Fake "LikeBots" As Well As Copybots, now upon this NAS Forum

Dear Lonewarrior,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts in regards to the way we moderate on our site.

As soon as we are made aware of any users using the site to post spam, we try to delete all of their posts and disapprove and ban their account. If any user notices anything suspicious, or concerning on our forum, we would encourage users to contact us via email on communitymanager@nas.org.uk to raise these suspicions and concerns.

You also mentioned that we do not respond frequently on the site. We used to moderate more actively a couple of years ago but we received feedback from users who mentioned that the moderators were too active in responding to posts. Therefore, we now only intervene if no one from the community had responded to a post . This decision was taken with the aim of keeping power and ownership with the community members, within the forum.

Finally, you also explained that you were concerned by the lack of reply in regards to posts that reference suicide. When we are alerted to a post that references to a user feeling suicidal, we would contact the user directly via email to raise our concerns in regards to what they have posted on the forum, and offer them information and advise. If we believe that a user is at immediate risk, we would then go ahead and make a referral to their local authority. As an organisation, we do have a duty of care, and please be assured that we to act appropriately when we are alerted to anyone feeling suicidal. Due to the sensitive nature, we prefer to contact users directly, which means that it is not visible on the community of what we have done.

I hope this answers some of the concerns you have raised, and if you have anymore questions, please feel free to email the community mailbox referenced previously.

Kind regards,

Ayshe Mod

Dear Ayshe  Mod thank you for also proving my point :)

Dear DC,

Firstly, please accept my apologies for any upset caused by our lack of reply. I have forwarded your concerns to my colleagues in our web team to see what is happening here. I will keep you updated with their response.

Kind regards,

Ayshe Mod

Hi DC good to see you here.

 I am not so much worried by the individual just observant and wise to their so called silly little games, I think it’s quite sad that an individual would join here under a new name and pretend to be Dutch, their sudden ability to use perfect English in a free flowing manner is so easy to see. Then pretty much came out and said they were playing games and getting away with it, 

 I do however absolutely agree with you on the lack of action taken by NAS so far, just removing a few replies isn’t good enough, remove them all, delete the account of said member tracing their IP address like other forums do and blocking them completely.

Time to have a little RANT .

They need to start actually taking full responsibility for running this site as an important resource not just something they occasionally look at when the use of certain rude words are used. They remain silent mostly but at times I see the odd response to another post when this sort of thing is going on, so they are about just not very often and usually only to post the odd link or suggest ringing the phone line which WILL be busy and unlikely to actually take your call. So as they are here Why they don’t intervene then only they know.

I have witnessed a thread talking about suicide and a member was actually saying it was something they were considering, The NAS came on, and responded to a reply underneath that post only to say it had been edited because of inappropriate language. No mention of the response above that clearly needed some kind of attention. So focus on the use of language but ignore the word suicide and the individual saying it was very much what they intended to do.

SHAME on you NAS you failed , Why not add suicide to the list of words that are highlighted to you, you can email each member should you wish too, You remain silent, only WebPM used to come on here and try to sort things out, even then it took many many attempts to get them to understand what we the members were pointing out as wrong, it was often obvious but they seemed blind to it, 

I think it’s about time you took responsibility for this forum, stop hiding and remaining silent, it is a resource that many organisations use to suggest to people looking for answers, we try to give those answers as best we can, we are doing your work for you, we put up with a lot, a poorly designed dysfunctional site, no feedback or connection with NAS it seems, who are you anyway?

 WAKEY WAKEY NAS YOU NEED TO SORT YOUR SELVES OUT!

TO DC there really is nothing to worry about, just keep being YOU and who knows NAS may just do something about properly banning some and monitoring others, As they themselves have said “ I asked to be deleted but I can still post replies, it’s a joke,” others have admitted to just picking a different name and logging on, 

Anyway rant over, phew needed thst, I did consider adding many expletives to attract the attention of NAS but they would only delete them and still say nothing.

 Take care my friend x()x

R=39,

V=392,

S=24.

18/06/2019

01:22.

This is Posted as replying to My own OP... yet Glad Tidings to mostly to Mr LW, now...
Basically, I am glad of LW's response, to see that I am NOT the only one who sees this as a worry. I am glad to see so far One other Person here who realised that there might be "sinister intentions"...
Yet the perpetrator is still right here and active *on this Thread*? And given that this Thread is now about THREE different types of "Hacks" ( - copy, likes, MaliciousHacker -) please do not be surprised if I do not log on as much as usual, or if I log on at all... again, until this is properly sorted out. (By WebPM, Thank You, not just by a "slap on the wrist" from "Moderators" allergic to any "Linguistic Vugarities".)

I Myself do know how to think like a Hacker, but I am not a "Malicious" Hacker. And I cannot of course know if one or two or all three troubles occurring right now... are linked.
Apologies, but I am not interested in staying here long enough to take the risk of losing My own devices. As I said, My first Device was "nearly totalled", & that was by a "simple" NAS Update...!

The fact that certain Threads were deleted, yet the perpetrator is STILL here, only shows how inefficient NAS is.( but maybe not WebPM?? ) Also, I had a look at those "Bad Links" upon another device, and, well, it was not good news, but I gained some information. But all in all, I am simply not interested in putting Myself in danger for the sake of a NAS who does not seem to care about such things.

...And did they fix the fake upvoting? No!

I could try a New Term, for this; I AM one of those being hacked, and so I feel justified to do so: NAS Ignoring A Problem By Simply 'Sweeping It Under The Carpet'... (NAS-IPASUCT, or NIPASUC, or similar.)...!?

I am still (trying at) keeping My Account open, as I say.
But --- Another Bad Mark at NAS from Myself, here. Three bad Strikes, NAS, and You are OUT of MY supporting You just now. I am asking for a RESPONSE here, or for WebPM to properly deal with this.

...NAS, You may take Us for granted, but an Old saying is "You do not know what You have until it is Gone." May I remind You of certain Others, including Myself, who support (& once supported) this Forum, who checked and provided advice, so that it did not "fall over" due to Disappearing Messages, Disappearing Pictures, Non-Counted Views, Spam, and Copybots...? WE did it, You did not!

NAS - I ask YET AGAIN: Is Quantity of Visitors more important to You than Quality of Visitors??

( ...That turned into a bit of a RANT, I admit, but I meant every word of it. The Internet is currently an enforced Poison, but it does not have to be that way, surely...? )

Hi DC the member Dutchman interested me also as they at first struggled (apparently) to make sentences that were to us fluent? As if they were just translated words but without a feel for flowing English.

then suddenly certain replies were indeed just as if English was their first language?

very strange indeed, maybe they were pretending to be Dutch?

anyway the screen captured images of responses were when the Dutchman started to reveal sinister intentions. 

Take care and don’t fret it seems the team are on it by deleting said replies :)x()x

Strange, I can't tag @WebPM

not sure if NAS Moderator can bring attention to this?

I am Posting here again to "bump" this Thread back to near Top... for NAS to see it upon a "Next Working Day".

Yet *now* there are other things.
...NAS - especially WebPM - what was this...?

...on the 14th of June, apparently... yet most likely deleted now, if there were no replies...(and if the User sees this Before NAS does.)...?

Also the "fake upvotes" continue, just Three others left on the list, now.

Being an annoyance is what a copybot is all about

Older posts are less likely to be recognised as being copied.

Reasons for copying posts may be to stir up mischief by a disgruntled member using a different identity. The posts are invariably using a generic NAS name.  I don't think they should be ignored, and neither should the false likes unless we find out it is due to a malfunction in the software that has been rectified. 

Such likes and copybot posts could be a method of circumventing spam filters or to create other unwelcome activity and should be stopped and reported immediately.

Disambiguating Cynosure said:

This is the latest "Maintenance" Thread, or 'Report Spam' Thread. ( ...& For those not interested or not affected, I say just move on, or start Your own Thread. )

(...only *Now* does the "quote" function work...?)

I re-quote something which I put in the OP (Opening Post). Please do NOT post unless it is to report such errors upon this Forum.

Try Posting "Errors" or General Questions about this Forum to the following link:

https://community.autism.org.uk/f/miscellaneous-and-chat/12961/strange-random-errors-upon-this-forum

...Yes, There are WAYYYY more Threads... but this is the shortest one. And there are lots of links to more/other Threads upon it. 

No problem DC!

It's nothing to worry about. Forgive me if you already do, but do you clear the cache on your devices? That can cause them to be very slow if you don't from time to time.

Good fortune to you also!

To Qwerty ('s first Posts)...Thank You Very Much for Posting, but - Do NOT be scared. They are not actually "controlling" an account there. Also I see suggestions You Post below. It is good to be mindful/aware of such things.

My own trouble is that I Myself do tend to think the worst. It is My built-in defence mechanism ("Run first, ask questions later from that safe distance.")

Also, any Technical Questions asked, I Myself have to wait for WebPM to respond just like a lot of others here. WEBPM is the main person I am waiting for. I know the basics of Programming and what is possible, but am not (allowed to be) experienced or skilled, and so I am just posting to alert WebPM and others about this annoyance. 

Lastly... seeing some of the responses here so far, maybe I really should have not mentioned Copybots again. But the Copybot Thread is long, and so later on we all had to just learn to mention "copybot" upon any other Thread which was actually a Copybot Thread. This was a good protocol to keep in mind.

Thanks for replying, Mr. Mountains... You are so very COOL...   

See my answer to Mr. Lone, up there. But I prefer that You are correct also. Good Fortune to You, and Thank You for providing the cool weather so far...!

(This Thread seems quite busy right now, at <> half-twelve..). To Mr LoneWarrior...You Good Sir, as I said, are the other Person much "appreciated"! Thank You for the Comments & support upon all Threads concerned!

...The thing is, little things like this, do cause my creaking devices to creak a bit more. The update from NAS back in 2017 nearly totalled one of them. Upon this Device I use now, I had a new trouble starting it up, let alone logging on. I have said very often before, that one day I might stop posting altogether because I lack the (new) Devices to do so.

I am staying, though posting less, but am glad I just happened to see all of this now... but this is the type of "hacking" where if it does get worse, then I would have to delete. It is NOT that bad, yet, so do not worry so much. Time will tell...

I was wondering, since posts are usually automatically tagged with keywords and "related" posts with similar keywords are linked (see example on the right hand side "Related"). Is it possible to write a comparison algorithm for each post to, for example, the top 10 most related posts before it gets finally posted, so that copied posts will not be allowed?

Might not even be a bot. Could just be someone trying to drag up old drama with a new account.

Best just to ignore it all.

DC it's just one of those weird little things that goes on here from time to time. Literally no-one thinks anything bad of you.

Don't delete or even retreat, remain upbeat!

I'm wondering, if (1) they are controlling your account to like those posts, or are they (2) creating a new account that copies your username and picture and then liking those posts?

This forum is actually where I learned about the existence of copybots for the first time in my life. I read about posts complaining about copybots shortly after I joined and was quite confused about what they were. But after being on here for so long, these copybot issues come up so frequently that it's a big issue, and everyone is getting tired of them. Other forums seem to not have these problems somehow (I don't know if it's better programming or just moderators deleting them quickly), but these posts trick innocent people into replying to something which is not even relevant. I honestly don't understand WHY people make copybots in the first place.... they don't serve any purpose other than being an annoyance.  

Oh wow. This sounds scary to have someone else control your account.