Spam Wars

[DaveW]

The SPAMBOTS have been pretty severe recently, which means that they've gotten past all my other measures. I'll be taking it up a notch soon to prevent them from signing up with a few new anti-spam features, which I'll install tonight.

A big thanks to everyone who reported the Spam over the last few days. I'm hoping the new measures will keep it under control for a while.

-Dave

[nil8]

Yay for an admin that stays on top of problems. Thanks Dave. Fighting spam is a pain in the ass.

[Redundant]

In case you don't read all the reported messages, I suggested a small time limit between making new threads. This should slow human spammers from making new threads so quickly. Do you think that would help?

[DaveW]

That's already in place. It's set at 5 seconds i think, and catches a surprising amount of SPAM. You guys should see the amount of spam we actually get rid off. If i turned all our stuff off, we'd be looking at 50+ messages a day.

-Dave

[Bucko]

What sort of extra features does vBulletin have to stop the spammers?

I administrate a Motorcycle forum using phpBB 2 in Australia, and it can be a constant battle with the spammers.
I banned all yahoo.com addresses (it still lets yahoo.com.au addresses for the Aussies), aol.com addresses and also anything ending in .ru
That cut down on a LOT of the spammers, but I'm still deleting at least 10 a day.
I guess I'm just interested if the change to VBulletin would be worth it.

[Scotty]

phpBB suufers from alot of spam, not sure why though, most phpBB forums i have seen end up with quite a bit of spam. You can get round it by having to have people who want to sign up get it cleared with admins etc, but even then you don't easily know if its a spammer.

Good job dave, spam is gay.

[Bucko]

The problem is even when I set the board so I have to clear all new users, it doesn't stop the ones who never post, or use a real email address from joining up.
Their account may not be active, but they put a web site in their profile, which shows up on the memberlist, or if you click on their profile.

[DaveW]

Good job dave, spam is gay.

Only some of it. :p

-Dave

[Scotty]

Only some of it. :p

-Dave


Clever *clap,clap*

We have ourselves a smart arse then...

[TheGreatSatan]

That's already in place. It's set at 5 seconds i think, and catches a surprising amount of SPAM. You guys should see the amount of spam we actually get rid off. If i turned all our stuff off, we'd be looking at 50+ messages a day.

-Dave

Up it to at least 30

[DaveW]

Don't want to jinx it, but we seem to be doing a lot better now...there may be some 'sleeper spammers' signed up at the moment, but i think we should be good for at least another month or two.

-Dave

[armadilloben]

Hey dave,

what does a spam message look like here on the boards??? Are you just like to fast for me to catch one before you delete it?

-ben

[Bucko]

what does a spam message look like here on the boards???

Here's two for your viewing pleasure:

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=6285

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=6286

[DaveW]

Thanks Bucko, those little gits must have slipped by. +Rep for being a good citizen, and making the mean streets of TBCs safer for all...;)

-Dave

[SgtM]

Hey dave,

what does a spam message look like here on the boards??? Are you just like to fast for me to catch one before you delete it?

-ben

They can be something simple with text and links. I've actually reported a few that were pr0n with images. Someone found one on here where the guy used a . to link his spam. Funny thing was that he posed a question that was actually appropriate for the boards.

[d_stilgar]

The ones with the hidden links are the weird ones. Why would you hide the link in a space between two words or in punctuation?

On another note, the bots are fairly sophisticated. The questions sometimes are very relevant, and are posted in the right sections. There must be bots that read what the site content is about and go posting from there . . .idk, I don't program bots.

[Durrthock]

Dam you spam bots DAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMM YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!
Lol just thought we would benefit from one of those