Can we add "keto" and "supplement" to the spam filter already?

Title says it all, I report a ton of spam daily and about 80% has the word "keto" or "supplement" in it. Conversly, I have yet to read a legitimate post on these forums in any section that uses these words, so can we just deal with it and add them to the spam filter already?

EDIT: tagging in @UnityMaru as only person I know who can maybe get this done, but if anyone knows any other staff that have control over this let me know and Ill also try and tag them in.

I am very very tired of reporting keto spam every single day with it seemingly never ending. I am trying my best to help clean up the forums but it is very hard without these words in spam filter.

 

Same for... let's say "testosterone"... please
https://forum.unity.com/threads/ner...premature-ejaculation-low-sperm-count.719552/

Also, how are those newly created accounts even able to put links inside their posts?
While some other (genuine) users have trouble doing that, e.g.: https://forum.unity.com/threads/cant-post-links-to-my-released-asset-thread.713129/ or https://forum.unity.com/threads/cant-create-threads-with-links-in-them.713570/

 

Hey folks,

These words are actually already included in the spam filter, as I've just checked. I will chat to our technical team to just review the settings and see if this can be more effective.

@Mauri these threads popped up at a time when we tested out improving the spam filter, but it ended up blocking a lot of legitimate users to the point where we had to change it back.

 

I see... Thanks for the explanation

 

Thanks for the clarification @UnityMaru , hopefully its just a case of adjusting some settings but right now it doesnt seem to be working 100%

 

Yeah, believe me, I'd love nothing more than an awesome spam filter. There's a couple ideas our team have put forward to hopefully improve this. I'll let you guys know if any of them come to light

 

@UnityMaru Any chance you can decrease the delay I'm allowed to report spam? I find these 20 seconds wait periods between each report kind of annoying.

 

It's hard locked at 30 seconds - @UnityMaru tried to change it, but it's not possible:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/eli...etween-reporting-threads.706871/#post-4736711

 

I think it is a good idea.

 

We're making improvements down the line - I and my team totally accept it's not perfect but we know a few tweaks we've made are having an effect.

 

Spam comes from new accounts, is there a way to only spam filter posts if the user has <25 posts? Seems like that would cut out tons of noise and allow more liberal filters or additional antirobo prompts.

 

@LaneFox this good thought. But even with 1 or two post would do it in current situation.

In fact many large forums / stacks do not allow links in first posts.

 

Blocking links doesn't really help, since you get spam like this:



Seems like any links have been stripped, but the spam post still gets made and takes up space.

 

I stil see links quite often. Unless something changed very recently.
Without links, at least there isn't driving community, to 3rd party sites.
While sure not perfect, but at least something feasible to resolve, I believe.

 

The obvious fix is to have moderators have to approve all new threads by new members. @UnityMaru and everyone else has never replied to why they don't do that, so we're completely in the dark on if that's not feasible, or if they're pulling a Steam-esque "all solutions that involve real humans doing things are off the table by default" deal.

 

I think its probably not doable at scale, as there are potentially 100s of new posts daily and unity is only ever growing in popularity.

Although I agree that if it was doable at scale, this would sort out the problem 99% of the way.

 

You're somewhat on the money. This would be an enormous task to do. Not to mention that we aren't a company that typically work weekends, nor are volunteer mods under obligation to cover weekends. I would feel rather sad for someone making a first post on a late friday night PST who would have to wait days for their honest post just to show up.

 

We just need AI to become better so we can have a perfectly 100% infallible AI moderator who never eats or sleeps.

Twist: 100 years from now they will teach in school that this is how we accidentally ended up creating SkyNet and ending the world, trying to make a forums defence systems better

 

There are more robust options out there which can handle this, which is why we're keen to move forum platforms. It's just not an easy process because there's lots to consider with a migration. The work is still being done to move platforms but there's no ETA at present but it's giving us time to work out a plan of action.

 

Its cool, its not like the current forums are the worst out there. All things considered they hold up pretty well when you think how many more active users there are now compared to like 5 years ago.

I do think overall spam has gotten a ton better in last few months, when this post originally started spam was at an ungodly level where everytime I opened general there was at least 2-3 fresh keto spam an hour. Now its still everyday but nowhere near as bad!

 

I think we should remove key words, starting in K in this thread.
It will drive undesired traffic to this forum.

 

I've always found these ones weird.
Like, sure, they've successfully bypassed the filter, but now they're not even advertising the thing they want to spam anymore.

"5 Easy Natural Fat Loss Tips" is just a statement. There's no hyperlinks or brand names or anything. Nobody wins in this situation.