We're in the zone now in Site Updates (Josh)

Hey everyone,

Wanted to share an update on how everything’s going with the new spam tools that were rolled out a few weeks ago.

In short: we got ‘em!

This is super exciting!!! Going from where we were just a few months ago with two front pages full of spammers in a single day to.. what, one or two a week? Maybe? The front page is SO NICE lately.

As the guy with the responsibility of managing that front page, I gotta say:
That. Feels. GREAT!

How lovely it is to post a site update with happy news rather than a damage report of some kind.

Now, all that said, I’m sure you may have noticed one or two stragglers slip through our net over the last little bit. One even showed up this morning, and — to be totally transparent — I laughed so hard at their incredibly dumb username that I was compelled to write this entry. They also happened to provide an excellent example of the kind of weirdness I see from some of these stragglers.

Alright, without further ado, let’s take a peek at the entire posting history of..
TEETH ZONE
(lol I just can’t)

Anyway, their first few entries are in March and May of last year, about two months apart:

Okay, two entries posted two months apart. That’s a pattern. Let’s see what happens next:

Hmm, now it’s two entries in the same month and one a month after.. on a random date.

What next?

Oh dang, three in a week! That’s an escalation, surely they’ll spam like crazy now.

NOPE! They waited until today, a full 8 months later! What the actual hell.

So, there you go. A perfect illustration of the how it’s close to impossible to catch 100% of the spammers with the automated tools we’ve built. But hey, one or two a week is wayyyy better than it was! I’ll take it.

And with that, I’ll leave you with a king on his throne:

Pour one out for Teeth Zone.

<3,
-J

Last updated July 10, 2023