Moderators

[seeplus]

Who are the moderators for these forums? The spam messages are still present a couple of days after being reported. This isn't a good look. If the existing moderators aren't around any more then perhaps the owner could create fresh moderators amongst those that still use these forums.

[salem c]

This!

We don't want the forum to become a spam haven, which is what will happen if it becomes known that spam lingers here for days/weeks/months before getting purged.

[zapshe]

perhaps the owner could

We are unloved, we are forsaken, we are alone.

[newbieg]

Well, there's the other option;

Instead of just letting the spam sit at the top, just talk. Send the spam to the depths with a flood of information about your week;
What new hobby are you working on.
What did your kid code last Tuesday.
What have you came across that disgusted you.
What surprises have you noticed in the news.
Show off your creations!

We were a community of coders at one time. I would absolutely enjoy hearing what everyone is up to lately, or even what work they are avoiding doing.

Make the spam human again. (Just leave the dolphins out of the tuna)

[zapshe]

Well the spam isn't in the lounge, though who cares about the rules anymore I suppose

[newbieg]

Meh. Those "Rules" were for when we had beginners, and the lines were often a bit blurry to begin with.

[Ganado]

My admin, my admin, why have you forsaken us?

[salem c]

I wonder if the the user database has been leaked/stolen?

If it has, they're keeping it to themselves.
Neither of the email addresses I've used for this site have shown up at https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Last 3 spammers:
Nomarr2 Joined: Apr 16, 2017 at 4:33am
avesh Joined: Nov 21, 2012 at 5:54am
neerajsati Joined: Apr 25, 2020 at 3:56am

These are all old accounts that hadn't been used for years on end.

Something is matching usernames to weak passwords.

[seeplus]

If the site owner can't bothered to admin this themselves, they might at least spend a couple of minutes to allocate moderator/admin ability to some active users. Not doing anything about this spam is, IMO, an abdication of responsibility by the owner.

[Peter87]

seeplus wrote:

If the existing moderators aren't around any more then perhaps the owner could create fresh moderators amongst those that still use these forums.

I don't know the exact criteria but it has always been possible for long-time members such as myself to get spam posts removed by simply reporting them as "spam" as long as the account is new/has a low post count. I was able to do that for one spammer just a few minutes ago (I think his post count was 17). Unfortunatly it doesn't work with Nomarr2.

salem c wrote:

I wonder if the the user database has been leaked/stolen? [...] Last 3 spammers:
Nomarr2 Joined: Apr 16, 2017 at 4:33am
avesh Joined: Nov 21, 2012 at 5:54am
neerajsati Joined: Apr 25, 2020 at 3:56am
These are all old accounts that hadn't been used for years on end.

Since it's no longer possible to activate new accounts, all spammers are going to be using old accounts.

I thought it was a tactic to create an account (maybe also posting some simple question) and then come back later and post spam when the account is not new and less likely to be flagged as a spammer. I could of course be wrong, it might just be that most accounts that they are able to hack are one-time low-post-count accounts where the user didn't bother to pick a good enough password...

Looking at this Nomarr2 post:
https://cplusplus.com/forum/beginner/213335/
I admit it looks like he probably was a real user.

[Ganado]

These are all old accounts that hadn't been used for years on end.
Something is matching usernames to weak passwords.

Sometimes it's just sleeper agents, but I agree Nomarr2's case and avesh's case seem to be that their accounts were compromised by bots.

I thought it was a tactic to create an account (maybe also posting some simple question) and then come back later and post spam when the account is not new and less likely to be flagged as a spammer.

Yes, that's definitely a tactic. Combined with editing the post after a few days or week. It's often just automated copy-paste from reddit.

[salem c]

I just sent two more to the sin bin.

"This account has limited functionality.
This was likely due to the user being reported by not following some specific rules for a service in this website."

[salem c]

Two more old accounts that had never posted before killed off.

This might be a game of whack-a-mole.
As one account gets blocked, the spammer moves onto their next compromised account.