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Spam Flood in the community

Werner_E
24-Ruby V

Spam Flood in the community

I notice that the last couple of weeks the Mathcad section of this forum is spammed quite a lot. The postings are from accounts created just to make one single post and on a first quick glance seem to be a valid answer. Sometimes they also contain a more or less hidden link - apparently to entice other users to visit the linked pages.

Is this problem already known to PTC? It should, as I used the "Notify Moderator" option a lot on some of those posts, asking for the postings to be deleted (with little success).

Are others experiencing similar annoying issues in other parts of this forum?

@Jaime_Lee  Is PTC already taking measures to cope with the problem? In any case, I couldn't find anything about it in the community announcements so far.

Here are a few links to some of the posts I am talking about

https://community.ptc.com/t5/PTC-Mathcad/MathCAD-Trial/m-p/700477/highlight/true#M193106

https://community.ptc.com/t5/PTC-Mathcad/hi/m-p/700492/highlight/true#M193107

https://community.ptc.com/t5/PTC-Mathcad/PTC-Mathcad-Prime-6-0-Student-Edition-%C3%A2-One-Year-Term-License/m-p/700544/highlight/true#M193111

https://community.ptc.com/t5/PTC-Mathcad/Quel-est-le-prix-pour-mathacad-15/m-p/700552/highlight/true#M193112

https://community.ptc.com/t5/PTC-Mathcad/Login/m-p/700117/highlight/true#M193079

EDIT:

https://community.ptc.com/t5/PTC-Mathcad/Unknown-error-quot-failed-quot-of-mode-Union/m-p/700641/highlight/true#M193134

 

18 REPLIES 18
Jaime_Lee
Community Manager
(To:Werner_E)

Hi, @Werner_E   My latest community announcement actually just got spammed as well and I asked one of our Technical Support Managers to take a look to see where they were coming from. 

 

Yes, "Notify Moderator" is the right course of action.  Thank you for bringing these specific posts to my attention.  Hopefully, we can use these to further trace why this is happening. 

I also notice that many of those post at first come without any links embedded but after a while a link is added.



Yes, "Notify Moderator" is the right course of action.


Yes that may be. But it gets boring and reaction time of a few days is rather long. Furthermore this sure can't be the ultimate, permanent "solution".
I would have assumed that a system like Khoros had ways of preventing common undesirable behavior like this more efficiently.

 

BTW, the last one I found
https://community.ptc.com/t5/PTC-Mathcad/Tree-ovals-mean-gmean-amp-hmean/m-p/701998/highlight/true#M193319

The body is copied from publicly accessible websites and seems to be triggered by some keywords in the subject of the thread. That way on first glance it may appear to be a legitimate answer. When I noticed it first, the link at the end wasn't there - it seems to have been added later. Maybe a way to trick moderation.

Jaime_Lee
Community Manager
(To:Werner_E)

Notify Moderator for SPAM requests should not take days to be resolved.  If  "notify moderator" is taking days to resolved (unless over a weekend) please let myself or @Leigh know.  This is not expected behavior.

 

We just implemented an added layer of security to catch "obvious" spam attacks.

 

We will review this thread in our community team meeting this week.

 

 


@Jaime_Lee wrote:

We just implemented an added layer of security to catch "obvious" spam attacks.


As already written those postings aren't so obvious am first sight and the links often seem to be added only later (or am I experiencing some kind of moderation like showing links in postings of new members only after approval by a mod?).

Anyway, it looks like you added layer works as the last few days I didn't spot any spam postings of that kind.

 

I had noticed that the user @aaaaaaaa kudos (presumably automatically) from time to time the very first, initial posting of a thread which usually is the question. Last thread I noticed it was https://community.ptc.com/t5/PTC-Mathcad/Jacobian-Calculation-Crashes-for-System-of-ODEs/m-p/703987/highlight/true#M193547. Its no problem, as it doesn't hurt and it's not bothersome, just a curiosity - just thought to mention it. I remember a discussion on this board about a similar incident, but as far as I can remember, that bot had given kudos to every posting, including answers, not just the initial posting.

 

BTW, offtopic, what does this mean

Werner_E_0-1608433860713.png

It looks sooo ugly and takes up way too much vertical space!!

I can filter and block quite some unnecessary and distracting parts of this forum to make it more useful, but unfortunately I seem not to be able to block those speedometer graphics 😞

EDIT: Fortunately found a way to block those pics 🙂

Jaime_Lee
Community Manager
(To:Werner_E)


@Werner_E wrote:

@Jaime_Lee wrote:

We just implemented an added layer of security to catch "obvious" spam attacks.


As already written those postings aren't so obvious am first sight and the links often seem to be added only later (or am I experiencing some kind of moderation like showing links in postings of new members only after approval by a mod?).

Anyway, it looks like you added layer works as the last few days I didn't spot any spam postings of that kind.

 

I had noticed that the user @aaaaaaaa kudos (presumably automatically) from time to time the very first, initial posting of a thread which usually is the question. Last thread I noticed it was https://community.ptc.com/t5/PTC-Mathcad/Jacobian-Calculation-Crashes-for-System-of-ODEs/m-p/703987/highlight/true#M193547. Its no problem, as it doesn't hurt and it's not bothersome, just a curiosity - just thought to mention it. I remember a discussion on this board about a similar incident, but as far as I can remember, that bot had given kudos to every posting, including answers, not just the initial posting.

 

BTW, offtopic, what does this mean

Werner_E_0-1608433860713.png

It looks sooo ugly and takes up way too much vertical space!!

I can filter and block quite some unnecessary and distracting parts of this forum to make it more useful, but unfortunately I seem not to be able to block those speedometer graphics 😞

EDIT: Fortunately found a way to block those pics 🙂


We entered a ticket for the "mysterious kudoing from @aaaaaaa.  And, as mentioned on another post  the "speedometer" was implemented per request of community members, and we may look into adjusting soon.  You can read out rank icons here:  https://community.ptc.com/t5/Welcome-How-To-s/PTC-Community-Rank-FAQs/m-p/613437#M616

Hi, @Jaime_Lee 

 

Knowing nothing about the Speedometer design story, but I've made some modification.

Try to make it easier to be distinguished from each of them.

Rank1.pngRank2.pngRank3.pngRank4.pngRank5.pngRank6.pngRank7.pngRank8.pngRank9.pngRank10.png

Hope this helps a bit.

Jaime_Lee
Community Manager
(To:dsgnrClarK)


@dsgnrClarK wrote:

Hi, @Jaime_Lee 

 

Knowing nothing about the Speedometer design story, but I've made some modification.

Try to make it easier to be distinguished from each of them.

Rank1.pngRank2.pngRank3.pngRank4.pngRank5.pngRank6.pngRank7.pngRank8.pngRank9.pngRank10.png

Hope this helps a bit.


So, you are thinking fading "light to darker" that is a neat idea!  We have some pressing priorities this month but I will definitely bring it up to the Team!  Thank you for taking the time to create these!

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:Jaime_Lee)

I wonder if we should just use the lightest shade all the time.  It seems less intrusive and distracting.

Hi, @TomU 

 

I agree with you, so I make another design for that.

Original and 2 attempts are shown below.

with original speedometerwith original speedometer 

 

first attemptfirst attempt

 

layout with latest designlayout with latest design

I prefer the latest one, I prefer the latest one, nevertheless less uniqueness probably.

 

Regarding uniqueness (less seen elsewhere) and harmony (similar to PTC logo), here is another attempt.

 

hexagonal designhexagonal design

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:dsgnrClarK)

The oval shaped ones aren't bad but I don't care for this last set.  It's too hard to tell how 'full' it is, or what full even is.  I don't think it's clear at all.

Thanks for keep replying. 😊

 

Nevertheless, the design intention of the hexagonal set is to make it less intrusive and looks harmony in the entire page layout (color and shape). It is not meant to be "countable", just providing an idea at the first sight.

 

I did try another color scheme, but it's a bit too much.

modification hh.png

hexagonal color scheme 3

hexagonal color scheme 3hexagonal color scheme 3

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:dsgnrClarK)

Don't take this personally, but I still think the 'fuel gauge' by @Jaime_Lee more clearly communicates the user's level than the hexagonal shapes do.  Thanks for being willing to try out other stuff!

I'm totally OK with that, it is the nature of designing something, finding the balance. 😎

Actually I'd thank you for the replies that intrigued me came up with some good outcome (imho).

 

Referring the balance of design, here is the comparison of them all.

 

Left:

Clear/First sight/Intrusive/Questioner-Respondent first

Right:

Vague/Secondary/Harmony with PTC logo & entire page/Topic first

 

rank icon comparisonrank icon comparison

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:dsgnrClarK)

I prefer the second row (variation on @Jaime_Lee's gauges).  Both of the middle rows are nice but I think her gauge is a little easier to read the value when it's close to full.

 

TomU_1-1610977414709.png

 

StephenW
23-Emerald II
(To:dsgnrClarK)

The designs are all very nice.

I do tend agree the I like the second row the best and the 3rd row as a close second.

The 4th row is definitely the most unique but I don't think it is readily understandable.

Jaime_Lee
Community Manager
(To:StephenW)

Thank you, all!  We will definitely keep this under advisement when we are ready to focus on updating the rank icon!  All great suggestions.

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