For Mods attention - Preventing Spam

Jamo · Post by **Jamo** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:32 pm

Guys can i offer some advice on prevent spam?

As a mod of another forum we've been hit with spam as well.

Couple of suggestion how we've handled it:

a) by not allowing anyone to paste links (image and url) in their first 4 posts
b) beefing up image verification
c) Asking a question to get a valid answer before accepting user registration.

for example "what is 5 added to 10 plus 3 - two" type of thing

Sophie · Post by **Sophie** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:31 am

would be a good idea, I guess I read the wastegate once a week, it's not worth it anymore because of the spammers...

Macaroon · Post by **Macaroon** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 12:34 pm

So if we ban new members from posting in the Wastegate until they have made maybe 3 posts in other topics...?

Can that be done automatically or would it need just as much moderator intervention as fully modrating new users first 5 posts? Anyway, this is what I posted on the subject yesterday in the Users to be Removed thread:

Here's a simple and easy way to spot dodgy posters, if it is technically feasable with this message board host: On the forum lists top levels (i.e. General, Wastegate etc etc) can we display the member's total posts next to their name? e.g. supersexygirl (1)

Any new user posting a vaguely suspect thread name will be instantly obvious to other users so nobody even bothers to click on the thread to read it let alone following a link to some dodgy website.

Of course this won't actually prevent spammers posting but it would instantly flag brand new members and allow us to take a cautious approch to reading their posts.

Sophie · Post by **Sophie** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:36 pm

What I don't get is why the manage to register, doesn't a modorator have to authorise the new member before they can log in, or do spammers have a way of getting past that bit ?

Big Brother · Post by **Big Brother** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:56 pm

I was going to reply to this earlier but didnâ€™t have time, I removed 11 spam threads this morning when I logged on the problem in the spammers are finding ever more inventive ways to get passed MODs, a MOD will typically last about 2 months before spammers become aware of it and find a way around it.

I still think registration is the simplest way to prevent spammers, I posted this in the â€˜Forum Issuesâ€™ thread a few weeks back All it would take is to install easymod0.3.0 and follow the installation notes here This takes about 10 minutes to install and cuts the installation of time of other mods from 30 â€“ 40 minutes to 5 minutes.

Then install the Junior Admin Mod all that needs doing is uploading the files/folders to the relevant forum directories and easymod does all the code modification. This mod would give moderators access to areas of the admin control panel specified by the admins, e.g just give us access to the User Management area where we can delete/deactivate/activate/etc users.

Now Daniel did say if there were anyway to allow moderators to delete users without giving us full admin abilities he would do it, well this is it. When a new user registers they get a message saying the account requires activation by an administrator, the admin then get an email with a link to active the account, however they can log onto the forum first and check the user out before activating the account. Once activated the user gets the welcome email.

I have just installed EasyMod and Junior Admin MOD from scratch and it took me about 15 minutes, it uses hardly any space

I think there is a MOD that will make new users first few post invisible until approved by a moderator, will have to check up on that

hailesmail · Post by **hailesmail** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 1:43 pm

Just out of interest, my directory name change is still holding up, touch wood still no spammers have registered, that must be about 4-6 weeks now

Big Brother · Post by **Big Brother** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 3:04 pm

hailesmail wrote:Just out of interest, my directory name change is still holding up, touch wood still no spammers have registered, that must be about 4-6 weeks now

That had no effect on your users or links to the forum?

hailesmail · Post by **hailesmail** » Sun Jan 21, 2007 4:35 pm

There is one setting in the options that points to the folder and obviously any link to the forum needs to change, but no other side effects.

I just changed the folder from /www/phpbb to /www/forum , fixed the script path setting (I was lazy and edited the mysql database directly but you can set it before renaming the folder within admin options)

Then update any links to the forum.

Whole job gave me change from 5 mins, and nobody even noticed I'd done anything.