Titan Network

Titan Network => Announcements => Topic started by: Tahquitz on February 26, 2020, 12:08:17 AM

Title: Spam Bots, or "Why did the only message posted yesterday just disappear?"
Post by: Tahquitz on February 26, 2020, 12:08:17 AM
There's been a rash of automated spambots targeting SMF based forums.  While post spam has been a battle since Web 2.0 apps like user forums started to take flight, the use of bots and AI has ramped up in recent years, targeting almost all forum programs common to websites.  Adopting a new piece of forum software isn't the solution; virtually all forum software is susceptible to automation like this.

This week, several of us were fooled when an inflammatory post from Reddit written in April was plagiarized and posted on our forums.  We confirmed it was a spambot on the moderation side after seeing the same IP address making fake accounts over the last several months.

Bot-made posts use a variety of tricks to insert advertising into forums against the policies of the owners.  Lately, some threads have been lifted from places like Reddit, Discus messages on other websites, and even our own forums at Titan Network and reposted to make it seem like a legitimate message.  Then when no one is looking days or months later, they change the content of a signature to insert links to their website.

Some signs that a post may be botspam and not a genuine post:

If you see this behavior, don't get swept up or reply.  You can help by pressing "Report Post" and telling us it's potential spam when you see it.  We'll investigate it and take care of the matter from there.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you around on Titan Network.