MAJOR SPAM INFESTATION

[MC]

Moderators, WHERE ARE YOU?!?

We have a major league spam infestation. Much more of this and I'm leaving too.

Every user who views this thread - BUMP IT so it stays on top

[Kevin Lightner]

I agree that it's pretty bad at the moment, but please remember that Moog is a small company and they've just exhibited at NAMM.
Many of their employees are putting in long hours and doing jobs well outside their "job descriptions."
Working at a Namm show, especially one clear across the country, can be grueling work.
Give them some time to get back to normality?

[HowardJones]

What we need is moderators in several different time zones. It's hard to kill spam when you're asleep in bed, but there's always users who live in different timezones that could be called on. I agree this much spam is not a good look for an official company site.

[MC]

The trend I've been noticing for years is they attack from friday night to monday morning, when the mods are away

[Headphones]

It's pretty bad lately, and first there was 1, then there were 7? It's gotten a little out of hand, but we're doing the right thing by not replying, or clicking what they offer. But maybe somebody could volunteer to be a moderator for the times when the trolls decide to post their ads. I wish it were that simple if the person posting didn't in some way talk about music, moog products, cv/midi, modulars they'd be banned, but I'm sure if any accounts got banned for spam, they'll just return the next day with a new identity and another batch of spam we'll ignore.

[EricK]

I was just beginning to think about posting on this, but the last thing we were told from the Admin is

"Don't mention the spam problems on the forum, but rest assured it will be taken care of"

Now I can't speak for a lot of people, but with actual images of sex acts, this will hurt business regardless of who is posting it on this forum.



THe problem is that companies overseas are paying humans to log into forums rather than bots. This is what caused the Fender Rhodes site to have problems, but they only had 1 man there, not the resources that Moog has.

This is Moog's official forum, but it is also our community, and it would be good to have a very limited number of very trustworthy individuals to take the strain on what is likely a paid staff member at their HQ. It would be much better for business than having Moog advertised porn sit around all weekend.


Another solution is to have Moog Specific questions required for registration such as featured on knobtweak. This stuff is built into forum software as added security measures. This will help to curb the human spammers who don't know "Moog" but see MUSIC as a keyword (why we get listings for dj equipment all the time).

[timmy]

one thing is certain - we know it ain't Mike Bucki!

(his thread got borked, too!)

[HowardJones]

THe problem is that companies overseas are paying humans to log into forums rather than bots.

I've had the feeling for a while too that it's not bots. One forum I'm on for a while got over-run with spam while the owner was away (no internet) and the moderator lost interest. When the owner returned and started checking regularly and killing spam as soon as it popped up it seemed to discourage the spammers - they haven't tried for some time now.

[RL]

I had to close my guest book cause every day a stupid spam robot left f...g ads there.
But the idea with admins in different time zones is not bad...

[Sweep]

This has come up before over the years, and it's been pointed out to Moog how helpful it would be to have moderators in different time zones.

They've always ignored any offers of help - including mine, which I wouldn't make again because I'm too busy elsewhere now on other things, including succesfully clearing spam from a different synth maker's forum.

Clearly they're overstretched right now because of NAMM, but that was bound to happen from time to time. I'm inclined to think this will happen until Moog decide they can trust someone - maybe a couple of people in different time zones. It'll get cleared up before too long, but it'll happen periodically unless they change the way they do things.

[Headphones]

I don't really know how to be a monitor of a message board, but I'm well enough aware they just ask people to follow the rules, and negotiate with those that won't until they have no choice but to ban them. I agree, the people posting their sex ads must think they can lure some people into their website, but don't seem to know that kids could see this as well. I'm sorry to hear Moog hasn't really responded well to people who volunteer their time to keep the spam out. What do they think? That somebody will do it for awhile, and want a free VoyagerXL out of it later?

[timmy]

the best course of action is to simply turn off all embedded links or redirect them all to the moogmusic.com.

so, we have type shared links out in a new browser window ourselves to visit them? big deal. we can do that.

that will eliminate the spam.

[EricK]

Basically they can have a Moderator level and an admin level. A Moderator can delete posts but has to defer the power to ban a member to the admin. Its an easy job as long as whomever is appointed is capable of being fair and won't abuse their power. Its just pretty time consuming, about as time consuming as clicking on every spam link and clicking "report".

There is really litle risk to Moog for appointing someone to do this job because unless someone just really abused it (not that an abusive Moderator could have their powers revoked) its not exactly going to tarnish the company image or anything.

THe sad part is really when long time contributors decide they can't stick it out for whatever reason and decide to leave the forum. THIS, not poor moderation is what kills forums. We have had members who have left because of language that was getting just a tiny bit inappropriate. If ONE member left because of this reason then having hardcore pictures displayed will most definately turn away potential customers. We have a lot of knowlegable people here, we don't need to lose anyone else.

I think it all comes down to how much importance Moog puts on their forums. Basically, it seems to me it is the ultimate tech support forum, an addendum to calling the factory, as most problems can be eliminated or diagnosed here quite easily. Its a good place to communicate to the engineers about product suggestions (continuing in the long standing tradition). But is this a place for upcoming news and events? Are we the first to know about new products? I have to say not really.

They may decide to shut it down altogether. Lets hope they don't.

[slabwax]

I'm of a few thoughts on this. First of all, I know I read more then I speak. So ignore me if I'm a little green to chime in on the subject. I do feel a trusted forum member with more then a handful of posts could be chosen to help with this problem. A few mods even better. There are a lot of level people on this site that I trust would do the job well if they decided to take on the responsibility. Overall this is a very tame forum compared to most. The good folks at Moog have more to do then babysit the forum. I personally would rather team Moog hire someone to R & D a new percussion controller then hire a chat site moderator.
That said I think we need to get over it. Its spam ignore it. We have been ignoring spam forever. Be it a billboard trying to sell me a Cadillac and PBR or tv ads selling me Swiffers and Hamburger helper. Don't click, i've yet to see a spam post on this site that was not obvious from the get go. If I was to get caught I'd click back. It is just that easy. Do I like it, hell no But I don't like the BS spam I get everyday in my email inbox. I do what I can ,move on and get over it. IT'S JUST AN AD plain and simple. Just today I've received 3 spam emails to make my D@$K bigger They don't realize that I'm already a 5'10" D@#k ( just ask most of my family) .

Now what can we do to help stop it. I know on most non manufacture chat sites I have to answer a few questions before I can post. I'm sure a human spammer is not going to take the time to tell a mod why they like Moog gear and what synths they already have. Is it more time consuming for a mod? Yep!! But how many new members a day does this site get. I doubt it would take more then five minutes a day to keep them out. And guess what, a few would still get in.

There is a lot of great people on this site with tons of real world knowledge, please don't let some spamer get our collective panties in a bunch.
Remember spam is just an ad, like what they are selling or not.

I'm off my soapbox now!
Dean

[Sweep]

I'd add one thing to the excellent points made above.

A major problem with spam postings is the impression it gives of a company.

One or two spam posts may be unavoidable, but if you have masses of them all over the forum as we did a couple of days ago it looks to people as if the company isn't really interested. To a potential customer it says "This is a company that isn't really interested in keeping control of things. If they're not bothered about people posting filth all over their forum, will they bother about keeping high standards of manufacture and technical support?"

As we know, Moog are generally excellent in these areas. It'd be a real pity if that fact wasn't apparent to potential customers who visit the forum to find out about Moog instruments and see what looks like apathy and neglect.