To combat spammers: restrictions applied to new members of the forum

[Durk]

There is also a time component, I think five days.

[Rafiki]

Still not quite clear on whether it's 5 or 10 posts one has to do, but as this makes 11 I should now be over that limit.

The first post says it correctly; it's 5 posts

Does admin check each new user that comes along to find out?

Luckily, we are so quickly approaching the singularity that we have systems that handle this automagically ]If we pass muster do we get an email or are previous restricted areas suddenly thrown open? [/QUOTE] Previously restricted functionality becomes available, no e-mail notification, though.

A necessary job, alas, but doubtless the spammers will falter and fail against such stalwart defences.

They have indeed faltered and failed :-) Though some still get through, the results we got from putting these restrictions in place were by far good enough to justify keeping them.

Keep up the good work, admin, and many thanks for keeping us safe!

I see it more as a group effort by all good-intentioned members of the forum, so right back atchya

[anjou]

Thanks for clearing that up, Rafiki

[Pocus]

You know what, I almost banned you Wildcat, sorry for that

I thought at first... wow this bot is excellent, first 'it' takes a nice looking name, and then 'it' manages to post thanks messages that are meaningful within the context of each thread... And then I saw some wording that convinced me you were a live person, that just wanted to pass rapidly the 10-posts limit ... But at first I had a doubt! So welcome to our forum...

[Bohémond]

Is there way to not allow members with less than 10 posts to post a link (URL) in their post.

To avoid bots postings these nasty ad messages.

Regards

[Rafiki]

Is there way to not allow members with less than 10 posts to post a link (URL) in their post.

To avoid bots postings these nasty ad messages.

That's a very good suggestion, actually, that we haven't thought of before.

So, in addition to the already established restrictions, new users are not allows to use links in their posts

(where "new users" are people with less than 5 posts or who have been members of the forums less than 2 days)

[lodilefty]

That's a very good suggestion, actually, that we haven't thought of before.

So, in addition to the already established restrictions, new users are not allows to use links in their posts

(where "new users" are people with less than 5 posts or who have been members of the forums less than 2 days)

Um, I just banned a 2 post user that imbedded links...

[Kotik]

A tiny question, were is it most effective to report spammers and such so it an be dealt with quickly? on this thread or directly to a moderator?

I just saw the "report post" button! never mind!

[Rafiki]

Um, I just banned a 2 post user that imbedded links...

Hum, don't like the sound of that. Leave them for me the next time you see them, and I'll look further into it

[Gatling]

Hi Rafiki,

Apparently the are still some holes in the sieve! See War room forum for ROP!

Best regards
Gatling

[Leibst]

whay the hell is happening with spammers?
they are invading the forum!!!!

[FENRIS]

Encore un penible qui s'introduit sur tout les forums !!!

[Pocus]

We are killing them as fast as they spawn.

We are investigating how they manage to answers questions like 'what is the sum of three plus five'... bots are not only bots, there must be some human cheap labor working also here... now I really don't get what they think they achieve.

[FENRIS]

C'est la guerre !!

[Maecenas]

Ok, after finding this thread I learned where my first account has gone . I'm active at SI-games.com mostly - now I try to get 5 posts to leave spam-bot status.

[Rafiki]

I'd think there'd be a better way by now to suppress spammers,

It's one of several measures we have implemented to stop spammers. We've found that freely allowing PMs to all new members of the forums allowed spammers to operate "undercover" for longer, while the current measures forces their hand to a larger degree, which is Good(tm)

likely looking at rapidity of PMing and other behavior that is massive in a short period of time.

If spammers get to fire of a number of PMs (let alone a massive amount), then the damage has been done, and we've lost a battle. Note that there is no automated way of handling/deleting spam, and that putting something like that into effect is tricky, with a danger of deleting stuff that isn't spam.

Nigerian IP addresses would be a sure giveaway.

We have had some success with IP-banning, though not without adverse effects. Given the global nature of our community, we don't want to do large-scale IP-bans unless the positives far outweigh the negatives.

BTW, Chinese, Brazilian and Ukrainian IPs have been a lot more troublesome than the Nigerian ones.

What kind of spamming was happening? Make $10k a month at home clicking icons?

That, and other generic variations of your average, run-of-the-mill forum spam. Nothing exciting, I'm afraid, just boring and pointless.

[PVBLIVS RVTILIVS RVFVS]

I guess I need to wait another day to add an avatar lol, but in the mean time I'll Play some Birth of Rome

Glad to be here,

Russ

[Owl]

I'm not sure if this is a problem related to some restrictions applied due to the anti-spam measures or maybe just an issue with the template in use on the forum, but for me as a new member, there is no new link to the User Control Panel provided by vBulletin in the top right corner, which should normally be next to "Log Out". In the template "header", there should be an entry

Code: Select all

            <li><a href="usercp.php{vb:raw session.sessionurl_q}">{vb:rawphrase user_control_panel}</a></li>


after

Code: Select all

            <vb:if condition="$show['registerbutton']">
            <li><a href="register.php{vb:raw session.sessionurl_q}" rel="nofollow">{vb:rawphrase register}</a></li>
            </vb:if>

Manually entering the address, e.g. http://www.ageod-forum.com/usercp.php allows me access however, and also allows me to set my avatar and signature. Just thought I would point this out as it means that new members who do not know about the file structure of vBulletin might end up never setting an avatar at all!

Edit: Actually I just realized you can also access said panel through Forum Actions --> General Settings. Never knew about that somewhat hidden way! So if this was a deliberate choice, please ignore this post and I'm sorry.