Discord spammers coming from cubecraft.

[Lezappen]

A lot of you may have noticed advertisers randomly message you on discord :
"HEY JOIN MY SERVER AT: superServerName.play.com
ITS AWESOME AND YOU CAN WIN MONEY AND ITS GOT GAMES AND STUFF"

The only mutual server is Cubecraft.

Cubecraft and other servers in other games cannot do much against this. It seems that this is a problem with Discord.

What is the cause?
Members of a discord server are free to message other discord members of that server. When a advertising bot joins, it spams a message to all online members and maybe also offline to advertise anything from mascara to other servers to leach members from the server they are targeting.

Solutions:
- Detect when bots join: This is not a solution even it seems like one, you only need one bot at a time to spam a server and they can be logged in hours apart.
- Report the user as a self-bot (because that is what they are) and self-bots are not allowed in discord, though discords punishment can be bypassed and by then the harm has already been done.

These "Solutions" aren't good enough, I've come up with one of my own though I need some evidence to back myself up as I plan on making a solid report.

Discord servers should have a permission that allows users to pm other users of the same server if they are not "friends"
This would fix the problem and allow staff to continue initiating pms with members that need help all while blocking unwanted advertisements...

I would like to make a report to bring this problem and solution to discords attention.
For my report I need a few screenshots that would illustrate this issue, so screenshots of spammers and of the only mutual server and that the spammer is not in your f list. PM me screenshots of these as I don't want to accidentally promote any servers in this thread.
Feel free to discuss this topic below ^^.

Thank you all,
Lezappen

Disclosure: At the time of writing this, "superServerName.play.com" is not a valid server and is not meant to be an advertisement of any kind, pls don't delete ty ty ty.

 

[Quetzi]

One of my main gripes with Discord has always been the complete lack of moderation/admin tools. There is the option to disable private messages on a server by server basis which I encourage you all to do. You should be able to find it under privacy settings.

 

[Lezappen]

In the mean time feel free to report the spammers to discord as shown here: https://support.discordapp.com/hc/e...How-to-Properly-Report-Issues-to-Trust-Safety

Report form: https://support.discordapp.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
(Pick trust and safety)

 

[Nikoshka]

Kinda agree with Quetzi on this. Would rather cube devs work on minecraft stuff whilst discord works on developing better moderation tools.

 

[Lezappen]

Or, you know, make a bot that has better moderation/admin tools.

@Land
Please tell me how a bot can stop a user from direct messaging another user from a mutual server and stop him from advertising ...

I wasn't talking about the DM spammers.

I did all the work for them dw, they just need to fill in the words & regex they want to be blocked.

If the server chat filter works with an API you could even use that \o/

const Discord = require('discord.js');
const client = new Discord.Client();

const wordFilter = ['hello', 'bye', 'third filter'];
const regexFilter = [];

function shouldRemove(msg) {
    for(let i = 0; i < wordFilter.length; i++) {
        if(msg.includes(wordFilter[i].toUpperCase())) {
            return true;
        }
    }

    for(let i = 0; i < wordFilter.length; i++) {
        if(msg.test(regexFilter[i])) {
            return true;
        }
    }

    return false;
}

client.on('message', msg => {
  if (shouldRemove(msg.content.toUpperCase())) {
    msg.delete();
  }
});

client.login('{{bot_token}}');

This thread is about DM advertisers, if you want to derail the thread do it somewhere else.

 

[Max ♠]

Land
Please tell me how a bot can stop a user from direct messaging another user from a mutual server and stop him from advertising

Its DM's, none of cubecrafts business, a discord server should not be able to control what I can and cant do in my DM's

 

[Lezappen]

Its DM's, none of cubecrafts business, a discord server should not be able to control what I can and cant do in my DM's

This is for a discord feature that would be helpfull for the bigger servers.
At the moment how do you private message someone if you don't have a common server?
You need to add them as friends first. UNLESS you share a common server, and this is what is causing problems.
The server just by existing is allowing members to message others without having to be friends.
This can be usefull for smaller servers but for huge public servers this is an issue and servers should be able to choose NOT to be a link between advertisers and their members.

 

[MagnificentSpam]

Its DM's, none of cubecrafts business, a discord server should not be able to control what I can and cant do in my DM's

But they can only DM people because they share a server, so if the server could detect and ban those bots/spam accounts that would be useful, although I don't know how discord could make that possible if they don't act botty on the server.

Discord servers should have a permission that allows users to pm other users of the same server if they are not "friends"
This would fix the problem and allow staff to continue initiating pms with members that need help all while blocking unwanted advertisements...

In that scenario, can users still enable DM's for everyone? I think it would make communication a bit difficult if I could not enable DM's for a server. On the other hand I might want to have the option to disable DM's even from users with that permission, if a moderator needs to inform me of something they can tag me on the server. I don't really see the advantage over the current option, unless servers use a bot to set that permission based on stuff like time on the server, verified email etc.

Edit:
Maybe users could be able to make those settings per server individually.
The "Privacy Settings" menu could be extended to.

Allow direct messages from server members (Y/n)
Only allow dms from members for at least (time interval picker)
Only allow dms from members with a verified email address (Y/n)
Only allow dms from members with role (button that pops up table with checkbox for each server role)

 

[Lezappen]

can users still enable DM's for everyone?

No, you would need to add them as a friend first in the same way you would if you didn't share a server.

It might be a pain to pm members you don't know on the server but you could just msg them in a chat room or add them as friends.
I chose to make it a permission so a server can have a better control over it.
They could have it linked to a "verified" role or anything like that, either way it's a safer and more sure way to prevent unwanted behavior

 

[Nikoshka]

Regarding Cubecraft control on this, perhaps there could be a way for players to be required to link their account to a Java/Bedrock account in order to use the discord server?

 

[Lezappen]

Regarding Cubecraft control on this, perhaps there could be a way for players to be required to link their account to a Java/Bedrock account in order to use the discord server?

I think that would be a great suggestion to be discussed in the suggestions section rather than here.
Regarding Cubecraft on this matter there is nothing they could do, if not maybe a bot that generates single use invites upon linking the account, but this would greatly limit the use of discord as a whole, what if members leave, how would they rejoin? What if they can generate new invites? Then we'd have to trace back who made whos invite etc.. a lot of trouble all worth speaking about in a different thread.

 

[Nikoshka]

I think that would be a great suggestion to be discussed in the suggestions section rather than here.
Regarding Cubecraft on this matter there is nothing they could do, if not maybe a bot that generates single use invites upon linking the account, but this would greatly limit the use of discord as a whole, what if members leave, how would they rejoin? What if they can generate new invites? Then we'd have to trace back who made whos invite etc.. a lot of trouble all worth speaking about in a different thread.

I mean it as a way to link on to this suggestion. If we are able to verify players, then this should be a fool proof system for bots just entering the server and spamming.

I may create a seperate suggestion in the future if I have time.

 

[Lezappen]

I mean it as a way to link on to this suggestion. If we are able to verify players, then this should be a fool proof system for bots just entering the server and spamming.

I may create a seperate suggestion in the future if I have time.

Although I appreciate your input, this isn't a suggestion but a discussion so I could further improve my report to discord.