Looking for 'Forum Security Agents'

[Cerberus™]

I just discovered the email giving me my password; I have already deleted three spammers. Ah, this is very satisfying! I will do my best for my time zone.

[Tom Kane]

Hi Torsten,

Count me in. I'll happily join the spam fight!

Tom

[Hieupt]

AAAllophepowepe is a spammer.

BTW, Can I join your force, Torsten?
_________________
Thank you very much,
Hieu Phan.

P/s: Please just correct if I'm wrong somewhere!

[Torsten]

Hi Hieupt,

Many thanks for that. You have already received an email from Slava with instructions on how to use the Spam Removal Button. Did you read that email?
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Hieupt]

[SkiIucK]

Hello Torsten,

This is indeed a very good idea. May I participate?

[Torsten]

Please activate Javascript and Adobe Flash for view MP3 player

14 views

Download mp3	Click to listen

Please listen to my recording and respond with a voice message too. Many thanks.
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Nzuahp]

Hello detest spammers as well and I also wish to joint the security agent crew.

Thanks
Nzuahp
_________________
Practice makes perfect

[Nzuahp]

let me correct myself as i meant to say,

Hello all,
I detest spammers as well and I also wish to join the security agent crew.

Thanks for understanding,
Nzuahp
_________________
Practice makes perfect

[Torsten]

Dear Nzuahp,

Many thanks for your interest in joining our Anti-Spam Force. We'll send you more information via email soon.
Best regards,
Torsten
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[Cerberus™]

A few observations and suggestions on spambots:

1. You've probably noticed already that they usually begin with "sorry for choosing" or "I apologize for choosing" or something like that.
2. Perhaps you could also filter for posts that quote the thread's title, as they often do; if I weren't a spambot, I'd be hard pressed to find a reason for ever doing so. By filtering I mean having the message wait for approval by a moderator, or requiring the poster to fill in a captcha.
3. At a certain wiki, I asked the moderators to do something about spammers' continually deleting wiki pages and putting their links there instead; sometimes the page was gone within minutes of my having restored it. Their solution was to have anyone who posted a message containing external links solve a simple calculation, like 10-5=. I think it worked quite well; I have only had to delete a single spam edit in the last week or so.
4. I am still in favour of captchas for new users (if they aren't required already). Captcha's for each new message are worse than the disease.

[Cerberus™]

Then there is this user:
http://www.english-test.net/forum/search.php?search_author=Janetlalbag
He has only promoted a few sites on vocabulary, did not participate in any discussion as far as I can tell. His spam posts were all in April, except his latest post today. I would delete him, but he has no spam button; probably because he has registered several months ago.

[Cerberus™]

Since a couple of days I get an error message when I click on the Spam button. I have idea what it means: [Edit: I am using Firefox, but the Spam button does work in IE; I suppose I messed up my FF; I hope I can fix it.]

Bad Request

Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Size of a request header field exceeds server limit.

Cookie: __utma=85290701.1602179172.1256786003.1257001549.125708200.6;
__utmz=85290701.1256786003.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none);
phpbb2mysql_data=a%3A2%3A%7Bs%3A11%3A%22 autologinid %22%3Bs%3A32%3A%22a152e841783914146e4bcd4f39100686%22%3Bs%3A6%3A%22 userid%22%3Bs%3A5%3A%2227840%22%3B%7D; user_registered=Cerberus%99; __utmc=85290701;

...

Apache/2.2.9 (Debian) DAV/2 SVN/1.5.1 PHP/5.2.6-1+lenny3 with Suhosin-Patch mod_python/3.3.1 Python/2.5.2 mod_ruby/1.2.6 Ruby/1.8.7(2008-08-11) mod_ssl/2.2.9 OpenSSL/0.9.8g Server at english-team.com Port 80

[Slava]

[Cerberus™]

Oh that is smart! At first I couldn't see what you did on the post because my browser automatically adds hyperlinks to texts such as this, but I eventually found out.
So I understand that this type of user/spammer is not to be blocked?