# Fur Affinity Fake IDs'?



## MakTheFurry (Mar 14, 2016)

It seems there's a problem with fur affinity currently that is spamming the whole forum with things like forums.furaffinity.net: Purchase Real Registered and Fake Camouflage Passport ,Visa,Driving License,ID CARDS, certificates

I'm new to fur affinity but is this normal? And is this going to be a problem in the future.
                 Thanks
                             ~ MakTheFurry


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## Somnium (Mar 14, 2016)

I've been here since the forum was resurrected and this is the first occasion when I'm facing such problem


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## Fallowfox (Mar 14, 2016)

I hope this does not become normal.


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## MakTheFurry (Mar 14, 2016)

Fallowfox said:


> I hope this does not become normal.


Yeah that would be really bad...


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## Endless/Nameless (Mar 14, 2016)

In all seriousness guys, you should come over to Phoenix Forums. We actually have moderators that care about stuff. 

We're also a lot more active, and fun.


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## MakTheFurry (Mar 14, 2016)

Endless/Nameless said:


> In all seriousness guys, you should come over to Phoenix Forums. We actually have moderators that care about stuff.
> 
> We're also a lot more active, and fun.



Nah i'll stick with furaffinity  Doesn't look too bad though.


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## Endless/Nameless (Mar 14, 2016)

MakTheFurry said:


> Nah i'll stick with furaffinity  Doesn't look too bad though.


Alright, but do consider it. You guys need a decent place to hang out; you don't deserve this.


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## MakTheFurry (Mar 14, 2016)

Endless/Nameless said:


> Alright, but do consider it. You guys need a decent place to hang out; you don't deserve this.


According to somnium it's the first time so


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## *Seamonkey*~wren (Mar 14, 2016)

Yea no i imagine this will be a thing we see starting all over the internet as refugees become more relevant.


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## MakTheFurry (Mar 14, 2016)

*Seamonkey*~wren said:


> Yea no i imagine this will be a thing we see starting all over the internet as refugees become more relevant.


Hmm im not sure, it makes sense but will refugees even see random ads on Fur Affinity?


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## Endless/Nameless (Mar 14, 2016)

MakTheFurry said:


> According to somnium it's the first time so


FAF crashed and burned before. Badly. It's not unimaginable for it to happen again, if the mods care so little as to not drop by for 72 frickn hours.


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## ArielMT (Mar 14, 2016)

This is the new normal.  What we're seeing is the end of the spam hiatus, which only happened because the domain name was gone for a few months.

Bringing on and retaining a decently sized pool of competent forum help is going to be fairly difficult for current staff because they're still picking up the pieces from the mass resignations and exodus that crashed and burned FAF last Fall to begin with.


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## Strangeguy32000 (Mar 14, 2016)

It's a bot (automated program).
We used to get them occasionally on the Black Mesa (Half-Life 2 Total Conversion mod to remake Half-Life 1 on the source engine) boards. Though it was never this prevalent (HACKERS were more prevalent)

Basically what this bot does is troll (like fishing troll, not cause mischief troll) the Internet for forums like this, that don't have great anti-bot security measures (like Captcha) and disseminates ads for its parent company (almost always a hacker network  looking to unload stolen credit card information in a hurry) 
seriously, these f*ckers are always bad news


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## Endless/Nameless (Mar 14, 2016)

ArielMT said:


> Bringing on and retaining a decently sized pool of competent forum help is going to be fairly difficult for current staff because they're still picking up the pieces from the mass resignations and exodus that crashed and burned FAF last Fall to begin with.


Assuredly, but it's quite frankly amazing that there isn't at least _one_ mod hanging around. This could go south fast.


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## Somnium (Mar 14, 2016)

Endless/Nameless said:


> Assuredly, but it's quite frankly amazing that there isn't at least _one_ mod hanging around. This could go south fast.



This is why anarchy would never work. People are just too stupid. 

Hi @Strangeguy32000 , I know you're seeing this I want to say that you have a perfect name


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## Fallowfox (Mar 14, 2016)

Endless/Nameless said:


> In all seriousness guys, you should come over to Phoenix Forums. We actually have moderators that care about stuff.
> 
> We're also a lot more active, and fun.



Looks like the shills for phoenix have arrived. I'm not sure what's worse; you or the bot?


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## Endless/Nameless (Mar 14, 2016)

Fallowfox said:


> Looks like the shills for phoenix have arrived. I'm not sure what's worse; you or the bot?


Hey, I'm just sayin'. Don't get so sore. 


Somnium said:


> This is why anarchy would never work. People are just too stupid.


This forum needs a Rassah thread.


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## *Seamonkey*~wren (Mar 14, 2016)

MakTheFurry said:


> Hmm im not sure, it makes sense but will refugees even see random ads on Fur Affinity?


No probably not, but spam shows up anywhere and everywhere.


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## Willow (Mar 14, 2016)

MakTheFurry said:


> According to somnium it's the first time so


this used to be a thing on the old FAF too, only difference is that the bots were actually dealt with in a timely manner instead of piling up like they are. which honestly says a lot about the conduct of the mods and admins


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## Tatsuchan18 (Mar 14, 2016)

The only thing I have a problem with is how everyone's forum profile isn't automaticly linked to their furaffinity (unless they actively change the info on their forum profile to include their FA page) it makes it hard to link forum people with their pages (i like to make free art for newbies who have none (and to give other artists something to work with once they commission)  so sometimes it's good to see how much art they actually have and aren't lying to me or anything.

I think bots are fine as long as it gets deleted. I mean you can't really get rid of them. They're here because the forum gets used by people.


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## Verin Asper (Mar 14, 2016)

Tatsuchan18 said:


> The only thing I have a problem with is how everyone's forum profile isn't automaticly linked to their furaffinity (unless they actively change the info on their forum profile to include their FA page) it makes it hard to link forum people with their pages (i like to make free art for newbies who have none (and to give other artists something to work with once they commission)  so sometimes it's good to see how much art they actually have and aren't lying to me or anything.
> 
> I think bots are fine as long as it gets deleted. I mean you can't really get rid of them. They're here because the forum gets used by people.


well...technically you can get rid of some em...by actually putting things in place, those that get thru can be dealt with manually if mods actually work


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## Dragoneer (Mar 15, 2016)

The spammers were wiped. If/when you see threads with that report it, and we can get it knocked out!


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## ArielMT (Mar 15, 2016)

Dragoneer said:


> The spammers were wiped. If/when you see threads with that report it, and we can get it knocked out!



None of us had any doubts that you collectively would take care of the most recent spam problem, since the spammers were reported within minutes of posting.  The doubts we had were about how quickly you would become aware of the problem's existence so that you could: Your forums went just one hour shy of four whole days without a moderator presence of any kind, a streak that took nothing less than your personal presence to end.


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## Fallowfox (Mar 15, 2016)

I agree with @ArielMT  ; it would be good if at least 1 moderator could check in each day.
In the future the forum could be spammed with morally unsavory content or malware, so a prompt response is desirable.

I reported 5 of the most recent spam threads, about 8 minutes after they were posted. Perhaps if several users report a thread it should be hidden until a moderator approves it?


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## MakTheFurry (Mar 15, 2016)

Fallowfox said:


> I agree with @ArielMT  ; it would be good if at least 1 moderator could check in each day.
> In the future the forum could be spammed with morally unsavory content or malware, so a prompt response is desirable.
> 
> I reported 5 of the most recent spam threads, about 8 minutes after they were posted. Perhaps if several users report a thread it should be hidden until a moderator approves it?



I guess so but it would probably just be easier making trusted furries mod.


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## ArielMT (Mar 15, 2016)

Fallowfox said:


> I agree with @ArielMT  ; it would be good if at least 1 moderator could check in each day.


Agreed.  With such a small staff, the majority of which is inactive --- please remember that I was justly fired for exactly that reason --- we can't and don't expect gap-less 24/7 coverage.  We do, however, expect staff to check in at least daily even if individuals on staff occasionally check in less frequently than that.



Fallowfox said:


> In the future the forum could be spammed with morally unsavory content or malware, so a prompt response is desirable.


This is inevitable.  Now that the bot herders and captcha farmers have discovered FAF is back online, the frequency of spam and danger of its content will only increase.



Fallowfox said:


> I reported 5 of the most recent spam threads, about 8 minutes after they were posted. Perhaps if several users report a thread it should be hidden until a moderator approves it?


The old FAF had a spam filter that threw all spammy posts into the mod queue automatically until users got above a certain post threshold.


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## Kellan Meig'h (Mar 15, 2016)

One of the boards I'm an Admin on (PHPBB) doesn't allow signups without approval. Probably one in a hundred signups is a real furry and not a spammer or SEO toad. I'm not sure if this is possible in Xenforo, to have new users vetted by the staff before being allowed to post or complete signup. All it takes is a few quick searches to figure out if a new user is actually a spammer of SEO trash poster. Sure has kept the trash out of that particular board.


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## MakTheFurry (Mar 15, 2016)

Kellan Meig'h said:


> One of the boards I'm an Admin on (PHPBB) doesn't allow signups without approval. Probably one in a hundred signups is a real furry and not a spammer or SEO toad. I'm not sure if this is possible in Xenforo, to have new users vetted by the staff before being allowed to post or complete signup. All it takes is a few quick searches to figure out if a new user is actually a spammer of SEO trash poster. Sure has kept the trash out of that particular board.


Ah but this is a problem when there is no staff online and it might just stop accepting members if a lot of spammers join...


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## Ozriel (Mar 15, 2016)

Kellan Meig'h said:


> One of the boards I'm an Admin on (PHPBB) doesn't allow signups without approval. Probably one in a hundred signups is a real furry and not a spammer or SEO toad. I'm not sure if this is possible in Xenforo, to have new users vetted by the staff before being allowed to post or complete signup. All it takes is a few quick searches to figure out if a new user is actually a spammer of SEO trash poster. Sure has kept the trash out of that particular board.


It's possible in Xenoforo. You can also set up additional security to prevent bots from registering. Like, you can add new questions like "2+2=chair", or "how many fenders does it take to screw in a lightbulb".


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## Endless/Nameless (Mar 15, 2016)

Ozriel said:


> "how many fenders does it take to screw in a lightbulb".


How many??


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## MakTheFurry (Mar 15, 2016)

Yeah we need to future-proof this to make sure it doesn't turn into some unused fourm.


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## Arcturus Maple (Mar 15, 2016)

Too bad we can't just set some anvils up to crush the bots as they tunnel into the website.


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## MakTheFurry (Mar 15, 2016)

I'm imagining that to be something like


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## Arcturus Maple (Mar 15, 2016)

Seems pretty effective to me.


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## MakTheFurry (Mar 15, 2016)

Arcturus Maple said:


> Seems pretty effective to me.


If it works on peter, it works for bots


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## Kellan Meig'h (Mar 15, 2016)

MakTheFurry said:


> Ah but this is a problem when there is no staff online and it might just stop accepting members if a lot of spammers join...


Yeah, that would be a problem. I'm here quite a bit, like twice a day or maybe more but I have never been approached to be a Moderator. It would take somebody being here every day for a moderated signup to work. I'm not sure I would sign any agreements to do free work on a board if they are still doing that.

Some of the modern Captchas are novel, like the box that asks, "Prove you are human" and it has a blank text box below that statement. The button below the blank text box says "I am human" so the bot tries to fill in a value. Any value negates the signup.

Oh well, it was a thought. Maybe a Mod or Admin will see this thread. I hope. Maybe.


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## MakTheFurry (Mar 15, 2016)

Kellan Meig'h said:


> Yeah, that would be a problem. I'm here quite a bit, like twice a day or maybe more but I have never been approached to be a Moderator. It would take somebody being here every day for a moderated signup to work. I'm not sure I would sign any agreements to do free work on a board if they are still doing that.
> 
> Some of the modern Captchas are novel, like the box that asks, "Prove you are human" and it has a blank text box below that statement. The button below the blank text box says "I am human" so the bot tries to fill in a value. Any value negates the signup.
> 
> Oh well, it was a thought. Maybe a Mod or Admin will see this thread. I hope. Maybe.


*DragoneerAdministrator *Seen this, let's hope they add a recaptcha or something, although i don't think this advertisement was a bot, it could be done manually easily


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## quoting_mungo (Mar 16, 2016)

We'll be adding additional spam protection measures; we just need to weigh our options carefully to make sure it doesn't make things harder for legitimate users. Nobody likes those Captchas that are more noise than content and you have to guess at half the symbols in, for instance.


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## Samandriel Morningstar (Mar 16, 2016)

I was trying to come up with a witty name for Furry Id's but all that came to mind was Furry D's.
Which well,doesn't sound as good.
But to be on a serious note,it's good that the majority of the spam bots have been taken care of,it seems to always be the fake ID ones.


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