there is probably one million active members on chess.com. I would say a few thousand use the forums.....but how the're able to get so much spam in I don't know.....
My theory on why this site has been targeted for spam although it's a small site
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Jun 27, 2014
0
#3
The very nature of spam is that it costs them some time and energy to set up the spam program but then very little to point it at however many sites they can; so the population of this site doesn't matter to them, because it doesn't cost them any more than targeting, say, a Go site or a checkers site.
Yeah I dont know how many actually use the forums. I've been here for over two years -- the forums have not grown one bit (people seem to drop out just as fast as new members start posting).
Many veteran members have said that the active forum population here is 200-300. Nobody has ever disputed this figure although it's speculative.
Caedrel wrote:
The very nature of spam is that it costs them some time and energy to set up the spam program but then very little to point it at however many sites they can; so the population of this site doesn't matter to them, because it doesn't cost them any more than targeting, say, a Go site or a checkers site.
Yeah I'm only visit a few websites but have never seen this level of spam on any of them. Chess.com has by far the smallest user base of any website I visit. By far.
These are ones I use regularly:
imdb.com
amazon.com
nytimes.com
I havent heard nor seen that much spamming for products on here. Most of the spammers are other members trying to get people to join their group as a member. Thats why they cut the recruiting down to 30 a day from all the groups. I get at least 5 groups invites a day from someone I dont even know on the site nor in the group.
Most of the Indain players join one of the indian groups. Asia has many groups to choose from and the asain league for all of them. All my Indian and asain friends havent reported products as being the spam. It other groups spamming them needing members for these newly formed teams...
At last count. this site had just over 6 million members on the books. 10 million is streching it a bit far.....
I don't know brah, your info seems a tad outdated.
this website is target because it have poor spam filters and weak account creation doors... a simple human test before creating an account and a Simple spam filter work wonders...
htdavidht wrote:
a simple human test before creating an account and a Simple spam filter work wonders...
This is what you have to do to make a post on lichess.org forums:
That chess capcha seems a tad heavy handed. Many people couldn't figure it out.
Qxg8#
Jun 27, 2014
0
#13
There may be 200-300 users active on the forums, but I'm sure there are people who lurk more than actually post. Account creation is very simplistic and I figure that someone falls for the scam, so they keep trying.
Not sure why they even bother. Chess players are too smart for that crap. They should go find some forums on Horroscopes or new age crystals or something. These spammers would have more luck there.
I don't know why Chess.com can't just IP ban the spammers?
wanmokewan wrote:
There may be 200-300 users active on the forums, but I'm sure there are people who lurk more than actually post. Account creation is very simplistic and I figure that someone falls for the scam, so they keep trying.
Yes if they got zero response they would stop advertising, as this all costs them time and money.
So it stands to reason that these "Black Magic Vashikaran" guys are getting bona fide inquiries on their services from Chess.com clients.
That is pretty funny.
1RedKnight99 wrote:
I don't know why Chess.com can't just IP ban the spammers?
People with even semi-current IT knowledge can hop an IP in a split second with the click of a button.
Jun 27, 2014
0
#18
Since text can't convey sarcasm at all, I didn't mean to imply that they're legit. I'm sorry for that misunderstanding.
solution: ban the Indians
There are a lot of people that play chess here. Many of the members are from the Indian subcontinent and Asia in general -- a much higher percentage than on most English language websites.
Well, you know that the site has ten million accounts, but only a small fraction of them, maybe even less than 500, use the forums here. This is still after all a chess playing site, not a chat site.
So, I am sure you have asked the question, why is so much time and effort being made to spam a forum that so few people actually use? It's probably two things:
1) The spammers don't realize that only a small fraction of the players here even use the forums, and more importantly
2) The spammers are hawking mostly products that would appeal to the Indian and Asian users. The high percentage of accounts from India and Asia has caused this site to be targeted.
That's about it. Any thoughts?