Forum spam management?

[Binky]

Another problem is users who create accounts, set their status message to a spam URL, but never post anything.
Perhaps users who post bare URLs as their status should be automatically flagged for moderation?

 

[rygD]

I am only posting this one so it doesn't get missed. Take a look, no URLs now:

newhealthsupplementcomnitromxs
Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by annabynter, 16 minutes ago.

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• nitro mxs
  
• nitro mxs review
  
• nitro mxs supplement

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1. 
   annabynterNewbie
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   Nitro MXS :- The structure of Nitro MXS incorporates only two fixings that are L-Arginine and Tribulus Terrestris. Both these fixings are really the amino acids and you will give you a considerable measure of advantages. Really these amino acids are gone for building the bulk by advancing the protein blend furthermore, they assume a critical part to improve the development of blood in the veins. By and large, its fixings make it truly significant and it is an affirmed item so its quality has been guaranteed.
   
   

 

[ClockworkCoder]

I've seen quite a few spam messages without links...

 

[Wally]

Yeah there's been a few around sadly

 

[Binky]

Perhaps registration (if it doesn't already) should ask a multiple-choice question that legitimate users will find easy to answer, but spammers will be too lazy to look up:

"How many compactFlash card slots does the pandora have?" [0, 1, 2, 3]
"What operating system does the pyra use by default?" [none, Windows, Linux, iOS]

If the spammers had any idea what forum they were posting on, they wouldn't spend so much time promoting third-rate pharmaceuticals.

 

[Wally]

At the dosgames.com Forums we have words that are detected as spam and the posts are bounced so spammers cannot post..

I'm also trialling a forum just for spammers to spam in as guests which is purged on a daily basis which seems to be working as there's no spammers posting at all..

 

[Wally]

We're getting some sneaky spammers who don't post until after a month so we can't mark them as spam

Could you change that option so we can mark anything as spam but also give us a chance to undo it somehow?

 

[Drezrek]

FWIW: I used to run a forum (using phpBB) ages ago which also had the same issue with getting random spam-bots posting random links.
I remember solving it by switching to a different CAPTCHA system, which completely stopped all spam afterwards.

There might already be a sufficient enough system in place, I haven't checked but I just thought that this was worth mentioning.

 

[PowerGod]

@Drezrek: Maybe you didn't have to deal with a bunch of javascript haters

Please don't put on the google captcha (with the matrix of images to click on)... it doesn't work on Opera 12 I always have to change browser only because of that :°(

 

[Wally]

We don't have captcha because one guy complained -_-

 

[ClockworkCoder]

We don't have captcha because one guy complained -_-

There are better alternatives. I prefer something like Google's reCaptcha.

 

[Wally]

But it's google. and apparently people don't like Google..

 

[jeeks]

We don't have captcha because one guy complained -_-

wait, isn't the captcha a one time thing? if the dude got past it by now, can't it be turned on again?

 

[Drezrek]

We don't have captcha because one guy complained -_-

Fair enough. Sounds like there's more to it than just that, though..

@Drezrek: Maybe you didn't have to deal with a bunch of javascript haters

Actually, from what little knowledge I have from way back when I used to code in PHP as a hobby; I'm certain that javascript isn't really necessary in order to generate/evaluate a CAPTCHA.
I could be wrong about this, feel free to educate me in that case (or just point it out cause my curiosity will catch up sooner or later),
[doublepost=1485950419,1485950248][/doublepost]Also; +1 on not adding reCaptcha since it tends to be somewhat... Erratic, imo.

 

[Grench]

I wonder if something could be setup to do the same purpose but is more self-referential within the forums using local but trivial data.

I.e. something like these:

Please type in the forum name of someone who has posted a message in the last 48 hours: _________
(A quick database search of messages by forum name can reveal if true.)

Name an existing or forthcoming product sold by DragonBox: ___________
(ED's shop isn't that big. A list of products sold shouldn't be that hard to maintain.)

Kept relatively simple these could result in a barrier to entry for someone/something who/that doesn't care (spambot) with minimal 'work' required by the applicant account.

 

[Klumpen]

This is how you handle spam:

 

[Klumpen]

https://www.pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/fdfdf.79790/

 

[Wally]

@EvilDragon the spam seems to be getting worse.

Could you try some of the options mentioned on this page? https://xenforo.com/community/resources/block-spam-completely-with-no-addons.4065/

Particularly the URL blocking one. Tired of banning SEO spammers..

 

[levi]

Can it identify urls without the http waggledance? The ones I've seen don't have that or even some initial www, so it can occasionally be difficult for me as a human to confirm that they are urls. There are automated ways I could imagine to test them, but whether these plugins do that I don't know.

Edit: Those are mainly snake oil supplement sellers, not SEO scammers so maybe it's different.

 

[Letalis Sonus]

Spambots are one thing, but taming the Internet Water Army is quite a different challenge. Once you're one of their targets they'll just keep throwing more sophisticated zombies at you when you're trying to set up counter measures, at some point they'll even try to appear as normal members taking part in discussions just to put the spam into their posts and profiles afterwards.

I fought this war myself some years ago, never managed to get rid of them altogether but I did reduce it to a minimum. Putting in a random mandatory field which simply requires a certain format and/or length was surprisingly effective.