Okay, so we all know of the bot problem, right? Just today, the suggestions forum was hit with a bot. (If that link doesn't work, then the thread was deleted. You can still view my screenshots below. Nvm, the screenshots were removed…)
(removed by moderator - please don't advertise for the spammers)
(sorry…)
Anyway, this is not the first time this has happened. And I doubt this is the last. So I am suggesting a new feature to prevent this.

Perhaps banning excessive amounts of links in one post? No. Because then stuff like this couldn't happen-

User1 wrote:

Hi im new how do i make a project?

User2 wrote:

Hello, User1! Welcome to Scratch! These are some helpful links that will teach you how to program-
(insert a bunch of links here)
And here are some example projects that you can take a look at-
(insert more links here)
And if you don't know what a block does, check out the scratch wiki! It's got a lot of useful tips. Here are some really good tips-
(insert even more links here)
Have fun Scratching!

What about banning New Scratchers from posting links? I don't think that would go down too well-

User1 wrote:

my project isn't working!!!!!!!!

User2 wrote:

Could you post a link to your project so we can help you out? Make sure the project is shared so that we can see it.

User1 wrote:

it won't let me post the link!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My suggestion is a combination of these two ideas- Don't allow new scratchers to post excessive amounts of links in one post. Say, maybe 10? Or 15? Those are my suggestions, but that's really up to the ST to decide (but you guys can also debate that below if you want). That way, normal posts would go unharmed, but posts made to advertise or spam will be instantly stopped in their tracks before being posted! Hopefully, this suggestion will stop spambots like the one above!

ItchyCatIII also brought up a really good point, and suggested a really good addition to the suggestion: the filterbot would only be triggered if all of the links were external links (links leading out of Scratch).

Full support. I saw that post you gave a screenshot to earlier, and I was about to report it.

I really like this idea; I hope it's implemented in Scratch soon.

support, Scratch Team needs to accept this suggestion but i know they won't

Support, I think you have reached the right compromise in your post to stop this sort of unpleasant spam happening. I can't see any great downsides.

I support, if New Scratchers couldn't post 10 -15 external links. Also, I've noticed from the links that the problem is coming from mostly one specific group of spambots. I've seen similar links many times in the past.

… I thought New Scratchers couldn't post to external links in the first place……….
Support if that ^^ isn't the case.

Support! I saw one, but was to afraid to report it worrying it wasn't.
Luckily, it got tooken down a SECOND right after

Support.

Bump.

So, basically stopping this:

spambot wrote:

www.website.bla
www.website.bla
www.website.bla
www.website.bla
www.website.bla
*removed-you get the point*

if that's so…
Please accept this French text as my support.

I support this 117%

<b><u::control><m::operators><p::motion>::grey

I'm bored…

Semi-support? Mostly because there needs to be a blurb notifying New Scratchers of this. Also we need more diverse ways of fighting spam, like detecting a lack of spacing. Some of the spam attacks I've seen involved long strings of letters and numbers without spaces.

+1

Failord wrote:

Mostly because there needs to be a blurb notifying New Scratchers of this.

What kind of blurb?

Failord wrote:

Also we need more diverse ways of fighting spam, like detecting a lack of spacing. Some of the spam attacks I've seen involved long strings of letters and numbers without spaces.

That's probably a separate suggestion.

Full 100% support. the botspammers is really annoying

DrKat123 wrote:

Full 100% support. the botspammers is really annoying

Plus, sometimes they post something illegal.

CatsUnited wrote:

DrKat123 wrote:

Full 100% support. the botspammers is really annoying

Plus, sometimes they post something illegal.

Like a case i saw in TBG forums that time, [Removed - probably a term we want to avoid here, even if that's an accurate description of what you saw]!
What?

Semi-support.

I think that New Scratchers should only be able to post links within the Scratch website.

TheHockeyist wrote:

Semi-support.

I think that New Scratchers should only be able to post links within the Scratch website.

That's true right now..




support