Ask HN- What can I do to get rid of a serial spammer from my website?

#1

Post by Davey » Thu, Jul 14, 2011, 5:56 PM UTC

I own a discussion forum and there is someone who repeatedly joins the forum to spam us with his drivel (articles he has written that paint him as an expert in something particular). We try banning email addresses and he gets new ones. We tried banning IP addresses and he gets new ones.

He is certainly in violation of the forum rules that do not allow for multiple attempts to join. Is there any recourse to get rid of someone like this once and for all? We spend way too much time on this spammer already.

Any thoughts? Can we sue him? Could we win an injunction or a restraining order? Could we recoup legal fees?

Re: Ask HN- What can I do to get rid of a serial spammer from my website?

#2

Post by davepm » Thu, Jul 14, 2011, 6:16 PM UTC

have you tried putting him into "auto moderation"? that way, if his intelligence level is as low as it seems, then he may believe that his is posting, even though no one else can see it ;) it has worked for me on occasion in the past!

Re: Ask HN- What can I do to get rid of a serial spammer from my website?

#3

Post by Davey » Thu, Jul 14, 2011, 6:19 PM UTC

davepm wrote: post #2

have you tried putting him into "auto moderation"? that way, if his intelligence level is as low as it seems, then he may believe that his is posting, even though no one else can see it ;) it has worked for me on occasion in the past!

Yes, we did try that, he always seems to log out and check for his posts and if they are not appearing in public, he just rejoins again.

Re: Ask HN- What can I do to get rid of a serial spammer from my website?

#4

Post by flignats » Thu, Jul 14, 2011, 7:46 PM UTC

It's most likely a bot and not a real person so you're getting angry at a machine :)

What are you doing to prevent the registrations? Do you have a captcha? Forums have an option to ask unique question before registering - enable that option and write something unique.

Re: Ask HN- What can I do to get rid of a serial spammer from my website?

#5

Post by namank » Fri, Jul 15, 2011, 5:34 AM UTC

Ask other members for help, use it to promote the forum's sense of community. Who knows, you might end up appealing to someone who knows the person irl or knows how to stop him.

Not sure what else you can do, please do post when you figure out how!