Why is the spam so bad lately?

If you use the forums quite a lot, you'll notice the spam is horrendous lately.

Is there any reason it's become so prevalent lately?

(I'm sure there was probably a thread like this a few weeks ago, but the forum search simply doesn't work, so I can't find it)

@sombre: yeah posted a thread about this a week or so about this. I guess it effected by most of the mods being on US time and therefore a lot of the Spam is not got rid of till later in the day if your in the UK or EU time zones.

Sorry, sorry. I know I've posted a lot today. I know my words are worthless! I'LL STOP! *runs away and cries*

*gathers self-esteem and carries it back*

Yeah, there was a forum thread and I think the response was that it has always been bad but it has started happening at times when most of the mods aren't around (like European morning time). But it does generally get dealt with quite quickly for the most part anyway.

I think it's also just a sign of the times. There have never been more bots, and they've never been so intelligent. Hopefully, in combination with Red Ventures, they'll be able to introduce some sort of security check solution that counteracts it or something?

I would hope so because it is really, really distracting. But it has had the positive effect of making me want to post more to stop seeing it when I scroll the page!

In fact, I wonder if the changeover from CBS has had anything to do with it... do the mods know if there's a back-end reason for it?

I think the spam has actually gotten better. I mean some of it actually seems like a real post.

Oh, you meant why is there more of it than there has been? I actually think that it has been worse in the past. The answer is always some combination of more bots targeting the forums, the forum software spam prevention tools not keeping up with the newer bots, and a lack of moderation personpower to keep it all at bay.

I think that the real question is whether there's anything that users can do to help because it is annoying. I actually think that the legit thread bumps and necros are in some ways more annoying than obvious spam threads, which my eyes just kind of glide over like they're ads.

A few years ago the page was literally filled with spam everyday and I haven't noticed that in a long time lol. But yeah, folks are probably on vacation and spending time with family so I wouldn't be surprised if more spam will get through the filters right now. I always just flag any spam I see as it seems to help the most.

@oursin_360: Yep I remember this. I'd get to work in the morning and a quick browse it was impossible to use the forums until maybe around noon because the spam was just rampant.

@ahifi: Sorry, had to, hahaha

The era of Korean spam bots a few years ago was definitely worse, but things certainly aren't great at the moment.

I don't think it has anything to do with those changes, but yeah, I think it's apparent to everyone that something isn't working correctly right now with automated spam detection. Hopefully the engineers will be able to address it in the new year.

I imagine it's just the holidays and not everyone's on their moderation game 🤷‍♂️ but I dunno, it gets weird once in a while

It's been like this for quite a while, so I dunno if it's anything to do with christmas holidays. It's a combo of either higher targeting/automod stuff not working and a total lack of mods outside of west coast USA timezone. But the forums are literally the deadest I've ever seen them so it's not like there's much point for them to expand.

Some people are making excuses or saying they haven't noticed. But it's definitely worse the past couple weeks, at least. I'm on US time and I've been seeing and reporting a ton of spammers lately. Whatever the cause, it IS worse, lately. No need to gaslight people raising genuine concerns. Doesn't personally affect me much, but, yes, it is worse.

I can certainly understand the frustration. We're doing our best to get threads/posts deleted as soon as possible, but the volume and frequency of the spam posts make it tough for us to catch it all in a timely manner.

This is likely going to continue being rough until the engineers have time to investigate, so we appreciate your patience.

Why don't GB assign European moderators?

That would help a lot until they figure out how to add some kind of anti spam mechanism.

@giant_gamer: We do have moderators in Europe.

@chaser324: Sorry, by reading some of the comments it seemed like there are no European moderators.

More than likely something has hitched up with the spam filters and a combination of switching ownership, everyone working from home, and the holidays have led to spam getting through.

While it is frustrating it is what it is. The spam doesn't harm you unless you click on it and we'll get to it as soon as we can. We're a volunteer group of mods who also have holidays, family, friends, and a pandemic to deal with.

So please while it does suck to watch the forums fill up with fake stream links and Tom Hanks CDB oil (yeah a real forum post I saw and clearly my all-time favorite) remember that it'll be dealt with and not to get upset by it.

@development: Nobody said it wasn't a problem or that they didn't notice (@oursin_360 said he didn't notice the whole page covered in spam like in the worst times not that he didn't notice the spam) but it has definitely been worst at times than it is now.

It sucks for everyone who uses this forum, but as @finaldasa said it is what it is and it doesn't actually cause any issues except a minor irritating distraction.

Though I'm very upset to hear that the Tom Hanks CBD oil is not a real Giant Bomb endorsed product. I have been using that for awhile now. It does help explain the burning sensation it causes, though. I was surprised that Mr. Hanks would endorse the product but thought that maybe the burning was just a sign it was working properly.

Saw a bot that basically wrote all their spam links in the goty format and that takes dedication

Our mod team is fairly evenly split across the world, with 4 or 5 mods on each US coast (I think the ratio works out in favour of the West coast) and then another 5 or 6 in Europe. And then there's me in Australia, just to keep you on your toes.

For what it's worth, we also have people of varying ethnicity, religion, sexuality and gender on the mod team.

The spam issue is often that spammers create multiple threads in quick succession - when they get spotted we take them down immediately, but obviously we don't spend every waking minute of the day hitting F5 on the threads list. Spammers also are pretty sharp about finding ways to get around any automated system that gets put in place, so it's a full time job for the engineers trying to stay one step ahead. We might have a period of time where there's relatively few bots getting through, but it never lasts.

Anyway, thank you for your patience!

I think also some of the automated spam tools aren't working as well as they should at the moment and all the engineers are off for the holidays. I'll try to get some people to look at it when they get back.

Frustratingly, the anti-spam tools often create false positives and nuke people who are just signing up to ask a legitimate question - I've been trying to get the program to be more leniant with them which might make it more difficult for it to catch actual spam. A never-ending battle on that front.

I doubt the spam is being caused by bots. GiantBomb uses reCAPTCHA v3 which is supposed to be an extremely effective deterrent against bots. I think these spam posts are caused by real people creating fake accounts and posting shit on the forums.

I'm a web developer myself but I have not run a website that is so heavily populated as GiantBomb. But I feel like there are better ways to programmatically control this situation:

1. Require new users to verify their email address before they can post on the site.
2. Add a waiting period (like 24 hrs) before new users can post anything
3. Add a waiting period (like a week) before new users can post a new topic on the forum.
4. Require 2FA to login (this will be a pain for some people)
5. Only premium members can post new topics (I hate this idea myself, but throwing it out there)
6. Block functionality for regular members to add anchor tags (I also hate this idea, but the whole point for spammers is for their post to get picked up by SEO)

Also don’t forget that bot writers aren’t standing still either - anti-bot stuff that was perfectly fine even six months ago can start failing if the bot writers find new loopholes or take advantage of new automation technologies.

It’s a never ending arms race, and given that GB’s forum software is mostly custom (I think) this means the bot writer is deliberately focusing on the GB forums, which makes it even tougher to beat.

Usually the only way to really stop forum spam is to make the opportunity cost so high the spammers seek easier targets.

@yyninja: I can't remember, but didn't GB in the younger years do something similar to these suggestions through the user-ranking system they had back then?