First:
gibsonadam http://drupal.org/user/1843688/admin-comments is nothing but me-toos (though without any spam link, could be building a 'safe' history) Also posting at g.d.o http://groups.drupal.org/user/1625893/administer-comments

and then:

simoncowell25 http://drupal.org/user/1844946/admin-comments looks like Markov text.

And monil http://drupal.org/user/1728654/admin-comments almost triggered my spidey-senses based on the pages it was targeting and the speed at which new low-value comments were made to high-profile pages. But seems legit on closer inspection.

The first two seem like mechanical post-fodder, but only when you look at them in aggregate, and look at the timestamps.
Is this a new wave of clever-spam?
Or is my detector too sensitive today?

Second opinion?

Comments

dman’s picture

dman commented

Monil has made like 60 low-signal comments, almost all to high-level handbook pages, in the last 24 hours. It's like watching an excited puppy run around and piddle on things.
It doesn't look at all malicious as far as I can see, but it just looks too lightweight to be actually constructive either. The pattern is consistent with astroturf behavior, but I can't spot any underlying theme. Am I being a curmudgeon or does this posting pattern look odd to anyone else?

Is someone just trying to make friends by inserting themselves into every conversation going?

nevets’s picture

nevets commented

Someone blocked and cleaned up simoncowell25.

I also wonder about such posters, from my perspective they seem like spammers (even if no spam links). Monil in particular seems to be just pepper the site with inane comments.

Like you I wonder what should be done about them.

dman’s picture

dman commented

I've contacted monil and let him know that low-signal-to-noise posts can be expected to be deleted from handbook pages
I sweep unanswered questions and "thankyou" comments from them pretty aggressively now and then, with little compunction.

But seeing his stuff side-by-side with the simoncowell25 posts, which seemed to be (pretty good) rephrased mash-ups of related conversations made me feel that we are within a few percentage points of passing the Turing test :-}

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

fyi I've just cleaned up & blocked monil: #1468138: Spammy user: monil. I hadn't seen this issue so I handled it there.

silverwing’s picture

silverwing commented

I believe monil is now shamio
http://drupal.org/user/1847164/admin-comments (and somewhat similar email addresses - similar enough to rouse my suspicions.)

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

yeah i saw that and thought that also-- but so far, there's no link. I figured I'd just keep an eye on it until the link appears and then take action.

This nonsense gets soooo old.

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

fyi... all but one of shamio's inane comments were on book pages so I deleted them.

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

fyi seems someone else spotted gibsonadam -- the account is now blocked and all comments/nodes gone.

dman’s picture

dman commented

I've just suspended adamanderson for the same reasons.
Looking at the timestamps, the subject matter, and the variety of posts, it smells too much like regurgitated "posting to make a post".
What's going on?

dman’s picture

dman commented

Looks like my instincts were correct - the same (long dead) page that the 'feeler' safe post was made on got a real spam immediately after.
http://drupal.org/user/1852878/admin-comments

This is real mechanical turk stuff, really hard to spot algorithmically.

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

and another one i just spotted: http://drupal.org/user/1853084

WorldFallz’s picture

WorldFallz commented

This is the kind of thing that would be caught with a daily post limit-- i can't imagine a real user having legitimate need to post more than 5 posts in 1 day immediately after joining.

nevets’s picture

nevets commented

I like WorlfFallz idea about regulating the number of post (and comments) though it needs to be "smart". There seem to be two cases to guard against, one is the automated poster that adds 10s of posts in a short window, there seems to be no reason (or way) a real person could post at the rate they do and it would be nice to throttle the posts limiting the damage. The second are these "people" who post a slower rate but it is still spam. I agree for new people this should be limited but there needs to be a way for people to still post larger amount of content (particularly comments) since on some days I will replay to 10's of post. One thing to consider is what constitutes a new user. While it is easier to say "how many days have they been a member" and while valid check it might not catch the people who signup and then come back weeks later and start spamming.

michelle’s picture

michelle
she/her
Primary language English
Location Wisconsin, USA
commented
Status: Active » Fixed

It looks like the spam on here has already been cleaned up and we already have many active anti-spam issues going.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.

Anonymous’s picture

(not verified) commented
Issue summary: View changes

adding gibsonadams' groups comment-admin page