I've notice two instances now of spammers registering with SC4D and then spamming, the latest in the last 1/2 hour from engage084. :angrymore: :angrymore: :angrymore:
How do these people get into SC4D and spam? Surely you need some form of valid email address and need to respond to the email to get in. Can we track and ban their IP addresses or IP ranges? Both registered as from Afghanistan, but I'm guessing this doesn't mean anything.
Administrators have ways of identifying spammers - I banned five yesterday before breakfast. I suspected engage084, but we don't ban without probable cause. I did take steps to keep an eye on him, though, and caught him red handed about half an hour after he posted.
The most helpful thing you can do is report spam if you encounter it. I cannot speak for the other administrators, but while I'm working at my main desktop computer, I have my laptop nearby so I can monitor incoming e-mail.
We do try to spare our members the annoyance of spam. Believe me, we try!
The spamming issue has been going on for awhile now, and there have been days where the staff have banned more than a dozen accounts, all for spam-related reasons. What Joan describes is basically true for much of the staff, especially the Admin staff--I've had many "5-ban days" myself, though being more of a night-owl, it's usually before I hit the sack for the night that I go on my spree. ::)
I can't reiterate Joan's point enough--we're just as tired of them as everyone else here, and the staff has an active dialogue about the situation and strategies.
-Alex
Sorry, that wasn't meant to be a dig at the admins, I realise you can't be ontop of everything every minute of a 24-hour day, esp. when these folks are sneaking in as legitimate users. It's just frustrating when it occurs, esp. when these leeches are sucking out bandwith that's not free, as well as cluttering something useful (i.e. SC4D).
It's my understanding that the Admins and Global Moderators have been specially choosen not only for thier commitment to the site but also for the time that they are availiable to be on SC4D. There should almost always be a staff member availiable to get rid of these spammers pretty quickly. I know I have had my share of banning these spammers. I am around for about 8 to 9 hours every weekday about this time and would gladly help out/ban whenever needed.
Robin ;)