Padding the forum?

[Dane]

Is it just me or is the intro section of the forum getting "padded" with new members?

[Bunky]

It is spammers....

[Dane]

Woeii had mentioned a couple weeks ago about admins doing some testing on the forum. I was curious if they were padding the forum to boost search engine ratings since the new people show a zero post count. Otherwise it sure looks like spamming.

[Bunky]

The one difference is that some of the posts actually mention something relevant to the forum (JD machine) which is unusual for spammers.

[Harry Ferguson]

Yeah, they are all of the format: "Hi, I'm ...". Some use obvious alphanumeric gibberish for names, others look like they might be real but I don't believe them. What is the purpose other than padding numbers?

[Bunky]

Given the posts are still present, I assume it is intentional to create users.

But, if you go to the forum main page and it shows the latest member. It is not one of the recent ones but one on 7/27 so appears to be a real member.

[WOEII]

Hi Guys,
Yep it's an auto feature to introduce themselves. I have been weeding out the fake ones every evening. The fake once have IP addis from China and seem to be a auto program signing and making members. I change the question on registrations once a month but it just never seems to end. :jm:
Just trying to :strpot: during the summer slow months. :Chers:

[Bunky]

OK. So the message printer is based upon a question you ask them?

[WOEII]

OK. So the message printer is based upon a question you ask them?

I have a human verification settings and welcome settings. The registration I believe asks a question or adds information that the new user would like you to know and if it's not filled out just puts a general "Hi" up in the intro area.

[Dane]

Ban the offending new members. They probably aren't coming back anyhow but best to shut the door. Sometimes they're just trolling or building a post count to get around forums with a minimum post count on new members.

Move the "Hi" threads to the archive out of public view or delete them so valid members are not wading through 3/4+ of new posts being spam.

Spank members like Kerry G who just shotgun through the forum adding emoticons or short BS phrases as a response to 20 posts at a time.

[WOEII]

Ban the offending new members. They probably aren't coming back anyhow but best to shut the door. Sometimes they're just trolling or building a post count to get around forums with a minimum post count on new members.

Move the "Hi" threads to the archive out of public view or delete them so valid members are not wading through 3/4+ of new posts being spam.

Spank members like Kerry G who just shotgun through the forum adding emoticons or short BS phrases as a response to 20 posts at a time.

If there are any members offending people please let me know. We got an awesome family here and want to keep it that way with more awesome people. :strpot:

This week I did some advertising and that's why we have a influx of new members. I did a targeted ad that so far has hit 23240 people. We have to welcome new members. More members, more ideas and awesome Gator pictures. :FX: I check everyday the IP addresses to make sure they are good and not from China were spam comes out of.

Kerry G is an old friend of about 10 years now. He was excited for me when I opened the doors on the forum and he jumped right in for support. He is not a big Gator fan but he is a good friend and participates with what he can. Most of his threads are in off topic area so he is posting his thing right where he needs to be. Good cat....give him a shot. :Chers:

[Dane]

Yes, I'm a dick... but I'm not trying to be a dick. I sincerely want to see this forum succeed, attract anyone interested in Gators. I mod a couple other forums. One is pretty large and it takes a fair bit of work to keep it on track and successful. It's never easy and spammers are always inventing new tricks.

Give new posts the smell test. A short phrase generated by a bot smells different than someone who needs help with their Gator or is really excited about their new toy. Some folks are one hit wonders but they at least go on about their new toy or the problem they're having.

Some folks treat a post count like a badge of honor or popularity contest. Does a farmer with a Gator want to see post after post of smiley faces? Will non-substantive posts make a Gator owner visit the forum more often? It's your forum. You can make it whatever you want. Just keep in mind that these are farmers, contractors and guys hell driving through the forest. Not teenagers making friends on FaceBook or living and dying by Twitter.

If someone jumps the snake river in a rocket powered Gator with Evil Kinevel's ashes in the glove box... Yes, that warrants about any reply you can muster. Smiley's and thumbs up all around. But, how frequently will a real Gator owner/user return to the forum after seeing page after page of bogus intros and replies? I see about three pages of intros today. Were there any "real" posts elsewhere in the forum? I don't know. I'm a bung hole and don't have the attention span to look. Will the "real" and valuable members pick through the pages to find the real posts and want to come back?

---
If you think managing this forum is difficult. Try a home brewing forum where drunk posting is almost required.

[WOEII]

Yes, I'm a dick... but I'm not trying to be a dick. I sincerely want to see this forum succeed, attract anyone interested in Gators. I mod a couple other forums. One is pretty large and it takes a fair bit of work to keep it on track and successful. It's never easy and spammers are always inventing new tricks.

Give new posts the smell test. A short phrase generated by a bot smells different than someone who needs help with their Gator or is really excited about their new toy. Some folks are one hit wonders but they at least go on about their new toy or the problem they're having.

Some folks treat a post count like a badge of honor or popularity contest. Does a farmer with a Gator want to see post after post of smiley faces? Will non-substantive posts make a Gator owner visit the forum more often? It's your forum. You can make it whatever you want. Just keep in mind that these are farmers, contractors and guys hell driving through the forest. Not teenagers making friends on FaceBook or living and dying by Twitter.

If someone jumps the snake river in a rocket powered Gator with Evil Kinevel's ashes in the glove box... Yes, that warrants about any reply you can muster. Smiley's and thumbs up all around. But, how frequently will a real Gator owner/user return to the forum after seeing page after page of bogus intros and replies? I see about three pages of intros today. Were there any "real" posts elsewhere in the forum? I don't know. I'm a bung hole and don't have the attention span to look. Will the "real" and valuable members pick through the pages to find the real posts and want to come back?

---
If you think managing this forum is difficult. Try a home brewing forum where drunk posting is almost required.
We are in the same boat then. I come from a forum of 13 years membership and has over 366,000 members. :lol: :OhNoes:

[willber11]

I am going to have to say, there is an excessive amount of "people" joining the forum. Has this ever happened before?

[WOEII]

I am going to have to say, there is an excessive amount of "people" joining the forum. Has this ever happened before?
This past week I did a target add and the final numbers it reached were 30,512 people. Out of that number 35 seemed to have joined. :Chers:

[Bunky]

WOEII, I think you are saying all those members with auto posts are considered real people and not just spammers. A number of people join but never post. The most suspicious ones are the ones with just a random set of letters.

[WOEII]

WOEII, I think you are saying all those members with auto posts are considered real people and not just spammers. A number of people join but never post. The most suspicious ones are the ones with just a random set of letters.
Hey Bunky,
A lot a of people join and don't post but want to see the picture attachments and that can only be seen with a membership. I have gone through all the new memberships and cross referenced the IP address and made sure it's not Chinese based of origin. This past week I also weeded through back to Jan 1st and deleted all the ones with just a random set of numbers and letters. (Those were all from China) We should be clean and good to go. :FX:

If I am not understanding things please show me a link or picture of what you are seeing and also report anything you see off so I can fix. Sometimes I can be as thick as brick! :lol: http://i.imgur.com/7o7Vx71.gif

[Bunky]

For example today,

There is a post by sanguiy0 and huihuang3. These are foreign names of course but even what is in the automessage is odd. I guess these have been vetted?

[WOEII]

For example today,

There is a post by sanguiy0 and huihuang3. These are foreign names of course but even what is in the automessage is odd. I guess these have been vetted?
Cleaned them up on my evening intro check as well as changed the registration human verification question. :Chers:

[Bunky]

Ok, I see how this works. During the overnight, new members are auto introduced and then you come behind in the morning to prune the spam.

Do you mod for autopia.org?

[Dane]

I've been out of the country and didn't log in for a while. I came back to see six pages of new posts. 90%+ are bogus new member introductions.

[WOEII]

Ok, I see how this works. During the overnight, new members are auto introduced and then you come behind in the morning to prune the spam.

Do you mod for autopia.org?
What are you talking about? There is no auto anything with new members except they have an auto into upon membership. :Cnfsd: Just checked out the site url you put up and I have never been there.

[WOEII]

I've been out of the country and didn't log in for a while. I came back to see six pages of new posts. 90%+ are bogus new member introductions.
Welcome back Dane. :Chers:

These are legit members that have answered correct questions and obviously have knowledge about Gators. Mid summer my IT man installed extra spam and new member filters and it has helped out. :Thmup:

I am the owner of this site and have never tried to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. I built this site because there was no other Gator sites on the net. All this web building, IT work and server storage costs money but I enjoy you all enjoying the forum. Why all this trying to get away with something that's coming up is making me sick to my stomach, I have nothing to gain from this.

If the wool is being pulled over my eyes I would like to know in a constructive manner and would like advise and guidance not finger pointing and shout outs of something shifty. All suggestions and ideas has come from the members and it's all documented throughout all the threads and I implemented them into the forum for your wants and needs.

I am not understanding. :hdscrh: :Frn:

[Bunky]

What are you talking about? There is no auto anything with new members except they have an auto into upon membership. :Cnfsd: Just checked out the site url you put up and I have never been there.

Exactly what you said. There is an auto intro upon membership.

[Dane]

I've never said you were trying to pull the wool over our eyes. I asked if you were padding the site because I didn't want to go crazy reporting everything as spam as it appears to be a targeted marketing campaign.

It appears there is a group purposefully creating the numerous and obviously bogus new member posts. While they are registering and answering security questions properly to access the site they are not legitimate members.

1. The volume is highly suspicious for a site of this size.
2. Most/all never return to post again.
3. The body of their post often contain gross spelling or grammatical errors obvious to a native English speaker.
4. Their posts are usually short phrases barely applicable to the site; "I have gator", "I have 2011 gator 825", "We have two gators on 23 acres of Condominiums".
5. The higher volume of bogus introductions have a "beginning". There was a long period prior where you have a good history of how many valid introductions the site receives. It was very few.

On the forums I moderate the smell test is the most reliable. When something seems "fishy" it most often is. A legitimate new member will often post in another part of the forum and usually asking where to find a product or how to fix a problem. They need something is what drives them to the site. Farmers, ranchers, hunters and most people that use Gators are not the fluffy type of people to make one post and just say "hi". They came because they can't find this part or want to know if this sound from their Gator is normal.

Then there are the; short phrases, poor grammar, incorrect spelling and noticeably odd choice of words. Most posts are not 100% correct but true members says have a lot more to say than just 4 or 6 words. Can you picture a 60 year old rancher from Texas muddling through the registration process just to enter a short, nonsensical phrase.

Take a look at new member Gavin M which is pretty marginal. He went to the trouble to type out "I have a 2004 Trail Gator HPX. It has 160 hrs, well kept and cleaned regularly, stored inside. I am having performance, acceleration and starting problems of late." This could possibly be a real person but it's highly unusual for that to be posted in the intro section. Most people jump into another part of the forum they found when Googling about the problem their having with their Gator.

Since there is not flood of spam advertising following these registrations I assume a company is employed to boost traffic and new member enrollments to the site. It's a trick to boost a site's ranking in online searches. Basically a marketing campaign. So far it's basically benign as it's contained to the intro part of the forum. Still discouraging to a legitimate member who uses the "new posts" button. They may tire of checking the forum only to find mostly spam and they stop visiting and we've lost a valid member.

[WOEII]

Exactly what you said. There is an auto intro upon membership.
Yes, as so they can hopefully get acclimated and join in the discussion instead of lurking. There is no auto making of a member. The site has a huge amount of lurkers and it was intention to get them involved. :Chers:

[WOEII]

I've never said you were trying to pull the wool over our eyes. I asked if you were padding the site because I didn't want to go crazy reporting everything as spam as it appears to be a targeted marketing campaign.

It appears there is a group purposefully creating the numerous and obviously bogus new member posts. While they are registering and answering security questions properly to access the site they are not legitimate members.

1. The volume is highly suspicious for a site of this size.
2. Most/all never return to post again.
3. The body of their post often contain gross spelling or grammatical errors obvious to a native English speaker.
4. Their posts are usually short phrases barely applicable to the site; "I have gator", "I have 2011 gator 825", "We have two gators on 23 acres of Condominiums".
5. The higher volume of bogus introductions have a "beginning". There was a long period prior where you have a good history of how many valid introductions the site receives. It was very few.

On the forums I moderate the smell test is the most reliable. When something seems "fishy" it most often is. A legitimate new member will often post in another part of the forum and usually asking where to find a product or how to fix a problem. They need something is what drives them to the site. Farmers, ranchers, hunters and most people that use Gators are not the fluffy type of people to make one post and just say "hi". They came because they can't find this part or want to know if this sound from their Gator is normal.

Then there are the; short phrases, poor grammar, incorrect spelling and noticeably odd choice of words. Most posts are not 100% correct but true members says have a lot more to say than just 4 or 6 words. Can you picture a 60 year old rancher from Texas muddling through the registration process just to enter a short, nonsensical phrase.

Take a look at new member Gavin M which is pretty marginal. He went to the trouble to type out "I have a 2004 Trail Gator HPX. It has 160 hrs, well kept and cleaned regularly, stored inside. I am having performance, acceleration and starting problems of late." This could possibly be a real person but it's highly unusual for that to be posted in the intro section. Most people jump into another part of the forum they found when Googling about the problem their having with their Gator.

Since there is not flood of spam advertising following these registrations I assume a company is employed to boost traffic and new member enrollments to the site. It's a trick to boost a site's ranking in online searches. Basically a marketing campaign. So far it's basically benign as it's contained to the intro part of the forum. Still discouraging to a legitimate member who uses the "new posts" button. They may tire of checking the forum only to find mostly spam and they stop visiting and we've lost a valid member.
1.
The volume is high because there are over 500,000 Gators out there and a lot of lurking is done. A lot of lurking is because the owners are farmers and self repairers and prefer to keep somewhat reserved and private. We are a meticulous group and I would compare us to Corvette owners and how they keep their machinery. Another is that all the John Deere dealerships are on here watching and listening to fixes they have not come across and ideas we like. JD IP is the same whether its a dealership in CA is on or NY.
2.
All forums have this.
3. This site is world wide and grammar is not a requirement. If so I would be the first one booted off. :lol: :Ysnd: Because of the internet, all global communications are melding together and an evolution is taking place right now of a world wide single grammar being made. So improper text communications are not going away but going to get worse. Kinda cool huh? :Ysnd:
4.
"Just me "
"2011 Gator 625i owner"
"1996 gater owner "
"Buying an old AMT 600.... just want to be in the know. Thanks>John Kish"
"I'm think about buying a Gator"
These are all expectable and have some sort of actual knowledge of Gators.
5.
There is no marketing company hired or employed by me to boost any kind of traffic or add fake members to the site. The midnight special edition Gator came out and I paid Facebook to throw the ad to people that like the Gator. Here are the results.
28,848
Paid Reach
481
Actions
$100.00
Budget Spent
383
Link Clicks
21
Page Likes
77
Post Likes
7
Comments
14
Shares
Asking my IT guy to read this thread and see what he thinks.

[Bunky]

Off and on I have welcomed some of these new members. If these are one visit wonders, they will miss it or if they do not automatically allow new messages or subscribed to threads, they will not get notified. None have ever acknowledged my welcome if I recall so I just gave up..until I tried again today.

Does the forum send a welcome email and telling them how to post in threads?

[WOEII]

Off and on I have welcomed some of these new members. If these are one visit wonders, they will miss it or if they do not automatically allow new messages or subscribed to threads, they will not get notified. None have ever acknowledged my welcome if I recall so I just gave up..until I tried again today.

Does the forum send a welcome email and telling them how to post in threads?

Hi Bunky,
I will find out if they get a conformation of a reply when someone welcomes them. Also we do not have a tutorial on how to use the forum but I can see if the forum company software has a youtube tutorial on how to start off. Good idea. :Chers:

[Dane]

Compared to other forums and the other Gator forum there is an insane number of one hit wonder new member posts here. I've seen it before but it's always been accompanied by an onslaught of spam requiring mass blocking of regions to get it under control. This number of new member posts without spam is something new to me.

[pahawi]

Mod, please make this "Hi, I'm....." spamming stop......

Thanks

[Bunky]

Mod, please make this "Hi, I'm....." spamming stop......

Thanks

According to the admin, it is not spam but automatically created intro messages from new members. The reason they come in spells is likely that members are approved in batches.

[Dane]

If I had mod privileges there would be a lot of deleting and banning going on. It's just crapping up the forum. When I first came here it seemed to get more posts than the other forum. Now I check in less often knowing that 1/2 or more of the new posts are spam so I assume others do as well. I hate to see it because it's a great place with a lot of potential but even the best of gardens can become overgrown with weeds.

[pahawi]

If I had mod privileges there would be a lot of deleting and banning going on. It's just crapping up the forum. When I first came here it seemed to get more posts than the other forum. Now I check in less often knowing that 1/2 or more of the new posts are spam so I assume others do as well. I hate to see it because it's a great place with a lot of potential but even the best of gardens can become overgrown with weeds.

+1

[WOEII]

New members are put into the intro section upon registrations immediately . There Is no block approved at a time. I have not welcomed new members in 3 weeks so I went back and welcomed them. So in return that action shook up the forums new posts. I will try and remember and not wait so long. All the new members are throughout America and not China based spammers. They also obviously have some knowledge of Gators or John Deere and I ask of you to please help and welcome them to the forum. :Chers:

[WOEII]

Hello Members,

First of all, I have disabled the auto welcome thread feature.

The purpose of it is not to increase forum posts. It is to let existing members know that there are new registered users. So we could welcome them.
Spam is something that cant be 100% filtered. But we added strong anti spam filter that is very effective, proven, and tested.
If you can see the intro thread contents, they are related to john deere gator, so I can say that only few of them are real spammers.
The contents of the introduction posts came from the newly registered members themselves. We don't have any post templates.

If you have suggestions, just let us know.
Lets make this forum grow :Chers:

Cheers!
JDGF Support

[Bunky]

It did not bother me but can understand how some think they are spam. In the auto intro, I cannot recall many if any ever responding to a welcome.

[Dane]

I mod two other forums and have never seen anything like this before. I've seen many flavors of spam, trolling and blogging but this new member thing is baffling to me. I'm not into the technical managing of the forums but something unusual is going on here. Normally generic new member intros after being allowed into the forum would be followed by spam. At first I thought it was a marketing program to boost the forum's numbers but I'm beginning to wonder if a spam program is having technical difficulty. Their program is seeing the intro work so they keep trying but part B (spam) of the plan isn't coming through.

[Bunky]

Dane, as I understand it, if you had joined the forum before he disabled the intro you would be asked a question when joining as a forum member. Whatever you typed as the answer to this would be what is added to the automatic entry in the new member thread. The reason that most are brief because most people do not want to say much and would imply spam. However, spammers usually do not mention JD model numbers, etc. It is usually a link to their cheap drug site, etc.

[WOEII]

Dane, as I understand it, if you had joined the forum before he disabled the intro you would be asked a question when joining as a forum member. Whatever you typed as the answer to this would be what is added to the automatic entry in the new member thread. The reason that most are brief because most people do not want to say much and would imply spam. However, spammers usually do not mention JD model numbers, etc. It is usually a link to their cheap drug site, etc.

Exactly. Most spammers put random product contents like drugs, viagra, and unrelated products.

@Dane I already disabled the intro feature. Do you have suggestions or comments to make this forum better? We would highly appreciate anything that you would suggest.

Other members are also welcome to post their suggestions :)

Lets make this the number 1 gator forum! :Thmup:

Cheers!
JDGF Support

[Dane]

WoeII, have you checked the IP addresses of the "new" members? Any clue as to the source country?

I have been trying to think of something but I don't understand what and why it's going on. If spam were to follow I'd understand but I'm suspecting a spammer's programming glitch or another possibility is that this is someone's resume. Someone wrote code that can get through the spam filters and everything else. They want to demonstrate their prowess but not do real harm.

[WOEII]

WoeII, have you checked the IP addresses of the "new" members? Any clue as to the source country?

I have been trying to think of something but I don't understand what and why it's going on. If spam were to follow I'd understand but I'm suspecting a spammer's programming glitch or another possibility is that this is someone's resume. Someone wrote code that can get through the spam filters and everything else. They want to demonstrate their prowess but not do real harm.

1) Country:
United States us flag
State/Region:
Oregon
City:
Portland

2)Country:
United States us flag
State/Region:
Maine
City:
Raymond

3) Country:
United States us flag
State/Region:
Florida
City:
New Smyrna Beach

4)Country:
United States us flag
State/Region:
Indiana
City:
Indianapolis

5)Country:
United States us flag
State/Region:
North Carolina
City:
Hayesville

6)Country:
United States us flag
State/Region:
Michigan
City:
Ann Arbor

7)Country:
United States us flag
State/Region:
Texas
City:
South Houston

8) Country:
United States us flag
State/Region:
North Carolina
City:
Raleigh

9)Country:
United States us flag
State/Region:
North Dakota
City:
Bismarck

10)
Country:
United States us flag
State/Region:
Vermont
City:
Stowe

Here is the last 10 new members. :Kaffee:

[Dane]

There is something definitely going on. So many new members who show zero posts and they never return to post again. It's going to take someone much smarter than I to figure out.

[WOEII]

@Dane
We cant force anyone to post. Its normal to every forum to have new members but doesn't post.
If they are spammers, they should have already posted spam threads.

Ill try to implement IP check to figure out if there are multiple users with the same IP..

[Bunky]

In all the forums I participate in, the number of posters is quite low compared to the number of members.

[WOEII]

In all the forums I participate in, the number of posters is quite low compared to the number of members.

That's pretty normal. Almost all forum are like that. Unless they have strict moderation to new members, and we don't want to do that.

[Dane]

The number of people who visit a forum is a huge number. Then the people that sign up is a smaller group and the smallest group are the active posters. Most join the forum for a reason; show off their new toy, ask advice or want to know how to do something. Very, very few go to the trouble of signing up just to make one post in the intro section. It can and does happen legitimately although it is a rarity. I suppose at this point we should just be happy they are not spamming.

[WOEII]

The number of people who visit a forum is a huge number. Then the people that sign up is a smaller group and the smallest group are the active posters. Most join the forum for a reason; show off their new toy, ask advice or want to know how to do something. Very, very few go to the trouble of signing up just to make one post in the intro section. It can and does happen legitimately although it is a rarity. I suppose at this point we should just be happy they are not spamming.

Posts that members attach pics to can not be seen unless they sign up. The forum from day one has had a massive amount of lurkers.

[Dane]

I don't know what was done but there have been very few to no bogus "new" members. Whatever was done I have to say thank you.