Suggestion to stop spammers.

[Poop-Loops]

When I had to do something in HTML, I went to a web-programming forum for help. One of the things programmed into it was that you couldn't post any links until you had several posts. If you tried, the post wouldn't get through and you'd get an error message. To fix that, all you had to do was uncheck the box that says "automatically parse links in text". Pretty simple. If you were legit, you'd just do it.

But if it's a bot posting spam, it might completely screw it up to run into something like that, don't you think? Or have spammers already figured out a way to beat that defense?

 

[chroot]

We're actually working on implementing that very idea already. Thanks!

- Warren

 

[Poop-Loops]

Yeah no problem.

 

[Astronuc]

But if it's a bot posting spam, it might completely screw it up to run into something like that, don't you think? Or have spammers already figured out a way to beat that defense?

It may be a combination of bots and people.

As chroot indicated the administration will introduce improvements to mitigate spam.

 

[_Mayday_]

I've come across similar but with images, though as far as I am aware there isn't really a problem of such.

 

[Gokul43201]

Greg,

Would it also be possible to block posts (within the first N posts of a new member) that contain complete words "www" "http" and "com", as well as word fragments "wwwdot" and "dotcom"? This would take care of many of the spam workarounds for including links.

 

[Kurdt]

Greg,

Would it also be possible to block posts (within the first N posts of a new member) that contain complete words "www" "http" and "com", as well as word fragments "wwwdot" and "dotcom"? This would take care of many of the spam workarounds for including links.

I think that's been implemented Gokul.

 

[Gokul43201]

There was some spam posted earlier with an incomplete url, something like "www blah com". I believe it was manually deleted by a Mentor.

 

[_Mayday_]

Blocking certain phrases like www. and .com will not get rid of them totally, but I am sure it has had some effect. How do these spam bots get passed the bit that says DFH56HFY?

 

[Evo]

There was some spam posted earlier with an incomplete url, something like "www blah com". I believe it was manually deleted by a Mentor.

The way it works is if a new member posts a link his post will be automatically blocked and will get an error message. If the spammer reposts altering the link as in abc.com, it will not be a live link.

Continue reporting these as spam.

 

[Moonbear]

We have to try to find a balance between slowing down the spammers (and especially keeping their images from appearing) and not making it overly cumbersome for new members to post.

 

[_Mayday_]

Yeah, I agree there Moonbear. Not being a mentor it is quite hard to judge how many spammers there are, other than the one or two a week I report. Are there than many MB??

 

[Evo]

Yes, there are quite a few, they seem to come in bursts.

 

[jma2001]

How did you guys implement the "no links until 15 posts" feature? Is it an open-source plugin that I could download from somewhere, or was it custom coded? I'm having a big problem with spam on another forum I administer and I need to implement something similar.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

How did you guys implement the "no links until 15 posts" feature? Is it an open-source plugin that I could download from somewhere, or was it custom coded? I'm having a big problem with spam on another forum I administer and I need to implement something similar.

We don't use this addon anymore. The new vb software comes with better tools to fight spam. You might find it at the vb development site. It was not very well supported though. GL!