Add a "Report spam/abuse" link to forum/issue comments (next to the "edit" & "reply" links).

to where on the page?

I wasn't asking you to defend your reasoning. I understood instantly that you wanted a link. But to do what how?

Add a link --> magic happens

I was asking where on the page you thought the report spam link should be. Next to the title, underneath it? To the left of 'add a comment'. How should we ensure it is visible yet unobtrusive?

In addition I would ask for a suggested work flow. Where would this link lead to (an email, the issue queue)? What information would be passed on and who do you envision doing something about it? Can you think of something to prevent duplication or the report? Would this mesh with the existing reporting method (file an issue with the link and user id) or supplant it?

It should be possible to add a link, but making a change that is intended to solve a problem isn't just adding a link.

This was just the random implications of adding a link I was able to think of. I don't have time to work out and propose details of a suggested solution.

So what is the proper way to report spam then? I was searching site:drupal.org with google and couldn´t find it.
thx and regards,
JM

http://drupal.org/support <-- see 'website problems for answer

why not just saying: go here for example http://drupal.org/node/add/project_issue/webmasters/bug - write to the "Project" - "Drupal Webmasters" and choose "Spam" as the "Component" - now people can use google search to find the way to report spam on drupal.org ;-)

Just an idea:

how about using a module like http://drupal.org/project/flag_content and enabled it for nodes, comments and users. But instead of sending it to a flag queue, a webmaster issue is opened automatically and some of the fields will be pre-filled (like Component, Category and Priority)?

Subscribing. Maybe just having a 'Flag as spam' flag visibile for users with the site maintainer role, and then creating an automatic webmasters issue like detailed in #9.

I guess one way we could possibly work around that is have a threshold for the amount of times a certain item has been flagged. For instance, if a site maintainer flags an item as spam, immediately make the spam report. If normal users flag an item as spam, it must be flagged by at least 5 different users.

Another option (and probably easier path to code), is that flagged as spam content get it's own 'Spam reports' view listing that is visible only to site maintainers. I'm working on initial code for this.

#13 seems like a good idea to me - it took me a while to figure out where to report spam

I 100% agree a "Flag as spam" link is needed on posts.

A number of things could happen; since this thread has been open for so long, I would favour whatever is the simplest solution. For example creating a list of "Flagged as spam" with links to the posts which admins could check and deal with via a "delete post" and/or "block user" or clear the spam flag.

This post is spam:
http://groups.drupal.org/node/103504#comment-353154

Personally, I'd like to be able to help by reporting posts and comments as spam, but I hesitate doing so via the current process, because reporting a spam post seems trivial and "unworthy" compared to the many important issues in the queue.

I think a one-click "Report Spam" mechanism would be a useful feature. But I think labelling the button as "Flag as Spam" would be the ideal, because "flag" implies "just click and you're done", whereas "report" may imply, to some people, that there may be a reporting process you need to complete after you click the button, and therefore dissuade them from "reporting".

And if it's only one click, it minimises the "this has probably already been reported as spam, so I won't bother reporting it" attitude.

As for process/workflow, I like the idea at #13, where the button click tags the post as spam and adds it to a View which the webmasters can check on from time to time.

Is it technically possible for the spam reporter to, essentially, click a "spam" checkbox in a specific post or comment without having to enter edit mode for that comment node/object/whatever, and then re-save it?

I am totally ok with implementing something like this, but this needs a bit more planning than saying "I'd like to have it" and needs to go beyond what the label on the link should say.

We can set up a drupal.org dev-site for somebody who is comitted to develop this.

@killes

I'd be happy to build the View, but the actual tagging process is beyond my capabilities.

+1.

Until the flagging feature is launched, how about a link in the page footer links?

Link would take user to http://drupal.org/node/add/project-issue/webmasters.

AND / OR: do something so that the information on how to report spam on Drupal.org returns high in search results (add to an official d.o. FAQ node?).

Currently, search on "report spam" returns this issue, issue #848254: Make it easier to report spam., and some issues from the various spam control modules.

None of the first page results appear to have information on how to report spam on d.o.

Ugh, we really need this. Can't believe it's been an active issue for years- it rivals the lack of issue subscriptions and tracker RSS feeds in terms of driving me nuts (and discouraging community participation as well)

Agree, this is a problem, and seemingly solveable! We have a similar discussion happening re: identifying bad content #1165240: Allow marking content to determine quality
In it, we discuss placement.

With spam reports, it really needs to go into the Webmasters queue, because that content process is working really well. Spam is often reported and deleted within 10 minutes. We have some dedicated folks there.

As a partial solution, the /support page (linked from the Need Help? link the footer) has a link that allows people to file spam reports for the last week or so. It's not a particularly inviting experience though so it might be good to cut down on teh amount of instructions at the top of the form.

Marked #1239076: "Report Spam" link as a dupe.

#406076: need more anti spam measures

There are a bunch of issues like this. Maybe now that the new "follow" feature is here, and we can have discussion without too much interruption from stupid subscribe comments, we should start a new one, or commandeer one without too many existing comments, and write up a decent battle plan?

Marking as dupe, as this is clearly an infrastructure issue, and #406076: need more anti spam measures has most of the suggestions here anyway.

Please take a look at my proposal here: #1308176: [meta] Battle plan for stopping spam/"subscribe"/"+1"/"thank you" comments (and cleaning up old ones from the db too). and let me know what you think about it. This issue here is the 1st step (sub-issue) I propose taking.

I am currently reading through this issue and I update my proposal with your comments here (giving credit to people as I go), so I'll be updating it a bit.

...sorry for the accidental status change. Heading over to #406076: need more anti spam measures to see what's been discussed there...

...actually, no! This issue here is older, so if one is to be closed as dupe, it should be the other one. I think they are different though, because this one proposes a very specific thing (hope the issue title change makes that clear) that as I mentioned in #29 is required for #1308176: [meta] Battle plan for stopping spam/"subscribe"/"+1"/"thank you" comments (and cleaning up old ones from the db too)..

PS: We surely need to discuss what can be done so that the procedure can be as automated and user-friendly as possible. In the meantime, we could roll the link and simply have it lead users to http://drupal.org/node/add/project-issue/webmasters. If it is also possible (and relatively easy) to pass URL parameters in order to pre-fill fields with appropriate info, then that would be even better.

... If it is also possible (and relatively easy) to pass URL parameters in order to pre-fill fields with appropriate info, then that would be even better.

It is easy: http://drupal.org/node/add/project-issue/webmasters?component=Spam&categories=task

Following on from #32, it could go even better than that, and pre-fill the whole form, for example:

http://drupal.org/node/add/project-issue/webmasters?component=Spam&categ...

Yep, this sort of thing is already in place on the support page (linked from Need Help on the footer): http://drupal.org/node/add/project-issue/webmasters?title=Spam%20problem...

This would indeed be a perfect 1st step to better battling this menace. If the link could also pass as a parameter the link of the comment being reported as spam in an automated way to that report's body (so that the user wouldn't have to type them themselves), then all that the user would have to do is review & click on the "Save" button.

...still this remains a (at least) two-step procedure for the user reporting the spam/abuse. We need to automate this a bit more so that it becomes a single step procedure. So fix this by adding the link with the functionality we are currently discussing here, and as a 2nd step lets fix #1308176: [meta] Battle plan for stopping spam/"subscribe"/"+1"/"thank you" comments (and cleaning up old ones from the db too).

In the linked issue I propose (in brief) the following:

• Make the "Report spam/abuse" link a button that works with some AJAX magic in a single step (pretty much like the "Follow"/"Unfollow" button)
• Add an abuse report counter to each comment. Each user clicking on the button would trigger an increment by 1 to that counter.
• Decide on a certain "threshold" for this counter after which the comment gets unpublished (...or other things happen).

This IMHO would be enough to drastically cut down on both the work users have to do in order to report spam/abuse and the work maintainers have to do in order to handle (delete/unpublish) reported comments. If others here seem to agree, I'll update the issue's summary and stress that this aims to be a "quick & dirty" solution that will be further fine-grained over at #1308176: [meta] Battle plan for stopping spam/"subscribe"/"+1"/"thank you" comments (and cleaning up old ones from the db too)..

Let me know.

PS: ...as a byproduct of fixing this in the way I propose in #1308176, there will be no more new issues opened in the queue in order to solve spam/abuse reports. So, smaller db size in the long run.

This is my Plan B if Flag Abuse doesn't work out.
#1293186: Spam - meta: better spam-combating suggestions

We have already deployed Flag (was required for #34496: [meta] Add Flag module to allow users to subscribe/unsubscribe without posting a comment - our beloved "Follow"/"Unfollow" button), we can push for #871064: Making flaggings fieldable so that we can do it this way once d.o runs on D7: Drupal 7: Attaching fields to flags.

Using Flag abuse requires that we deploy it in d.o first. I'm fine with it, but I'm sure that this will raise disputes (or at the very least be a very good excuse for them). Nevertheless I say that while d.o still run D6 we should go this way and we can then discuss removing it once we are in D7 (a task that won't happen any time soon).

Hmm. I'm just coming from reading a job post cross-posted to Argentina, Ann Arbor... Amazon S3. I think the account is bright enough to only post to 5-10 groups at a time-- alphabetically.

After five+ years, and just having scanned the above, reporting things like this to the webmasters queue seems inefficient, at least, in more minor cases than this and in general for g.d.o. I mean, 50 people are supposed to search the queue, when a flag could simply be set :P :) ?

In particular, looking at the Argentina group, it looks like upwards of 50% of the posts are spammy (not good). This is truer of a lot of smaller groups and particular of groups that are distant from the centers, so to speak?

Perhaps a little education is also in order? IMHO it should be up to the group maintainers, first, to ID and remove spammy posts. Any "flag" should report to them. This (as well as proper use of IRC!) should be part of a FAQ for group maintainers.

Just thoughts-- here seemed an appropriate place to leave them.

Thanks all.

As 1kenthomas points out, it is often a flood of unwanted posts from a single user. I just reported a spam flood of more than 50 consecutive posts on the Post Installation support forum. So "Flagging" any one of these posts by a non-admin like me -- or even sever non-admins reporting several bad nodes, won't cut it. Whatever system that is deployed will need to flag the user as a "bad actor" and unpublish those user's posts.

Of course it would also be desirable to have a review process so someone's post doesn't get deleted as spam simply because several people disagreed with the content.

I've been following all related issues and I agree that the latest proposals to flag users as spammers (and then bulk delete their comments) makes more sense then flagging individual comments as spam. So, perhaps we should change the scope of this issue to add a "Report user" link next to comment user data (the "Posted by..." info). What do you people think?

I think this is a fantastic idea. I whole-heatedly support it.

I just have one thought. In the past people have said this site can be a bit intimidating or even off-putting for newbies. And I wouldn't want to do anything to squelch someone's participation. I'd hate to think someone might say, "Oh, I'd like to ask a question, but I don't want to get 'reported'."

Maybe that's highly unlikely. But what if there was a small "?" or "What's This" link? Something to let people know the intention of the "Report This" link. And now that I have suggested TWO links for every single post and reply, does this garbage up the page too much?

Ideally, the "Report spammer" link would:

- only show next to new users (for example those that have registered less than a week or so ago - policy to be decided)
- not be shown next to your own username when you post (stupid to report yourself as a spammer).

So, if newcomers don't see the report link next to their own name it won't be intimidating. Even if we don't implement this... well, in Greece we have a saying: "clear skies fear no thunders". A "what's this" (or a simple "?") link to explain why people see this wouldn't hurt though. As for the page garbage/clutter, I guess it won't be that much if we show the link only for new users. Would it?

The only thing is, I am starting to see this on my sites: "Mysterious users" are signing up for accounts. On a site that is very southern California-oriented I got a surprising number of registrations from domains in .ru. Lately the tactic has switched and I see registrations using gmail or aol email addresses but if I do a search for the email address they often show up on http://www.stopforumspam.com/ and the ip is associated with Russia. (No offense to Russians, it is just that I have had some spam from that region and the content in question wouldn't be intended for them.) So it seems "coment spammers" are one step ahead and establishing an account early for future spamming activities. We need a bigger fly swatter.

So what if it were a combination of factors: 5 or more posts, member for 4 weeks and at least a few days between some posts. I'm just not sure how that last one could be done.

Working through this little "thought experiment" I can see how the rest of this could be entirely handled by roles. A new member of Drupal.org has a role ("newbie" or whatever) that prevents him or her from even seeing the "Report This" link. When they pass the Rules to "graduate," they would see the link next to all "newbie" members' names. And Drupal.org will be free of spam forever.

I don't think we need to get this complicated... "Report spam" links are pretty common. I would be very surprised if some new person came along and saw that and worried they would get reported (assuming they're not a spammer. ;)

Just make the link text clear that this is reporting for spam and abusive behavior and I think it will be just fine to show on everyone.

Michelle

That's fine, I tend to over-think things anyway. The "Report spam" link would be fantastic. Now as a person with zero power within the drupal.org organization (I'm a Drupal Organization member but I have no privileges on this site) what can I do to make this idea a reality?

So what about shepherding this issue? Would someone on this thread with a bit more experience be able to tell me how to make this happen?

Barring that can someone point me to resources on D.org that tell users how they can champion a change? Is there a dev version of Drupal.org that I can add this feature to for approval by the larger group?

Here you go Jerry: Drupal.org Testing

This profile installs a site with the structure, content, permissions, etc of Drupal.org to facilitate the reproduction of bugs and testing of patches for the project modules.

...you might also need Drupal.org customizations, but it might already be included in the profile. I'm not sure, because I've never tried any of these :/

If you don't specifically want to setup your own environment, then perhaps you should take a look at Make Drupal.org awesome and more specific at Develop on our server (preferred).

I'm really sorry to derail the work that's been done so far, but you should spend time on #1378456: Install Spam module on drupal.org instead. Spam.module provides the "mark as spam" and "mark as not spam" functionality, and as you use it more, the filters get smarter and they will eventually start flagging things themselves.

Closing as a dupe of #1378456: Install Spam module on drupal.org.

#1378456: Install Spam module on drupal.org was wontfixed. Not fair to keep this one closed then because the other issue was supposed to address the problem.

Actually, this should still be closed. RIght now, we're going to install Mollom. Issue is here: #1694494: Install Mollom on Drupal.org. Mollom will only affect new users with few nodes and comments, after which point, they will be automatically granted a role that lets them bypass mollom.

This is a temporary solution and will only be used until there is a working port of spam.module and report_spam.module for Drupal 7, at which point we'll start using those.

This is the working plan and has been agreed upon by killes, drumm, et al.

Thanx Cameron. I was just going through #1694494: Install Mollom on Drupal.org (initially because I thought it was preferred over the Spam module and I wanted to express my objection to that) and I just saw what you explain. I was just wondering why -if the plan is to temporarily turn to Mollom- #1378456: Install Spam module on drupal.org is closed as a wontfix instead of postponed, so I changed it to "postponed".

Five years since this thread was started, and still no report button. Sloppy. It doesn't say much for the people behind Drupal.org. Government is more efficient.

Jaypan, this issue is closed. Being mean doesn't fix anything. If you want this to happen, you're welcome to reopen the issue and write a patch. Right now, I don't think we have a big need for this (we installed honeypot and it's been keeping the spam at bay).

If by keeping the spam at bay, you mean regularly letting spam through, I'd agree. I find spam on the site almost every day, but there is no button to report it. Such a button is standard on pretty much any site that lets through user comments.

And while my comments may have been 'mean', it doesn't make them any less true.

Anyways, I've been informed on another thread that its possible for anyone to make contributions to the Drupal.org site code, so as soon as I figure out how, in going to do what no one else has been able to do in 5 years - create a report button. Then we will find out just how much bureaucracy there is here. Hopefully it doesn't take another five years to get my changes implemented.

Well, there's significantly less spam than there used to be. In any case, it is extremely unlikely that you'll be able to get such a change added before the site is ported to Drupal 7. The best thing that you could do right now is to help with porting the Spam module to Drupal 7, along with the http://drupal.org/project/report_spam module. That will fix this problem for Drupal 7 in a smart way.

There are bigger priorities than the report spam button right now (such as the port to Drupal 7), and you deriding the rest of the volunteers that help this site run is extremely offensive. If you'd like to help improve the site, we'd very much appreciate it, however I'd encourage you to be polite and collaborative, instead of rude and abrasive. You'll get far more accomplished that way.

Attaching patch to add 'report spam' link to comments. The attached patch is on D7 core.

I posted too quickly. This patch is very simple. It adds a new permission 'report posts' and adds a link to the 'edit' and 'reply' links on comments. This is done in the same function as these links are added by core, so that they can be themed/overridden further down the line, alongside the edit and reply links. The link itself points to the webmaster's queue, passing some default values in the URL, so that the user can simply click 'submit' to report the post if they want. Or they have the option to edit the values before submitting.

There is also a new permission, 'report comments' required for users to be able to access the link.

We do not hack core to add features like this.

It's for Drupal.org, not the Drupal project, so I was looking at it as a local (Drupal.org) installation fork.

So should I add it as a module?

Check with drumm first, but this could go into the Drupal.org customizations module (it's also a separate project).

Where can I clone that?

this is awesome jay--- you can get it at https://drupal.org/project/drupalorg

Thanks for driving this forward Jaypan. We have long needed a way to quickly report spam. This appears to do just that. Can't wait to see it live on Drupal.org.

I've created a new issue in the drupalorg module issue queue, with a patch applied for that module:

https://drupal.org/node/2011334#comment-7495218

Unfortunately I seem to be the only one who really cares about the issue - I put up my patches two months ago, and no one has bothered to test or comment on them at all, much less actually commit them. In the meantime, I've probably commented on 20 or so spam posts with links to my patches.

I'm glad I made the patches so that I can now complain from the high ground, but it doesn't make me want to waste any more time to contributing to Drupal.org improvements in the future.

This is gut-wrenching. I really hope this damn upgrade is through soon as there are quite some issues that need to be dealt with. The recent reports indicate that this might happen soon. Seeing such a major usability improvement lost in the dust is just sad.

(Please note: I am knocking nobody of the infrateam. The situation is what it is. Basically our house needs new plumbing and after that we need to put some new furniture in.)

I had been considering volunteering as part of the infrastructure team, but the whole experience has turned me right off.

This has been added to DO.