Listology Spam Brigade
So the spam situation here has gotten pretty bad, as many of you have perhaps noticed. The service I use (Mollom) helps a lot but not completely, and I am trying to avoid adding CAPTCHA to all submissions because I know a lot of people find it irritating. I don't think it would help much anyways, a lot of the spam these days is actually done by real human beings who get paid pennies per comment posted on websites with decent Google rankings. A while ago I deputized AJDaGreat to help as spam cop, giving him the ability to delete spam comments and block spammers. However he has been busy lately and is about to go into law school, therefore I am looking for some volunteers to help out. If you are an active Listology member in good standing and would like to help killing spam, leave a comment and I will get in touch.
Thanks!
yeh im getting this. Your submission has triggered the spam filter and will not be accepted. oh its because i didn't clcik back to get a new captcha, shouldnt have to do this everytime i wanna submit something on that page. member 3 years
seems to work now.
now im not even getting a captcha. cant post
Sorry, my internet is not working properly as I said, and it once again posted my comment twice!
So, how does this spam filter work?
@Eggman_Walrus_Taxman
How Mollom works:
http://mollom.com/how-mollom-works
Technical whitepaper (PDF)
http://mollom.com/files/mollom-technical-whitepaper.pdf
Mollom API documentation
http://mollom.com/api
Heyrocker is aware of the Mollom ham blocking problem and is considering the options.
Listology uses the free Mollom service which has a daily upper limit. Daily high volumes can cause interference with posting until a new day.
Sometimes Mollom sees ham content as being high probability spam and doesn't offer Captcha. This is a known problem. Most spam blocking schemes handle false positives poorly in my experience. I recommended a method to override blocking to heyrocker, but it would require custom programming.
- John
Oh wait, it's working now.
What happened then?
[EDITING THIS POST NOW TO REPLY TO YOUR COMMENT BECAUST IT WON'T LET ME POST ANY OTHER WAY]
Thanks for the info, I hope something is done about it.
BTW, a question: is the spam filter working on comments by certain users affected by the previous comments by that user?
Anyway, I'd really like to know why it happened!
Oops, my internet went berserk for a second and there was a triple post XD
The message about my post not being accepted and that filter came up for the first time today!
It's strange. The comment I was making was NOT spam, I assure you!
Hi,
I've sent emails to the contact number for Listology but never heard anything back.
I've tried to make changes to one of my lists but it doesn't matter what time of day I try it always triggers the spam filter and it won't let me do anything. I've never had to enter a CAPTCHA code. At this point I don't know what to do. I don't want to split the list up or reload it as I don't want to lose my comments. Any suggestions?
Me too, I have this problem. They don't let me enter a CAPTCHA code.
But at least this is just for one of my list, the "My favorite paintings, Top 1000", where I write the painter and work name, plus put a hyperlink to the painting. This maybe have something to do with the volume, but I have update this list many times in the past, with no problems. I don't think the volume change that much (I always add and remove something).
If this help, the red message is:
warning: Cannot use a scalar value as an array in /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/listology.com/sites/all/modules/cck/modules/text/text.module on line 175.
Your submission has triggered the spam filter and will not be accepted.
Re: @theduckthief's problem with Mollom blocking edits to legitimate content.
Today, I made a recommendation to heyrocker that we flag established users (over 6 weeks old) as "safe" and not requiring Mollom filtering. I made the case that the majority of new spam comes from new users. Most spam is posted in the first 3 days. Less than 1% of spammers wait more than 6 weeks before spamming.
I do regular spam patrols for new users, new comments, and new pages. Even if a spammer waits 6 weeks to do their dirty work, they will be detected just the same as before. My suggestion would have minimal effect on my spam patrol effort: http://www.listology.com/jwalling/list/spam-patrol
Note: the majority of spam is in the user profile which may not even be filtered by Mollom.
Heyrocker is considering my suggestion and is looking for other approaches to solving the Mollom blocking problem.
Which list is it?
Hi, the list is "Original - Books you should read if you want to consider yourself well-read"
I haven't been able to update it since last summer because whenever I try I get this:
•warning: Cannot use a scalar value as an array in /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/listology.com/sites/all/modules/cck/modules/text/text.module on line 175.
•Your submission has triggered the spam filter and will not be accepted.
Thanks. I thought something might jump out but there's nothing obvious. I always have problems when I use external links. It probably has something to do with the volume of text and/or the diversity of the words in it. At this time there's probably nothing you can do to remedy this situation. Hopefully heyrocker will be coming soon to address some of these issues.
Now I can't update my list and I can't even enter captcha anymore!
"Your submission has triggered the spam filter and will not be accepted.".
Sometimes I enter the captcha right and sometimes wrong (I never know why and I'm sure I did it ok).
Is it temporary? Can I try it again later? In a couple of hours? day? never?
The uncertainty piss me off because I'm a member since several years now. I don't care much about entering captcha on every update I made, but now the captcha disapears, I can't update my lists and that makes me mad a little.
I understand how frustrating it is. I am currently pondering going back to a time-based system where you have to be a member for a certain number of days to post (similar to what we had on the old site.) I really hate doing that though, it is totally demotivating for new members who really want to get into contributing right away. I also know some of the people on the Mollom team, and I may start reaching out to them to see if I can't get some information about what we can do to help. Mollom analyzes literally hundreds of thousands of postings daily. Its hard for me to believe that another filtering system will approach things better.
I retry today and the captcha was at least back again, so it was temporary. It was scary! :P
@Nance
The free Mollom service used by Listology has a daily limit on spam checks. When the daily limit is exceeded, normal edits may be prevented by the Mollom 'logic' depending on the page content. This is a design defect in the Listology-Drupal/Mollom interaction.
I may be exacerbating the Mollom limit problem when I delete spam content. It's a Catch 22.
Heyrocker is moving back to the USA. When he gets settled in, I hope he will address the problems we are seeing with Mollom blocking legitimate updates.
I have stopped reporting spam to Mollom when I delete it. Mollom seems to get hyperactive and over-reacts to additional spam deletions. I don't need to be told I am deleting spam and then getting challenged with Captcha.
wow, captcha triggers need to change. I plead ignorance, is there any way to get rid of it for the particular users?
Feif,
I don't have the answer to your request to bypass CAPTCHA for valid users. Heyrocker, the adminsitrator, can answer your request.
My complaint is that I can't delete spam articles without triggering Mollom/CAPTCHA.
FYI
The interactions between Mollom, CAPTCHA, and Drupal are fairly complex and may not allow the degree of control needed to satisfy your request.
http://mollom.com/how-mollom-works
http://drupal.org/project/mollom
http://drupal.org/documentation/modules/mollom
jwalling
That sucks. Based on how Mollom is described we should earn respect/privileges...oh well.
Spam Patrol
Since Oct 28, 2011, I have been deleting spammer comments, pages, and accounts. I am recording progress with comments here: http://www.listology.com/jwalling/list/spam-patrol
Postscript 12-17-2011
Nota bene: The Mollom free user account has a low daily spam check limit. When that limit is exceeded, spam blocks appear to occur spuriously. If you can't edit your list or article try again the next day. (On IRC, heyrocker said he will request a higher limit. See http://mollom.com/pricing )
hanakunkun spam me, I can't delete his comment:
http://www.listology.com/nance/list/my-favorite-readings-top-1000#commen...
SPAM DELETED 11-12-2011 jwalling
Another spam message:
http://www.listology.com/nance/list/my-favorite-paintings-top-1000#comme...
SPAM DELETED 11-30-2011 jwalling
Could we get the power to delete comments on our own lists?
I'm being targeted =(.
I am looking into if this is possible, but it is not a functionality that comes out of the box with the software we are using. I am also concerned about people using it to remove comments they disagree with, or using this functionality to cause other kinds of trouble. Its just something I want to consider carefully.
The length of the "Recent Updates" column encroachs the middle one, especially the paler bars, so I cannot click on some of my content on the top.
Can we agree yet that we need a new solution? It looks like a couple people have volunteered to help out with actual live eyes, so what's the next step to making this happen?
Can we use the "Flag as inappropriate" button to mark spam lists, or is that for something else? If we can, how about adding such a link to all comments next to reply?
I don't know what heyrocker originally intended but, yes, I think that's what it's for. As far as comments "Report to Mollom" on comments is for that.
I've now flagged all baste's spam articles.
Where is the "Report to Mollom" option?
Report to Mollom should be by each comment. If you don't see then it's possible the admin hasn't made it available to everyone.
Could the Mollom image(?) be auto blocked by my Adblock Plus setup?
Potentially. But I don't see it as an image. I see it as a link. To me each comment has "delete edit reply report to Mollom" across the bottom.
Mods, do you need help with database wrangling? If you do, please let someone (like me!) know.
Can we fix the scary red error messages currently showing up on every page?
Heyrocker has fixed these.
We still have them.
Yes, they just came back a couple of days ago and I e-mailed him the same day they started.
Can't you use smarter automated spam detection?
Either user profile based (so users that are new, or low reputation/have too many "dislikes" by other veteran users aren't allowed to post for several days) etc.
Or heuristic based like spamcop / bayesian filters etc. that find words. or a combination of the previous two.
Visit stackoverflow.com for ideas. Many smart people and ideas there that may be able to make suggestions re. automation without getting humans to become spamcatchers.
Unfortunately spam protection from regular types of spam is not the issue.
cmonster, I would be willing to help, but not until mid-June. I'm on Listology almost every day, sometimes multiple times a day. So if you still need help mid-June, count me in.
If its getting really bad, it might be a good idea to have several of us doing it.
BTW, My comments seem to always trigger a CAPTCHA.
Holla! Let me know how I can help.
(Ironically, my comment triggered a CAPTCHA moment. *sigh*)