Topic: New Spammy members

Hi TP and whoever else that has the power,

I was thinking about the new members we've been having over the last few months and how often they turn out to be real living breathing spammers. Apart from creating a crud post, they also have embedded links in their signature that go to their sites, then they post short replies in a handful of new posts in an attempt to increase redirects.

I propose:

• Refusing embedded links in signature for new inmates (Neurotic [0])
• Refusing embedded links in posts for new inmates (Neurotic [0])
• Refusing embedded images in posts for new inmates (Neurotic [0])

Now perhaps the third one is a bit OTT, but what are your thoughts? Are these feasible to add? are they worthwhile?

Cheers,

Blaise.

Before I comment, please define 'refusing'.

They cannot use the [url] or [img] UBB code



(Edited by Blaise on 07-13-2010 16:53)

so what happens if they type in a post containing such an ubb code?

On as side note, the grail also converts anything looking like an url into a link.

So I suggest that the URL should stay, but be in plain text.

Also UBB code should still be stripped from their post.

Alternatively they could be given an error message stating that they don't have access privileges yet to post such links, and that they have to return and edit their post.

Or for the member registration you can add..

What color is the fruit in the picture? [Picture of a banana]

Textbox -> Default Value = "Red".

That's gotten rid of bots on my old forums.

_______________________
http://www.txlans.com
~
# rm -rf

We do not have problems with bots anymore - the "new" spammers are actually human.

WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles

Yeah, that's why I think if we strip anchor embedding from their posts they won't be so interested in posting.

if they were actually following up, they would see that their posts disappear within 15 minutes or so...
Perhaps the error message instead of posting approach would be viable.

quote:

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WebShaman said:

We do not have problems with bots anymore - the "new" spammers are actually human.WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.- Sophocles

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Reason for me bringing up my idea was the *bots* I had posting at my forums that appeared to be human (most of the time emails ending in yahoo, hotmail, or .ru) were blocked after I added the extra question requirement.

_______________________
http://www.txlans.com
~
# rm -rf

I understand what you meant; however, we fixed that problem awhile ago.

We only have problems with hoomie bots now

WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles

and we have a recaptcha in the sign up process...