New anti-spam logic implemented in comments module

Andrew Lee · **Joined:** Sat Feb 04, 2006 9:19 am **Posts:** 1878

I have added new anti-spam logic in the comments module. All these are behind-the-scene changes, so there should be no impact to the UI or how the user interacts with the module.

Firstly, the system now periodically (every 5 mins) checks for comments that has previously been marked spam, and apply them to new comments. Hence you only need to mark one comment in a spam bomb, and the rest will be automatically taken care of.

Secondly, if a comment is marked spam, its associated IP address will be banned for an hour. That should help make spam bombs less effective.

Thirdly, if the same comment is entered within an hour from the same IP address, that comment will be discarded. This targets spam bombs as well, but has the nice side effect of preventing accidental duplicate comments.

These changes will not stop all spam comments, but should hopefully help prevent the infestation of spam bombs from time to time.

freakazoid · **Joined:** Wed Jul 18, 2007 5:45 pm **Posts:** 598

*claps*

Checker · **Posted:** Wed Mar 23, 2011 10:09 pm

Good work

m^(2) · **Posted:** Wed Mar 23, 2011 10:38 pm

Good.

I like the anti spam crusade.

A suggestion: Why ban for only 1 hour? Spammers return. I would use 1 month - chance of a random user with dynamic IP getting stopped should be still very small, yet I think that amount of spam stopped would be higher.

webfork · **Posted:** Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:30 pm

m^(2) wrote:

I like the anti spam crusade.

Agreed.

m^(2) wrote:

Why ban for only 1 hour? Spammers return. I would use 1 month - chance of a random user with dynamic IP getting stopped should be still very small, yet I think that amount of spam stopped would be higher.

Not all posts that I suggest for deletion are necessarily spam, sometimes just overtly offensive or useless. Arguably those posters should get a ban for more than 1 hour, but probably not a full month.

m^(2) · **Posted:** Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:46 pm

webfork wrote:

m^(2) wrote:

Why ban for only 1 hour? Spammers return. I would use 1 month - chance of a random user with dynamic IP getting stopped should be still very small, yet I think that amount of spam stopped would be higher.

Not all posts that I suggest for deletion are necessarily spam, sometimes just overtly offensive or useless. Arguably those posters should get a ban for more than 1 hour, but probably not a full month.

Agreed.

Magibon · **Joined:** Thu Feb 24, 2011 4:24 pm **Posts:** 165

webfork wrote:

Not all posts that I suggest for deletion are necessarily spam, sometimes just overtly offensive or useless. Arguably those posters should get a ban for more than 1 hour, but probably not a full month.

i completely agree with this comment, whole-heartedly!
part of the appeal of this community is the help and discussion from it's users.

if the members start becoming vulgar or righteous..
people will become intimidated, or not want to deal ...

the main reason i joined is due to the openness/helpfulness of the members here.
Let's not ruin it

New anti-spam logic implemented in comments module

Who is online