This board is becoming a joke with all the spam

[marky9074]

Just installed the 'VIP' code as well on my forum. Just modified it so it asks a simple question.....this could be used here..... 'what cable do you need for OpenECU' something like that...

[keydiver]

I'm having the same spam issues with my phpBB-based support board. We've instituted some new protocols, and plan on installing VIP also. What a PITA!
Jeff O.

[Freon]

I'd love to start banning domains and IP ranges... I'd start by entirely blocking Poland. About half the spam comes from .pl domains.

Colby, it would also be nice if I could ban users. Right now I can only delete posts and attachments. Also, Colby, I've sent you several emails and PM's on this in the past few months. I'd really appreciate a reply. Frankly, I'm just as sick as all the users.

[marky9074]

My spam is down to zero now after two weeks of the VIP mod....

Mark

[FrSTi]

Colby, please consider this as a major issue !

This spam really sucks !!!

[prana]

This is becoming a joke. I'll volunteer my time to help with deleting these threads/posts if you want.....

[NeverLies]

Please, do something !! Even guest users can post, why ?

[cboles]

A couple of the forums had the wrong posting permissions. I have fixed those. For now, I will manually allow user signups, but I'm thinking of using the VIP mod. I'm not sure how effective that is assume it is already human spammers signing up on the site since they are able to get past the captcha...

Freon - I haven't seen any mails from you, but I have made you a full admin...

Colby

[crispyduck]

... I'm thinking of using the VIP mod. I'm not sure how effective that is assume it is already human spammers signing up on the site since they are able to get past the captcha...Colby

I agree VIP only stops spam bots not humans (if you can call the spammers that!).

I'd recommend the "Spam Words" phpBB2 mod (see http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=354376). You'll see that I've posted an enhancement request also at the end for the gold plated solution. I might even implement it myself if I don't generate any interest from my post over on phpBB2.

Food for thought.
-Steve.

[cboles]

In the last 12 hours since I switched signup to admin approval, I have had about 15 signups. All of which appear likely to be spammers, although sometimes it's hard to tell. I don't want to have to infer the motives of 30 new users every day. I agree that I might need to filter on posted content instead, since there is no good way to know someone is a spammer until they actually act.

[Freon]

The spam has slowed down tremendously already.

Someone already posted this, but it seems there are a number of plugins that may help as well.

http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=427852

Block Open Proxy Registrant, Spam Words, and Textual Confirmation look like good ideas.

I don't see a mod for it, but disabling link and image tags until 10 posts (or whatever) would be great. I know some boards have such a feature.

[cboles]

There is no span at this point because I have deleted every spam account, and I am manually approving new users. I am only approving users that really look legitimate. I am probably even deleting some accounts that are legit, but don't provide enough information to allow me to decide. I am deleting about 40 accounts a day, and the UI to do so is quite awkward, so this is definitely not a sustainable solution. I will try installing some of the aforementioned tools and turn the self registration back on and see what happens.

[marky9074]

The VIP code mod 'does' work with humans. Just change the VIP code to something like 'Colby'. How many spammers are actually going to take the time to find out who writes the software.... or like I said before the 'supplier' of the cable.

When I installed the 'humanizer' mod it was different, I still got spammers, but since I installed VIP code and asked a stupid question that any idiot could answer, I have had none

You dont have to post the answer to the question on the site, like the install suggests, you just need an obvious question to the users, that the spammers will not know the answer for...

[dynowog]

Hi guy i'm new here
name is nick

i know how you feel my site is getting bombarded with it all the time

but hey when there are guys getting paid to log on and post links its hard!!!

good luck with keeping them out i cant get rid of mine

[cboles]

I think I need to move to something like this. I am still getting far to many spammer signups that take too much time to police. Additionally, it is hard to distinguish the spammers from the legit users when all they signup with is an email address and no additional info (like and obvious spam URL). I just need to think of a question that can be answered by everyone who is legit. The problem is, if I'm coming to the site from a google search or some such, I may not know about some of the answers you suggested.

Colby

The VIP code mod 'does' work with humans. Just change the VIP code to something like 'Colby'. How many spammers are actually going to take the time to find out who writes the software.... or like I said before the 'supplier' of the cable.

When I installed the 'humanizer' mod it was different, I still got spammers, but since I installed VIP code and asked a stupid question that any idiot could answer, I have had none

You dont have to post the answer to the question on the site, like the install suggests, you just need an obvious question to the users, that the spammers will not know the answer for...