Extend thread creation timer?

Hey guys,

So lately I've noticed there's been a recent increase in people coming on and posting links to malicious websites i.e. Java drive bys or if someone is spamming an advertisement. Or if it's just the simple spambot running. They go around and just spam their thread everywhere, mainly in the Market and RuneScape sections.

What I'm suggesting is that the current thread creation timer is extended from what we have now (1 minute per thread) to something like 5 minutes. It could decrease the amount of threads made by phishers/spambots/malicious users as staff would be able to catch and ban them after one or two threads are made. Even if it's a staff member that has no perms in that section (i.e a sectional), they could still ban the user to prevent them from creating more threads. Obviously this suggestion wouldn't apply to the staff.

There is no other reason why someone would create multiple threads in such a small time frame, save for spamming/flooding.

I know this problem has been around for a while, but I think it's time something was done about it. IP bans and adding stuff to the censor is usually only a temporary fix for it.

Thanks for reading.

 

Yeah that sounds quite reasonable. It's just as you said, no one will ever need to create so many threads within 1 minute or even 5. Support.

 

Ye i like the sound of that ive been seeing that around the WOW market a bit in which i just report the threads but ye total support from me.

 

Alternatively to combat the same problem they could add a URL whitelist instead of censoring URLs. Any URLs that are posted but aren't on that whitelist could be censored.

Whitelist: Runescape.com, WorldofWarcraft.com, Sythe.org, Tinypic.com, Imgur.com, popular news sites, etc.

 

I've been trying to think of a way to get read of these spammers and I think this will be a good start. It will at least cut it down from 8-10 threads before they get banned to two or three.

On a side note I'm not sure if this is possible but what if they just make it some kind of limitation for new members like a 10, maybe 15 minute wait between each thread for the first couple weeks?

 

Pretty hard to white list a lot of sites just to combat temporary spammers, its really just one annoying person doing it and putting a lengthier time limit would deter him from flooding the forums as he would probably get 2 threads in max before he's banned.

 

just report the posts

 

What about if you posted the same thing a couple of times the website infracts them or something

 

I dont think its that big of a deal...

 

5char

 

Support. Although it doesn't bother me, it could potentially harm newcomers.
And honestly I barely make 1 thread within 1-5 minutes let alone multiples.

 

I don't really think this will work.. even though they have to wait 5-10 minutes, however long it is, they'll still carry on posting their threads.

 

Yeah this would be somewhat of a good idea, but maybe there is a website listed that someone wants to post a cool link to for people to see but it's not on the whitelist, so that would make it so they couldn't post it.

OP: I think there defiantly needs to be something done as for a day or two there were constant threads relating to a free 2b for a p server or something and it's rather annoying

 

They are almost always banned within 5 minutes, I can guarantee none of them last 10 minutes. This would mean that they could only create 3 threads instead of 8 or however many they see fit. I support this completely

 

If you can't report the amount of threads they create in the same time frame, there's a problem. If it can be done for replies and reports, surely implementing it for threads wont be a problem? I don't see why the average user would be affected by this.

 

Perfect idea. No legitimate user needs to make threads every minute. Hopefully this gets looked into.

 

I think it's reasonable. Support.

 

I support this... Nobody actually needs to make threads over 1/5mins unless your a botter/spammer.

 

support but they should exclude donators from the 5 minute timer.
phishers are never a donator.

 

Support, the guy you are talking about has gotten quite annoying. and this will surely put a dent in the amount of his future threads.