Spam Comments

[samryl]

First real spam I've seen:

I found it here.

[ajayyy]

https://github.com/ludumdare/ludumdare/issues/1696

[ajayyy]

https://ldjam.com/users/karen888/games

[thquinn]

Just got this on my game from LD42:

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/bookbinding https://ldjam.com/users/ttulauf

[mikekasprzak]

Weird.

[thquinn]

Comments from the same account on other games: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/39/school-idol https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/education-to-survive

Looks like they're looking for education keywords to push some kind of a tutor program? Best I could guess without clicking any of the links.

[mikekasprzak]

I've gone ahead and scrubbed his comments of links. I found many more troublesome users while I was at it.

http://ldjam.com/users/justin-peter http://ldjam.com/users/jeremyburton http://ldjam.com/users/codykruse http://ldjam.com/users/katejcarlisle http://ldjam.com/users/vivek5676 http://ldjam.com/users/therk1974 http://ldjam.com/users/buliesson58

I've gone ahead and disabled each of these accounts, and scrubbed their comments as well.

Here is a list of domains, minus the .com, .co.uk, and whatnot, so they don't actually function.

essayuniverse
easy-essay
topeduservices
studydriver
papersowl
essayontime
phdify
australianwritings
researchpapers
sky-writer
studyclerk
glassstructureslimited
araxwindows
valuewalk
internetvibes
bloglovin
futureofsex
2luxury2
wealthyaffiliate
directory.mirror
causes.
judith2019johnson.wixsite
unfinishedman
excellent-essays
essayyoda
youressayreviews
spacecoastdaily
urtech
stunningmotivation
knowtechie

Unfortunately I keep finding more, but this is a start.

[mikekasprzak]

Oof! That took a while, but I managed to track many more spammers down.

http://ldjam.com/users/jonathanembley http://ldjam.com/users/marjoriejbenham http://ldjam.com/users/larrybbutler http://ldjam.com/users/thlismain http://ldjam.com/users/shirley-demartini http://ldjam.com/users/lafnian1990 http://ldjam.com/users/janeair21 http://ldjam.com/users/tommyroper http://ldjam.com/users/tipton http://ldjam.com/users/mealmaker http://ldjam.com/users/oscarroberts http://ldjam.com/users/georgeburkitt

Using these strings in domains.

australian-writings
edubirdie
helpshelterpets
concalculator
edureviewer
icasinoreviews
paidpaper
top5writingservices
essayreviewexpert
gradesfixer
cahomeworkhelp
gallaghercosmeticdentistry
hempdepotco
denverstainedglass
fortworthstainedglass
casinosapproved
porncasino
casinobonuscoupon
aresearchguide
eduzaurus
awriter
certsofficial
samplius
essaywriting
businessays
phdessay
bestessaywritingservice
refrigeratorrepairkuwait

So yeah, clearly we need some code that scans for certain words in domain names. Bleh.

[mikekasprzak]

Sanitized the users mentioned earlier in the thread, and #1696.

http://ldjam.com/users/odunayo http://ldjam.com/users/woof-coock http://ldjam.com/users/wooc11 http://ldjam.com/users/karen888

New domain keywords:

eaglesnewsmedia
customerzsurvey
holiday-hour
atmdomino

[mikekasprzak]

Just posting the node-id for all the users to save me some clicks in the future.

141034
158815
177650
179266
159250
177011
159143
180301
178851
139195
160293
176798
176851
182769
177641
176804
178035
138419
159313
208821
97728
119488
119766
138645

Hey future me, this one is for you.

[thquinn]

Another comment on my same LD42 game. No link this time, and maybe a little more on-topic. Are they... learning?

[mikekasprzak]

I've gone ahead and sanitized them. Amusingly they neglected to include a link.

205182

[gevaerts]

It looks like https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/social-poler has some spam as well (a link to an online casino)

[mikekasprzak]

Got at report: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/debris-trail

[thquinn]

Another spam comment at https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/bookbinding

I notice that the old spam comments are still there, even though the users' profile info has been changed to "I am a spammer". Is there any way to purge these known spam comments?

[mikekasprzak]

I was keeping it around for a reference, once I found time to look in to how they got through and what they posted.

[thquinn]

Makes sense. All good!

[thquinn]

Bots have been going pretty nuts on my one game from LD42 for some reason: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/bookbinding

[gevaerts]

More spam at https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/social-poler#/comment-616870

[mikekasprzak]

Thanks everyone for sharing links. Keep them coming! This will be extremely helpful for when I go back to purge them.

For those unfamiliar with it, the spam on our website is human assisted, which means captcha's and similar tech doesn't stop them. In the future I'll be introducing a reputation system and support for flagging, but for now lets keep an eye on them. Having enough data to find patterns means we can stop them easier.

[LoneWolfHT]

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/$242057/$242456

Could this issue maybe be pinned with all the duplicates closed or is there a better way to report things right now?

[mikekasprzak]

Ah, I didn't realize pinning was a thing. I'll clean up the dupes later.

Anyway's hi folks! If you come across a spam post or comment, please leave a link to it in this post. Unfortunately cleaning them up is currently a manual process, so they wont get removed right away, but if I know where to find them that helps a lot.

[paul-maxime]

Yet another comment spammer: https://ldjam.com/users/otiss https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/47/friday-night-funkin

[thquinn]

Another spam comment: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/obelisk/recommendation-fallumns

Reputation/flagging sounds awesome, thanks Mike!

[markopolojorgensen]

One more, this time NSFW: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/$234494/looking-for-this-service

[PeaceOfCakeGames]

Here are the most recent spam bot users:

https://ldjam.com/users/avyblr https://ldjam.com/users/darrelarchie https://ldjam.com/users/leeherbert https://ldjam.com/users/johnius64 https://ldjam.com/users/dorthywaun https://ldjam.com/users/geometrydash https://ldjam.com/users/monika111 https://ldjam.com/users/marjorie

[gamepopper]

Found this one, wrote this comment on my LD47 game six days ago.

https://ldjam.com/users/felicita

[HolyBlackCat]

Another one: https://ldjam.com/users/albertnakali

[mikekasprzak]

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/currencies-of-life

[zwrawr]

ldj.am/$234244, Post spam, Essay writing services https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/48/$234356/essay-writing-service-thats-still-good

[ratkingsminion]

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/the-treachery-of-game-dev Looks like game dev related text copied from somewhere else

[winniehell]

more spam: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/$277086/cannon

[winniehell]

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/$277922/bandar-judi-piala-dunia-2022

[winniehell]

several spam comments on https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/the-fast-dating

[simexcode]

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/49/tower-of-idols essay writing service

[local-minimum]

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/$278128/paypal-login

[Avenel]

Please have a look at https://ldjam.com/users/konradkautzer8. He made a weired comment advertising growing weed (the kind of you smoke...) and provided a link to a product. You can see it here (last comment) https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/my-happy-weedy-farm.

Please remove user and comment, thank you!

[Triastase]

Please also have a look at the following users and their feeds: https://ldjam.com/users/baby-store (spam advertisement for an online toys shop in Dubai) https://ldjam.com/users/antonio1212e (spam advertisements for online casinos) https://ldjam.com/users/nancypedison (paypal spam posts)

Please remove the users and their posts. Thank you!

[samboyer]

Hi, some more spam accounts/posts: https://ldjam.com/users/samuelhoward https://ldjam.com/users/nobit89 https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/42/ludum-dare-simulator-2019#/comment-838792

Thanks for sorting these!

[winniehell]

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/$299098/pelicula-completa-online

[pschichtel]

Not quite comments, but it seems like the blog has been flooded with junk by at least these users:

• https://ldjam.com/users/williamechoy
• https://ldjam.com/users/zsdcszsaz

I don't think reporting spam here scales well.

[Anneroos]

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/memory#/comment-895051 I got three comments from the same spammer (https://ldjam.com/users/jacobhue) on an old game.

I don't think reporting spam here scales well.

I agree ;)

[jakemcleman]

I'm seeing this account leaving crypro scam looking comments which is a new one for me https://ldjam.com/users/thateled example comment is the most recent on my LD44 game https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/44/mr-moneys-extra-ordinary-money-factory-blitz#/comment-895276

[winniehell]

https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/$323895/pep-guardiola-has-yet-to-confirm-joao-cancelos-future-after-bayern-munichs-loa

[nyairobi]

@mikekasprzak Please, just block links to unknown external websites, especially for non-vets and especially off-season. That would disincentivize all spam accounts who are just here to link farm (which is probably an overwhelming majority).

You don't need to move everything over to ActivityPub (though it would be cool to see, eventually). You just need basic anti-spam measures. Please.

[LoneWolfHT]

This can probably be closed. https://ldjam.com/feed has spam in it 24/7/120, to the point where no other spam matters :P

[local-minimum]

Wow that feed devolved rapidly

[LoneWolfHT]

For people that would like to take spam-blocking into their own hands: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/52/the-anti-harvest-brigade/small-script-to-get-rid-of-the-spam

[local-minimum]

I think the feed is close to 100% spam now unfortunately.

[winniehell]

https://ldjam.com/users/hobi4d

e.g. https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/53/return-to-sender-1/im-streaming-an-update-to-one-of-my-favorite-games-from-ludum-dare-53

[LCStark]

This person is still spamming everywhere in the comments, I guess it got lost among other stuff:

https://ldjam.com/users/hobi4d

@mikekasprzak