NEW MEMBERS vs SPAMMERS

I apologies if you are seeking membership with the Grasshopper Forums and have been declined in recent days. Please try again but make sure you include sensible information about yourself. The more you provide the easier it is for me and others to distinguish you as a valued member.

This evening alone I have had 40 new membership applications only 1 of which I have accepted. The majority of those were easily identifiable as spammers. There were about 5 that could go either way, but I erred on the side of caution and declined them as we are being inundated with a very persistent group of spammers as of late.

New members please try again..... spammers you can just go and boil your circuit boards in a vat of Dhaka's finest curry

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jon Mirtschin on October 21, 2013 at 1:58pm

Can someone please shut down this spammer?

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/auz-hoppers/forum/topics/eohnoeg...

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on October 21, 2013 at 2:04pm

Done

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on October 24, 2013 at 4:51am

Here's an interesting article about the spammers who are focusing their attention on Grasshopper3D.com.

taken from http://akismet.com/how/#gs2

5 things every blogger should know about spam

1. Web spam is different from email spam.

Email spammers want you to buy their product. You are the target of the ad contained in each email spam you receive. Comment/web spammers want your readers to buy their product. You (the blogger, author, moderator) are not the target.

2. Web spammers are social engineers.

Email spammers write messages to get your attention. Comment spammers write messages to escape your attention. They want you to believe they are real bloggers, real people, writing real comments, so you’ll approve the comment and publish it on your site. They use flattery, appeal to your good nature, and simply lie in order to convince you to give them the benefit of the doubt.

3. Web spammers are basically advertising on your blog..

..and they're keeping all of the profits. They’re not even asking your permission first. Right now someone is offering to sell links from your blog to anyone willing to pay a few dollars (or a few cents). If your blog is well known, it may even be listed by name, with backlinks for sale at a set price.

4. It’s all about the backlinks.

Web spammers are selling links from your blog to their clients. They do this to game the search engines and trick your readers into visiting dubious web sites. Their clients are sometimes seemingly harmless, but are often peddling fake pills, porn, scams and malware. Sometimes they’ll use “buffer sites” – that is, innocent looking web pages intended to disguise the fact that they’re really advertising something more sinister.

5. Spammers employ humans.

Not all spam is delivered by spambots. Spammers are increasingly using humans to write and post comments by hand. Typically they are exploiting low-paid workers in internet cafes, schools and factories. Sometimes they are viral marketers paid to promote a new product. Either way they are trying to exploit your blog for their profit – and hoping to do it without you noticing.

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on October 24, 2013 at 8:52am

I've been thinking about how to stem the tide, it's getting ridiculous and I'm worrying I'm rejecting legitimate registrations now.

Grasshopper3d.com is fully accessible to anyone I think, so the only reason to register is if you want to post some content. Would it be a bad idea to have a feature in Grasshopper which generates a registration code? If we demand people have Grasshopper running then we can probably do away with the Captcha as well. If that means Spammers will start buying Rhino licenses in order to get in.... mission accomplished.

There is one problem which occurs to me, people who have problems getting Grasshopper installed or loaded will not be able to register. However they can still use personal email or Discourse.

Any thoughts?

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Seattle, WA

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on October 24, 2013 at 9:14am

That approach would be a great idea.

Is there a way to make a single forum available to the general public. To be able to post installation questions. As I can see new members who are having problems with getting started becoming disengaged pretty quickly.

The only other type of person who would miss out is someone looking for a sub-contractor/free-lancer to do some work for them.

Permalink Reply by Ryan Gathmann on October 24, 2013 at 7:13pm

They are hitting the Prairie Dog Forum pretty hard here:

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/group/prairie-dog/forum

4 spammers so far in the past couple hours. Is there any way we can report spammers, block them from our groups, and delete their posts?

Thanks!

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on October 24, 2013 at 8:02pm

You can report them, but only administrators have the rights to ban and block someone.

That is the downside of a top-down management system like Ning.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Seattle, WA

Permalink Reply by beta on October 24, 2013 at 8:25pm

i think it would not be friendly towards newbies but then again, such discussions can help you find a better idea to get rid of them.

skål!

Permalink Reply by Nitya Balan on October 24, 2013 at 8:32pm

or the members could show some responsibility and instead of just looking at spam, should report it. i think it is only a matter of few weeks we'd get rid of them or at least decrease their frequency.

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/topics/spam-friend-requests

on the link above, there is message posted by djordje. i think that message should be in-boxed to every grasshopper member.

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on October 25, 2013 at 6:46am

Please post links to spammers profiles on to the Discussion forum or PM me. This will probably have a quicker result than using the Report an Issue link at the bottom of each page.

EDIT as only site admins get those, where as my un-official role as Spam Tsar won't see them.

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on October 25, 2013 at 6:58am

The correct and official method of reporting spam is using the Report an Issue feature at the bottom of the page.

In case I get hit by a bus win the lottery and don't show up one day :)

Permalink Reply by djordje on October 28, 2013 at 5:38am