Possible Solution for Forum Spam

Sort:
NoemiS05

Spam messages seem to be a recurring problem in the forums sadly - it seems to be an issue every day or almost every day. One thing I've noticed is that all these spam accounts that post about "Gummy Bears" or "Call Girls" or digital coins, or whatever, in the forums are nearly always under 24 hours old with zero matches played.

I think having a simple rule like "You must complete one game of live chess before posting in the forums" would help get rid of most of the forum spam and save the moderators a lot of time so they can focus on other things. 

KeSetoKaiba

It's a good idea, but spammers could easily play one bullet game and then post spam. If the requirement to post becomes too many games, then genuine beginners will probably be hurt the most as they benefit from asking questions in the forums, despite usually not having played much yet. I'm sure the mods and staff will take care of the spammers soon. These spam accounts tend to get closed shortly after created, or sometimes they even spam and then close their own account immediately after.

NoemiS05
KeSetoKaiba wrote:

It's a good idea, but spammers could easily play one bullet game and then post spam. If the requirement to post becomes too many games, then genuine beginners will probably be hurt the most as they benefit from asking questions in the forums, despite usually not having played much yet. I'm sure the mods and staff will take care of the spammers soon. These spam accounts tend to get closed shortly after created, or sometimes they even spam and then close their own account immediately after.

Maybe, but considering how much effort these people put into their copy and paste posts, would they really even play a Bullet game? Do they even know what chess is, or that this is a chess website?

I enjoy the YT videos by the way - very helpful.

KeSetoKaiba

Thank you very much

TheEvanMack

Hot take:

Account must be a week old and play 10 games, bullet games count as half a game

TheEvanMack

It would slow spam down, at least

NoemiS05
TheEvanMack wrote:

Hot take:

Account must be a week old and play 10 games, bullet games count as half a game

I mean, this would be my recommendation too - it is a chess site after all, why sign up if not to enjoy chess? I agree that it shouldn't be too many games, but I think even one game would deter most spam accounts.

NoemiS05
SixInchSamurai wrote:

> considering how much effort these people put into their copy and paste posts

It might be some script which is run by just one click of a button

> You must complete one game of live chess before posting in the forums

Can be automated also (like 3 moves + resignation)

Yeah probably. I just thought it was worth a try.

NoemiS05
SixInchSamurai wrote:

There were many topics on adding different restrictions to new accounts but I guess none of suggestions from these topics was implemented

My opinion is that da root of many problems including spamming is the very simplicity of making a new account (e.g. there is one guy who has already changed 60+ accounts over just 5 months) but I bet this will never be changed

How is that allowed? Does he keep getting banned and rejoining, or just has lots of different current accounts?