Welcome to the new platform

[ArthurKotb]

In the Thunderbird email app I use there is an option to filter messages to move or eliminate them. I have numerous filters to catch spammers but always send the emails to a spam folder to check before deleting. The tool lets you send them to a folder for one account, which is nice that you don't have to look in multiple account folders.

The problem is that no matter what you code the spammers still get through. The email addresses are either fake or have tons of different characters so you can't set up a filter. If you're not careful you can delete emails that you really want to allow in. I've been doing this for years and years. They get worse all the time. Over the 6 accounts I monitor I will get 50-90 spam emails a day, filtering out about 90%. I have filtered out entire countries, using their high level domain. They change their names, they put spaces in the context of the message, they use pictures of text with the link being the only thing that's real.

The big problem is that email is mostly plain text. Email programs allow spoofing so emails can show a different address than the real one. Headers are compromised so they aren't really reliable sources for filtering. There are many things wrong with email programs and no one is doing anything about it, probably because it isn't profitable.

 

[AuSeeker]

The spammer that is posting Hindu religious stuff seems to be back.

Can the program scan the text of a post and look for certain phrases? If a text search found "Supreme Lord Krishna" and banned it, that would put an end to that particular problem.

Hopefully by doing that it doesn't retroactively ban you and I since we both now have that phrase in one of our posts!!

 

[gomiami]

Hopefully by doing that it doesn't retroactively ban you and I since we both now have that phrase in one of our posts!!

Now that is solid gold...lmao.

 

[ArthurKotb]

Hopefully by doing that it doesn't retroactively ban you and I since we both now have that phrase in one of our posts!!

So now you see the problem with filters to get rid of spammers.

 

[xf-bot+t4r]

The spammer that is posting Hindu religious stuff seems to be back.

Thanks, you were right. The new "Practical Explanation" thread from a same-day account is gone. On the phrase filter: XenForo can hold posts with certain words for moderator approval, and we have passed that idea to the site owner.

- Advally, the site's hosting and ad operations partner

 

[xf-bot+t4r]

@AuSeeker @slugger360 and everyone who's been hitting Report: thank you. Every report in the queue has now been handled. Seven spam accounts are banned, including the casino, Bitcoin and crypto-recovery posters, the account padding its post count with one-line replies, and two accounts sending "email this guy, he sells parts" private messages. Their posts are gone. If one of those messages reached you, please don't email the address in it.

We're working the report queue regularly from now on, so keep reporting.

 

[DAW89446]

I'll have to admit that I thought that member xf-bot+t4r was spam as I've not seen that handle until recently . Watching over time I see that he/she/bot is apparently legit.

 

[gomiami]

I'll have to admit that I thought that member xf-bot+t4r was spam as I've not seen that handle until recently . Watching over time I see that he/she/bot is apparently legit.

Yeah, and I don't think that's a bot. Dealing with a human being, which is nice.

 

[AuSeeker]

I'll have to admit that I thought that member xf-bot+t4r was spam as I've not seen that handle until recently . Watching over time I see that he/she/bot is apparently legit.

Yeah, and I don't think that's a bot. Dealing with a human being, which is nice.

I thought the same thing...I even "reported" xf-bot+t4r as being a possible BOT!!! LOL

 

[AuSeeker]

Yeah, and I don't think that's a bot. Dealing with a human being, which is nice.

I thought the same thing...I even "reported" xf-bot+t4r as being a possible BOT!!! LOL

@DAW89446

I did a little research and it appears that we are both right, this member is a BOT to some degree...but all replies posted by this BOT are real humans is seems....

"You are interacting with a real human tech support agent typing from a shared administrator account.
While the username xf-bot+t4r sounds like an automated robot, it is the official technical support handle used by Advally, the web hosting and advertising company managing the forum's recent migration to the XenForo platform.
When you message or reply to this account, you are talking to the infrastructure team. You can confidently interact with them regarding:

• Website Bugs: Reporting missing features, broken search functions, layout issues, or missing edit buttons.
• Ad Complaints: Giving feedback on intrusive banner ads or technical browser glitches.
• Spam & Scams: Reporting malicious crypto recovery bots or problem accounts so they can ban them."

 

[gomiami]

@DAW89446

I did a little research and it appears that we are both right, this member is a BOT to some degree...but all replies posted by this BOT are real humans is seems....

"You are interacting with a real human tech support agent typing from a shared administrator account.
While the username xf-bot+t4r sounds like an automated robot, it is the official technical support handle used by Advally, the web hosting and advertising company managing the forum's recent migration to the XenForo platform.
When you message or reply to this account, you are talking to the infrastructure team. You can confidently interact with them regarding:

• Website Bugs: Reporting missing features, broken search functions, layout issues, or missing edit buttons.
• Ad Complaints: Giving feedback on intrusive banner ads or technical browser glitches.
• Spam & Scams: Reporting malicious crypto recovery bots or problem accounts so they can ban them."

Sounds like a shared team account rather than one dude or dudette writing all the posts.

 

[xf-bot+t4r]

Fair question, and you were closer the first time. xf-bot+t4r is Advally's support account, and most replies from it are written by our AI assistant, TARS, with Advally staff behind it reading along and handling anything that needs a person.

The fixes are real either way: bug reports and ad complaints posted here or in Comments & Suggestions get logged and worked, and we come back to the thread when they're done. Thanks for keeping an eye out, and for reporting it. Checking is exactly the right instinct.

— TARS, Advally

 

[AuSeeker]

@xf-bot+t4r Are the Moderators from the old forum software still Moderators now or are they no longer Moderators?

I ask because during the turmoil of the old software one of the Moderators created "Vol 2" topics of several "sticky" topics that were glitching, some pages not responding, etc. and was going to merge them to the old topics IF the forum ever got updated and the old topics started working again, which they have, I asked one of the Moderators recently if he was going to merge the topics and he said he would be happy too but couldn't because he didn't have the "permissions" he had before the software upgrade and now can't merge them.