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Infested With Spammers

Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 11:12 am
by Lugas
I know that this is in Technical Support for Myth, but in General I would interupted by spammers. Listen up:
Previosly, spam-bots would register and make their homepages drugs sites etc... Now they are posting spam in General Discussion. Something has to be done immediatley, and I mean immediatley. Here are some options I would suggest: make a new report button; make a few Myth-related questions for registering users; elect one or two new admins; make me and admin (:twisted:); automatically delete the first post made by users (the bots seem to post once only); upgrade the forum etc.
DISCUSS!

Re: Infested With Spammers

Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 1:43 pm
by Grayswandir
Hire RyokoTK to come over here and clean up the boards?
...
Or would that be too drastic? :twisted:

Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 1:52 pm
by Lugas
Eep...

Re: Infested With Spammers

Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 5:19 pm
by Death's Avatar
Lugas wrote:I know that this is in Technical Support for Myth, but in General I would interupted by spammers. Listen up:
Previosly, spam-bots would register and make their homepages drugs sites etc... Now they are posting spam in General Discussion. Something has to be done immediatley, and I mean immediatley. Here are some options I would suggest: make a new report button; make a few Myth-related questions for registering users; elect one or two new admins; make me and admin (:twisted:); automatically delete the first post made by users (the bots seem to post once only); upgrade the forum etc.
DISCUSS!
While agree that something ought to be done, I wouldn't quite say that we are being overrun. The admins are just really busy folk, so I think perhaps the bazzilion topics on this issue already are probably enough...

*Goes to harass doob*

-DA

Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 5:36 pm
by The Elfoid
The admins must have noticed dude, even if they've not sorted it yet

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 4:58 pm
by Lugas
There is another one.
I would rather not see the community split in two. The Pfhorums already had it in 2005.

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 7:23 pm
by Death's Avatar
Lugas wrote:There is another one.
I would rather not see the community split in two. The Pfhorums already had it in 2005.
Wait, what are you talking about?

Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 8:00 pm
by The Elfoid
The spam's not developed to the level where it qualifies as an independent community...don't worry about Mythers running off to join the spam brigade ;)

phpBB has been around for ages. Plenty of places have spam problems. If it was that easy to sort out, woulda been done already.
Lugas wrote:Now they are posting spam in General Discussion
Happens to loads of forums. Its not earth shatteringly rare.
and I mean immediatley
And if it doesn't? Why the urgency?
make a new report button
Within about 5 seconds of surfing the page admins can tell whats a spammer usually - we all can.
make a few Myth-related questions for registering users
What if its someone new :|
automatically delete the first post made by users (the bots seem to post once only)
That's seriously funny : (
upgrade the forum etc.
DISCUSS!
The '2005' date at the bottom suggests this might not be the latest phpBB...but this problem's an old one.

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 11:06 am
by Doobie
I'm in toronto atm, and will be in vancouver this weekend, then I play catchup at work when I get back to calgary on tuesday. I'll try to find some time to implement some of the suggestions/modifications people have made in the near future.

Sorry nothing has been done sooner, but this is an insanely busy month for me.

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 2:15 pm
by Grayswandir
Death's Avatar wrote:
Lugas wrote:There is another one.
I would rather not see the community split in two. The Pfhorums already had it in 2005.
Wait, what are you talking about?
http://www.pfhorums.com
The Crapshack of Marathon.

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 7:24 pm
by Horus
If the forums don't require account activation then they should (when registering the forum sends you an email, you click the link in that to activate your account).

I assume Magma forums are still running on the system where you just have to register and that's you able to post.

I also assume that guest posting has been removed?

Posting spam bots disappeared when I setup the account activation system on the TFV site (and deleted those Spam Bot accounts that had managed to fully register before the account activation setup requirement).

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 7:47 pm
by The Elfoid
Doobie wrote:I'm in toronto atm, and will be in vancouver this weekend, then I play catchup at work when I get back to calgary on tuesday. I'll try to find some time to implement some of the suggestions/modifications people have made in the near future.

Sorry nothing has been done sooner, but this is an insanely busy month for me.
Doobie actually ran from the spam. Miles away.

Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 8:37 pm
by Death's Avatar
Grayswandir wrote:
Death's Avatar wrote:
Lugas wrote:There is another one.
I would rather not see the community split in two. The Pfhorums already had it in 2005.
Wait, what are you talking about?
http://www.pfhorums.com
The Crapshack of Marathon.
Right....I meant with us though. 4 spam threads while doobie is out of town is not going to result in the myth community dividing...unless....

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 5:53 am
by Baak
Horus â„¢ wrote:If the forums don't require account activation then they should (when registering the forum sends you an email, you click the link in that to activate your account).

I assume Magma forums are still running on the system where you just have to register and that's you able to post.

I also assume that guest posting has been removed?

Posting spam bots disappeared when I setup the account activation system on the TFV site (and deleted those Spam Bot accounts that had managed to fully register before the account activation setup requirement).
I think Doobie has lots of options we've shown him for how to cut back on the spamming - he'll get to it when he has a chance.

Besides... Elfoid has to have something to read! ;)


One of the suggestions is a simple way to prevent the spambots from registering properly. In phpBB2 spambots can register even with the account activation - they have to be prevented from going through the registration process (and the basic captcha has been cracked by them as well).

All of this has been covered in another thread...

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 6:24 am
by Zeph
dont let anyone start a new thread until they have 1 or 2 posts(replies).