They adapted already

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/open_this_thread/post10519

Persistent aren't they?

A better solution would be: New user account? Captcha! New user without bought games want to create topic? Captcha! User with rep <=0 want to create topic? Captcha!

I hope the current solution is only temporary, although it's effective. As other have pointed out it might scare off potential customers. I get it that a captcha solution takes longer to implement and is not at all safe (captchas have been broken by bots before). But it would raise the bar to post spam with new accounts and the few that get through could be managed by the community. We were only asking for help because it became a huge problem.
Already gone - they're posting in the threads now?

Considering no customers currently consistently use Korean on the main forums, any korean characters would qualify. Things too common or broad like ASCII would just get in the way.

Depends. I don't see anyone making 10 different topics within 15 minutes as a normal user. If you're talking about 1 game you might make 3 separate topics in a subthread, and 3 in general, but if all of the data is identical that's equal to spamming anyways. Common sense says to do 1 in sub-thread, then if you don't get an answer within an hour, go to the general. So counting would work fine for the 15 minutes limit.

It only needs to be restrictive based on how the bots work. If a bot creates a new account then starts spamming within a minute, then merely adding a 30-minute normal delay before posts would be enough to prevent major misuse. Of course if 1000 bots are created, then used the next day, then you adjust time and post type to accommodate it.

And having an empty body/message to a new topic is almost never done by a user. Not impossible, but very unlikely.


Honestly i agree with you, but a few select rules can heavily influence spam, at least until they change tactics that aren't accounted for. Currently if they all have to buy something, then at least the money going to GoG can pay for someone to ban them off. Sure they can get the game(s) they buy, but i doubt they would try for that. Then charge-backs and forced refunds would make things quite muddy for everyone, although probably more so for the spammers... I've seen some of the information sent via paypal for payments and it's... very educational...

I agree. The solution needs to be stopping the creation of accounts. Limiting their posting can only do so much, especially if you don't want to alienate actual customers. Any posts that make it through (say by a human who has created an account and then automated it to do something) can probably be dealt with by the community.

This was my next fear... If they keep it up, GoG will block all new posts in established topics and require PM's or tickets until the spam blows over...



edit: Hmmm requiring Captcha to create topics or reply to the forums unless you've bought a game would remove the limitation, and add a minor annoyance to new users while almost disabling spam bots...

I don't know about other people, but I'd like to not have all the spam info straddling two (or more) threads. Would it be possible to pick one and stick with it?

I blame [s]Chris[/s] Ciris for starting a second topic :P

Seriously this one is probably the one that will stick around longer while the ban hammer will be lost fairly quickly when this settles down long enough.

Good idea. I'm voting for "We are under attack". It's the "traditional one" and the title of this other one is even more informal ;-).

Or someone from GOG staff should create a new "official" thread for spam war issues.

Yep, I say use this one and sticky it.

This is actually quite good. They can even use the new userfriendly Google recaptcha ones that use checkboxes instead of text.

Whatever works, i'll go with the majority or GoG admins decide on.

Watching new posts and not seeing much for spam. Is the creation of new accounts enough of an annoyance that they are down to a crawl?

:) Whatever works. This of course won't affect 99% of users making it even better.

And toxicTom to the rescue again! I can get behind this idea.

I see problems, but i will keep my thoughts to myself as not to give the spammers ideas :P

See, that's a solution I can get behind.