Any idea...
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Please read the Forum rules and policies before posting.
Please read the Forum rules and policies before posting.
Any idea...
...why the general RTC forums are getting hit with some spam posts recently, and what can be done to help stop it?
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cowsmanaut
- Moo Master
- Posts: 4378
- Joined: Fri Jun 30, 2000 12:53 am
- Location: canada
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ChristopheF
- Encyclopedist
- Posts: 1544
- Joined: Sun Oct 24, 1999 2:36 pm
- Location: France
- Contact:
I also had some spam messages on my forum these last days.
Damn spammer robots that post on every forum they can find...
Damn spammer robots that post on every forum they can find...
Christophe - Dungeon Master Encyclopaedia
Essentially, We have to eliminate automatically all postings from spammer robots and discourage all manual spam, while leaving as much freedom as possible to members and to our welcomed visitors.
As spammers now often use zombies, I'm afraid that banning users based on IP address will not be very effective.
I don't know to what extent it is easy with phbBB to implement validation scripts to postings, but I have the following suggestions:
-implement the "rel=nofollow" spec on all links in posts, and indicate this on the post editing page, this will scare away all manual link spammers, as this makes all their efforts useless.
-indicate on the post editing page that to eliminate spam, we had to implement the following rules :
A) posts from guest accounts are =automatically= rejected if they contain any link, email address or embedded image (only plain text will pass).
B) The same rules apply to accounts less than one week old or with less than two posts.
C) The email, private message, web pages, aim buttons are disabled for the same accounts.
D) If it's not enough : for these accounts : filter out the messages containing the $ sign, or any sequence of more than 3 digits (to eliminate phone numbers and zip codes )
For spammers time is money and won't bother to (re)write messages satisfying these rules. They just want to be contacted easily and as fast as possible.
I'm sure that visitors who come to say Hi or to ask questions will not mind these rules and will not be inconvenienced by them. After all, they hate spam as much as we do.
As spammers now often use zombies, I'm afraid that banning users based on IP address will not be very effective.
I don't know to what extent it is easy with phbBB to implement validation scripts to postings, but I have the following suggestions:
-implement the "rel=nofollow" spec on all links in posts, and indicate this on the post editing page, this will scare away all manual link spammers, as this makes all their efforts useless.
-indicate on the post editing page that to eliminate spam, we had to implement the following rules :
A) posts from guest accounts are =automatically= rejected if they contain any link, email address or embedded image (only plain text will pass).
B) The same rules apply to accounts less than one week old or with less than two posts.
C) The email, private message, web pages, aim buttons are disabled for the same accounts.
D) If it's not enough : for these accounts : filter out the messages containing the $ sign, or any sequence of more than 3 digits (to eliminate phone numbers and zip codes )
For spammers time is money and won't bother to (re)write messages satisfying these rules. They just want to be contacted easily and as fast as possible.
I'm sure that visitors who come to say Hi or to ask questions will not mind these rules and will not be inconvenienced by them. After all, they hate spam as much as we do.
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Ameena
- Wordweaver, Murafu Maker
- Posts: 7517
- Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2003 6:25 pm
- Location: Here, where I am sitting!
- Contact:
Just so you know, in case you decide to delete people who have never made a post or whatever, someone joined about a week ago with the username "Rachel_Westwood" - she is an RL friend of mine and only registered on the forum so we can hog the chat room with discussions about the story we are writing (as some people have already experienced) 
. So don't delete her if you start to go about doing so 
.
. So don't delete her if you start to go about doing so .______________________________________________
Ameena, self-declared Wordweaver, Beastmaker, Thoughtbringer, and great smegger of dungeon editing!
Ameena, self-declared Wordweaver, Beastmaker, Thoughtbringer, and great smegger of dungeon editing!
Ah, I did spot her and wondered who she was
And really, if it becomes a big problem then disabling html in guest posts might be a good idea, but since the problem hasn't worsened and we aren't flooded - five posts this week - I would hang fire. If it's a wave that is passing no reason to make life miserable for everyone including the people who just guest post. I was just worried incase we started getting flooded before.
And really, if it becomes a big problem then disabling html in guest posts might be a good idea, but since the problem hasn't worsened and we aren't flooded - five posts this week - I would hang fire. If it's a wave that is passing no reason to make life miserable for everyone including the people who just guest post. I was just worried incase we started getting flooded before.
