AI powered Spam detection

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I am happy to announce a new spam detection module in Discourse AI :confetti_ball:

A screenshot of a Discord Settings menu related to AI, showing options for spam handling and a summary of posts scanned and spam detected over a 7-day period. (Captioned by AI)
A screenshot of a Discord Settings menu related to AI, showing options for spam handling and a summary of posts scanned and spam detected over a 7-day period. (Captioned by AI)1355×1010 61.3 KB

Over the past few months, we have sadly noticed that Akismet’s performance has been quite uneven.

AI-based spam detection allows you to better control how spam scanning works in your community.

We have seen very good results on a few forums now. Please share your experience here.

For those self-hosting or generally looking for a “free” way of using these tools, have a look at OpenRouter. There are quite a few free LLMs out there that can do a reasonable job scanning for spam.

Read all about it at:

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Reporting back from results on meta over the weekend:

@Falco amended our “custom instruction” here to:

New users posting about crypto and linking to ANY site without adding important information to the conversation are spammers.

Treat wildly off-topic posts as spam. As you are analyzing posts from what is primarily a support forum for Discourse Forum Software, if a topic isn’t about Discourse and related subject like other forum software, online communities, computer science and software development and doesn’t have a clear link to our main subject it is probably spam. For example, a new topic explaining details about a new car, a video game or any completely unrelated subject to Discourse, like vaccines, geo-politics or beach vacations are spam. Even technical topics, about subjects not related to Discourse are spam.

We have had zero missed spam over the past 2 days, we did catch:

The image is a screenshot of几条有关“CC信用贷款APP客服热线号码”的重复评论，被标记为“已批准”且被报告为垃圾信息。 (Captioned by AI)
The image is a screenshot of几条有关“CC信用贷款APP客服热线号码”的重复评论，被标记为“已批准”且被报告为垃圾信息。 (Captioned by AI)771×1231 123 KB

The image shows a discussion thread with one post reporting another as spam and the other discussing ways to boost community engagement with top posts. (Captioned by AI)
The image shows a discussion thread with one post reporting another as spam and the other discussing ways to boost community engagement with top posts. (Captioned by AI)795×1247 114 KB

Two identical threads discussing "This is a new one of my life is not a new one of my life" are shown with spam flags and replies from "DumbedOai". (Captioned by AI)
Two identical threads discussing "This is a new one of my life is not a new one of my life" are shown with spam flags and replies from "DumbedOai". (Captioned by AI)858×1212 95.3 KB

Two screenshots depict discussions from a forum about customer care assistance for a Navi loan and seeking information about the best Institute for pursuing ACCA in India, both of which are flagged as spam by Discourse AI and marked as spam. (Captioned by AI)
Two screenshots depict discussions from a forum about customer care assistance for a Navi loan and seeking information about the best Institute for pursuing ACCA in India, both of which are flagged as spam by Discourse AI and marked as spam. (Captioned by AI)843×1259 117 KB

Two flagged posts from a forum, one asking about returning incorrect charges and the other asking where Embassy One is located, both marked as spam. (Captioned by AI)
Two flagged posts from a forum, one asking about returning incorrect charges and the other asking where Embassy One is located, both marked as spam. (Captioned by AI)917×1233 117 KB

We have seen so much slip through Akismet in the past few months, this new system is proving very effective.

We have disabled Akismet on meta.

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