# Any mods up?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [October 26, 2019, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496 "2019-10-26T11:45:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/1 "2019-10-26T11:45:40Z")
There’s a massive amount of spam in GQ. Is there anyone up who can get rid of it.
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### Author:  [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/2 "2019-10-26T11:51:56Z")
Overnight spam tends to linger a bit. Other than **e\_c\_g** , the mods tend to have normal daytime hours. And it _is_ the weekend.
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### Author:  [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/3 "2019-10-26T12:19:21Z")
Thanks to whoever nuked them!
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/4 "2019-10-26T12:38:29Z")
150 posts the last time I looked. Is that a record?
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/5 "2019-10-26T12:52:50Z")
I wonder what all that was about.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/6 "2019-10-26T13:11:29Z")
I wondered what it was all about too. I opened a few of them and there were no links or anything, just a bunch of random words and numbers.
What’s the purpose?
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### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/7 "2019-10-26T13:12:04Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#):
>
> I wonder what all that was about.
Excreta occurs. 😉
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### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/8 "2019-10-26T13:21:07Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#):
>
> 150 posts the last time I looked. Is that a record?
We’ve had worse.
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> I wondered what it was all about too. I opened a few of them and there were no links or anything, just a bunch of random words and numbers.
>
> What’s the purpose?
Random nonsense is usually an attempt to evade automatic spam filters. Often there will be complete posts of nonsense since some spam filters check to make sure a user has a certain number of posts that do not contain links before making a post that has a link.
Some of the numbers were international phone numbers, which was the point of the spam.
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### Author:  [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/9 "2019-10-26T13:23:55Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> I wondered what it was all about too. I opened a few of them and there were no links or anything, just a bunch of random words and numbers.
>
> What’s the purpose?
IIRC it’s a form of [spamdexing.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamdexing)
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/10 "2019-10-26T14:06:34Z")
Kudos to **e\_c\_g** for handling that. This is one time I was glad I was asleep. 🙂 It reminded me of the bad old days when we used to get dozens of streaming spammers every single day. We haven’t had that kind of Spampocalypse recently.
Interestingly, it seems to have been limited to GQ. I’ve observed before that spammers preferentially hit GQ compared to other forums, even though at this point GQ only has the fourth-highest number of posts. Maybe it’s because GQ is the first large forum as you go down the forum list.
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/11 "2019-10-26T15:14:59Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> Kudos to **e\_c\_g** for handling that. This is one time I was glad I was asleep. 🙂 It reminded me of the bad old days when we used to get dozens of streaming spammers every single day. We haven’t had that kind of Spampocalypse recently.
>
> Interestingly, it seems to have been limited to GQ. I’ve observed before that spammers preferentially hit GQ compared to other forums, even though at this point GQ only has the fourth-highest number of posts. Maybe it’s because GQ is the first large forum as you go down the forum list.
Could it be because there are more historical GQ threads than any other forum and thus a random Google search is most likely to find a GQ thread?
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### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/12 "2019-10-26T15:56:58Z")
Whoever handled it, however it got done --------- basically taken care of in like 3-4 hours? Freaking amazing!
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/13 "2019-10-26T18:01:17Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#):
>
> I wonder what all that was about.
Voodoo I believe. Watch as the mods, having defied the powers-that-be, end up sprouting donkey ears and pig tails for their temerity.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/14 "2019-10-26T18:19:30Z")
> [@dalej42](#):
>
> Could it be because there are more historical GQ threads than any other forum and thus a random Google search is most likely to find a GQ thread?
Last night’s threads were all new ones, not posts to existing threads. And since they were by a “Muslim astrologer” about voodoo (which I didn’t know was Islamic), witchcraft, white and black magic, astrology, and so forth, I’m pretty sure they weren’t searching on specific factual information to determine where to put their threads. And previous attacks also went predominantly (but not exclusively) to GQ, even though they were spammers for streaming sports and movies, which would have been more suitable to Cafe Society or the Game Room. For some reason, spammers almost never post in the Pit.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/15 "2019-10-26T18:28:58Z")
> [@kopek](#):
>
> Whoever handled it, however it got done --------- basically taken care of in like 3-4 hours? Freaking amazing!
**e\_c\_g** has banned more than 11,000 spammers (I’m sure a lot more, since sometimes a bunch of spammers are included in the same report), which is 8 times more than the next active mod (which is me). **e\_c\_g** passed **Marley23** some time ago, who with 8,000 was the previous record holder.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/16 "2019-10-26T19:20:29Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> Some of the numbers were international phone numbers, which was the point of the spam.
They were all the same phone number!
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/17 "2019-10-26T19:23:39Z")
> [@kopek](#):
>
> Whoever handled it, however it got done --------- basically taken care of in like 3-4 hours? Freaking amazing!
To be fair, there probably is a ear of corn button that makes everything by the poster disappear at once.
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### Author:  [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/18 "2019-10-26T19:46:08Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> **e\_c\_g** has banned more than 11,000 spammers (I’m sure a lot more, since sometimes a bunch of spammers are included in the same report), which is 8 times more than the next active mod (which is me). **e\_c\_g** passed **Marley23** some time ago, who with 8,000 was the previous record holder.
Nah, to hold the record you have to ban the whole board. \*\*E\_c\_g \*\*never did…😃
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### Author:  [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/19 "2019-10-26T21:03:24Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> They were all the same phone number!
Did anyone write it down? I have a neighbor that’s been annoying the shit out of me
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### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [October 26, 2019, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-mods-up/842496/20 "2019-10-26T22:45:47Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> **e\_c\_g** has banned more than 11,000 spammers (I’m sure a lot more, since sometimes a bunch of spammers are included in the same report), which is 8 times more than the next active mod (which is me). **e\_c\_g** passed **Marley23** some time ago, who with 8,000 was the previous record holder.
So in short he (?) is the Babe Ruth of the Banhammer? I wonder if I can get him to autograph a meat cleaver for me? 😃
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