TF Views

It looks like TigerMegatron's special friend has found us.

I know that we generally take a relaxed attitude towards this kind of shit, as during the "Hall of Fame" vote. But can we please just solve the problem this time? We are adults and we know the difference between spam/trolling and stumbling posts.

I recommend locking the accounts. If I recall correctly, this prevents the users from deleting their accounts and replacing them using the same information, meaning they have to start new emails every time they want to troll. At the very least, this will cost them time and make their lives slightly more difficult. (And, if any of them live local to regular members, that could also open up options....)


Dom
-really does not need this shit now.

If it really is a real person, if they've got enough free time to follow Deathy all the way here even though he's under a new name, they've probably got enough free time to make new email accounts.

I really don't see how their barely-readable posts threaten the board's infrastructure, and truth be told I'm still not convinced they're not bots. Tigmeg's gonna ignore them, and for once I agree with him.

If they are trolls, they will get more obnoxious over time.

And, enough of their posts can drive away new readers/members/fans, and discourage established members from bothering to read/post. I have seen that sort of thing before, and do not want it to happen here.


Dom
-agrees that these people are scum.

Well, ok, it's not really my area but I'll support whatever measures are taken.

Scum? I dunno. I feel kinda sorry for someone who'd actually devote time to stalking Tigmeg. No offence to him.

I find it contemptible beyond pity.


Dom

I wasn't here to see it, what happened?

Anyway, if someone is posting obvious troll/spam attempts, let's just...you know, delete it and ban them. By IP. When people are simply annoying or having different opinions than us, that's different, but this is just trying to cause stupid shit and I do not want that here so let's be vigilant and steady and ban the fuckers.

Dominic wrote:It looks like TigerMegatron's special friend has found us.

I know that we generally take a relaxed attitude towards this kind of shit, as during the "Hall of Fame" vote. But can we please just solve the problem this time? We are adults and we know the difference between spam/trolling and stumbling posts.

I recommend locking the accounts. If I recall correctly, this prevents the users from deleting their accounts and replacing them using the same information, meaning they have to start new emails every time they want to troll. At the very least, this will cost them time and make their lives slightly more difficult. (And, if any of them live local to regular members, that could also open up options....)


Dom
-really does not need this shit now.

I've already explained this to TM, but I guess I need to explain it to you guys publicly as well. There has been 1 new user since I banned the last batch of spammers, and while that user also was a spammer, it was clearly not a targeted attack against any one user, it was simply the most vulnerable thread because it had already shown infection and probably has a high search engine interest due to the specific content in the opening post. It's just a guy from Pakistan who incorrectly thinks posting hundreds of garbage posts on the internet today will get 1 sucker to click his worthless crap-ad link and net him a cool 10 cents or someone's credit card info. I cannot solve internet spam, that is not a problem I have the power to solve. I'll close the thread since something about it seems to be attracting a lot of spambots, but that's all I think is necessary - I'm not seeing the crazy rash of problems you're seeing, Dom.

But let me say it again, I've already banned the offending accounts which bans any variation of their usernames as well as their email addresses. I've deleted their links, which is the only thing they want to have up here.

Just because someone posts in TM's thread "I like a color" doesn't mean it's a troll, it's more likely a spammer who only understands the basic contextual underpinnings of the original question "which do you like?" and is trying to fake a response to get their signature listed in search engines.

Sorry jumped the gun and conflated the Unicron color thread problems with the last batch.

The problem with banning by IPs is that some people have access to multiple IPs.

Dominic wrote:Sorry jumped the gun and conflated the Unicron color thread problems with the last batch.

The problem with banning by IPs is that some people have access to multiple IPs.

I am familiar. One can ban IPs by blocks, so anybody from a certain neighborhood or even an entire country could be banned, but it's messy and not terribly difficult to spoof or use an onion router.

I don't think it's too much of a concern at this point.