The Great Spam(bot) Hunt of 2014 - You Point, I Punch!
Hear ye! Hear ye!
Dear Denizens of the Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition forums, I bring grave tidings!
Swarms of spambots have assailed our fair realm, and although the Fellowship of the Ban have slain hundreds, nay thousands, more continue to crash against our walls.
Your forum needs you! Join us in glorious battle against the vile menace of spambots!
All credit to @Shandyr for coming up with this idea in the first place, but we needed a more systematic process to implement the game in a way that reduced the visibility of spambots and increased the bot-hunting efficiency.
The Rules:
1) When you spot a spambot, @ in this thread one of the members of the Fellowship of the Ban.
@Jalily
@Metalloman
@Troodon80
@Heindrich
@mlnevese
@LadyRhian
@Illydth
Please include the link to the spambot profile so we can vanquish it immediately!
2) If your 'pointing' leads to a spambot being punched (banned) by the mod you notified, then you get a confirmed bot-kill and +1 kill point.
3) If you catch a stealth bot*, and notify a mod so that it is destroyed as a result, then you get +5 kill points.
4) When you get 10 kill points, you get a "Favored Enemy: Spambot" badge.
Hints and Definitions
1) You have a better chance of getting a kill if you tag a member of the Fellowship who is online and/or recently active.
2) A spambot can be identified if you see a user posting irrelevant links, most commonly on their own profile page, which shows up in the Activity feed. Do NOT notify mods about users who have suspicious usernames, but have not actually posted anything.
3)*A stealth bot is one that does not post on Activity, but does post a comment or thread, which makes them harder for us to spot.
WALL OF FAME
069 - @Shandyr - PRO
010 - @Sylvus_Moonbow
010 - @booinyoureyes
008 - @deltago
007 - @CrevsDaak
007 - @Elrandir
005 - @meagloth
003 - @KidCarnival
002 - @Musigny
Post edited by Heindrich on
15
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
That was (partly) the point. If we log it here, the spambots themselves and their content does not show in Activity.
Any attempts to tag mods via spambot profiles (or Activity feed) doesn't work.
@FinneousPJ
We do have some processes in-place, which block some spambots automatically, but clearly the system is not water-tight at the moment.
I exaggerated the problem for dramatic effect. It's not really that bad and all bots are usually dealt with swiftly before users even notice.
We just decided to make a game out of it cos @Shandyr's idea was fun, and ... everyone loves badges, no?
@mInevese @Heindrich
I'm just a forum mod...
Normally if a mod other than the one you tagged carries out the ban, you would not be credited with a kill. (So that mods and other more busy BG:EE team members can ban without feeling obligated to come and update this thread.)
But on this occasion, I got a notification cos I am the thread owner as well. And Shandyr deserves a wee bonus for being the original creative mind behind the competition.
Metalloman wields the mighty Banhammer, feared across all the realms
mlnevese fires the Flamethrower of Banishment, providing the fire damage needed to finish trolls once and for all
Heindrich hold the legendary bantana, Celestial Banner. It stops spamming dead in its tracks with its "stunning" power!
LadyRhian likes to cast Wail of the Ban-shee, striking fear into all trolls within earshot
Troodon80 will catch all fleeing spammers with his powerful TrooSight special ability (if you mod your forum he might also get to use Troo Strike, but I warn you it is quite unbalanced)
Do spambots from 2012 count?
"All the world is blind to spamming..."
BTW: If you guys want to point a spambot, the best way to do so is to tag it (@+name)
Smile, like this: ::::o)