Hello artistis.
I'm noticing that obscene SPAM is incresing out of control in this forum.
I am an adult person and even if I can stand this obscenity I find it degrading for an artist web site sharing threads with such topics.

But, the real problem, I think, is another: very likely this site appeals young people since drawing is an attitude well practiced in childhood or teen age. I think we should do some real effort to avoid this unfitting cohabitation.
I'm not saying the tech group is not doing anything to face this problem. I'm just seeing the number of obscene threads increasing week after week.

So, this just to spot on this unconfortable situation on this web site that is, as we all know, for all the rest of the services a great place for all the artist (or supposed) around the world.

Thanks for the attention.

I agree to Paolo 1000%.

Isn't it possible that new "users" subscribe and must confirm their subscription? Or wouldn't that "kill" the robots?

I also agree but from what I have read the moderators are doing what they can to address this problem as quickly as possible.However I think that a few things must be taken into consideration the sites that are being sent are like viruses(being sent by 'bots' and not registered users and secondly from what I can see most of the moderators are North American and therefore in different times zones we can't expect them to be on the board 24 hours a day. I think we have to keep doing what we are doing by reporting to the moderators until a new system is in place.

Just as a quick footnote reporting the "spam" to the moderators ...well at least for me is like picking up garbage in a community everyone pitches in and it makes our environment a much better place

I well know it's a bots stuff. And for this reason we could take in consideration some technical filters. One over all the others is the CAPTCHA. It's a kind of verification the users must insert in the form they fill to post the message in the trheads. It's simple and give good results blocking, in cases where the forum is not under strong attack, till the 90% of the spam.
I suppose mods here are aware of these tech aids to fight the spam, I'm also convinced they do their best to face spam but, since it's a terrible time consuming the never ending fight to such things, I suggest implementing a technical solution. That's all.

The moderators have no control over technical aspects of this site, that will be down to administrators and updates to the site which will take place over time.

Yes, its very time consuming to delete these posts and eats up time that could be better spent. To be honest, constant reporting really makes no difference, the mods are all well aware of the posts when they open up the site.

I am sure there are a number of technical solutions that administrators know of, but putting them into action isn't as simple as flicking a switch. They usually involve some redesign of the site and costs to upgrade. As I'm sure we're all aware, nothing is free in life.

My concern is that people will stop using the site because of the constant spam. Whether it is robots or not is irrelevant, it exists and to be honest, I've tracked some of the 'names' of those posting and they don't have robot tendencies, more like people.

So Admin, Brenda, its time to take some more serious measures to ensure the health of your site remains intact.

Hi all!

I had a meeting with all three website managers about this issue on Monday. The best we can do at this point is continue deleting them as they appear.

However, following is an update from Jeff, with a little hope:

I've been doing a lot of research into the spam. I've found a community of IPB developers who run large boards that have the same problem with spam. They've come to the same conclusion we have - there's no automated way to detect if someone is a spammer. However - the group is working on a mod for the board that would prevent people from posting url's in their messages for the first X posts. They're petitioning the IPB developers to add it to the forum code.

I'm going to keep an eye on this and keep my fingers crossed.

Jeff

Poor mods. But they do a good job and maybe the spammer will loose his humor and his **** to post this spam.

And it doesn't help to report the spam? Cause I don't want to produce another spam by reporting the spam...

I personally find the Report Post very helpful.

However, other moderators seem to have even better techniques. Quite often, by the time I get the report, one of our wonderful moderators has already rid us of the vermin!!!

Brenda

LOL Brenda with the number of reports of spam that I have gotten in my PM box and from deleting so many of the spam as soon as I am in the main forum thread I can usually tell what is spam and what isn't. I can now pinpoint that vermin!! So I usually have it all deleted before I reach my PM box. They won't get by me unless of course another Mod beat me too it also...

Hello Brenda,

most of the technical (read IT) methods to fight spam are intended to block the spam message itself without caring whether it has been created by a person or a robot. Here is a quick list of action that can be implemented (yes Jeanette, we all know nothing's for free but I think something's worth the cost)

1. CAPTCHA
The simple need to insert a text in a form field copying it from a distorted image can prevent 90% of bots spam. It's well known and adopted by lots of forums (at least here in Italy) among which there are some of the IT experts forum.

2. Enabling of new users
This is an action that must be taken from mods crew to allow a new registered user to post. It's a simple way, to avoid a spammer (not a robot but a person) to register and immediately post obscene messages.
This methods involve a kind of quarantine space where newcomers "prove" (with the simple politeness of the first one or two messages) they're on the forum to talk about drawing art.
I suppose nobody feels under trade if must pass the easiest of the tests: not being sassy

3. Prevent from posting URLs
This can be viewed as an extension of the previous point. That can be intended to work at the same level (parallel enabling) or at a higher level (subsequent enabling). IE: I've been enabled as user and I can now post URLs or I've been enabled as user but cannot post URLs till my Xth message (where X is a number decided by mods crew). Just like Jeff said.

I do not take into consideration the overwhelming method of authorizing all the posts. Its a never ending curse.

In addition to all the methods that can be implemented there are specific antispam filters that web site hosting forums should use. They're the common filters working with a black list of words.

Hope these considerations are useful to the mods and admins crew.
I don't want to simplify the problem, it's true the opposite: I know it's a big problem and difficult to fight. But I think it's well worth.

Thanks for your attention.

I miss the good ol' days when all "bots" did was come from the future to try to kill John Connor. Sorry but I thought I'd add a little humor in all this.

ops, you know...my nickname is Poldone but I am John Connor! Please don't tell terminator I'm here around.

I HAVE YOU NOW, JOHN CONNOR!

(Beep-beep, boop-boop!)

The terminator is no longer..................................its now the Governator! LOL Stay away from California, John Conner

I was surprised to see when I signed up that I was not asked to provide a valid email address; which would force a new user to respond to a e-mail sent from drawspace to prove that I was a human and not a bot. I don't know what BB engine you are using but this is a fairly standard option in the admin back office. And of course Capta and the lot work well for a post by post basis. Just my two cents.

Thanks for your contribution. I agree with you about the email thing.

Nice situation. I do not intend to blame anyone else but the poor people/bots creating all this c..p

I connect from Italy and it's 11:12 in the morning here now.
What I see, in EVERY forum (Tech, Suggestion, General, Welcome) is that ALL the posts are obscene spam.
Take this message as a report of the new spam message, I know different time zones do not allow mods to intervene right now. I know all the mods/admins are doing hard work on this issue.

This are, no doubts, bots generated spam messages. Real people contribution is just to invent new sentences to attach to the message. Then the bots pick up randomly the sentences as well as the links from their database and post a new message in the forum.

I completely agree with extsieg and posts above. Mail address checking is the must in order to stop spaming. Without that everybody may enter and post all kind of nonsence and that is problem for users and moderators.

I don't understand why you have much of that kind of spam. I run two forums and never have any spambots on my site and that's because none can do the image verification. The only ones who can spam are actual individuals, but these are very few.