Options to deal with the recent spamming problem

[GrimJack]

Hey folks, figured I'd throw this out here in for your perusal.

I'm sure you've all seen some of the spam pop up in the forum from time to time - the staff is pretty good at wiping it right away, but it still takes some time.

We aren't entirely helpless with regards to this, there are some options that we could take to make this less of a problem.

1. We could disable new memberships entirely.  This has some rather obvious issues.
2. We could switch from automatic sign up to validated sign up.  The downside to this is that our membership is more than a little scattered over the globe already, so it's not an easy task to separate the good from the bad before they actually post.  There are two things we could add to this that might help.
2.a We could add a manual delay to the process - don't activate new accounts for at least, say, 2 weeks after they sign up.  Chances are the automated spam bots would drop trying before this.
2.b We could require a reference from an existing member for an account to be activated.  This would, unfortunately, prevent any new members that don't already know someone from joining.  I'm not sure how many new accounts (that are valid) we are getting these days, so this might not be such a detriment.
3. There might be some sort of security update that can be applied to the software here... even something as simple as another required field on the signup form would likely throw the spam bots for a loop.  I'll look into this one.

If you can think of another solution, or prefer one of these over another, post up and let us know.

[GrimJack]

Ok, found some extra software that should make #3 a viable option.  I'll get it installed server side ASAP and we'll see if this cuts back the spam.

[kiwi]

hey dave I have been deleting quite a few lately,they are ussually EASY to spot even though they have some personal details filled in,which is ussually a key that they arent real
ps have you received my message that I would rather take a step back and not be admin any more?Orange(aka Ed) is keen....PM or email me if you want.
I have a sticky and a post re newbies ..have a look and see what you think..I check in most days and delete posts and or people /bots as required...you will also see i have banned a couple of IPs....no regular members IP i might add..

[Happy Valley]

Shame a bother like that exists. I'm not qualified to offer an informed opinion but if option #3 does the trick, so much the good. I realize maintenance here has to be a labor of love so go with whatever causes the least headache for the admins. Such a great resource.... just hate to see it go away.

[GrimJack]

Not to worry, I don't plan on retiring the place, that's for sure.  Hell, by now I've hosted this for longer than K2 did!

Kiwi, I've got Orange set up as of yesterday.  He might need some hand holding on the new options he's seeing, however I suspect he'll pick it up PDQ.

[orange]

 

[purple gerbil]

JUST LIKE TO SAY A BIG THANKYOU!! TO ALL YOU ADMINS THAT KEEP THIS PLACE ALIVE AND KICKING!!

THANKYOU!!! THANKYOU!!! THANKYOU!!

[dcarr1971]

JUST LIKE TO SAY A BIG THANKYOU!! TO ALL YOU ADMINS THAT KEEP THIS PLACE ALIVE AND KICKING!!

THANKYOU!!! THANKYOU!!! THANKYOU!!

+1
 I'll second that!  Thank you!

[Spokes]

Yes many thanks guys. As I know nothing about web design I dont tend to think about the hard work you guys put into keeping this site up and running. Many many thanks.

[GrimJack]

I've installed a fancy shmancy antichrist... err... antispam mod that should take care of this.  New registrations are required to answer 4 questions correctly before they can register:

What color is the sky?
Are you human?
What is the fourth word in this question?
Are you interested in mountain bikes?

If they get any of these wrong, they are either dumber than a bag of hammers or a spambot.

[orange]

love it

[kiwi]

I've installed a fancy shmancy antichrist... err... antispam mod that should take care of this.  New registrations are required to answer 4 questions correctly before they can register:

What color is the sky?
Are you human?
What is the fourth word in this question?
Are you interested in mountain bikes?

If they get any of these wrong, they are either dumber than a bag of hammers or a spambot.

mod q4 to be...what is a proflex

[Tel]

Thank god I joined when I did theres no way I`d get in if your going to make it that tough, blimey I struggled getting into the tuffty club. Mrs Tel had shelves put up in my head to help out with the storage around the house!
 But thanks to everyone who makes this forum the first place I look when I start up the PC, to see whos broken what and how to fix it and which filler wire Terry would use to weld it all back together with.
Cheers and a happy new year to everybody here, Tel.

[sammydog]

What color is the sky?

Is this on a nice day for riding, or a bad day?

[kiwi]

What color is the sky?

Is this on a nice day for riding, or a bad day?

thats the purpose of the question... ?