Could someone please clean up the newest entry to the Off Topic Forum. It has been there for hours. I find it to be very offensive. Isn't there some kind of filter that PortableApps.com could be using to prevent this from happening again. Seeing this kind of offensive material makes PA look bad.
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Thank you for removing that post. It was up way too long.
Don't be a pin-head!
It was only up for 2 hours during the evening (NY time) which is when many mods are doing other things. We have two separate automated spam filtering mechanisms in place, but if we make them stricter it blocks legitimate users from posting.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
The last time I looked the post had been up for 3 hours and 45 minutes. I really don't want to debate the time the post was up. The important thing is the post was eventually taken down. I realize the pickle you and the other mods are in, and I think you all are doing a great job.
The spam filter is probably good for curbing spam, but what about a filter (not a spam filter) that will monitor subject matter and content (words used) to filter out the highly objectionable material that was in the post in question. Does such a filter even exist?
Just thinking of PA.com and trying to make it better.
Thanks,
Al
Don't be a pin-head!
Your time may be off in terms of the setting on the site. I just checked and mine is, so it was taken down ~3:12 after being posted if I recall correctly (I thought it was ~2:12 but I had my timezone off by an hour at the time). My point is that it wasn't up for several hours. And it was in off topic, which doesn't appear in Recent Posts, so most folks wouldn't have seen it. But that's really neither here nor there.
The problem with filters is they filter legit posts. Even blocking certain strings as objectionable can mess things up as they can be parts of larger words. We could try and manually figure every combination out and institute a filter, but we'd amass quite a list and we'd have some hits and some mishits causing legit posts to be blocked. Incidentally, the previous sentence to this one contains two common swear words and one common slang for female body parts that would trigger a simple filter trying to block swears.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I see what you mean. You guys have a tough job monitoring this site. Being that the World Wide Web is global the PortableApps.com site is constantly being barraged. Just a few minutes ago I saw a topic on how to obtain Viagra. I see it more and more as I regularly visit the site. I enjoy the topics and the feedback given. I would not like the PA site to be overrun with this kind of junk.
Thank you for letting me voice my concerns.
Keep up the good work.
Don't be a pin-head!
We use a combination of things to counteract stuff. If they were all off, you'd know it. Here's an example of recent spam levels. Most of that you never seen because it is automatically blocked. Over 200 spam messages a day at times. What does get through, we use a heuristic analysis on that learns what is spam as time goes on. Keep in mind that all of those messages are being sent after accounts are created attached to a verified email account and solving a Captcha (we use ReCaptcha to help with digitizing literature) so all the automated bots that post spam anonymously or auto-create accounts on Drupal are already blocked.
So, you don't have to worry about us being overrun.
We've got multiple hurdles in place (1. no anonymous postings, 2. must create account with an associated email account and verify it, 3. must solve a captcha during account creation, 4. message filter using context and IP reputation analysis, 5. captcha fallback on messages that might be spam but aren't sure, 6. spam moderation and heuristics on messages that get through). Plus, even if a spam does get through, the spammer gets zero benefit since we have a forced NOFOLLOW on all links posted in the forums. And we have several mods so someone is on duty most of the time, but there will be a few hours here and there where things are missed, especially on a US holiday like yesterday was.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!