Heuristic post analysis

These DVD spammers got me thinking:

How about scripting a post-checker that examines the content of messages, and scores posts based on regular expressions.  When a post scores too highly, it either gets put in a "moderation" bucket where moderators must check it first, or optionally it adds a button where anyone can delete the post.

Example rules:

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.*rip DVD.* = +10, post mentions ripping DVDs.

.*How to convert.* = +10, after ripping you must convert

.*Step (1|[Oo]ne).*[Ss]tep (2|[Tt]wo).* = +10, post is a series of instructions.

.*<img src=.* = +1, post has images.

.*<a.*href=.* = +1, post has hyperlinks.

{user info}.*Posts \d<.* = +15, user has posted less than 10 times.

{user info}.*Posts \d\d\d = -15, user has made more than 100 valid posts.

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The names of software that is known to be supported by forum spammers could be added at +31 points, or whatever the spam threshold is.

That could be an option.  thanks 3vi1.  We've banned that other user.

Dave_HH:

That could be an option.  thanks 3vi1.  We've banned that other user.

No problem - in ancient days gone by I was a sysop on the CompServe Vidgames forum.  I feel your pain.

And make sure you add some expressions for gold farmers!  :)

I'm not sure if you guys are keeping track of the IPs doing the spamming, but if not - that might also be a good thing to start doing.  If you consistently see the same address, you could put the ban-hammer on it for some extended time period (2-6 months?).

Of course, I understand that you don't want to do that unless you're pretty sure they have a static address... It wouldn't be bad for business to block random people because you're shutting out random IPs from some ISP's dynamic pool.

3vi1's idea sounds great, especially if it gives Bob a break from deleting all those SPAM posts!

And we appreciate the hell out of him for doing it!  :)

Yes we do!