Should mods proactively nuke accounts?

[DaveF]

When you see something like this:


And they are just going through all the accounts one by one and spamming the forum, why are they all not nuked?
1 or 2 fine, but something like this where a lot of them have already been spamming and nuked why not be a bit proactive and just get rid of them all.

There are others. A few minutes of nuking now can probably save a lot of time later.

-Dave

[mprep]

While in a wide majority of cases such preemptive bans would only catch bot farm accounts, there's always a chance that an innocent user (someone completely new to the forum, no less) might get inadvertently caught up in such a nuke wave. A hypothetical example would be a bot farm that picks usernames for its accounts by adding numbers to already existing usernames - nuke all the (supposed) bots and you'll nuke the newbie as well.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Report spammers
- Report button
- Report in [CLUB] The SpamBusters! Busting rule-breakers constantly.

Check spammers with no bounty patrol https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=recent;patrol;nobounty

[Unofficial Guide] Reporting effectively

[LoyceV]

I made this to quickly catch them: Finding spam and scams by keyword.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

When you see something like this:
<snip image>

Wow.  I've browsed through the list of members before and have seen a ton of Newbie-ranked accounts from as far back as probably 2010, and they've never made a single post.  I don't know why all of them exist, but the accounts you showed here are probably not going to be up to much good--if they're used at all.

However, I agree with mprep that a preemptive nuke strike might catch innocent lives in its very broad cross hairs.  On the other hand, such members could appeal their ban, but I'm not sure how much of a hassle either option would be.  Just my opinion, but I'd say leave accounts like this alone and deal with any problems if and when they arise.

[hosseinimr93]

All these accounts are part of a group advertising two certain websites.

In the past 24 hours, I've reported more than 100 similar posts including links to two certain websites. Click here to see one of them.
Account below are only a few of them. Almost all of these accounts have already been nuked.

hira6464fgf, hira654646, hira68442, hira32547, hira6565, hira9656, hira69645, hira36214, hira8788, hira8989, abdulhamidkhanvasani, bolbolalom, motinali, hamidolvai, valloo22, shilpiakhter, rohanr15, miliakhtervabi,drzdpy6656, ddrks,rohan65665, hira36214, rohan65665, shirinaakhter, mahabubalom, rofikolislam, jarry5454, amenabegum, shafiulislam, iamrocky, mojiborrahman, sakibolhasan, mehedimiraj, rakibolhasan, sakibolhasan

Thanks to moderators, every time I report such posts, they get deleted very quickly. But the problem is they continue to spam using several accounts and seems that nothing can stop them.

Look at this post which has been made by one of the accounts mentioned in the OP. It's similar to posts made by accounts I posted above.
So all accounts shown in the OP belong to a same group and they will probably start to spam by making huge number of posts soon.

[Harlot]

I think the best solution for this is for people who are reporting the posts but the accounts are still not nuke mods should look for threads that are people who are updating for spam like what SquirrelJulietGard mentioned since their is already a good compilation going on for newbies abusing the forum. If not the report to mod function should be updated with some kind of check box for the option to nuke the member so the mods are aware that these accounts have been abusing something so they can thoroughly review their post history.

[LTU_btc]

Your question makes sense, but I don't think that mods should nuke accounts didn't made anything. As long as they haven't posted anything or send PM's, there is no reason to nuke them. Offcourse, such action would stop them before making any damage to forum and it's users, but as said above, in such case some legitimate accounts would be nuked too.

[DaveF]

Yeah, I have been reporting them and the posts have been getting deleted very quickly.
But, when looking at 30 accounts all created on the same day, with the sequential numbers in the name and the several being to post spam it's time to nuke the lot.

The amount coming in over this weekend just seems a lot higher then normal and I did some looking around and noticed the bulk names.

-Dave

[PrimeNumber7]

In addition to what mprep said, if the mods get too aggressive in proactively nuking spambots, those who are behind spambots will get better at hiding their bot accounts. Over the long run, mods would have more difficulty determining if an account is part of a spam bot, or is an actual user not putting much effort into a post.

[icalical]

I think to prevent the spambot, it has to be a technical solution where the forum could limit the username registration that has the same character in the same order. E.g in the screenshot shown on the first post there should be only 3/4 account that has the name "khoodooXXX", though it won't completely stop the spambot, and they will find another way, I think it will still help.

[DaveF]

Oh look more.
Do a member search for jhumabest



For now all just 1 or 2 word junk replies to things.
How long before the accounts go full on spammer / malware poster.

A nice mass nuking would be good. But no, we all get to click "report to moderator" and waste everyone's time instead of being proactive.

-Dave

[actmyname]

A nice mass nuking would be good. But no, we all get to click "report to moderator" and waste everyone's time instead of being proactive.

If I were an account farmer and I wanted a long-term strategy to further my industry after your implementation of preemptive nuking, I would employ mprep's strategy more deviously:

Rather than simply create a bot farm that picks usernames from already existing usernames, you schedule the process to continuously create new accounts to new registrants - each new username that is created, you can make a dozen accounts as a smokescreen. At this point, any move the moderators make is a mistake. If the accounts are ignored and allowed to spam, then we have created a workaround to bypass the preemptive nukes. If the accounts are nuked completely, then you run the risk of collateral damage.

[ranochigo]

Time to re-introduce the newbie jail? IMO though it had it's numerous downsides, it was the one effective strategy to keep spam congregated in one section instead of distributing it across the forum and making it hard to catch. Wasn't there a bot which automatically nukes accounts which exhibits a certain behavior? I vaguely remember an account that was created specifically for that purpose.

[FIFA worldcup]

Your question makes sense, but I don't think that mods should nuke accounts didn't made anything. As long as they haven't posted anything or send PM's, there is no reason to nuke them. Offcourse, such action would stop them before making any damage to forum and it's users, but as said above, in such case some legitimate accounts would be nuked too.

Also if they knew that accounts with similar names will get nuked, they will come up with different strategy like making new accounts with totally different usernames without adding any digit at the end. Merit is the only effective way to stop them from ranking up.

[LoyceV]

Oh look more.
Do a member search for jhumabest

Now search for MrFudged, BtcCoScammedMe, KNC_areThief, KNCEvilUponUs or btcRDkill Some people turned creating accounts into an art.

Time to re-introduce the newbie jail? IMO though it had it's numerous downsides, it was the one effective strategy to keep spam congregated in one section instead of distributing it across the forum and making it hard to catch.

It won't come back:

Limiting newbie participation is very harmful for a community. Newbie jail will never return: I consider the newbie-jail period to have been extremely damaging to the forum. When barriers to participation are too high, then the best people often just won't go to the trouble of joining, and the people who are willing to jump through the hoops are often people who aren't good for the community: people with nothing better to do, scammers, get-rick-quickers, etc. Having a permanent newbie jail policy would improve things a lot in the short-term, but would end up being a fatal poison to the community.

Wasn't there a bot which automatically nukes accounts which exhibits a certain behavior? I vaguely remember an account that was created specifically for that purpose.

MindlessElectron has some power. Most of this spam is removed before I can check it.