Recently, there has been a significant increase in the number of scammers and spam links in the comments under my game and elsewhere. Is your page also constantly being attacked with this nonsense?
I constantly have to block such accounts and delete their posts, but where is the administration? Do they selectively delete such accounts?
I have a solution: why not impose a general ban on posting links in comments?
Please read the rules of this category where it says that the people you're addressing are unlikely to see your post.
This issue has been amply discussed in Ideas & Feedback recently. Our admins are aware of it, and stated in the Discord server that they are, in fact, stopping a lot of spam comments. But as other creators noted, those comments change all the time, making them hard to catch.
I think that no matter where I write, the administration is unlikely to see this post, because judging by their activity, nothing is being done about it. This issue was discussed almost two months ago.
Apparently, this is not a priority for moderation, which is a pity. However, content developers and ordinary users suffer from it.
Did... you read the part where I said that something is, in fact, being done about it, and according to our admins what you're seeing is only the small proportion of spam posts that get through? Also, the rules of this category mention some communication channels where our admins are, in fact, likely to see your post.
Agreed, it's really unfair to creators and to players. An auto-moderation system is necessary at this point to itch. I've disabled comments on my games to protect my community so far. At least allow us to approve comments before they're posted. If 8 of every 10 comments I get are virus links (sometimes more often), then there's no reason to even have a comments section.
I am not sure if this would change anything about the spamming. I have seen places where links are disabled. There ist just spam by other means. Obfuscated links that people should copy paste, since the users will know that links are disabled.
Also, posting comments with links are not unusual. Go to page 1 of popular, look at any of the games and you will find that a lot of comments have links. Often to youtube.
So blanket banning links would not solve the spamming itself and it would impair how comments are used.
Maybe a two step sytem might help:
You would click a link, and it would bring you to a disclaimer page where it is explained that you are now leaving Itch and and you should check the account that posted that link and why you are clicking the link.
As a bonus the target url could be highlighted in a way to spot obfuscated fake urls and include other hints. Some urls could be blocked entirely, like url shorteners.
Example for highlighting: Itch.io and ltch.io. highlights as ITCH.IO and LTCH.IO.
And there might be a warning that even legitimate websites (including Itch) can be used to host malware. The current wave has links to files hosted on the Patreon url complete with fake warning from the criminal, complete with a fake official sounding account name.
Game has been updated!
Updated version is here → https://www.patreon.com/file? (removed. It opens a direct file download dialog.)
Please download only from official links (like this one) to make sure you get the correct and safe version.
The account has close to 400 spam posts and topics...
Scratch that with the warnings suggestion. The spam bots even do that. This makes me feel so tired. And that they use a 3 year old hacked account for the spamming makes me sad.
Game has been updated!
The new version is now available here → https://www.patreon.com/file? ... - (⚠️Download only from this link! The link has been verified!⚠️)
⚠️ !!! Be careful — there are scam pages pretending to be official. Always double-check the link !!! ⚠️
⚠️ At the moment, itch.io is under attack from scam and malware bots, so always check what you download and where it comes from. This is very important! ⚠️
