Drupal experts into my office during the next two weeks to get a sense on cost & effort to better block spam and fix bugs moving forward... hopefully allowing our esteemed moderators to focus on more fruitful efforts, like making Typophile a better place to hang out.

Message me if you've got inputs you'd like me to consider. Thanks-

//jared

Sounds good.

And thank you Neil and Alex!

hhp

Thanks lads! I look forward to the following months of development. Hopefully we'll also have some official merch available soonish like :)

n.

I'm GMT -7 if you need a moderator in this time zone

davidxmark3

http://typophile.com/user/209281

Fry this Spam crispy!

n.

Sorry, GMT +7.

wendyypaola

http://typophile.com/user/209318

Tasty nibbles of late.

n.

The new spam filters missed this one: "leebrothers", http://typophile.com/user/209716

Best to email me spam requests.

Nice catch Theunis de Jong! Perhaps I might have caught it ... but I was out buying back issues of Graphis!!!

The Spam Slayers army is growing strong :)

We need a logo ...lol!

n.

Seems like the spam is decreasing so maybe the new filters are working.

Definitely a significant improvement. I’ve gone from hours a day to minutes a week cleaning up after those damn bots. We still have a few sleepers, and I have seen a few slip through since implementation, but I’d estimate a 99% decrease. Let us know if you see any suspicious activity.

We all owe Jared a BIG thanks for this one. I’m sure a comment, tweet, or short email would be appreciated. Everyone likes a little positive reinforcement from time to time.

Thanks for commenting.

BIG thanks to Jared for sure !!!!!

I've also noticed somewhat of a fresh vibe going on here ... but perhaps that's just my imagine running away with me.

n.

ps. diggin' the ever changing title of this thread :))))))))

Thank you Jared! And Chris too.

hhp

Indeed, a well deserved pat on Jared's back.

The spam got out of control at an astonishing rate. There always were the odd single attacks, but it seemed that somewhere the past year some threshold was crossed and Typophile got upped on the list of Your Friendly Consumer Reminders. Was there a jump in Typophile's Google ratings, or something similar? Or is it just that every serious site has so much anti-spam protection, so now they need to focus on your average borderline interest groups?

"Recession strikes in Spam Industry - Spokesman calls for action" -- hah, sounds like an Onion headline!

I believe its a manifestation of bots getting better at hacking standard CMS spam protection plugins. Don’t think it takes that much work to download the top 10 and hack them. Next step is to do sneaky customization and mods to logically trick them. I’ve spoken with Jared, and h’s pulled some very clever modification tricks to the new filtering systems that I would never have thought of. It’s a matter of outsmarting now. Not out-coding.

I'd thank all the little people, but they're playing the music now, so I better get off stage.

Awh shucks Jared. There’s no need to be too humble. Credit where credit is due.

(theres a few swears in this one ;)

((have I mentioned that I saw Prince live while seated at the #1 private stage-side VIP table?))

Figure 1: Photograph courtesy of 5star.

Man am I glad I haven't had dinner yet.

hhp

Seriously?? I’d kill to have a wardrobe and entourage like that!

What would be your outfit of choice? Don’t be shy…

Shorts, short-sleeve shirt, unbranded sneakers.

hhp