Those spam-bots

[Fred27]

Is there anyway for you guys to implement a random security code check whenever a new user register at the forums? That would block out alot of the bots. They are getting annoying.

[Neil Gendzwill]

I'm dancing as fast as I can, here. I thought we did have a code check on sign-up.

[Fred27]

Really? Cant remember if there was one when I registered..If there is then the bots seems to have cracked it.

[Neil Gendzwill]

At any rate, I don't have access to that part of the forum configuration. Maybe Hamish or Alex will see this and check into it.

[Fred27]

At any rate, I don't have access to that part of the forum configuration. Maybe Hamish or Alex will see this and check into it.

Aye. I dont mean to nag or anything, I've been a moderator meself and other similar position so I know its a pain in the ass to clear the bots out. :)

[The great I AM]

I'm sure you guys in charge are far more knowledgable in these sorts of issues, but just a suggestion. On the UCL board we have an invisible field that only spam bots will see and fill in (cuase human users won't know its there), and if its filled in then that user doesn't get registered and enters a little list which our mods use to delete the users and ban IP and email addresses. Just an idea.

[Dervish]

This is a great forum, but how many *real* people interested in Kendo discussion register every week?

Maybe we should make everyone write a *short* essay before getting manually accepted by admin -- if the admin is up to that extra work.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Alex has enabled image verification now. Should help.

[h2o]

Maybe we should make everyone write a *short* essay before getting manually accepted by admin -- if the admin is up to that extra work. No thanks. First of all administration has better things to do, and I think this will scare away anyone who happen to not have english as first language. Or at least they will have a clear disadvantage.

Image verification is usually the easiest method and works quite well.

[Fred27]

No thanks. First of all administration has better things to do, and I think this will scare away anyone who happen to not have english as first language. Or at least they will have a clear disadvantage.

Image verification is usually the easiest method and works quite well.

Agreed. The worst thing that can happen when having an Image Verification is that the bots are Semi-automated: Fully capable of posting spam but still requiring partial human control to get passed the code-entry.

[Awooga Guy]

Alex has enabled image verification now. Should help.

Hooray! :) (http://www.globalschoolnet.org/about/images/applause.gif)






That is all.

[Neil Gendzwill]

Here's the bizarre thing: the image verification mechanism is actually broken right now, no image displays so new users don't know what to type. Hamish and Alex are working on it. Yet somehow, several bots registered last night. There must be some flaw in vBulletin that they are exploiting.

[Fred27]

There must be some flaw in vBulletin that they are exploiting.

Most likely. This forum template is quite popular so its a win/win-deal to crack it. Maybe there are security updates available from the creators of the Forum template?

[Neil Gendzwill]

Another thought is that they registered before image verification was enabled, and then posted afterwards. I don't have access to the registration time info.

[Paikea]

Here's the bizarre thing: the image verification mechanism is actually broken right now...No good deed shall go unpunished.

[Cobra51]

By the way, what is the point of a spam-bot?

[Masahiro]

By the way, what is the point of a spam-bot?

i refuse to dignify that question with an answer.

now as for the spam bots, death to them all!!!!!!! you hear me.. death!!! :mad:

[Neil Gendzwill]

As of now and until January 2, I'm on vacation. I'm not leaving town, but I am leaving the work environment where I'm plugged in for 9 or 10 hours a day. I'll check in with KW from time to time but you will no longer enjoy instant de-spam-ification. It will also do you no good to report spam, as such emails go to my work account. So please be patient.

[kartoffelngeist]

Have a good vacation, Neil

[Fred27]

I thought we had it bad here at kendo-world, but at another forum I'm visiting regularly I noticed the spam-bots are actually resurrecting OLD topics to post their über-crap.

[neko kenshi]

Perhaps we should get an additional spaminator to increase protection? Maybe we should require x posts (maybe even just one) before someone can post a thread? The automated spam bots don't seem to post in existing threads, and they often din't show their post number, so that could help. A random observation: Have you ever noticed how just about all the spam threads have the little paper-bulletin symbol, and nearly no other threads use it?

[Dervish]

Perhaps we should get an additional spaminator to increase protection? Maybe we should require x posts (maybe even just one) before someone can post a thread?

It sounds effective, but it seems a lot of people, including myself when I was new, make a new thread on the dojo subforum to inquire about dojos in their area.

If it can be managed, I think we should make a fake country that is the default country, like Aardvarkistan or something, then place some restriction on those accounts, such as manual approval to post messages.

[hamish]

I have rebuilt the server to support the image verification on login, so we should see a reduction of spambots from here on in.......

Hamish

[Fred27]

Woohoo! :D

[bobdonny]

I have rebuilt the server to support the image verification on login, so we should see a reduction of spambots from here on in.......

Hamish

Well, there are no real spam bots as such, they are usually humans of eastern european extraction so therefore image verification so not make much of a difference.

You will probably notice that part of your spam regristration do not even post (but link to sites in their profiles) the rest usually post no more than 1/2 messages in no more than one sitting.... the reason for this is because they register 400/500 forums a day and hence dont remember their logins, so image verification on login wont make that much of a difference.....

If you are serious about Anti-Spam you need to track the IP addresses and IP ranges of spammers and also the http referrers (if you haven't been tracking this start now... and you can get known spam lists from the net), you then include these in a small script (at the begining of you index.php here) this weeds them out and you can then redirect them back to any location you want...
This is the ONLY way... and frankly, the spam here is not so bad... i've seen worse.