CEA Update 20080730: Spam Update

This week we talk about spamming, how to deal with it and how to report it.

About one year ago, in late 2007 the deviantART community grew large enough and popular enough for it to come to the attention of the lowest form of Internet life; the spammer.

During that time we had few controls in place to handle such abusive activity and those who were with us during that time may have been subjected to some of the massive amounts of spam which flooded into our community. Since that time however our Devious Technology department has been working hard to create systems to control spam and we have actively combated it with IP bans and reports to various service providers. Today I’d like to explain some of the various tools now hard at work behind the scenes and also explain how you can report these people so that they can be removed from our community.

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• Identifying spammers
Our first line of defense against spamming comes in the form of automatic detection systems which we have developed to target and block behavior which fits the profile of the typical spammer. Once a suspected spammer is identified the system will cut off their access and report them to a central admin area for review.

The automatic system keys off of several types of behavior and it is possible that some of you may have commenting or noting behavior which will trip the system, especially if you are commenting rapidly or sending large amounts of notes or messages. If you find that you have been targeted by our system please simply be patient and your access will eventually be restored; you will not be automatically banned because an actual human being reviews each case individually.

• Cleaning up the spam
If you have been spammed you should use the ability to Report Spam which is attached to every comment left anywhere on your personal account pages. Using the Report Spam function instead of simply hiding the comment sends a special report to a central location where a member of staff can review what you have reported.

If you choose to Report Spam you will also notice a new feature which has been in place for the last couple of weeks. After reporting a single comment the system will prompt you and ask if you would like to report and hide all comments by that account everywhere on your personal pages.

It should be obvious that this tool is also extremely useful to anyone who is targeted by an internet troll who decides to flood you with obnoxious comments. Even if the bully leaves hundreds of comments spread throughout your deviations, journals and main account page all you will need to do is report a single one and have the system handle the rest.

And once again since a human being actually reviews these reports you don’t have to worry about accidentally reporting a friend.

• Report the spammer
The final step in handling a spammer who has visited you is to file a ticket with the <a href=”help.deviantart.com/contact/&#…>Helpdesk and alert us to the presence of the spammer.
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The sad fact is that spammers are here to stay and they will constantly vary their methods in an attempt to continue throwing advertising links and other garbage at you and your deviations but we will continue to develop and adapt our systems to keep this nonsense to a bare minimum and if our systems and tools seem a little over sensitive or downright rabid please bear with us while we attempt to find just the right settings.