Spammer Report Thread (use this one)

[Yachirobi]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...98&postcount=2

Evil spammer uses someone's address and ruined Southern Suitors new story!

[nypup2train]

New user cleanup complete, only 6 stragglers found among the last 3 weeks' new posters. (And another probably-genuine user ? Harlane ? who should really drop the cheap plug from their sig.)

[Yachirobi]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/showthread.php?t=8636

The third and fifth replies are bots.

[Lucas88]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...ad.php?t=24482

Blatant ad

[Lucas88]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1227095

richardolson ink salesman

[Yachirobi]

Both chelmylopez (http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/me...poster&t=24509) and serenaobama (http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/me...poster&t=23599) are obvious bots. Chelmylopez can't even post in English.

Is it possible that we can find some sort of algorithm to catch and kick bots that post too quickly?

[Tronald]

The "What do you like about your gym?" thread (found at http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...?t=1010&page=2) happens to have attracted 4 sig-link-spams in a row from 3 different spammers.

They're kind of subtle (they've chosen "simple" topics and given short Chinglish/Hindish/Engrish spam answers) but if you view all of what each has posted, you'll see that all 3 are 100% spam and all of each user's posts everywhere should be deleted

user "Allister" is SEO-ing "buy facebook likes"
http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1240824

user "richardolson" is selling "123inkjets coupon code"
http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1240825

user "jerryshudson" is selling "mole removal"
http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1240829

[nypup2train]

Originally Posted by Yachirobi

Is it possible that we can find some sort of algorithm to catch and kick bots that post too quickly?

It's possible, but given how drastically we handle spammers[COLOR="Red"]*[/COLOR] I know I'd personally never be comfortable turning that over to an entirely automated system. So even if an algorithm was flagging potential spammers, a human would still have to go through and remove the offenders. Plus slog through the false-positives that'd be inevitable, if the filter's net was wide enough to nab a high percentage of spammers.

(And even then, it wouldn't be able to catch anything close to all of them ? as you may have noticed in some conversations here, even the human spam-patrol have trouble making the call on some of the spammers posting here! It takes the pooled insights and perceptions of multiple humans ? including all of the users who take time to report here ? to achieve full coverage.)

So, in the end, it'd most likely result in a lot of added complexity and "housekeeping" chores to support the [semi-]automated bloodhound, in exchange for quicker identification of just a portion of the spammers.

[COLOR="Red"]*[/COLOR] ? We don't fuck around with warnings or notifications, or temporary "time-out" periods of privilege restriction. A user is determined to be a spammer, and what they won't ever see first-hand is that we've permanently deleted their posts, account, and every sign they ever existed from the system, in addition to permanently banning their source IP.

[nypup2train]

New user cleanup complete for past three weeks; 5 imitation meat-like products were canned.

[Curiosity]

I'd say bigbob111's last few posts are probably more trolling than actual spam so far, but this one is pushing it.

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...ad.php?t=24626

might want to keep an eye out.

[nypup2train]

Originally Posted by Curiosity

I'd say bigbob111's last few posts are probably more trolling than actual spam so far, but this one is pushing it.
might want to keep an eye out.

Not as far as this thread (the Spammer Report Thread) goes, at least.

There's nothing remotely spam-like in that Personals post. It's trollish and far from "serious", should be taken with a large bucket of salt, and was probably posted in reaction to some drama or other in another discussion somewhere on the forums. (I'm just plain not interested enough to go try and figure out which.) But in no way, shape, or form is it spam.

No, it's just bob being bob. As a look through his posting history will pretty quickly convince you, he's kind of a dick a lot of the time. But if there was a rule against that, the site would have approximately five users left, and I would certainly not be among them!

[nypup2train]

Just finished the new-users cleanup for users since the first of the month (so, nearly 3 weeks).

Only an unprecedented [COLOR="Red"]two[/COLOR] spammers needed to be dealt with. (And both of them had the same shitty link in their profile, to fly-by-nite online GED dispensary Sandford High School. *grrrrr*) This is exciting news!


On a completely random note, something I couldn't help but notice while looking over the new signups:

Despite the fact that he only joined the site 15 days ago (as of today), nathan has already racked up ninety posts!
He's clearly on some sort of mission. One wonders how he finds time to train.

(Not that I had this in mind when pointing it out, or in fact even noticed it at the time... but nathan's heroic posting rate also somewhat speaks to Yachi's "Is it possible that we can find some sort of algorithm to catch and kick bots that post too quickly?" question from a few weeks back. We'd probably have to redefine "too quickly" for nathan, LOL!)

[arpeejay]

Do keep in mind that I zap about 3-4 per week on average.

xoxo

Richard

[R Chris Cooper]

this bra my hinds my musle growth

[R Chris Cooper]

Here is another spam to kill

Selling==>Dumps,Fullz,Track,Bank Login,Shopping,Transfer ......................

[Lucas88]

User DEAL is pretty blatant:

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1277213

[Yachirobi]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...0&postcount=26

The video game thread seems to be a spam magnet

[V.R.Goh]

That's not even subtle.

[Tronald]

Username: udertimes

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1289777

Pure keyword-stuffing spam.

[Tronald]

username: bixit

Profile: http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/member.php?u=44745
Posts: http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1290709

Its 100% ads.

[nypup2train]

Originally Posted by arpeejay

Do keep in mind that I zap about 3-4 per week on average.

xoxo

Richard

Oh, and I invariably whack one or two as well, independent of my new-members surveys. (Though almost never the ones reported here; those posts are long gone by the time I see the reports. Which is awesome!)

All that's absolutely factored in. In fact, it's part of the point. Even with all of the effort put in by multiple people in finding, reporting, and dealing with spam, I started doing regular surveys of all new members' posts as a way of "sweeping up" ? a last-ditch effort to root out whatever stragglers had been missed despite all that. And in the beginning, as the counts I've posted show, there were quite a few to be found!

But, that number has been tapering off recently, indicating not that the site is free from spam (hardly!), but that we're doing a better job of dealing with it. There have been surprisingly few "leftovers" for me to find with those surveys lately. And, in fact, leading up to this next milestone:

I just completed the new-member posts scan for the past month (since August 19), and the results are...
[COLOR="Red"]ZERO[/COLOR] spammers located and banned!

For the first time since I started in May, there wasn't even a single spammer to be found among the (remaining) new site members. At least for this one month, we got 'em all!

This is almost certainly due in part to a very slow period for member signups. (Honestly, I think the site gained maybe a dozen new posting members, in the past 30 days? A comically low count.) But it's still an impressive achievement, and a testament to the much-appreciated efforts of everyone reading this post! :-)

[Lucas88]

this guy is just getting started:

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1301134

[Aardvark2]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...625#post161625

User Bizlibati looks a little suspicious, what with his non-sequitir posts and the mysterious link in his signature.

[Lucas88]

Originally Posted by Aardvark2

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...625#post161625

User Bizlibati looks a little suspicious, what with his non-sequitir posts and the mysterious link in his signature.

Sorry...should have put his name in my post...same guy.

[Yachirobi]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...ad.php?t=25216

eduardo901F355 isn't even trying...

[Lucas88]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1309942

Joech...an appreciative spambot

[Lucas88]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1313135

Zhenny27 selling batteries?

[Lucas88]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1314197

Stiphen is just noise.

[Lucas88]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...ad.php?t=25323

on-line gamling ad

[Lucas88]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1326821

Ad in the signature

[Lucas88]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1328979

vgregory22 job ads (and on-line now)

[nypup2train]

Not our best month. Scanned 30 new posting accounts since 2011-09-15, had to whack like 11 or 12. If I never see the text "hello,im newbie in this forum." again I'll die happy.

And, honestly, I don't know what to make of http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...d.php?p=163732. Or of http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...132#post162132 since the site linked to in the user's signature does not appear to be a commercial site (altho it does show a couple of off-site ads); it may genuinely be intended as an information resource. *shurg*

[GlamRockCowboy]

I just had a notice concerning a "Flexodent lawsuit" tacked on to my latest post! The culprit's name is "luotrenckin," or some such foolishness. The exact link to my thread is as follows: http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...ad.php?t=25467. I do hope something can be done about this!

[Yachirobi]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...ad.php?t=25660

Someone's BDSM dungeon ad.

[Lucas88]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...ad.php?t=25662

British food ad

[Lucas88]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/se...archid=1352184

Coach handbags...WOO HOO!

[mom bab]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...ad.php?t=25652

Last comment on this thread. See carl6lke.

[Yachirobi]

http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/me...poster&t=25721

taizifeng must be banned.

[nypup2train]

Originally Posted by nypup2train

And, honestly, I don't know what to make of http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...d.php?p=163732. Or of http://www.musclegrowth.org/forum/sh...132#post162132 since the site linked to in the user's signature does not appear to be a commercial site (altho it does show a couple of off-site ads); it may genuinely be intended as an information resource. *shurg*

On the basis of the fact that neither of those users have returned since they signed up and left their single questionable post (each), I booted 'em both. I'm pretty sure they weren't on the up-n-up. (Especially considering the supposed "growing boy ISO trainer" had the username "LoretteBowlus".)

In other news...

Not a terrible month, but far from our best. Went through the 21 posting new accounts (still active) since 2011-10-19, had to ban 5. Including, as AuraTwilight described it, "the most incoherent spambot ever". WTF kind of spam is this?

hi

hellobgkhsdkulgiryguiysfhuiygvuoysaiufhgiofuusuiod gaoi

hjkghjkahg yuri

<link>new cars</link>

I almost feel bad for whatever sleazy company is presumably paying that idiot to join forums and mash on the keyboard a bit, in the name of "advertising". ...Almost. :/

[mimolover]

llahanlupe is posting a visitor message about some merchant contract on my profile. Can the admin please boot him off? thanks