What's up with all the spam?

[Chimpie]

What's up with all the spam?

Do the moderators not care anymore?

Does the admin not run the latest mods to prevent this from happening?

Is vBa going down hill just like vB is?

Ugh! I used to love coming to this site. Now it's like they don't care anymore.

Chimpie

[KW802]

The SpamBots are getting more aggressive combined with me not being online much during the holidays has resulted in some spam being visible a little longer than usual.

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[pedigree2]

i hate to plug my stuff or blow my own trumpet but you could try vbStopForumSpam

[KW802]

i hate to plug my stuff or blow my own trumpet but you could try vbStopForumSpam
Brian mentioned in another post that he'll be trying it out first one of his other vB sites first before deciding to install it here.

On a support site there is always that fine balance that must be maintained of fighting spam while at the same time not being too aggressive about it lest a legitimate post gets flagged.

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[Rap4]

What's up with all the spam?

Do the moderators not care anymore?

Does the admin not run the latest mods to prevent this from happening?

Is vBa going down hill just like vB is?

Ugh! I used to love coming to this site. Now it's like they don't care anymore.

Chimpie

Ha ha, I agree, just got VB and also VBA, cant get any answers or propper support - really really stuck in a world that I know very little about and no one to point me in the right direction, it was a lot easier to pay for it than it is to get answers to questions! (que the violins!)

[Brian]

Ha ha, I agree, just got VB and also VBA, cant get any answers or propper support - really really stuck in a world that I know very little about and no one to point me in the right direction, it was a lot easier to pay for it than it is to get answers to questions! (que the violins!)

Um... You made 2 posts before this one, during the holidays. And how do you pay for something when it's free? ;)

[CareyCrew]

Brian mentioned in another post that he'll be trying it out first one of his other vB sites first before deciding to install it here.

On a support site there is always that fine balance that must be maintained of fighting spam while at the same time not being too aggressive about it lest a legitimate post gets flagged.


But Stop Forum Spam does not filter or flag ANY posts Kevin,it checks new registrations against a database of known spammers.

It cannot stop new spammers with previously unseen IP's,emails and usernames.

It also requires a fair degree of admin participation on a daily basis to get the best out of the system, it is good but can be time consuming.

Surely the best way to go is restrict posting rights of non license holders to the pre-sale forums only and have their posts in the moderation queue.

This entails less work each day as you do not have to check all forums for spam,do not have to respond to all the reported posts and your forum remains clean and looks professional.

[Chimpie]

There's also additional steps you can take.

Create additional, required userfields. I have two or three on one of my forums and I haven't had a single bot spammer in years.

[KW802]

There's also additional steps you can take. ...Like using an Akismet key. (Brian, hint, hint.... :p )

[hajji]

What's up with all the spam?

Do the moderators not care anymore?

Does the admin not run the latest mods to prevent this from happening?

Is vBa going down hill just like vB is?

Ugh! I used to love coming to this site. Now it's like they don't care anymore.

ChimpiePrecisely!!!

[hajji]

The SpamBots are getting more aggressive combined with me not being online much during the holidays has resulted in some spam being visible a little longer than usual.Yep!!! You have to do something about it before they clustered the forum.

[Brian]

Like using an Akismet key. (Brian, hint, hint.... :p )
I tried that on another site, but it only seemed to half-way work.... About 1/2 of the posts it flagged as spam were legit, and it still let about 1/2 of the spam posts through.
I'm still testing SFS on another site and so far it seems to be working well. I need to look through some things and likely make some customizations before installing it here though. Right now I'm focusing on vB4 conversions though, so it will likely be another week or two at least before I can do so. I have banned a few new IP addresses though, so hopefully that will help some in the mean time.

[pedigree2]

can i have those IP's please so that I can add them to the SFS database ?

[KW802]

I tried that on another site, but it only seemed to half-way work.... About 1/2 of the posts it flagged as spam were legit, and it still let about 1/2 of the spam posts through. With the Akismet key method it seems to take a bit to learn which ones are really spam or not. What is annoying, though, is that with 3.8.4 I'm seeing an issue where a bot makes post #1 and it gets moderated as spam but if they then immediately make post#2 with the exact same content then post #2 is not moderated.

[lseamore]

Yeah, the holidays have resulted to spammers itching to enter of some of my forums at a high.

[Royalridge]

Again, not to blow my own trumpet, but, I've my own plugin for vB 3.8 that takes a list of spamwords, counts their apperance in a message and if the total of all the spamwords goes over a limit it puts the post in the moderation queue. Works well with all the viagra / phone sellers as they seem to LOVE repeating certain words.

It's an unpublished plugin but if anyone wants to give it a try they are more than welcome to PM me.

[Chimpie]

There's also additional steps you can take.

Create additional, required userfields. I have two or three on one of my forums and I haven't had a single bot spammer in years.

Or you could just do this.

It is funny when someone spams the forum in a spam thread though. LOL

[Royalridge]

There's also additional steps you can take.

Create additional, required userfields. I have two or three on one of my forums and I haven't had a single bot spammer in years.
Might stop 'bot spam, but doesn't stop a lot of the human assisted registration that's happening these days.

[Chimpie]

Might stop 'bot spam, but doesn't stop a lot of the human assisted registration that's happening these days.

If it's human assisted, then almost nothing you do is going to stop it.

However, most of the spam on this forum is bot created.

[Royalridge]

If it's human assisted, then almost nothing you do is going to stop it.

However, most of the spam on this forum is bot created.Yeah, there's not much that can stop assisted registrations but a lot of these people then tend to copy/paste a large list of what they are trying to sell and that tends to have repeat text. So my spam add-in can count the number of times they put "nokia" in it, or "shoes" or whatever and if it hits more than a certain number then the post goes in to the moderation queue. :)

I also make use of vB's inbuilt scanning, the stopforumspam add-in for registrations, and recapcha. I do 1.5M page displays a month and get under 20 spam messages making it through per month. Maybe I'm just lucky.

[Chimpie]

Please don't take my comments as suggesting that Brian not use your mod. If anything he should use your mod and other methods at the same time.

I will say, however, that the spam posts in the forum this morning are bot generated.

[Royalridge]

Please don't take my comments as suggesting that Brian not use your mod. I never took them that way, it's up to each forum owner to decide on how to best fight spam.

If anything he should use your mod and other methods at the same time.Totally agree.

[hajji]

I concur! No doubt.

[dieKetzer]

irony hey.

[Nordinho]

irony hey.

indeed....

[KW802]

Regarding user: faiskeoadave

irony hey.
indeed....
Brian, for what it's worth.... user "faiskeoadave" would have been stopped by the vBStopForumSpam hack. :o

[Royalridge]

Brian, for what it's worth.... user "faiskeoadave" would have been stopped by the vBStopForumSpam hack. :oAnd what he posted would have been stopped by my Moderate Spam hack if "viagra" had been one of the keywords! :P :P

[dieKetzer]

i am convinced.
i want a copy of your hack.And what he posted would have been stopped by my Moderate Spam hack if "viagra" had been one of the keywords! :P :P

[Nordinho]

Stopforumspan combined with 'Is Bot: Registration Time Check' worked some miracles on my board sofar...'crosses fingers'...

[leenco12]

But Stop Forum Spam does not filter or flag ANY posts Kevin,it checks new registrations against a database of known spammers.

It cannot stop new spammers with previously unseen IP's,emails and usernames.

It also requires a fair degree of admin participation on a daily basis to get the best out of the system, it is good but can be time consuming.

Surely the best way to go is restrict posting rights of non license holders to the pre-sale forums only and have their posts in the moderation queue.

This entails less work each day as you do not have to check all forums for spam,do not have to respond to all the reported posts and your forum remains clean and looks professional.
There's also additional steps you can take.

Create additional, required userfields. I have two or three on one of my forums and I haven't had a single bot spammer in years.

[thunderbolt]

Or maybe make use of a Captcha plugin?