This forum requires that you wait 300 seconds between sending private messages.

by Banned 58 replies
68
Is anyone else receiving this message when going through their private messages here?

"This forum requires that you wait 300 seconds between sending private messages."

Only it's a mite annoying when each day you have perhaps a dozen plus messages, some of which require a very short reply which takes no more than 20 seconds to type out, send it, within a minute the next reply is ready for somebody else... only now one has to wait 5 minutes before one can send it successfully.

A dozen pm messages before could take as little as 10 minutes, now it's a minimum of an hour to get the same work / task completed.

I can understand this being implemented to cut down, stop in their tracks the pm spammers who have been rearing their ugly heads lately - but for the rest of us, who use this function responsibly, it's a major pain being kept waiting for so long before each message can be sent out.

Thoughts?


Mark Andrews
#off topic forum
  • today was the first time ever, i was in the middle of a pm conversation, and then
    bamm started getting that.

    I was wondering.. how the hell do i get so much PM spam, if they have to wait that long between PM's

    i have been having random PM issue for last 2 wks, so i wasn't sure
    if it was just another glitch or not
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Banned
    I think they put that in place to cut down on spam. It has certainly prevented me from mass sending affiliate links to crap products for the past couple of days...
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Offenders should be given this treatment in my opinion whilst the rest of us can be allowed to continue as before at full speed.

      Just saying.


      Mark Andrews
      • [3] replies
  • A few days ago, I got a SPAM PM from someone that showed on my Gmail inbox but disappeared from the PM inbox.

    Well, there should be some delay but 5 mins is way too much. Maybe, let people who have completed a certain number of posts send out PMs more quickly?
  • Banned
    I might have to start billing anyone that sends me a PM/question, I'm not sitting around waiting (5 min.) between PM. I noticed the 300 sec. timer yesterday while answering PM.
    • [1] reply
    • Mark,And how do we know who the offenders are prior to their having already sent hundreds, and possibly thousands, of spams?

      Yeah. It sucks. But the recent PM spam runs have been sending people to what appears to be a phishing site, which apparently has a pretty decent response. If it's a choice between a minor delay for a few members and possible compromise of their WF, Paypal, and other accounts for a lot of members, which do you believe is the proper response?

      We can't even tie it to War Room membership, as they've started paying for that in order to send the garbage.


      Paul
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
      • [2] replies
  • This has got to be a first. Sorry, was going to send you a pm, but didn't want to wait. :p
    • [1] reply
    • Jody,What? Me hitting an extra key? Happens dozens of times a day. I just usually spot the red underline before posting.Consider yourself told.


      Paul
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • Dan,It's amazing how many perfectly reasonable-sounding ideas turn out the be potential disasters once you see what goes on behind the scenes.

    Karen,

    WSO sellers are required to have a method of contact that does not involve the forum.


    Paul
  • AM I nuts or didn't we have that rule in place once before a few years back?
  • Kim,

    Yeah, but that was before the War Room, I think.


    Paul
  • well to honest, i don't see this stopping the spam at all.

    I just see it as you guys getting a gazillion more bogus sign ups.
    I mean the bots don't care how long it takes between posts.

    So instead of signing up a few accounts, they will sign up , hundreds or thousands at a time
    and let each bot send a msg, and wait, and send another....

    they way you had it, its easy to spot the spammer.
    now, or soon any way, if each bot is only posting one or 2 spams, but you have a 1000 doing it... i am thinking its going to be

    a) harder to spot and b) take longer to clean up.
  • Ken,It's not the only measure in place.

    It won't stop it. What it will do is slow down the injection of spam into the system, which means a lot fewer messages get to end users before the stuff is reported and nuked.

    Keep in mind that you can't just create a free account and start spamming via PM. You either get to 50 posts or you pay for War Room access. Neither of those is susceptible to the sort of mass attack you're describing.


    Paul
    • [1] reply
    • Yeah, that was a "doah" moment, i forgot all about that.

      Is there any way to perhaps make it so that if your engaged in a back and forth conversation
      with the same person you don't get the wait time?
  • Paul,

    The last PM spam I received was CC'd to 5-10 other people. How about making it so a person could only PM one person at a time?

    I don't know how many people need to send to more than one person at a time, I never have, but it seems like that could slow down the spam a great deal. Assuming people would report the spammers at the same rate, the mods would be able to ban spammers with far fewer PM's being sent.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Ken,Probably, but that's custom programming. Not part of the current feature set of vBulletin.Been part of the game since before Allen registered that domain, I believe. Certainly since well before the forum was on private hosting.

    Dennis,Very common. That would slow down the spammers, but it would make some essential features ineffective. Stuff we're very unlikely to turn off.


    Paul
    • [1] reply
    • How many CC's can one send to now? Perhaps just lowering the limit one can CC from whatever it is to say, three or five, would leave the CC functionality for the majority of people while placing a "governor" on the spammers?

      Not trying to say how things should be run, mind you, just trying to help.
      • [1] reply
  • The last PM spam I received was CC'd to nine others. The spammer was banned by the time I opened the pm, thus the reason for me not reporting it.


    EDIT: I was typing while Paul was replying to Dennis regarding CC function.
  • Dennis,Suggestions are always welcomed. And that one might work. Cutting the CCs to 6 and the delay to 180 seconds would reduce the max per hour from the previous 600 or so to the same 120 we have now.

    I like it. Suggestion passed along. Thank you!


    Paul
    • [1] reply
  • I guess that you don't need my suggestion then that we pay a nominal fee for use of PM's and then just pay Guido and his boys to go take care of the spammer - or buy a drone.
    • [1] reply
    • Sal,I doubt Guido will do field trips to the Ukraine, and we probably don't want to be sending drones into their airspace...

      Otherwise, great idea!


      Paul
  • Banned
    Yeah ... 300 seconds is an eternity, and it's really annoying when you're trying to communicate via PM with customers, but I'd rather the WF has our backs on things like phishing or ID theft from these types of spammers. Don't really know of any other way it could be handled.

    Edit: Just saw this

    I didn't even know you could cc. I talk to one person at a time.
    • [1] reply
    • I didn't know it either until I got spammed and saw the other names it was sent to.

      By the way, did you take a wrong turn, Suzanne? Don't see you in the OT much.
      • [1] reply
  • I can't even send a PM.
    • [1] reply
    • That's because you only have 2 posts. You don't get the privilege until you make 10 posts, I think it is. Posting in the Off Topic forum, the WSO forum, or the test forum don't count.
  • Dennis,

    It's 50 posts. Not 10. It used to be 10 or 15, I think, but we raised it because of people slamming out a handful of posts and then spamming the hell out of the PM system. It's a lot harder to sneak your way to 50 unnoticed than to 10.


    Paul
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Dennis,

    Changed it. The max number of CCs is now 3, with a 2 minute delay between PMs. Max of 10 PMs per hour.

    That should affect VERY few members. Most won't ever notice, unless they're sending a lot of very short messages.


    Paul
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Won't affect me at all, but it's sure going to slow down the spammers some.
  • its so difficult to wait for 5 min .what can we do is there any solution for it.
    • [1] reply
    • We could read the entire thread before responding. That might take up your five minutes.

      Oh, wait... you can't PM yet, anyway, so what do you care?
    • [DELETED]
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
    • [1] reply
    • The WSO seller is required to have an alternative means of contacting them other than pm. Look for an email addy, within the WSO Sales Thread, that seller should have posted.
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