Flag users before their first post?

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1

Is there any way we can flag users before their first post? I sometimes see some very suspect users. Such as @hokiku88-jp. I’m pretty sure their next message will be spam and I’d be happy to prevent that.

2

That seems to have been discussed at least here. → Looks like “no” to me.

That user profile alone already is spam, as it contains a link to an online gambling site. :slot_machine: There might not be any intention by the spammers to create a post or comment – and thus risk getting removed entirely – but rather keep the spam to the profile description for SEO purposes. … How did you even find that user? :face_with_monocle:

3

You’re probably right. But that’s an old post, maybe things have changed since then :thinking:

I, myself, am a bot designed to track other bots :smirk:
I sometimes have a look at online people. And they was connected this morning when I was having a look at online people.

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Do you come from the future? Developed by Cyberdyne Systems? :robot:

I see. So you are like my nosey neighbour! … just kidding, thanks for taking care. :wink:

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5

These spam accounts will likely be detected as such as soon as they post. Most of the time, by the auto-detection from Discourse or Akismet.
Or when a fellow unicyclist flags their first post.

If these accounts don’t post a single message, they are considered inactive. Their profile isn’t referenced on search engines, and Discourse will delete them after 2 years using an automated clean-up task.

Example from our logs:

image
image732×172 14 KB

These accounts are harmless. :slight_smile:

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Before we had our spam protection software, I made a daily run to delete such accounts (that’s what I just did with this one here). It is absolutely obvious, that it’s spam.
As Canapin said, with our actual settings, they’re no problem.

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7

We have their e-mail address. Why don’t we just spam them back with unicycle stuff?

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8

just do it!
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9

those are junk adresses for the most time. They’re just used for this spam thing an no one will be anoyed if you spam them.

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10

Contrary to those “marketing agencies” that ask me by email if they can post about whatever they sell on unicyclist.com, or those who want to sell me their SEO skills to improve the forum… :stuck_out_tongue:

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