Forum Spam

[NightLitch]

We have work against the Spam now and we think we have make that successful and we have a working forum again. We are continue work against the Spam Thats Spam that you can see now is already from registered bot and this will fade out after we catch them and show them the way out. The Manual Spam from real user are we continue to work with and all those lose there account.

Again we are sorry for this and now when this is over let us have fun

Nautilus Super Moderator

 

[Voyager]

Just to give the members here a clue what we have been up against . . .

Romulus and Nautilus have worked for several days and come up with a way to stop BOTs from registering on the forum as a good portion of the spam comes from these kind of accounts.

This action has been in place for just about 24 hours now and so far, has prevented

298 Registrations​

Of course, as Nautilus mentioned above, this will not stop those who manually try to register an account and then use a BOT for their purpose.


We believe this is the result of opening up the forum to Twitter and Facebook accounts with links back to the forum. The idea was to have a place to communicate with members if the forum should go down like it did a couple of weeks ago. While it was a feasible idea, it had drastic results and we did not get that door closed soon enough.

We have suggested that we close the forum to open enrollment for a period of time such as 1 or 2 months during which time we would hope that those using programs to try to open accounts would get tired and fade away. Of course we could always register someone who is referred to the forum by a member in good standing.

At this time, the site owner is reluctant to do this so we will have to find other avenues to deal with this problem.

Thank you all for being patient and reporting spam posts when you see them.

 

[gb2000ie]

The Twitter and FaceBook accounts did not give the bots a way in, it just raised the profile of the site so that bot herders noticed it more, and sent their bots to register in the normal way. I don't think you can put the genie back in the bottle here.

The only solution is a proper CAPTCHA - you can hope that the bots forget this place is here, but I think that's blind optimism, computers don't forget!

I have a lot of experience moderating and admining bulletin board systems, and a good CAPTCHA makes the difference between moderator and admin heaven and hell!

I don't understand the political structures in place that look after this site, but I do wish all of you the very best of luck in dealing with this modern internet-age nightmare. I for one really appreciate all the effort you guys put in.

B.

 

[Voyager]

Thanks gb2000ie!

Yes, I did not mean to imply that the Facebook and Twitter allowed the bots in, but as you said, made us known and with the link back to the forum, opened up the floodgate.

We have an admin meeting tomorrow and we will discuss the CAPTCHA solution

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Squallmuzza]

I'd guess that the simplest short-term solution might be X posts before you can post a link. Even something like 5 would be enough. At least that way there won't be anywhere near as many harmful links floating round the place ^^

 

[slimjim]

I'd guess that the simplest short-term solution might be X posts before you can post a link.

There is an alternative solution Sam.... your car battery, my jump leads, and their balls... it's the only language they will understand!:thumbs up::thumbs up::thumbs up:

 

[Squallmuzza]

There is an alternative solution Sam.... your car battery, my jump leads, and their balls... it's the only language they will understand!:thumbs up::thumbs up::thumbs up:

Co-signed.

 

[Campus]

I'd guess that the simplest short-term solution might be X posts before you can post a link. Even something like 5 would be enough. At least that way there won't be anywhere near as many harmful links floating round the place ^^

The idea itself is not bad, but the outcome will not meet the expectations. The result will almost certainly be that new members throw up five completely pointless posts just to get permission to make a post with links.

We have seen a similar case in the Requests, where the members make one "Hi, I'm new here" post in Introductions, and then 24 "Thankzzz, Wow" posts everywhere.

We are working on other solutions, and are now adding staff members assigned to work with this and similar problems.

Campus