Spam Posts 2.

Question

Hello again.

The Spam monsters are still active.

The 3 mods Amber Ray and I are doing our best but it is too time consuming deleting and banning the users for hours on end. Ray was doing it alone for about 8 hours while Amber and I were asleep.

Please complain to this email address - it belongs to Stephanie.

[e-mail]

That might get a response - we have had none.

Muchas gracias amigos.

Ian

This is so important. Getting a lot of members sending e-mail should really help and get something done. - rac1, Jul 23, 2017

Stephanie said they would work on it Monday, but we've been at it all weekend. - rac1, Jul 23, 2017

Ya le envié un correo. - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jul 23, 2017

Yo también. - jtaniel, Jul 23, 2017

Gracias amigos. - ian-hill, Jul 23, 2017

Answer 1

Perhaps program a rule into the software that says until somebody has received say 2 votes, they can't make a second post. That way at least the spammers would have to create new user names and logins for every post.

We can easily tell who is a genuine user so could quickly vote them up for further posts.

By the way, thank you Mods for your sterling efforts so far here!

:) - ian-hill, Jul 23, 2017

Great idea mate . - ray76, Jul 23, 2017

No hay de que, amigo mio. Thank you for being here. It really means a lot! - rac1, Jul 23, 2017

I like this idea Billy. As you say, the only problem is new user names and logins would still get around it, and at present they can be created very quickly. I've been thinking about this a lot over the last few days and will share the thoughts either ... - jellonz, Jul 24, 2017

...with you all, or the support crew, tomorrow, when I'm not being called out of my office for family time :) - jellonz, Jul 24, 2017

Cheers guys. My idea is very basic, I'm sure web experts will have other more robust methods of preventing this sort of nuisance. - billygoat, Jul 24, 2017

Even if the user names change, other things won't, like the phone number or url being hawked. - jtaniel, Jul 24, 2017

A script could check all posts against a blacklist that the mods can add to. Then each round of spam could be ended with the addition of a string to the list. - jtaniel, Jul 24, 2017

I like Jtaniel's idea of a blacklist. "Baba" should be included in the script as a search term. It is in almost every header. Let the script run once every, say, 3 hours. "Bye bye Baba". - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jul 25, 2017

Answer 2

Hi all. Stephanie here, from the SpanishDict team. First off, I want to acknowledge that our entire team really appreciates you all using the site, and we know how important this Q&A forum is and has been for you. We do take situations like this very seriously, and I apologize that I haven't often posted in the forum when things like this have happened.

We absolutely do not want spam posts on our site either, and we recognize that deleting them is an exhausting task for our mods, that they should never have to do in the first place. They have been kind enough to keep an eye on the forum for our team, and we really appreciate the time and effort they dedicate to this site.

Amber made me aware of this issue on Friday, and I immediately spoke with our engineering team about what we could do to solve the problem. I apologize that there wasn't a quick and easy fix for this, but our team continues to work on this and will implement a solution as soon as possible.

In regard to changing the site to a secured https connection, we are actually moving in that direction. There are a lot of tiny details that go into a change like this, including some beyond our control, so it will take some time to accomplish. But please know that this is a very high priority for us!

In case you don't know much about our team, we are a very small company of about 20 people, and we build and maintain SpanishDict.com, Fluencia, and the SpanishDict mobile apps. I am the only person that responds to emails and all other forms of user communication for all three of those services, so that's why you might have received the automated response this weekend about having received your message and that I'd get back to you as soon as possible. I do my best to respond as soon as I can, but I can't work 24/7.

In order to continue providing SpanishDict as a free service, we do need to show advertisements in order to keep the site running. If you ever see an advertisement that plays audio or seems inappropriate in any way, we would really appreciate if you could click the "Report this Ad" link attached to the offending advertisement. That helps us to catch the bad ads and notify the companies that sent them to the site, in order to have them removed. If you see an ad that takes over your whole screen, or redirects you to a different page, the best thing you can do is to clear the cache/cookies in your web browser. That will typically prevent those ads from continuing to target you. If you need help doing that for your browser, please send me an email through the Feedback button!

You are always welcome to click "Feedback" on the right side of your screen to send me a direct email. That's the fastest way to get ahold of me. But again, I can't always respond immediately. I hope you all can understand that. Thanks again for being part of SpanishDict!

Stephanie

Thanks, Stephanie. It helps a lot to know what's happening behind the scenes. Much appreciation comes your way for keeping this site up and running for all of us. - AnnRon, Jul 24, 2017

Thank you, Stephanie, for letting us know what's going on on your end. - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jul 24, 2017

I appreciate your post as well, Stephanie. - jtaniel, Jul 24, 2017

Very much appreciated, Stephanie. We know you can't work 24/7 and we do understand that. We appreciate when we hear from you. Thank you for keeping us posted. - rac1, Jul 24, 2017

Thank you very much, Stephanie, for letting us know what is happening behind the scenes! We really do appreciate all that you and your team do in trying to make S.D. function safely in partnership with our 3 excellent mods who also work their socks off... - FELIZ77, Jul 25, 2017

trying to keep ahead of these spam monsters and keeping them under control lol - FELIZ77, Jul 25, 2017

We also realize that you cannot work 24/7 because you have a life outside SD which we also have when we can pull ourselves away from SpanishADDICTive.com lol :) - FELIZ77, Jul 25, 2017

Thanks, Stephanie. I wanted to hear from you on this thread because of the importance of this issue. Not only do spammers threaten the functioning of this site but it gets the mods upset, understandably. - Sassette, Jul 25, 2017

Thank you Stephanie , this will go a long way to calm the savage breast . - ray76, Jul 25, 2017

Answer 3

For personal reasons I don't like emailing administrators. They should be looking at important threads like these anyway. Here's is my message so that I'm on record on this issue.

To Stephanie:

This site means the world to me and spammers are threatening this site. I can't think of any more important task than to protect this site from spammers once and for all. As a user of this site I am realy turned off that administrators do not post on the Q & As and keep everyone updated directly on what is going on, especially when trouble hits. That way we know what's going on and we can leave comments in the comment section. The moderators are already bending over backwards to deal with this. This issue needs to be in your hands.

Missy (Sassette)

:) - ian-hill, Jul 23, 2017

Write on, Sasseette! (I used the "w" on purpose) - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jul 23, 2017

Thanks, Don! - Sassette, Jul 25, 2017

Answer 4

Hi Ray, Amber and Ian

Thank you sooooooo much for all the hard work you do for us keeping our forum active, efficient and clear of all the spam posts!!!

When we write to them, what should we ask them to do about it?

They might say: What do you expect US to do about this (situation)?

Any great ideas for how to describe the current state of affairs that might just motivate them to cat?!!!

Urgent

Would somebody please tell me where I can find the Feedback form to contact Stephanie or should I simply send an e-mail to Stephanie from my own (external)e-mail account using the address provided by Rac ???!

I asked them whether the anti-spam campaignn might include automated elements, to take some of the pressure off the mods. - jtaniel, Jul 23, 2017

Great idea provided that the spammers cannot decode the antispyware, or other automated machinary, jt! - FELIZ77, Jul 23, 2017

Just tell them how you feel. Not so much about us as mods, but how it is within the forum. :) - rac1, Jul 23, 2017

Thank you, rac:) - FELIZ77, Jul 23, 2017

:) - ian-hill, Jul 24, 2017

Thank you so much feliz, it is so gratifying to be appreciated , not enough of it nowadays , too much taken for granted . - ray76, Jul 25, 2017

You are most welcome, Ray :) - FELIZ77, Jul 25, 2017

@ Feliz...Just send it through the "Feedback" button to the right of your screen. There is no form that I know of. - rac1, Jul 25, 2017

Answer 5

Mil gracias a Ian, Ray, Amber - this is a good platform to learn Spanish for me. Though I am very slow and don't have writing speed.

Don't be ridiculous. don't misuse this platform, we are benefiting, we request from the bottom of our hearts to stop spamming por favor. Mil gracias por todo. Eres un buen persona del mundo. Dios te bendiga !

Hi Nepal, I edited your post because Stephanie is one of the managers and our friend on SD , she is not a spammer .. Thanks for the post mate. - ray76, Jul 24, 2017

:) - ian-hill, Jul 24, 2017

You are doing O K mate , no problems . - ray76, Jul 25, 2017

mil gracias amigo ray, ian ;) - nepal15, Jul 25, 2017

Answer 6

Hi all. I wanted to give you an update from the SD team. About an hour ago we built a new function into the forum that will require users with less than 15 reputation points to wait 4 hours between asking questions. This should eliminate the large waves of spam coming through, and we will continue to work on more longterm solutions going forward.

As always, we appreciate the work Ian, Ray, and Amber have done to delete these obnoxious posts and we sincerely hope they won't have to deal with anything like this again. But as with all things on the internet (and in life in general), the people behind things like these spam posts will always be looking for a new way in. It's impossible to have preventative measures in place for every possible situation.

I can't be on the forum every day, which is why we have three moderators in the first place. So if anyone ever has any questions, concerns, feature requests, typos to report, etc. please click the "Feedback" button on the right side of your screen to contact me directly. Or open your email and send a message to [e-mail]. Both methods will get your message to the company inbox.

As I've seen printed in US airports recently: If you see something, say something.

Thanks for being fantastic users of SD!

Stephanie SD Team

That sounds like a reasonable compromise... the four hour wait. - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jul 25, 2017

Thanks for update. Looks like action is being taken. On issues as important as this it is nice to get updates from you. SD must meet the challenges and stay a step ahead of the bad guys. - Sassette, Jul 25, 2017

Thank you for the update, Stephanie and for all you and the engineers are doing. It is much appreciated by all of us. - rac1, Jul 25, 2017

That should slow the @#*&%#*s down, at least for a while. Thank you, Stephanie. Please let the others working on a solution know how grateful we users are. - AnnRon, Jul 26, 2017

Answer 7

¿“Spam” en inglés es “Spam” en español? Debe cambiarse a “el espam” y los malandros que lo producen deben ser “ëspameros”. El verbo debe ser “espamear” (transitivo e intransitivo). Y como adjetivo: “espamante”. “Espamoso” no suena bien.

“SPAM’, la carne enlatada, debe seguir como “SPAM”.

Y "espamacidio" y "desespamear". - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jul 23, 2017

But as ray probably knew when he used a month python tune, the word spam for computing comes from their Spam song. - Mardle, Jul 23, 2017

All he has to do is teach the Norwegian Blue to sing it. - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jul 23, 2017

:) - ian-hill, Jul 23, 2017

The Norwegian Blue's singing days are long over Don :) - jellonz, Jul 24, 2017

After pining for the fjords, he moved to Sweden to yodel in the spaghetti tree groves. - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jul 24, 2017

Answer 8

I'm sure all of us who emailed got back the automated message that includes the following:

We wanted to let you know that we’ve received your email, and it’s safe and sound here in our inbox. Our Customer Happiness hours are Monday thru Friday, 9 am to 5 pm Central Daylight Time (UTC -5).

Looks like there might be no rest for the weary until tomorrow, no matter how many of us write in.

:))) - ian-hill, Jul 23, 2017

Apparently they have "bankers' hours. - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jul 23, 2017

True, but if everyone complains, and not just us, it will help, You see what I mean? And of course for the future. - rac1, Jul 23, 2017

Yes, it at least lets them know that it's not just the mods who are concerned. I tried to emphasize how hard it is for members to use the site with this going on and how exhausting it is for the mods. - AnnRon, Jul 23, 2017

I have a couple other email addresses that I could use to badger them, but that would be fraud, no? As in singing a petition twice. - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jul 24, 2017

No, I wouldn't badger them. - rac1, Jul 24, 2017

I won't send more. But I am in a Badger State. :) - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jul 25, 2017

Lol...You are too funny, Don! I'm glad you're here to lighten things up. :) - rac1, Jul 25, 2017

I just noticed in mi previous comment that I was thinking about "singing" petitions. - DonBigoteDeLaLancha, Jul 25, 2017

Answer 9

In addition to the recent spam in the questions, I've been having trouble since I've come back to SD with pop-ups kicking me off of the site all together in spite of having pop-ups blocked on my iPad. It happens fairly regularly so thanks for the support email. I just sent her an email about both issues. And thank you and the other moderators for putting so much energy into keeping this forum a nice place to visit!

:) - ian-hill, Jul 23, 2017

Thank you for being here, Alba. I'm so grateful to all of you. Do you have Adblock or Adguard? And, it depends greatly on the browser you are using. - rac1, Jul 23, 2017

Answer 10

Sorry guys for this latest attack we are doing our best but they are overwhelming us for the mement but we shall restore order quite soon now so just be patient.

It's clear now so thanks. I assume it was you rather than the SD technical bods - Mardle, Jul 25, 2017

:) - ian-hill, Jul 25, 2017

We are all doing are bests. I just did several, but I'm sure they are still working on it. In fact, they are doing some of the work of banning and deleting with us. :) - rac1, Jul 25, 2017

Yes Someone - maybe Amber deleted about 120 of them. :) - ian-hill, Jul 25, 2017

I banned them but had to go to bed it was past my bed time. - ray76, Jul 25, 2017

Answer 11

The only suggestion I can make here is this site needs to be on https (hypertext transfer protocol secure) instead of plain http. That applies to login. Once they are login, a registered user should have https like Twitter. This site needs to be encrypted to have little or no attack from hackers. Here's an example:

• https://www.spanishdict.com/answers (Secure)
• http://www.spanishdict.com/answers (not secure)

https secures (encrypts) the communicaiton between the client and the server, but secure spam is still spam (alas). - jrschenk, Jul 23, 2017

Yes - as far as we know they are not trying to infest SD with a virus. But while fighting and banning them my PC screen has twice gone blank and I had to power off to clear it - ian-hill, Jul 23, 2017

It certainly wouldn't hurt and could be a very good idea to move to a https address on a secure website address. They may not be attempting to infect SD with a virus today but planning for the future is always a good move on the basis that: - FELIZ77, Jul 23, 2017

Prevention is better (more effective and cheaper in the long term) than Crisis Management - FELIZ77, Jul 23, 2017

:) - ian-hill, Jul 23, 2017