Adding a spam plugin.

As many of you know, more and more people are spamming freely, and there's nothing to do about it except report, and /ignore.

Maybe we could add a plugin to only have 3 messages in under 5 seconds, to prevent constant spam.

 

Support.

3 Messages in 5 Seconds not bad.

 

Sure that it'll slower the spam tho im remaining Neutral

 

Good evening, Mr. Parrot.

Spam and advertising is never appreciated and is always a huge source of annoyance to players. However a perfect solution has never been found because this is an arms race between two equally creative groups of people. Motivation is high on both sides so no matter what one group comes up with another is always working on a way to counter it.

Some stopgap measures are mildly effective: Things like enforcing a "no talk zone" or a time limit before chatting. We even tried a "cooldown" time between sending chat messages... although that particular attempt almost got us burned alive. Unfortunately simple measures like these are usually beaten with other, equally simple tactics. Eventually trying to plug the leaks is too time consuming: We could play Whac-A-Mole endlessly while trying to devise a perfect counter to every little thing.

That isn't to say we have given up and will let spammers run free. Instead we have taken a step back and put some thought into trying to fight the issue at a level lower than "how many different misspellings of pl@y |=|3R3 can we catch?". It is an interesting problem! If you have any solutions feel free to throw them down here: Your idea may be exactly what we need.

Kind regards,
//Myrmidous

 

Wait, shouldn’t the console automatically mute for spam?

 

If only it were that easy! Unfortunately often what is considered "spam" is only something another human can identify.

The simplest form of it is simply repeated fast messages like "COME PLAY AT MY OTHER SERVER HERE" sent as quickly as possible. This is easy for something like Console or a plugin to identify: Machines are good at counting repeats. But simply changing a couple letters every time is enough to beat that sort of simple matching.

Also where is the "line"? For example perhaps people are simply very fast typists:
[Jan 1, 10:31:13:]
Jackson: hey every1
Jackson: hru?
Jackson: lol
Jackson: OMG my is?
Jackson Wat happen?
Jackson: WTF!
[Jan 1, 10:31:15:] Console has banned Jackson: Too many messages too rapidly.

From a computer perspective Jackson sent six messages in under two seconds. Console gets alarmed and nukes him for spam. But from a human perspective we all understand this is just a normal surge of messages and would be fine.

Detecting intentional spam is a very cloudy subject at times, especially when folks are deliberately being sneaky. Often we end up falling back on human judgment in order to combat this sort of thing because humans are the best judge of other peoples' behavior and intent. As Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart would say: "I know it when I see it."

Kind regards,
//Myrmidous

 

Just get more active staff if any of these spam-preventers ideas won't work or will receive a lot of complaints as they can just watch the chat and would identify the spam (Not like the console) from a human perspective.

 

Is there any way like from the number of letters sent in rapid messages?

 

Like for instance:

[Jun 6, 10:01:13:]
Parrot: ruwhowferuhiefrinucwefrfwerhocwefyoruwferygoiucwefryviwefriocwfgeyroicwfuericwefubicwbefyiocwefuyb
Parrot: ruwhowferuhiefrinucwefrfwerhocwefyoruwferygoiucwefryviwefriocwfgeyroicwfuericwefubicwbefyiocwefuyb
Parrot: ruwhowferuhiefrinucwefrfwerhocwefyoruwferygoiucwefryviwefriocwfgeyroicwfuericwefubicwbefyiocwefuyb
[Jun 6, 10:02:15:] Console has banned Parrot.

 

I'm will to join staff to have the sole objective of destroying spammers. You can give me a title and everything that just says AntiSpam. I'll do it no problem

 

Appreciate it!

 

Inactive for a week, bumping...

 

Maybe have a few chat Moderators so that they keep chat clean whilst the staff is dealing with scams ex.

 

Good evening, Parrot.

I apologize: Your topic is not "inactive", sir. This request is under pretty heavy discussion and testing at the moment. Thank you in advance for your patience.

Kind regards,
//Myrmidous

 

Sorry.

 

Since this thread has been inactive for at least thirty days, it will be locked and/or archived. This is to prevent grave digging, the act of posting on a thread that has not been posted on for a month.

If you own this thread, please report this post, and the moderator may unlock the thread for your use. If you disagree to this action, please report this post, and a moderator or administrator will reconsider it.

Kind regards.