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Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. I've implemented virtually every spam system I can find and I'm still on here several times a day cleaning out spam.

The problem is I can't stop spam without restricting submissions into a queue by which I approve them after they've been submitted. This is a possibility, but not only does it take away a bit of usability from the end-user, but it also doesn't do a thing to cut down the amount of work it requires of me.

Most Drupal spam modules don't help as the spam submitted on HHR are by verified users essentially hand-submitting the links. It's tough for computer code to tell the difference between this and a regular user.

How about only restricting new members' posts from going public until you approve it, but only until they have had 10 articles hit the front page or some thing like that?

尼克/Nik
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Not a bad idea Nik - but no small matter to implement. I've added a few more spam checkers, will see if they help.

I think Nik is on the right track, though ten stories on the front page might be too strict as a criterion. The threshold only has to be high enough that spammers won't get an economic return on the time invested. Maybe getting 2 stories with 3 positive votes, without having any any story with 3 negative votes, would be a sufficient threshold to encourage spammers to invest their time elsewhere. I can imagine this is still easier for us to suggest than for Ryan to implement, but it might be worth it.

Ryan, I'm curious, can you tell if the spam stories actually generate any traffic for the spammers?

This is modern spam. Spammers realized long ago that no one visits their sites when linked in spam. That's not why they spam Hao Hao Report (or the comments of blogs, forums, etc.). The reason they do it is because when a site with search engine authority links to another site it gives the linked-to site a bit of search engine cred - helping it rank higher in the search results.

One link on one site isn't going to help this, but a few thousand links on a few thousand sites could - and so the modern spam farm was created.

Because the Hao Hao Report has a decent authority ranking, we are a target for this type of spam (the downside to success, eh?).

Ironically the spam never gets past the Newest China Stories page, meaning all links now include a "nofollow" tag - which stops Google from dishing out the link love that the spammers are hoping for. Unfortunately, this will likely do little to dissuade spam submissions as most spammers are as dumb as their mystery meat namesake.

Additionally, spammers never (or next to never) submit actual links of value - as such, I think I have a decent way to stop the spam, while allowing our dear users to keep submitting unhindered.

Give me a couple days and I'll work it out.

Update on the Spam Issue

Just to let y'all know I've put in place slightly more aggressive measures to combat spam on HHR.

There are now two classes of users on Hao Hao Report - registered users and Hao Hao Reporters. As a registered user you can submit stories, but they are automatically queued for moderation. Meaning, all new stories by non-HHReporters will not immediately appear on the site.

However, once you've submitted a link or two that proves you've got the site and its members' interests at heart you'll be promoted to the HHReporter level.

Once a HHReporter you can freely submit content and it will appear immediately for others to vote and comment on. And, as a bonus, you'll not have to mess around with captcha verifications and all that garbage.

As this is a new feature, please report any errors you come across. If for any reason you've not been promoted to HHReporter and you feel you should be - please contact us and we'll review your account.

Thanks for everyone's patience while I implemented these changes. I know the spam's been a pain in the ass to deal with and though it will continue to be a pain in the ass on my end, I'm extremely excited that the site should be nice and clean here on out.

Cheers,
Ryan

Sounds like a good idea. :-D

尼克/Nik
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Hey Nik - should be working now. Spent the afternoon wrestling with it and of course it was just a matter of clearing some settings. Bah!

Please let me know if you have any additional problems with posts not appearing.

A few of my forum posts failed to show up, but otherwise things seem to be working.

尼克/Nik
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Thanks Ryan!

No problem BJGourmand. Just got back from a 5-day offline holiday and it was nice to come onto the site (not having touched it in nearly a week) and not have a drop of spam displayed.

Of course, I still had a bazillion spam submissions in the backend, and the new system forced two members (that hadn't been upgraded to the "HHReporter" level) to have to wait until my return to have their stories approved and accounts upgraded...

However, a small compromise to be sure. Am quite happy with the new system.

Ryan, unfortunately the site has been down a lot this week. I have come here many times in the last week to find that Firefox cannot find the server. :-(

尼克/Nik
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Hmm. Has anyone else noticed this?

Nik, let me know if it continues.

EDIT: Please see this.