

How is Github dealing with spam? - dz0ny
https://github.com/gruntjs/grunt-contrib-coffee/issues?state=open

======
venus
Wow, they've definitely gone on a spam-killing spree recently. Following that
scandal a few weeks back where someone had, uh, "inappropriate" downloads in
their checked-in public .bash_history, I did a few searches and found _insane_
amounts of spam in github pages.

It's all gone now, as far as I can tell. You can view the lingering google
results with a porn-themed search like "site:github.com pthc"†.

Typical cached result:
hxxp://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zLf3TgpkocQJ:byronboxx.github.com/82.html

† that is a child porn-associated acronym. Use common sense deciding how or if
you are going to get yourself on the record searching for that.

edit: made the link unclickable due to reasonable concerns expressed below.

~~~
jabiko
This time I regret clicking a link before reading the surrounding text. Maybe
you want to replace "<http://> with "hxxp://"?

~~~
ledneb
^ sorry to post a "+1" comment but, yeah. This.

Edit: As a matter of fact, assuming something on that post could link off to
something substantial regarding it's subject, should that link even be allowed
to stay here?

~~~
venus
> assuming something on that post could link off to something substantial
> regarding it's subject

I don't think that is the case; it's only using the keyword so it can be
indexed against it. The links themselves are either self referential or your
generic spam links.

Definitely wouldn't have linked it otherwise!

------
rtomayko
I'm looking into why those are showing up in the issues list. Likely a bug.
The user has been marked as spammy for over a month, though, which means
notifications (email or web) are not delivered.

We should have this cleaned up shortly.

~~~
dz0ny
I see bunch of commit messages in #grunt@freenode irc channel, so clearly
hooks are still being triggered.

~~~
rtomayko
Ouch. Sorry about that. Opening an issue now.

------
shurcooL
They very recently added a feature to Gist to help deal with spam.

<https://github.com/blog/1426-spam-spam-spam-spam>

~~~
shurcooL
I wonder if the system to report abuse can be abused.

Can someone report someone's non-spammy gist as abuse and get it removed? Will
that person get some sort of notification or warning so that he get a chance
to backup the (legitimate, non-spam) gist?

Because if there's a chance that one's valuable gists get deleted without
warning, that's a concern.

------
jasonkester
Anybody know what we're supposed to be seeing here? It looks like the "issues"
page for a random project, with one open issue.

What does this have to do with Spam? Or even Github for that matter (apart
from being a url at github.com?)

~~~
shurcooL
Look at some replies below. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5298273>
There used to be spam in the issues list, but now it's gone.

------
yen223
Whatever it was, it's not there anymore.

What happened?

~~~
dz0ny
<http://screencloud.net/v/aDCU>

~~~
rodw
Looks more like a script run wild than true (SEO) spam.

------
pyvek
I have also seen automated accounts being operated by bots similar to those
twitter bots who follow you and unfollow you if you don't start following them
within specified amount of time.

Example: <https://github.com/gitlisted?tab=activity>

------
chewxy
Looks like most of it is handled, since most of them lead to a 404 if you
click on the issues. Cache hasn't been invalidated I would guess

~~~
dz0ny
Yea but still can't they block user? Also emails, hooks are still sent...

------
fennecfoxen
As far as I'm concerned, there's only one way to deal with SPAM™: Eggs.
Contrast this with spam, where the appropriate response is eggs-termination.

I would be modestly interested in seeing Github and Hormel square off in some
epic conflict. :P

No seriously, isn't the spammy spam supposed to be lowercased? </pedantry>

~~~
blockjack
Actually, 'spam' in the electronic sense is apparently linked to a Monthy
Python sketch involving a restraunt where everything contains Spam. From
Wikipedia: _In the 1980s the term was adopted to describe certain abusive
users who frequented BBSs and MUDs, who would repeat "Spam" a huge number of
times to scroll other users' text off the screen. In early chat rooms ...,
they actually flooded the screen with quotes from the Monty Python Spam
sketch._

One could therefore argue that uppercase is the correct presentation.

~~~
derekp7
I always thought it stood for Self Propelled Advertising Mechanism or
something like that.

------
ellie42
Github isn't dealing with SPAM.

Go to gists, click explore.

I've seen some ugly stuff like these:
<https://gist.github.com/imwinner/5056251>
<https://gist.github.com/onhkys/5056233>
<https://gist.github.com/onhkys/5056224>

since the beginning of the gist.github.com re-launch

