Spam Bot is posting here in forum

[JuanTutors]

Heh that just made me think of another one similar to that text image thing:

Enter this string of smileys into the textbox below (no spaces)

[Mystwalker]

Originally Posted by xilman

Except that it doesn't stop the crap from appearing in the forum.

That's right for now, but I see no sense in spamming a forum when it has no effect. So, in the long run, we could get rid of it.

Or maybe we should combine "random text images" with unregistered users - possibly, it even motivates people to join.

[akruppa]

Originally Posted by xilman

Except that it doesn't stop the crap from appearing in the forum.

Paul

The spammer will get fewer visits to his page if people have to select and paste the url instead of just clicking. This makes the forum less attractive for spamming while having very little negative effect for honest users.

vBulletin seems to allow moderation only on a per thread basis, according to the docs at vbulletin.com. Is there no way to require moderation for posts by unregistered users, and perhaps the first post(s) of new users? Even if not, moderating the "Information, Questions & Answers" forum might be a good idea if the added work load on admin/moderators is not too burdensome.

Would it be possible to move posts back to a moderation queue if a certain number of trusted users (by whichever criteria, say registered for at least so long and having at least this many posts) report it as bad? That would further reduce the page hits a spammer could expect by getting the spam off the board very quickly.

Alex

[JuanTutors]

Originally Posted by Mystwalker

..."random text images" with unregistered users...

I agree. It wouldn't make sense to do it with registered users, unless some day they all decide to register in forums.

Originally Posted by akruppa

The spammer will get fewer visits to his page if people have to select and paste the url instead of just clicking.

If their posts are automated, making the links inactive won't have any effect.

Originally Posted by akruppa

vBulletin seems to allow moderation only on a per thread basis, according to the docs at vbulletin.com.

Does this mean you are not ALLOWED to make that random text image or smiley thing? If that's what it is, then I don't know what to say.

If you ARE allowed to use any of those suggestions, then it shouldn't be hard to just do it.

The point isn't to remove incentive, because there IS a HUGE incentive to post crap even if the link is inactive. An inactive link is infinitely better than no link, especially to a spammer who doesn't realize that both of those are crap.

However, adding even the smallest obstacle makes a huge effect. For example, I created this email address encoder thing that just turns your email address into its ascii code before you post it on a website. People who have used it (and have told me they used it) have all said the amount of junk they receive on those email addresses is almost nothing if they didn't receive much junk before posting the email address, and in fact I had the same experience. The thing is that most email address spoofers don't bother accounting for that small change because such few people do it and their goal is quantity. Since their spiders (searchers) are automated, looking for this special thing would slow it down tremendousy, making encoding your email address into its ascii code a HUGE obstacle.

It's the same thing here. If you are allowed make a smiley thing or a text image thing, or even if you said "Type the letter 'a' into the box below", that would have a HUGE effect. Hopefully you can do one of those things.

[moo]

dont make regerstered user do it though.

[PrimeCruncher]

The slime are back AGAIN...

[moo]

again noooooo

[PrimeCruncher]

We really gotta do something about this...

[Xyzzy]

As soon as we get the IP we ban them. Just be patient. The mods in this subforum are pretty quick to delete them anyways.