Handling spam - hide pending posts?
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Handling spam - hide pending posts?
 
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It seems spammers have discovered Nabble and are now posting through the Nabble GUI instead of directly to the mailing lists. Even if posts are rejected by mailing lists they stay in "pending" for everybody to see when browsing through Nabble.
As owner of a mailing list with a Nabble mirror (and possibly other mirrors) I don't want to clean spam in every copy of the list. It is enough work to keep the original mailing list clean from spam. Also, banning users in Nabble is meaningless as spammers easily auto-create new users for every post. Here's an example: http://dwr.2114559.n2.nabble.com/Chanel-Taschen-Outlet-td7580606.html What about the following solutions? : 1) Being able to configure Nabble forums so pending posts are not shown. Pending posts should still be shown in the poster's login but not to others. 2) Automatically remove/hide pending posts after a set time. Maybe a default of 24 hrs? 3) Hide pending posts only for users that have no accepted posts. If a user has previous posts that were accepted by the mailing list, his/her pending posts will be shown publicly, otherwise they will be hidden. Personally I think (3) is best, followed by (1), as these totally remove pending spam from public view. Best regards Mike Wilson |
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Nice suggestions, we will think about it.
My test forum.
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Agreed. |
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In reply to this post by Mike Wilson
Hi, Pedro,
We are getting a huge numbers of unsolicited commercial messages on the forums that I use, to the extent that it is almost impossible to view the forum through Nabble, because almost all the posts on any given page are not real posts (e.g. only a small handful of real posts on any page). Could you please urgently consider once again hiding pending posts from everyone except the poster? Thanks Tim.
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Re: Handling spam - hide pending posts?
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Hi,
You're not clear but references to "pending posts" and "forum" suggest you are using Nabble as a mail list archive. You don't explain what methods you use to restrict posting via the forum at the moment. It may be as simple as altering the default permissions preventing those in the "Anyone" group from posting. It may be that you need to implement control of posting through the "members" group.
Volunteer Helper - but recommending that users move off the platform!
Once the admin for GregHelp now deleted. |
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Thanks for the reply. Yes, we are using Nabble as a mail list archive. The list is actually a sourceforge list, but the sorceforge archive web view is horrible. Also, I receive the list from sourceforge as a digest in Mac OS X Mail.app, and there is no way (as far as I know) to include the Message_Id in a Mail.app message to preserve the threading, so I usually reply via nabble. Of course, the posting to the sourceforge list is controlled by membership, so we wouldn't want to have another membership for nabble. Regards, Tim. |
Re: Handling spam - hide pending posts?
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I'm not familiar with "membership" in sourceforge and it may have a special meaning there. I can only explain how a Nabble mail list archive works. When you create a Nabble archive, Nabble is accepted as a subscriber to the original mail list. Every post from the list that Nabble receives is then posted to a what is, in effect, a standard Nabble forum - and this runs under forum principles rather than those of a mail list. By default anyone can post on a Nabble forum (aka archive) and Nabble will dutifully forward any post to the mail list. When the post arrives at the mail list, it will, of course, be subject to checking whether the sender is a subscriber to the mail list. If not then it just goes into a black hole. If it is from a subscriber, it will be forwarded on to all subscribers, including Nabble. Nabble waits to see if it gets back the posted message. All the time it is waiting it will flag the archive posting as "Pending". When a subscriber's message reaches Nabble it will remove the pending flag from the original archive post. (You'll find many posts in this support forum where people ask about this "post pending" messages. Invariably, they have registered at a list archive and they assume this has also subscribed them to the mail list. It has NOT! ) So there is no additional "membership" involved. Almost certainly, the spam you see in the archive is from those in the forum's "Anyone" group - which literally means "anyone"! The expectation is that you will adopt a conventional forum policy and remove the rights of "Anyone" to post and insist that posters are "Registered". In reality, this adds very little extra security, as it is an automatic process, that only requires the person registering to click a link in a confirmation email that proves that the sender is posting from a valid email address - something a spammer can do with robot software. A few days ago Nabble was attacked, suffering a storm of registrations made by spammer's robots and it is possible that you are referring to posts made by them. Nabble appear to have addressed that issue and hopefully it will not happen again. However, it would still be strongly advisable to remove posting rights from "Anyone" and add them to the "Registered" group. That should stop 99% of all spam appearing on your mail list archive. This doesn't really constitute a second membership system you are concerned about. It is merely a check that a valid email address is being used.
Volunteer Helper - but recommending that users move off the platform!
Once the admin for GregHelp now deleted. |
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Thanks for the comprehensive explanation. This is not something that has just happened over the last few days - it has been going on for some time. There would appear to be three problems with just removing 'Anyone' from the Registered group: (1) You point out that it adds very little extra security, as a spammer can circumvent it with robot software. In fact I have looked at some of the posts, and the posters all belong to the 'Registered' group. So this would have no effect! (2) It does seem to require an extra registration step, because I have to register with the mail list to get my submissions accepted, and I also have to register with Nabble. (I have already registered with Nabble, so this is not really a problem for me personnaly) (3) Because the archive was created in 2005, the creator (and I presume the only person that can change the settings) may have disappeared long ago, and be un-contactable (I have sent him am email through nabble as that is my only contact, but I don't think him changing the settings will help). So, nabble administrators, could you please re-consider hiding pending posts, as spam is making life impossible!. Regards, Tim. |
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Please, let me see your nabble app, give me the url.
My test forum.
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Pedro, I emailed you directly, and you have already done a magnificent job in cleaning it up, many, many thanks. Because you cleaned it up, you will know that there were a lot of spam in it. There are just one or two spam left - it is now very difficult to distinguish spam from real messages, because the titles of real messages are sometimes as bizarre as the spam is normal! I mention these messages in no way to criticise the excellent job you have done, but just to illustrate that this has been going on for some time. Sep 12 http://gramps.1791082.n4.nabble.com/Asm-Handbook-Volume-4-Heat-Treating-Free-Download-td4662464.html Sep 15 http://gramps.1791082.n4.nabble.com/Serial-Nomad-Factory-Magma-1-0-1-VST-RTAS-rar-td4662499.html Regards, Tim. On 20 Sep 2013, at 20:29, Pedro <Nabble> [via Nabble Support] wrote: Please, let me see your forum, give me the url. |
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In reply to this post by Pedro
(Message resent because most of it was clipped - presumably by some spam detector) Pedro, I emailed you directly, and you have already done a magnificent job in cleaning it up, many, many thanks. Because you cleaned it up, you will know that there were a lot of spam in it. There are just one or two spam left - it is now very difficult to distinguish spam from real messages, because the titles of real messages are sometimes as bizarre as the spam is normal! Regards, Tim. On 20 Sep 2013, at 20:29, Pedro <Nabble> [via Nabble Support] wrote: Please, let me see your forum, give me the url. |
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In reply to this post by Pedro
Resent again because it is not getting through to the Nabble Support mailing list). Pedro, I emailed you directly, and Hugo has already done a magnificent job in cleaning it up, many, many thanks. Because you cleaned it up, you will know that there were a lot of spam in it. There are just one or two spam left - it is now very difficult to distinguish spam from real messages, because the titles of real messages are sometimes as bizarre as the spam is normal! I mention these messages in no way to criticise the excellent job you have done, but just to illustrate that this has been going on for some time. Regards, Tim. Sep 12 http://gramps.1791082.n4.nabble.com/Asm-Handbook-Volume-4-Heat-Treating-Free-Download-td4662464.html Sep 15 http://gramps.1791082.n4.nabble.com/Serial-Nomad-Factory-Magma-1-0-1-VST-RTAS-rar-td4662499.html Regards, Tim. On 20 Sep 2013, at 20:29, Pedro <Nabble> [via Nabble Support] wrote: Please, let me see your forum, give me the url. |
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In reply to this post by Pedro
Resent again because it is not getting through to the Nabble Support mailing list). Pedro, I emailed you directly, and Hugo has already done a magnificent job in cleaning it up, many, many thanks. Because you cleaned it up, you will know that there were a lot of spam in it. There are just one or two spam left - it is now very difficult to distinguish spam from real messages, because the titles of real messages are sometimes as bizarre as the spam is normal! I mention these messages in no way to criticise the excellent job you have done, but just to illustrate that this has been going on for some time. Regards, Tim. Sep 12 http://gramps.1791082.n4.nabble.com/Asm-Handbook-Volume-4-Heat-Treating-Free-Download-td4662464.html Sep 15 http://gramps.1791082.n4.nabble.com/Serial-Nomad-Factory-Magma-1-0-1-VST-RTAS-rar-td4662499.html Regards, Tim. On 20 Sep 2013, at 20:29, Pedro <Nabble> [via Nabble Support] wrote: Please, let me see your forum, give me the url. |
Re: Handling spam - hide pending posts?
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In reply to this post by kulath
In fact, in line with forum convention, there is no way to remove "Registered" users. Once someone has demonstrated they are using a valid email address they remain recognised by the system forever. You're right! The problem is a fundamental one. A forum assumes that the root level is pretty well a free for all. As you become trusted at that level, you get granted additional rights allowing you viewing or posting rights at higher levels. This is radically different from a mail list which always allows moderation of individual posts. A forum doesn't. You simply learn to trust a user with the sanction of removing rights at the higher levers. Again, you are right. However, as the two systems are completely independent of each other it is inevitable that there will be some level of duplication. Now we come to the bit where help may be at hand. Any Nabble forum, including a mail list archive, does depend on there being active policing of the forum, so that unwanted posts can be removed. I assumed that you were the administrator of the forum. If the only administrator has abandoned it then you need to request that Nabble changes the administrator. They are always very good about this if your posting record on the mail list demonstrates that you have an active or controlling role. I would then advise that you add one or two others as administrators, so the archive does not suffer the same problem again. Additionally, hopefully, some of Mike Wilson's suggestions will be implemented, to reduce the problem in the future.
Volunteer Helper - but recommending that users move off the platform!
Once the admin for GregHelp now deleted. |
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Hi kulath,
it is not simple to hide pending posts. In the other hand, we could set the app to delete the pending posts after 48h, or other time setting. What do you think?
My test forum.
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On 23 Sep 2013, at 21:21, Pedro [via Nabble Support] wrote: > Hi kulath, > it is not simple to hide pending posts. In the other hand, we could > set the app to delete the pending posts after 48h, or other time > setting. > What do you think? Hi, Pedro, Yes, I think that would be a good improvement (while not as good as hiding, it would at least get rid of the rubbish). Presumably applying this would be an option for administrators? regards, Tim. |
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