HarvesteR Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Hi,We've been having a little trouble with spam on the forums these days... It seems the bots are capable of going through the captcha at the registration page...So I've set up a required verification for first posts. If you're posting for the first time, you'll see a captcha box (those 'type the letter in the image above' things) before you post.This only happens for first-time posts though. If you're deemed human you can keep on posting normally after that. I just wanted to let everyone know about this. I reckon very aggressive anti-spam measures can make a forum seem unwelcoming, and that's the last thing we want to do. So I hope a simple captcha on your first post (and only on the first post) is a reasonable compromise. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C3PO Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Excellent!! Good job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 5, 2011 Share Posted July 5, 2011 Though there are some humans that are spambots... ;P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jivel1 Posted July 19, 2011 Share Posted July 19, 2011 There is a new spambot on the forums. It's in Off-Topic discussions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reflector Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Couldn't you throw up something like 'what year was the Beijing Olympics in' as a question? It should defeat most simple spambots from registering and works better than a Catchpa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim_Barrett Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Wait, couldn't a human do the first few posts and then let the bot do all the spamming after? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt'n Skunky Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Unfotunately, there is no perfect solution. The best you can do is make it difficult to the point they will go find an easier target.With the additional mods now on board, we should be able to nip a spam flood quickly. Just hit the report link when you see spam and we'll nuke it.Cheers!Skunky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sordid Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Couldn't you throw up something like 'what year was the Beijing Olympics in' as a question? It should defeat most simple spambots from registering and works better than a Catchpa.Another good one is 'enter the third word of this sentence into the box'. Or 'click the picture of a duck'. Basically, text recognition is the worst possible way to do captcha, because computers are very very good at it and it's very very annoying for humans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt'n Skunky Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Oh, one more thing. Please don't reply to spam posts. It just makes more work for us. Cheers!Skunky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ice Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Luckily, there is a 'Report to moderator' button by the bottom of each post, click that if you find a spambot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sordid Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Oh, one more thing. Please don't reply to spam posts. It just makes more work for us. Cheers!SkunkyORLY? Deleting a thread made by a spambot is easier if there are no replies in it? That makes no sense, mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darrknox Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 ORLY? Deleting a thread made by a spambot is easier if there are no replies in it? That makes no sense, mate.No, not be a rudely sarcastic, and causing shitstorms by bumping spam topics instead of just reporting them and moving on, and allowing the forum to move like normal without WOW_GOLD_FREE being the main topic makes our jobs easier.Mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt'n Skunky Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 ORLY? Deleting a thread made by a spambot is easier if there are no replies in it? That makes no sense, mate.Well, yeah. Until I found the Delete Thread button at the bottom vs. the Delete Post button at the top. It bitched about deleting the first post if there were replies. My bad, mea culpa.Skunky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softweir Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 On the other hand, if the spam is mid-way down a legitimate thread then the fewer responses there are to the spam, the more sense the thread makes once the spam has been deleted / the les work there is for moderators.I moderate a health-related forum, and on one occasion deleted a spam, didn't notice that the message after it was a scathing attack on the spammer, and nearly ended up causing a blazing row between her and the previous legit poster who thought HE was being attacked! What I should have done was do the extra work and delete the messages after the spam that referred to it.So, answering spam that appears in legitimate threads make extra work for the moderators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt'n Skunky Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 On the other hand, if the spam is mid-way down a legitimate thread then the fewer responses there are to the spam, the more sense the thread makes once the spam has been deleted / the les work there is for moderators.I moderate a health-related forum, and on one occasion deleted a spam, didn't notice that the message after it was a scathing attack on the spammer, and nearly ended up causing a blazing row between her and the previous legit poster who thought HE was being attacked! What I should have done was do the extra work and delete the messages after the spam that referred to it.So, answering spam that appears in legitimate threads make extra work for the moderators.Excellent point!CheersSkunky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redneck Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 Yes.. I will keep that in mind also. Thanx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaida Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 I'll put my first post here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowfax Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 If you guys haven't found this yet, here's a link to a downloadable database of known spam IPs. You can copy-paste it into your ban list and eliminate a lot of the buggers right out of the gate.http://www.stopforumspam.com/downloads/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moach Posted July 22, 2011 Share Posted July 22, 2011 If you guys haven't found this yet, here's a link to a downloadable database of known spam IPs. You can copy-paste it into your ban list and eliminate a lot of the buggers right out of the gate.http://www.stopforumspam.com/downloads/thanks man! this is surely worth having a look :thumbup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baldr Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Hey don't kill the spam or I will be out off a job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victor Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 Hey don't kill the spam or I will be out off a job.Alright, let's stop deleting all the spam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 I like spam threads, they're always fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greatorder Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 I like spam threads, they're always fun.I love them on B12we make jokes about the topic, followed by *ba dum dum tish!* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mincespy Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 How about do what orbiterforum has? When I tried to make an account on it, it came up with 3 pictures and said \'click the picture that is a submarime\' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
semininja Posted October 24, 2011 Share Posted October 24, 2011 Or a box that asks, 'How do you spell \'cat\'?' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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