MyBB Community Forums

(2018-07-30, 12:23 PM)effone Wrote: [ -> ]Extended: Proper thread title is helpful to search issues and troubleshooting in a handy way. Thread with title "Help me urgent" containing some critical guideline will be lost over time and not be easily search able leading to repeated brainstorming for the same issue.

That is kind of what I said in my post above yours.

Closing threads is not the best option as for one this results in duplicated content, but we might have to continue that until we're equipped with better tools (e.g. disabling replies but allowing the author to change the subject and notifying them).

Why not delete them if it's recognizable spam seeds?

(2018-07-30, 03:13 PM)linguist Wrote: [ -> ]Why not delete them if it's recognizable spam seeds?

Well, if it was easy as that, then my website would have ZERO spam/carding bots. 

The big issue that I deal with on a daily basis is that a live human will register a username that looks and acts legit. 

Nothing happens for a day or two, then suddenly the spam/carding crap starts to flow from that user, but the person who created it in the first place is hoping that us Admins won't know the difference. 

As I mentioned in a few posts here in MyBB.com, I do have a spam bot that catches a lot of those, but it's not a perfect system.

Because it starts out as a human login, I have no way of knowing whether a new live user will become a bot, therefore, it's next to impossible to recognize spam/carding seeds.

You did notice the word "if" in my post?

When threads with nondescript titles are closed and the users are given the suggestion to reopen a thread with a better title. What will legitimate users do? Open a new thread with a better title but focusing on the same question.
What will a spammer do? Probably lay low to avoid detection. Or just open another $&%§?* thread with a nondescript title. Actually,an experienced moderator will be able to spot these.

@Serpius

We are all entitle to our views i personally have been around this game for a damn long time and worked on a lot of projects there is no doubt that spam engines are evolving with the market given the amount of money paid into marketing that is only natural.

The issue as i see it is there are better ways to manage the "Help Me" threads or the 'Non-descriptive Thread Title' threads and it is as simple as being human. Reading threads and gaining a focus of the content for one.

The argument around search engine and it catching thread titles well that is neither here nor there again mods can edit and manage this.

Please do not think i am trying to say you are wrong as there is some valid points to your comments and whilst if using search features to limit forums then you should still get the right answers as the search does look at content within the posts not just thread titles and as such better management would combine threads about the same issue into one so that any answers are correctly maintain together and not spread across the community.

i don't want to harp on about this but i feel you lost the basis of my original post.

@effone thanks for your views if you believe a post is spam then would it not be optional to highlight that within the closure message i do think you can see what i am pointing out and that unfortunately the evolution of spam engines is as fast as the anti spam measures and why not there is a lot of money in it and it works no matter how much we hate it if it did not work then it would not evolve.

i have noted some threads that were genuine and the response to close and more so the default wording used is very much direct (the polite way to put it)

I do just feel there are better ways to mange this.

@Devilshakerz hopefully with 1.9 following the initial release some focus can go back into tool sets for mods and admins but being human when you approach questions is still a good thing

I believe the threads are actually closed because:

• With the recent bots, it can be difficult and time-consuming for a staff member to determine whether it's a bot or an actual user
  
• Following on from my first point, closing the thread prevents other users from wasting their time providing support
  

They're probably the two main reasons as to why threads get closed. From the response given, if the user is an actual person then they'll just create a new thread, and if the user's a bot then the thread has already been dealt with. A lot of users who are eager to help will be wasting a lot of their time if they're busy replying to bots.

This is essentially a filter to determine who's a bot and who's a real person.

(2018-07-31, 07:03 AM)fishntassie Wrote: [ -> ]@Serpius

i have noted some threads that were genuine and the response to close and more so the default wording used is very much direct (the polite way to put it)

I do just feel there are better ways to manage this.

@Devilshakerz hopefully with 1.9 following the initial release some focus can go back into tool sets for mods and admins but being human when you approach questions is still a good thing

Well, I just had a recent situation where an user came in and setup a legit account. That user's first 2 posts were legit. Nothing out of the ordinary.
All of a sudden 2 days later, that same user posted 3 carding posts in a row, lucky for me, my spam bot closed those posts and banned the user.
I double checked the posts and sure enough those were carding posts.
So, the user came in as a legit user, posted a couple of legit posts and then became a carding bot.

How do you propose that someone like myself or MyBB.com stop those kinds of spam/carding bots?

(2018-07-31, 07:35 AM)Wires Wrote: [ -> ]I believe the threads are actually closed because:

• With the recent bots, it can be difficult and time-consuming for a staff member to determine whether it's a bot or an actual user
  
• Following on from my first point, closing the thread prevents other users from wasting their time providing support
  

They're probably the two main reasons as to why threads get closed. From the response given, if the user is an actual person then they'll just create a new thread, and if the user's a bot then the thread has already been dealt with. A lot of users who are eager to help will be wasting a lot of their time if they're busy replying to bots.

This is essentially a filter to determine who's a bot and who's a real person.

Yes, having a LIVE person 24/7 to deal with spam/carding bots would be ideal, but for most of us Admins, that's not even feasible.

Not even MyBB.com can do this in spite of the fact that many of the staff are spread around the world in different time zones, one should NOT expect the staff to "babysit" the forums and monitor every single post.

It's not a good use of that person's time or money.

So closing those suspicious posts is better than allowing the unsuspecting users to reply to those posts only to find out that they are replying to a bot, which like you said, is a time waster.

Again, you pointed out if that user was a legit user and their post got closed because of a non-descriptive title, then they can post another thread with a better title.
I have seen a number of them do this, but at the same time, I have seen many that do not, which leads me to suspect those are bots.