85

When a post gets six spam flags, it is deleted. However, the user account remains in the system.

When this happens, an automatic flag should be raised to allow moderators to check the account to see if it needs to be destroyed, similar to the PostVandalismDeletionsAuto flag.

I will periodically run searches, such as https://drupal.stackexchange.com/search?tab=newest&q=is%3aquestion%20deleted%3a1, and see blatant spam that has been deleted, but the spammer's account remains.

When combined with the feature that will allow moderators to annotate account deletion/deconstructions, SE will be able to get better information on the spammers.

Improve this question
8

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
11
+50

I see nothing wrong with raising a flag for mods if an account has suspicious activity, such as blatant SPAM combined with low/no rep. However, please don't allow it to become SkyNet and auto-ban; I'd feel better if there was some manual intervention.

Another good request was proposed a few years back, though I can't tell from the post if the feature was, indeed, created.

EDIT: Additionally, see this post which is in the same vein (though I'm not sure it's a duplicate).

Improve this answer
1
  • The linked question isn't a dup. This is just a new flag type, to let mods know about possible spammers. The linked question is automagic destruction for 1 rep spammers.
    – mpdonadio
    Aug 23, 2013 at 22:09
-3

It would work well on regular users that went on spamming spree, but will it really help anything against serious spammers? I have no statistics to support it, but from what I know, creating a new account is easy enough, so that the spammers won't care about creating new account for each spam message.

In order to catch such things, you should detect the following:

  • more than spam posts with link to within days
  • more that spam posts from withing days
  • more than spam posts from withing days
  • more than spam posts with in url shortener within days

The moderator should be able to report the problem to the developer, which could to the following:

  • ban links do domain
  • ban keyword in link
  • ban IP address/group
  • ban posts with in link
  • ban posts with in title

The bans should be possible to put either globally or on single site.

This would target the single-account spammers as well, because a spammer posting unique spam links is a rather unique case (once again, I don't have official statistisc, but from what I know, a single spammer is normally spamming the links to the same target site/product).

Improve this answer
2
  • We already have anti spam mechanisms in place. But it isn't bulletproof and some spam still gets through. I really like the idea of an automatic flag being raised as soon as a post gets deleted with 6 spam flags.
    – Madara's Ghost
    Apr 29, 2014 at 7:38
  • 3
    To add to what Second Rikudo said, this is partially to prevent some new spam, but also to cleanup after they are done. I routinely find users, sometimes with accounts across multiple sites, who have had spam automatically deleted but their account is still in the system.
    – mpdonadio
    Apr 29, 2014 at 13:44

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .