Can we reduce the spam?

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Can we reduce the spam?

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Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1003853 More actions · Answer 1

TheRedneckDBA (5/19/2016)
What about charging a one-time small fee to be a user of SQLServerCentral.com? Something like $2? (Or whatever the minimum charge would have to be to break even on the transaction charge you'd have to pay)

I get my butt chewed whenever a post a link to SSC on StackOverflow because people don't even want to cough up an email address. There's no way they'd pay even Monopoly money.

The most obvious pattern being missed by the SPAM catcher are the ones that have only a URL in the email.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1003853 More actions · Answer 2

Lynn Pettis (5/19/2016)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (5/19/2016)
drew.allen (5/19/2016)
Would it be possible to limit posts based on the number of visits? I noticed that most of the spam comes from people with 1 or 2 visits. If we set the threshold as low as 3 visits, we might be able to reduce the number of spam posts.
Drew
Meaning someone with 1 or 2 visits can't post? Most of those people do ask questions, surprisingly.
Have to agree with Steve. I have seen people post valid questions on their first visit to ssc.

I've also seen a fair number of such posts get whacked by the SPAM software. It's ironic that a fairly lengthy, well written post will get whacked but a "URL ONLY" post doesn't.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 3

Jeff Moden (5/19/2016)
Lynn Pettis (5/19/2016)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (5/19/2016)
drew.allen (5/19/2016)
Would it be possible to limit posts based on the number of visits? I noticed that most of the spam comes from people with 1 or 2 visits. If we set the threshold as low as 3 visits, we might be able to reduce the number of spam posts.
Drew
Meaning someone with 1 or 2 visits can't post? Most of those people do ask questions, surprisingly.
Have to agree with Steve. I have seen people post valid questions on their first visit to ssc.
I've also seen a fair number of such posts get whacked by the SPAM software. It's ironic that a fairly lengthy, well written post will get whacked but a "URL ONLY" post doesn't.

Heck, remember when The Thread got wacked?

Sean Lange SSC Guru Points: 286573 More actions · Answer 4

Jeff Moden (5/19/2016)
TheRedneckDBA (5/19/2016)
What about charging a one-time small fee to be a user of SQLServerCentral.com? Something like $2? (Or whatever the minimum charge would have to be to break even on the transaction charge you'd have to pay)
I get my butt chewed whenever a post a link to SSC on StackOverflow because people don't even want to cough up an email address. There's no way they'd pay even Monopoly money.
The most obvious pattern being missed by the SPAM catcher are the ones that have only a URL in the email.

This problem with people complaining about an email address should be greatly reduced though as somewhat recently all articles do not require you to be logged in. Well maybe not all but I haven't seen one lately that requires a login. And there is a thread about this very topic. http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1742272-4-1.aspx

_______________________________________________________________

Need help? Help us help you.

Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.

Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/

Luis Cazares SSC Guru Points: 183698 More actions · Answer 5

Lynn Pettis (5/19/2016)
Steve Jones - SSC Editor (5/19/2016)
drew.allen (5/19/2016)
Would it be possible to limit posts based on the number of visits? I noticed that most of the spam comes from people with 1 or 2 visits. If we set the threshold as low as 3 visits, we might be able to reduce the number of spam posts.
Drew
Meaning someone with 1 or 2 visits can't post? Most of those people do ask questions, surprisingly.
Have to agree with Steve. I have seen people post valid questions on their first visit to ssc.

I wouldn't say to limit the capability to start new threads based on the number of visits.

Meaning that users shouldn't be able to start 5 new threads if they have less than 5 visits. However, they should be able to post replies.

Luis C.
General Disclaimer:
Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734418 More actions · Answer 6

Jeff Moden (5/19/2016)
TheRedneckDBA (5/19/2016)
What about charging a one-time small fee to be a user of SQLServerCentral.com? Something like $2? (Or whatever the minimum charge would have to be to break even on the transaction charge you'd have to pay)
I get my butt chewed whenever a post a link to SSC on StackOverflow because people don't even want to cough up an email address. There's no way they'd pay even Monopoly money.
The most obvious pattern being missed by the SPAM catcher are the ones that have only a URL in the email.

There's no login anymore for anything (other than posting). So links shouldn't be a big deal. The read gate was removed a few months back

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734418 More actions · Answer 7

New threads are from new users, so I wouldn't want that.

I did track down yesterday that the reports of SPAM were getting lost. That's been corrected, so myself and a few people are notified at RG to clean things.

Lots are caught, lots get through. Can't figure out why. I did, however, write a few queries last night to look for those posts from new users that have links and mark them as hidden. I've submitted them to the IT group to see if they can be deployed.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734418 More actions · Answer 8

One note, this is to make it easier to clean the SPAM here.

Part of the issue is that this database is too denormalized. The insert for a new thread hits 3 tables, and I'm not confident it's always in the same order. The text and the subject/user info are separated, so it's hard to use a trigger in the db side to catch what might be SPAM and have it work. I'm not even sure that the inserts are transactionally consistent together.

This really needs an app change to make a logical decision before even hitting the db. However in addition to adding some logic around the insert, there might need to be changes to get more data ahead of time about the user. Someone has been reluctant to try and they don't let me see the repo 🙁