Is it just me?

Tyrmer · Post by **Tyrmer** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 9:52 pm

Is it just me or are we getting one HELL of a lot of spam these days? And I'm not talking about Nedy's smilies in the photo thread!

I also notice that there are quite a few views (probably from the young male population) on one of the "items." *Waggles Eyebrows*

I was just wondering if Shirle was aware if there was any reason for this sudden burst and if there may be any changes to the forum to cut it out we may have to be aware of?

Bhaern Quel · Post by **Bhaern Quel** » Sun Dec 17, 2006 10:03 pm

Well I had three views (one to see what it was) the second (to see why it was replied to) the thrid (to post a reply) system might make my count 4 because of view of reply.

I expect it will be deleted soon together with the other suspect post soon after the High Priestess visits to see what the children have been doing.

As for level of SPAM it is not that much, though it might standout more so because the general post count is low per day.

Guest posting was disabled, these posts are of people that did regerister most likely. It also might be a bot that found a weakness to bypass verification.

IP blocking might be one way to go but there are a lot of poxey servers out there. Also a valid provider might have left a port open. On another site I had to blocl AOL for a time because of abuse (something that could not be forever).

Post by **Shir'le E. Illios** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 10:50 am

[quote="Bhaern Quel":3bdl41sg]It also might be a bot that found a weakness to bypass verification.[/quote:3bdl41sg]
Probably. phpbb is a very popular forum system so it's likely that a few bots know how to register for it automatically despite the human verification safety.

Anyway, at the moment it doesn't seem too bad; nothing that doesn't seem manageable. Jut don't reply to spam and use the report button ([img:3bdl41sg]templates/drowMoon/images/icon_report.gif[/img:3bdl41sg]) to let me know the post needs to be removed.

If it gets much worse I'll investigate further measures to keep them out. But since that likely means that registering becomes a bit more complex/involved for new users I'm not altogether keen on doing that.

But it seems we've gone up in the world that we're considered important enough to spend effort on to spam.

Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

Tyrmer · Post by **Tyrmer** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 12:19 pm

Yeah, until fairly recently we never used to get spam. Definitely not on the old forums. *Sigh* Those were the good old days...

Rooky · Post by **Rooky** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:21 pm

Let's all remember the little song Monty Pyton wrote..."Wonderfull Spam"

....Let's flame it.....

Post by **Shir'le E. Illios** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 10:55 am

One thing I’m considering, which I’d like your thoughts one, is to restrict starting a new thread based on the user’s postcount.

What this would do is that you can’t create a new thread until you’ve got a minimum number of posts (i.e. replies in existing threads). Of course that might lead to spam bots just creating posts in existing threads, but so far they’ve only been creating new threads.

The number of posts would be to be determined. Could be that you just need one post (so far the spam bots have been creating new user accounts for every post) or I could set it to 5 or such.

Probably wouldn’t affect any of you since I doubt I can think of a number high enough to prevent you lot from creating new threads,

but it would affect new users who might want to start a new thread to, say, introduce themselves. So it’s a bit of a toss-up.

I’ve already found two possible modifications for the forum that each do this, and both of them seem very simple. So installing this wouldn’t be a problem.

Let me know your thoughts.

Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

Bhaern Quel · Post by **Bhaern Quel** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:07 pm

I see two ways to go.

Require one reply before a user can start a new thread, this would take cane of much of the drive by spam / off topic posts. A true follower would likely submit a bug report thus allowing them to start threads. You might not even have to explain what the bug was because it would go away. This of course would not prevent spam/off topice being added to another thread (I rarely see that occur though).

The other option that might work is require more registration information. Race perhaps or even gender. If it is a bot it might however detect required fields. Not sure of program capibility to detect required feilds or use pull down menues.

I lean toward trying first option first, perhaps start a sticky thread of something like {Introduce yourself) or (Say hello here). Where many users might want to say hello and get past the one post block.

Zakharra · Post by **Zakharra** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 4:18 am

Naw. Just sic Rooky on them. She'll teach them the errors of their ways.

Tyrmer · Post by **Tyrmer** » Wed Dec 20, 2006 5:22 pm

Would it be possible to have a sticky thread in the General Discussion Forum that you had to reply to before you could make your own posts?

Shando · Post by **Shando** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:10 am

[quote="Tyrmer":2q9lyaen]Would it be possible to have a sticky thread in the General Discussion Forum that you had to reply to before you could make your own posts?[/quote:2q9lyaen]

Sounds complicated O.o

I say we go with the "Can't make a new thread until you reach so-on-so" number of posts" idea

Nedylene · Post by **Nedylene** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 2:02 am

likewise ..another forum i go to does simillary..cant spell for crap tonight...have to make a certain number of posts or you can only post in one thread..which is a general discussion introduce yourself type of thread..

Tyrmer · Post by **Tyrmer** » Fri Dec 22, 2006 5:00 pm

Ok, now I KNOW it's not just me, we've got another two in one day!

Velve · Post by **Velve** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:58 am

Seems we get only one new per day if we are lucky....

Post by **Shir'le E. Illios** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 2:32 pm

I took a quick look before I left to see if I could put the changes in to restrict people from making new threads. If it was easy I would've had it in by now, but due to some other changes I've made to the board (which seem to clash some with this one) it's looking more complicated than I'd hoped.

I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out, but didn't want to make changes that could potentially break the board half-a-day before I'd leave for a few weeks. So at the moment we'll just have to content with the spam. Keep reporting them, keep refraining from clicking on the links (as that's what they're doing this for even if you don't do anything else with it) and just try to ignre the spam posts.

I'll keep checking back to clean things up.

Love -x-x-x-

Shir'le

Shando · Post by **Shando** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 6:51 pm

Will do!