SPAM ...How can we avoid them ?

Brett928S2 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:26 pm

Hi All

In the last few days , I have seen a LOT of spam from various names...none real....

I realise that the Moderators are deleting them as fast as they see them or if people like me click report post and say spam, but this is obviously NOT the answer...

Unfortunately this problem is going to get WORSE

We need an answer, so any suggestions ?

Maybe.....ANYONE can read the forum, but to post needs approval from a mod (usually within 24 hours)

I hate my own suggestion as I am a great believer in free speech, but can see no other option ....UNLESS someone knows an easier way ????

All the best Brett

Graham Waller · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:50 pm

This was brought up at the AGM too.

The spam-filter blocks all "bots", but cannot stop human beings registering as a registered user. There is a security font to enter too so as to stop computers auto-registering.

We thought there was as much as was possible to prevent it, but these guys are almost unstoppable as they are probably human beings with the power of thought.

I, like you Brett, don't like your suggestion and I sure it will be more hassle that it's worth. People will (I'm sure) just stop using the forum whereas currently we can just do as I do - ignore them, and add them to foes list.

Dunno any other real, practical solutions though - I'll leave the decision making to the moderators and web developer.

Brett928S2 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:15 pm

Hi Graham

Interesting.....

I have been thinking some more about this...

I am a Moderator on Nitrous forums , where we get about one spam a year, because we vet every applicant and they CANNOT post until approved.......thats one way, but like you I do not like it.....

There is another way which Jim could help with, you can block by user name obviously, but you can also block by IP address and by Ip address block ( that basically means blocking certain countries)

As most spam is NOT generated in the UK , that would probably work as I assume the Forum is MAINLY for UK users....

Just a thought as this problem is NOT going away unfortunately

All the best Brett

tr7v8 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:47 pm

We are blocking by IP address already but not by IP group. I've discussed with Jim & he is working on a solution. I'll be happy when we get one as I'm getting RSI deleting them!

JW590 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:19 pm

A fresh lot just starting to turn up as I typw this!

How about closing the site down for a while, that way if there's no where to spam they'll move on elsewhere.

Only a suggestion as I don't know the first thing about how it all works.

Sean Smallman · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:37 pm

I'm loathe to shut the site down.

We'll find a solution the banning of the IP address doesn't seem to be working and several of the usernames are from the same IP :evil:

We'll keep batting them off for now, whilst guru comes up with a solution.

hotblack944 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:33 pm

OK, board software upgraded from 3.0.0 to 3.0.4. The first 3 posts from new users now get put in a moderation queue, so the spam should stop being visible to you lot.

Mods, please keep an eye on the post queue in the moderator control panel and approve any genuine posts.

Let's see how this goes for a few days...

Graham Waller · **Posted:** Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:36 pm

Excellent Jim.

Thank you so much for the hard work you guys are putting in. Let's hope we can keep the f........, the f......., the flippin spammers at bay.

Brett928S2 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 21, 2009 12:01 am

hotblack944 wrote:

OK, board software upgraded from 3.0.0 to 3.0.4. The first 3 posts from new users now get put in a moderation queue, so the spam should stop being visible to you lot.

Mods, please keep an eye on the post queue in the moderator control panel and approve any genuine posts.

Let's see how this goes for a few days...

Hi Jim

Just out of interest, which country are the main culprits spamming from ?

All the best Brett

hotblack944 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 21, 2009 8:47 am

All over the place - probably compromised machines being used as relays. Which means there's no real pattern to the IP addresses being used to post from, hence the ineffectiveness of banning blocks of addresses. Interestingly, most of the email addresses are *.biz or *gmail.com, but I can’t really ban them.

Custom tweaks to the registration page to stop the bots auto registering also looks like a possibility...

sam · **Posted:** Tue Apr 21, 2009 11:00 am

Is this why I am having to logon every visit again now ???

hotblack944 wrote:

All over the place - probably compromised machines being used as relays. Which means there's no real pattern to the IP addresses being used to post from, hence the ineffectiveness of banning blocks of addresses. Interestingly, most of the email addresses are *.biz or *gmail.com, but I can’t really ban them.

Custom tweaks to the registration page to stop the bots auto registering also looks like a possibility...

hotblack944 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 21, 2009 1:27 pm

sam wrote:

Is this why I am having to logon every visit again now ???

Shouldn't be, no. What browser are you using, IE7? When you supply your username and password, are you ticking the box underneath to log you in automatically each visit?

sam · **Posted:** Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:25 pm

Yup, used to get this problem all the time on the old P1 site, am on IE7 but am on dial up (no DSL in this part of France :roll:

)and Gmail.

hotblack944 wrote:

sam wrote:

Is this why I am having to logon every visit again now ???

Shouldn't be, no. What browser are you using, IE7? When you supply your username and password, are you ticking the box underneath to log you in automatically each visit?

Brett928S2 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 21, 2009 5:52 pm

Hi Sam

Try Firefox >>> http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/

Remembers passwords better and faster for dial up

All the best Brett

tr7v8 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 21, 2009 6:20 pm

Brett928S2 wrote:

Hi Sam

Try Firefox >>> http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/

Remembers passwords better and faster for dial up

All the best Brett

Just been snowballs in Hell I agree with Brett! :mrgreen:

FF hugely better than IE anything! Better pop-up prevention & much faster.

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