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Why do we vote -1 a 'mapper' who has an OSM account just for making spam ? IMHO it’s useless, because the spammer won’t bother. They just make new accounts, for new attempts, and yes I voted down too. Should nt we change our way and just remove their messages and block their account in one single action ?

asked 05 Jul '14, 14:27

Hendrikklaas's gravatar image

Hendrikklaas
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edited 06 Jul '14, 01:18

aseerel4c26's gravatar image

aseerel4c26 ♦
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These messages use the same Fraselogy, it looks like they come from the same origin, if its one IP could that be blocked ? Or is that just to simple ?

(14 Jul '14, 14:07) Hendrikklaas
1

I did ask in #osm-dev, and apparently the admins don't get a lot of info about where they're from; hence the problem.

(14 Jul '14, 14:13) SomeoneElse ♦

The OSM help site currently uses the OSQA software. I believe (based on my recollection of IRC conversations from some time ago - which might not be 100% accurate) that it's essentially a standard installation - we haven't customised it extensively. A search of other OSQA sites will reveal that the spam here isn't unique - the same spammers crop up there too. OSQA's own Q&A site describes some of the options available for dealing with it, and their issues list shows people raising issues about how to deal with spam too. "Shouldn't we change our way and just remove their messages and block their account in one single action?" would as I understand it need a change to the OSQA software itself rather than the configuration, and I suspect that the reason that it hasn't happened is that no-one has volunteered to do it. Whether it'd be a good idea to put a lot of work into that I'm not sure - there may be better Q&A systems out there.

Blocking spam accounts does happen (look at the lowest karma users of this site) but as you say spammers tend to create new user accounts for each message, so while this tidies the questions list up it doesn't necessarily reduce the flow of new spam. I suspect that the admins won't be suspending any spammers today because they're probably very busy with the server move.

One thing that would reduce spam would be to prevent new users from creating links (they already can't post images) but that would severely reduce the usability of help.osm.org to people asking questions.

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answered 05 Jul '14, 15:05

SomeoneElse's gravatar image

SomeoneElse ♦
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Can we add no-follow to external links, so it's getting useles for spammers?

(05 Jul '14, 15:15) iii

If its just to much trouble too bad, I just wondered and wont claim priority.

(05 Jul '14, 20:39) Hendrikklaas
1

I think blanket no-follow is too harsh, but might of course be the easiest option. Ideally, no-follow would be added below a certain upvote threshold.

(07 Jul '14, 14:05) Tordanik
1

Re "prevent new users from creating links" it would make sense to prevent users with negative karma from creating links, but I've absolutely no idea (after a quick scan of osqa.net etc.) if OSQA can do that.

(08 Jul '14, 14:52) SomeoneElse ♦

http://www.openstreetmap.org/diary 's are no-follow. Does not stop the Spam at all.

(08 Jul '14, 16:53) AndiG88

I agree totally!!

Do we have a feature in this OSQA framework to delete entries? How much karma points are needed if possible?

We also need a better spam reporting and removing system in the osm.org website diaries with more people having acces to spam deleting feature and account closing feature.

Maybe we need a feature request about that at OSM's github issue tracker ??

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answered 05 Jul '14, 14:56

stephan75's gravatar image

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How much karma points are needed if possible?

If it is a number, it's more than I've got :) (and I suspect more than Frederik too, as he seems to do the same edit, downvote, close, report sequence as I do).

(05 Jul '14, 15:08) SomeoneElse ♦

So, is [edit,downvote,close,report] the proper sequence to follow if we see a spam question?

(07 Jul '14, 14:46) neuhausr

@neuhausr You'd probably want to ask the recipients of the "report" email that in #osm-dev - what I do know is that people there have said that some of the information from OSQA is less than helpful. I attempted to report a user (rather than a question) and it got to the admins as "SomeoneElse has reported SomeoneElse"!

(07 Jul '14, 14:51) SomeoneElse ♦

@SomeoneElse, LOL! I've used the report link on a couple spam posts, but it sounds like that's not the most useful route, then...

(07 Jul '14, 15:30) neuhausr

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question asked: 05 Jul '14, 14:27

question was seen: 16,635 times

last updated: 14 Jul '14, 14:13

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum