What Not To Do With Spam Bots (do not respond to them plz)

[zanzibar196]

Holy flooded boards, batman... I would definitely suggest tightening the security around here!

[U.E.D.C.]

I propose a cutting edge project to get the upper hand on the spam bots....
We develope Zuul-bots to defend the forums! Of course we'd probably then have to deal with the Zuul-bots ripping the users.

Or is this a bad time for tom-foolery?

[rc23]

I found a link to Deviantart page with the original version of that cool One Piece casino picture from that last big wave of spam. Least that spammer had good taste in anime.

http://dsngiap.deviantart.com/art/One-P ... oodonly=69

[Iztok]

Hi!

Those spamboots really are annoying!

I wonder why they clutter other forums significantly less? Forum policy here too open?

BR, Iztok

[amtie]

I was wondering about a certain implementation for spam bot protection (I hope this is the right place to post ) :

Allow people to sign up with normal/weak/no-strength CAPTCHA. Then, for the first week of membership, prevent new members from posting links to other (external) websites (or perhaps any links at all). If a new member attempted to post a post containing links, the forum will redirect them to the post submission page that displays after a post is displayed, only with a message saying something along the lines of "Sorry, you cannot post links during your first week of membership. Press back and delete any links to be able to post your message." . No post with links would be posted on the forum.

After the first week of membership is over, the server would check the number of posts by the new member, and if they are zero (meaning they posted links with posts, which didn't get accepted, or they didn't post at all), the server would delete the account from the forum database.

Spam bots usually (if not always) post links in their spam messages, therefore they wouldn't have posted any messages during the first week of their membership. And since they would have had 0 posts, the server would delete them, preventing them from posting again.

As for signatures, prevent new members from posting links in their sigs for the first week of membership. However this part of the plan is less fool-proof, so more prone to circumventing.

Just wanted to help the Kerb. devs.

[castewarkp]

If it's a challenge to find the to time get the simple and effective IFF module in place, it's a bigger challenge to set up the multi-step system you outlined.

I like it, but there are plans afoot - in the meantime, we will get some visitors from time to time.

[Space Voyager]

Besides, they are the only ones that post in NorthStar forum!

[amtie]

If it's a challenge to find the to time get the simple and effective IFF module in place, it's a bigger challenge to set up the multi-step system you outlined.

Oh, I didn't realise it'd be as difficult as you imply it to be. I had assumed there'd be some phpBB/open source fix or patch for this.

I like it, but there are plans afoot - in the meantime, we will get some visitors from time to time.

Good to hear.

[fiendishrabbit]

Well, one thing is certain. A good clue for an IFF module is "someone with very few posts starts posting new stuff in every forum"

A flood-control would probably be a good thing to install even before some sort of more advanced IFF could be put in place.
Possibly some sort of tiered flood control "fewer than 50-500 posts. 2-5 minute flood control" as a higher post count indicates both activity levels, a period where they've been active and behaved themselves and a need/ability to quickly post quality material (as in "material that people want to read. ZedF and Mecron come to mind).

[darkone]

With having a website myself spam is something that you have to plan for and there are tools you can use to limit or pretty much wipe it out. SSC gets a decent amount of traffic and I have put things in place to help deter those little spam bots. And since your using phpbb (need 3.0) here you can use the following mods:

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... 9&t=645075 - Antibot Question

What the above does is besides a captcha image you can ask a question whether it is math or your game related question. If they answer wrong no registration is permitted.

http://www.lithiumstudios.org/forum/vie ... f=31&t=941 - Antispam

This is a bit more advanced and includes some setup and a key from stop Spam. But when configured it checks email addresses and IP's against a master list of spammers/bots and doesn't allow them access or at the least flags the user so you can watch them.

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... &t=1519555 - AntiVisual Bot

This is a simple mod that replaces the background image for the captcha text. Most bots use programs to automatically read the letters/numbers because the background is something they can parse out. But when you put in custom images there programs get all messed up.

I basically have no spam at all on SSC. I make it a pain in the ass for them so they don't even bother. But I make it easy enough that the new user isn't impacted much at all.

In my new site update I will be putting in a registration quiz that will almost guarantee now bots So feel free to ping me if you want more info on using them. Don't let them win.

-D1-

[amtie]

Have you ever tried implementing a spam protection design similar to the one I suggested earlier in this thread? Would like to know if in practice it works well or not.

[Coyote27]

If you'd like another person to hunt down and ban spammers, I can help...
I do have several years of forum moderation experience, just with a wakaba board rather than phpBB, but software shouldn't be an issue.

[GammaPaladin]

I think the most interesting spambot protection I've seen on a forum was one where when you initially registered you only had access to a single forum. There was a big stickied thread with the title: "YOU MUST REPLY TO THIS THREAD FIRST OR YOU WILL BE BANNED". If you posted a new topic rather than a reply to said thread, you would be auto-banned. If you replied to the thread you gained access to the forums.

Probably wouldn't work for a professional developer's site though, since you're actually dealing with paying customers and a shocking number of them probably can't follow the simple directions...

[fibio]

On the plus side all the threads spawned saying "OMG Y U BANNN MEEEEEEE!" would delete themselves.