WE NEED ACTIVE MODS.

[Dav999]

Only in page 21 there are members with 1 post and there are only 2 in that page. That means that there are 20x30+2=602 members that have posted at least once out of 1392 members. 13092-602=790 spambots. Put them all in my ignore list? What do you think?

Maybe Terry should erase all the members with 0 posts again. Is forcing lurkers to register again a problem?

There should be a way to recognize spambots. Maybe it would be nice to warn new users that if they have a link in their profile in combination with 0 posts, that their account will be deleted? (I mean, why would anyone want to visit the website of someone who hasn't posted anything, if they just know the username?) Automatically disallowing users with 0 posts to edit their profile would also be a possibility, but then you still have the spambot accounts, just without the links. In other words: useless accounts.

If I counted them correctly, I now have 109 bots on my ignore list. What if we make a challenge topic on the forum to find as many spambots possible?

[Damn It AL to Hell]

Proof of people mashing an account JUST to spam an account. : http://distractionware.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=22251

[Dav999]

Code orange:



Since 15-11-12, a lot of spambots started to sign up. I think that in the past few days, more than 1000 spambots signed up!

Today, the same number of users signed up as the total number of users who signed up in all days of October together! Most of them are spambots, of course

[blue626]

Just as I said:

I noticed that the memebrs joined one day since 16 Nov. make various pages. Same thing when sorted by registration date. This is easily noticeable by looking at the table at the end of the stats page (which I saw later), at the # of members registered in each day. Normally it was <10. On 15 Nov. it was 26. On 16 Nov., as well as every day after that (besides today) it's >100. That's what happened at Dec. 2010 and from Dec. 2011 to June 2012, when the forum was inactive!

Also:

[edit]≈15 min. after I started posting this there are 1401 members! 9 more spambots in 15 minutes?![/edit]

I find it curious that at the time you saw the table, the # was exactly 109 (which is the # of people registered in October).
Did you check the other dates I mentioned? It happened the same a those times. Why did it happen now? The forum isn't inactive. In fact, it's very active! In 23 days, 1310 posts have been posted, and that's more than in the whole September 2011! So, it's not related to being inactive... is it related to being very active? Or is it another thing? What happened at Nov. 15?
Also, when I sorted by registration date, only 2 users registered in that date. Were the other 24 deleted?

There's also a small difference in most online per day: it used to be 20-30, now it's 30-40. It's related, right?

[edit]

Proof of people mashing an account JUST to spam an account. : http://distractionware.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=22251

What? I don't understand.

Off-topic: I'm going to start to use "[edit]" and "[/edit]" instead of "EDIT:" and "END EDIT".[/edit]

[Dav999]

I find it curious that at the time you saw the table, the # was exactly 109 (which is the # of people registered in October).
Did you check the other dates I mentioned? It happened the same a those times. Why did it happen now? The forum isn't inactive. In fact, it's very active! In 23 days, 1310 posts have been posted, and that's more than in the whole September 2011! So, it's not related to being inactive... is it related to being very active? Or is it another thing? What happened at Nov. 15?

I think that at that time, the forum was inactive because of the spambots!

This post is from January 2010, but it's also about spambots, and apparently inactivity because of them:

Ugh.  Terry, it looks about time this forum got some mods.  I'm watching this guy post thread after thread, and I see there are at least a couple others online right now too, and there's nothing anyone can do about it! 

[...]

man, I hope Terry logs in soon.  This forum is completely useless!  I wanted to talk about an impressive speedrun I saw on youtube. 

That means that if there were a lot of spam posts at the dates you mentioned, people couldn't really use the forum because of the spam. That could explain the inactivity, because of course the spam threads got deleted, but there were less normal posts than usual.

Also, when I made the screenshot of the table, the number was 109. Now it's 115 (also a coincidence, that was the total number of new members from September)

And about the users online: yes, it is related, I also noticed that often there are 15 users online, instead of less than 5. The spambots really log in to look like real users, and to get attention.

[blue626]

I find it curious that at the time you saw the table, the # was exactly 109 (which is the # of people registered in October).
Did you check the other dates I mentioned? It happened the same a those times. Why did it happen now? The forum isn't inactive. In fact, it's very active! In 23 days, 1310 posts have been posted, and that's more than in the whole September 2011! So, it's not related to being inactive... is it related to being very active? Or is it another thing? What happened at Nov. 15?

I think that at that time, the forum was inactive because of the spambots!

(face-palm) I meant 15 Nov. 2012!

This post is from January 2010, but it's also about spambots, and apparently inactivity because of them:

Ugh.  Terry, it looks about time this forum got some mods.  I'm watching this guy post thread after thread, and I see there are at least a couple others online right now too, and there's nothing anyone can do about it! 

[...]

man, I hope Terry logs in soon.  This forum is completely useless!  I wanted to talk about an impressive speedrun I saw on youtube. 

That means that if there were a lot of spam posts at the dates you mentioned, people couldn't really use the forum because of the spam. That could explain the inactivity, because of course the spam threads got deleted, but there were less normal posts than usual.

Is it a problem to reply to a thread in which a spambot has replied, ignoring it? If no, then I don't see why it would become inactive, if yes, then yes it would become inactive... unless it's only one spam post.

And about the users online: yes, it is related, I also noticed that often there are 15 users online, instead of less than 5. The spambots really log in to look like real users, and to get attention.

I, normally, only see 10 users online, never saw 15 (without counting with guests).

[Damn It AL to Hell]

[edit]

Proof of people mashing an account JUST to spam an account. : http://distractionware.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=22251

What? I don't understand.

Off-topic: I'm going to start to use "[edit]" and "[/edit]" instead of "EDIT:" and "END EDIT".[/edit]
[/quote]

That gut just put random letters in his username and literally hasn't done anything. Spam account.

[Dav999]

[edit]

Proof of people mashing an account JUST to spam an account. : http://distractionware.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=22251

What? I don't understand.

Off-topic: I'm going to start to use "[edit]" and "[/edit]" instead of "EDIT:" and "END EDIT".[/edit]

That gut just put random letters in his username and literally hasn't done anything. Spam account.

That is actually the worst example, there are around 1000 bots that have a link in their personal text, or a website. This could actually be a normal user.

[ToasterApocalypse]

A SPAMBOT MADE IT THROUGH! FIRE THE REPORT CANNONS!

[Hilbert]

Already done. 

[Dav999]

Already done. 

[Damn It AL to Hell]

[edit]

Proof of people mashing an account JUST to spam an account. : http://distractionware.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=22251

What? I don't understand.

Off-topic: I'm going to start to use "[edit]" and "[/edit]" instead of "EDIT:" and "END EDIT".[/edit]

That gut just put random letters in his username and literally hasn't done anything. Spam account.

That is actually the worst example, there are around 1000 bots that have a link in their personal text, or a website. This could actually be a normal user.

Yeah, I logged in and see three people with 0 posts and links to businesses and other website in their personal text.