K2 / Proflex Riders Group
General => Tech Forum => Topic started by: Spokes on September 02, 2013, 03:43:18 pm
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We seem to have been shamed by someone. Can they be blocked?
Chris
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Keep reporting them and I will keep removing them.
Thanks for your diligence,
Terry
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Thanks Terry
Chris
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Hi Terry there's another one. Othellfew is a casino spam.
Cheers
Chris
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Hi Terry there's another one. Othellfew is a casino spam.
Cheers
Chris
Got him. ;D
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Thanking you! :)
Chris
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Thank you terry!
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Doing a good job.At one point i was deleting heaps and heaps of them.It got tiresome in the end
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Likewise I am deleting them as they are reported to me.
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Yeah. Let's just keep playing "Whack-a-mole". Was a long time between spamming bouts.
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I've just installed a forum software update, that may help, and I keep killing their user accounts as well.
It takes them a lot longer to sign up for a new account than it does for me to delete them, and so far they are human users, not bots, so I'm hoping they figure it out and go away. Admittedly, spammers aren't exactly the sharpest folks around, so maybe I need a bigger hammer.
Worst case, I do have some pretty effective tools - I tend to dislike using them because they tend to obliterate some innocent bystanders - kind of like using land mines as mouse traps.
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When I was running a forum based on the phpBB3 package, I found that the only way to beat the spam was to cause new members to be approved by the admin. Therefore, the tipping point was where the time associated with deleting spam accounts exceeded the time associated with approving legitimate ones! Pretty sad, but that was the reality of it.
I'd like to think the software designed to prevent the spammers from getting in the door has improved, but near as I can tell, there are thousands of poor souls in the third world whose income must be connected to manually creating these accounts. They answer the questions designed to foil the 'bots and answer the emails to confirm their legitimacy. It truly is whack-a-mole... and you have my sympathy! :)
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Another board I visit that had the same issue let a few of us have admin privilages so we could delete the spammer accounts. I usually check here at least daily so if that is an option I am willing to help.
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Yeh. maybe the "approving" methoid is an option, after all there's not a lot of new (genuine) members!
Likewise, happy to muck in on chores if needed.
Col.
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I'm more than happy to keep reporting to you guys or ill even go round and give these spammers a firm talking to ;) but that's about as far as my computer skills go. I could accidentally do a lot more damage than a virus!
Chris
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The challenge with the approval method is detecting legitimate users... if there were a formula that worked, I could write code to do it automatically. Currently I'm pretty sure we get more legitimate sign ups than we do spam, and we seem to whack the moles fast enough that they aren't profiting from the relationship.
I'm always open to ideas, though, and I'm willing to spread around the admin duties if there are able people willing. Mind you, there isn't much work to do on the back end, I've only been wiping 3-4 accounts a month.
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At a rate of only 3 or 4 a month, it isn't really what I'd describe as a 'problem'...! :)
Deletions seem to happen faster than I'd ever expect, so the admin duties are being shouldered admirably!
Worst case, a spammy post stays up for a few days. The end of the world? Probably not! And given the average age of the membership, maybe a few smoking deals on blue pills would be appreciated...? ;D
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On a site I was admin on instead of deleting their accounts I banned them, after deleting their spam post, which meant that in order to register again they had to use a different email address & also a different IP address.
Makes it longer winded for the spammers & reduced the spam to zero.
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one car forum I admin is phpBB and I really like the oc ban feature. One click dumps 'em along with their ip
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You can do the same on smf, ban by email & IP address
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Ya, problem is they aren't signing up with the same email or ip. I've used ip ranges in the past, but as I mentioned, that tends to collect some innocents in the net.
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Having admin'd a PHPBB site for many years and then a bbPress forum, I've found that you're quite right in that banning individual emails and IP ranges is a bit like bailing the Costa Concordia with a soup ladle.
I've settled on making it as difficult for them to sign up in the first place... that is, by forcing them to actually think to get the right skill-testing answers. And making it odd enough that the sign up bots don't see the usual form they associate with the forum platform. I tailor the questions to the subject of the forum - in this case, a bicycle question or two would be good. Heck, even asking what the purpose of this forum is might be a good question - most of the time the spammers don't even know what the forum is discussing!
Some software can be tweaked to include hidden fields on the sign up page. Not visible to viewers of the web page, but visible to the 'bot looking through the code. An answer to the invisible question is an automatic fail.
However, as I noted before, I think this site is completely under control! :)