Sad to see spamming being flooded in this forum.
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Sean Lange (5/13/2016)
J Livingston SQL (5/12/2016)
There have been several threads on suggested improvements...but I am not sure that any have been acted upon.
So, for the time being, until some better and greater site appears from a competitior, then I will put up with the spam etc.
Or to put it another way.. Redgate pull the plug on the site...whatcha going to do now?
Agreed. This is by far my go to source for all things sql server. And of course from Redgate the challenge is that this site doesn't make any money, in fact it probably costs them. I just wish there was a reasonably easy way to deal with the massive amounts of spam. The admin team does seem to do a good job of deleting posts once they are reported.
+1
Are they able to appoint some moderators from the more respected members of the site?
And why is this a SQL2012 thread?
Thomas Rushton
blog: https://thelonedba.wordpress.com -
ThomasRushton (5/13/2016)
Sean Lange (5/13/2016)
J Livingston SQL (5/12/2016)
And why is this a SQL2012 thread?
I imagine this thread was started here because the majority of the spam seems to be in this forum.
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And why is this a SQL2012 thread?
Haha - my first good laugh of the day.
My thought on this is that it's a SQL related problem (people who unwanted records are being added to the SSC DB) so there has to be a SQL-related solution. SQLServerCentral.com is frequented by some of the best SQL problem solvers in the business so perhaps a thread with ideas on how to handle this type of thing if the site owners wanted to post one. What a great topic, "Brainstorming ideas for addressing spam.." You can't tell me that the people posting this nonsense are smarter than the SQL ninjas that frequent SSC.
I'm just one of 1,858,601 members (as of 20160513) but here's my thoughts...
SQLServerCentral.com has been able to grow as much as it has because it makes it is easy to sign up and post questions/comments. I suspect nobody wants to changes this. Perhaps an "I am not a bot" button along with one of those blurry text fields would be helpful. Filtering for common spam phrases is not a bad idea but what if someone tried to post a comment about how to reduce the spam on their site/application... "My website runs on SQL Server and get's hit with lots of spam like <common spam text here>". The irony is they could get auto filtered as spam.
The best way to attack this is quickly and efficiently may be limited to getting rid of the spam and closing/blacklisting the account once created. With that in mind, here's some ideas:
1. To make it easy for moderators (or volunteers) with some routine that creates a frequently running report of "likely spam". Then moderators or volunteers (I would volunteer) could see a quick list of likely spam topics and address them all at once. Something like this:
Have some link for volunteers and moderators that only they can see and shows the number of potential spam posts. You get a point for finding/removing spam.
The page checks for common spam phrases/links, the profile and # of visits (spammers don't seem to visit dozens of times, have a linkedin account, members on a buddy list or a signature). Volunteers get a point for each spam post they remove and can do so much faster than" clicking "report", typing a message, sending, going back and posting "spam reported"...
Ok, just one thought (I've spent like 30 minutes on this post)... But that's just one of many ideas I have and I'm sure other people have ideas too. I'm one of many people who'd be happy to help. Hopefully this gets some more ideas percolating. 😎
"I cant stress enough the importance of switching from a sequential files mindset to set-based thinking. After you make the switch, you can spend your time tuning and optimizing your queries instead of maintaining lengthy, poor-performing code."-- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001
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Sean Lange (5/13/2016)
J Livingston SQL (5/12/2016)
Sean Lange (5/12/2016)
sestell1 (5/12/2016)
Yea, very strange. I'm curious as to why it's an issue suddenly now?Automatic suppression of posts reported as spam by a certain threshold number of users might help mitigate the issue until the root problem can be addressed.
It has been a pretty big problem for at least 6 months. There has always been some amount, as I am sure most forums have to deal with. But here it has been rampant to the point that I really find this site painful quite frequently. I have had far more luck lately finding spam postings than I have finding people who actually need help. Quite sad really. Probably the best atmosphere and knowledge base for sql server being destroyed by something that could be prevented.
I very much appreciate that this site is "a community service from REDGATE" (top right in the header for those that have missed it).
The site has an extraordinary amount of content, posts , threads etc that are invaluable to me, and I expect many other people.
Sadly though, I think that the sponsors have demonstrated little desire to improve it over recent years...either in layout / functionality or addressing some its shortcomings (eg spam).
I know that to make such changes incurs further significant costs over and above the ongoing provision of the site (anyone got an idea what it costs to support this site???)
...so maybe its a "business decision" to not invest any further.
There have been several threads on suggested improvements...but I am not sure that any have been acted upon.
So, for the time being, until some better and greater site appears from a competitior, then I will put up with the spam etc.
Or to put it another way.. Redgate pull the plug on the site...whatcha going to do now?
Agreed. This is by far my go to source for all things sql server. And of course from Redgate the challenge is that this site doesn't make any money, in fact it probably costs them. I just wish there was a reasonably easy way to deal with the massive amounts of spam. The admin team does seem to do a good job of deleting posts once they are reported.
Agreed - I hope Red Gate doesn't abandon this site. It's my go to source as well. I don't blog anywhere else. I'd really hate to see it get taken down because of spammers, cost or any other reason.
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kreuzer (5/12/2016)
Hi,for me as a human user, it would be OK to type a captcha to post something.
Or, only confirmed accounts can post something. I think, it should be possible to avoid this kind of spam.
Kind regards,
Andreas
We see this as an issue for many people. It's easy to say "I'd do it", but it gets tiresome. We have considered implementing this for new users, but those are the people we don't want to turn off. There are also the issues of many captchas that you can buy are bypassed by various scripting.
Only confirmed accounts can post, but people confirm accounts and then post spam
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sestell1 (5/12/2016)
Yea, very strange. I'm curious as to why it's an issue suddenly now?Automatic suppression of posts reported as spam by a certain threshold number of users might help mitigate the issue until the root problem can be addressed.
It's up and down.
We have a spam filter running on posts after they are submitted, but it's still learning.
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It seems that sometimes the same spam gets posted days or weeks later. If a distinct message was previously delisted, then it should be auto-delisted if it turns up again.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
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Eric M Russell (5/13/2016)
It seems that sometimes the same spam gets posted days or weeks later. If a distinct message was previously delisted, then it should be auto-delisted if it turns up again.Perhaps, but I think the messages are slightly different.
I'll ask someone to look at logs.
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