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Spam getting out of hand

This spam situation is getting beyond ridiculous, it almost makes me wonder if it's worthwhile to even search for any proper threads from all the crap.

Is anyone even trying to do anything about it? Does anyone even care?

Hello?

Re: Spam getting out of hand

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery This spam situation is getting beyond ridiculous, it almost makes me wonder if it's worthwhile to even search for any proper threads from all the crap. Is anyone even trying to do anything about it? Does anyone even care? Hello?

Agree full 100%, it's getting way out of hand.

Agreed with both posts above. I've already made some suggestions:

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles We need a better verification process during registration. Bots can sometimes get past CAPTCHA images, so we need something more robust, like requiring them to answer a simple math problem, for example. Like, "Add two and two together and you get...?" I've seen boards that require this before and I bet it would weed out spam bots nicely.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Another option would be to limit new posters to one post a day for the first two days. That would give the mods more time to catch spammers and ban them / delete their posts without having the forums clogged up like this.

http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...0&forumid=48&s=

Or we could just get some more mods who are around often enough to delete spam in a timely way...

This VBulletin add-on might be worth considering; it allows you to require new users to answer any number of questions that you specify, pretty much guaranteeing that bots won't get in:

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=124828

quote:

This simple hack is meant as a replacement for the default CAPTCHA system in vBulletin. There are two main reasons one might want to do this: firstly, new technology is constantly being developed to crack CAPTCHA images and make spam accounts anyway, and secondly, the more secure the CAPTCHA, the more difficult it is for genuine users to tell what the numbers in the image are. There is also the issue of visually impaired users, and the fact that not all servers are capable of generating CAPTCHA images. So what does this hack do instead? It asks a question. Any question you want. That's the best part: YOU make up the questions, which means that every forum is unique, which means that it is impossible for spambots to be simply programmed to bypass it at all forums with the hack installed. You can make one or many questions - if you make many, the hack will pick one at random when a guest attempts to register, search, post or send mail through the Contact Us form. Their input is compared with your specified answer, and voil�, if they get it right they're pretty much guaranteed to be human. If they get it wrong, they're given an error message. It doesn't have to be a complicated question. Heck, you can just make it "Please type 'blah' into this box." Or you can go with inserting a simple image with HTML and ask what is shown on the image. Or you can ask them to tell you two plus two. It's up to you. In fact, this can also be used as a means of forcing people to read the rules by asking for a certain password found there, or if your forum focuses on a specialized subject, ask a question concerning the subject that all your genuine users will be able to answer, but a random troll or "CAPTCHA-sweatshop-reader" will be scratching their head over.

please no images with letters or cats!!

Its been terrible recently. That VBulletin add-on looks ok, but not all spammers are newly signed ones

quote:

Originally posted by Acton That VBulletin add-on looks ok, but not all spammers are newly signed ones

Maybe not, but the vast majority are...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha

Just glancing through the spam-reporting thread:

http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...359#post8992359

Clicking through the user names that were reported, I see that since June 23, none of the bots have been banned or deleted. Nor does it look like any of their spam posts have been deleted, either.

What's the holdup?

posting for toast

Completely agree MrMystery sir!

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Just glancing through the spam-reporting thread: http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...359#post8992359 Clicking through the user names that were reported, I see that since June 23, none of the bots have been banned or deleted. Nor does it look like any of their spam posts have been deleted, either. What's the holdup?

not true the last spambot to be killed was on 2008-07-13 14:20:20

Pls fix.

quote:

Originally posted by narcism not true the last spambot to be killed was on 2008-07-13 14:20:20

When I wrote that, most of the bots had not been killed, nor had most of their posts been deleted.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles When I wrote that, most of the bots had not been killed

Not true on that part. They have been getting killed reasonably fast for quite some time. We do have lives outside of TA, so we can't spend all day on TA waiting for spambots to kill.

quote:

Originally posted by verndogs Not true on that part. They have been getting killed reasonably fast for quite some time. We do have lives outside of TA, so we can't spend all day on TA waiting for spambots to kill.

In all fairness, there needs to be more mods. If not that, than at least more active mods.

It seems as though there's this "mod bug" that goes about whenever we get a new one. The other ones are inactive so *for example* we make floorfiller a mod. He's around for about a month and then he goes into hibernation, posting maybe twice a year. Allied Nations is another example. Montana and l�cid are the only two main mods that were made into mods that I've seen about as of late.

TA is too big for just two or three active mods. Especially mods with lives

I like butter.

But let's just look into installing a captcha and maybe getting new mods. I know this is falling on deaf ears because swamper rarely does anything to anything any more in the way of actually moderating -- well -- anything

Forgive me if I'm deluded in saying so.

quote:

Originally posted by verndogs Not true on that part. They have been getting killed reasonably fast for quite some time. We do have lives outside of TA, so we can't spend all day on TA waiting for spambots to kill.

That is why we need something to prevent the spambots from getting in in the first place. Or mods who are here to do their job.

I think we need a mod who's a "garbage man" with the specific task of coming by for twenty minutes or so once a day and deleting whatever bots get reported.

And if it turns out that he doesn't end up coming by that often, then the job can rotate to someone who can.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles I think we need a mod who's a "garbage man" with the specific task of coming by for twenty minutes or so once a day and deleting whatever bots get reported. And if it turns out that he doesn't end up coming by that often, then the job can rotate to someone who can.

txta needs a new one, anyway.

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