generic Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 the perverted posts have gotten out of hand.... its getting very cumbersome to have to click through all the new threads to see what is new and what is spam. Is there anything you can do like require registration to all but one or 2 general forums... edit -- wow i cant even post the word p-o-r-n-, but the spammers can post all those links... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjnsmith Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 They are annoying - and if you click them, be prepared to get loads of viruses on your computer, as thats what the links contain. [He use to be a huge spammer on our forums] Ryan 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 Unfortunately PHPBB has some of the worst moderation tools on the planet, and it's hard to keep up with these guys (I've cleaned up three of these today alone here). I've been blocking usernames (they come right back as another user) and IPs, (they just grab another proxy) and so on. I've tried censoring some of the domains and words, but again, PHPBB doesn't censor them in the URL, so the link stays live and the spammer gets his linkback. It's like shovelling against the tide here; lots of effort, mostly wasted. This most recent spate of .info pr0n domains I believe to be the work of one person/network/bot script, as the technique is the same, including posting within several other threads in addition to the new topics started. The fix? VB, or hire ten mods to do the work it would save. Ryan, why would you click those links? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
generic Posted February 3, 2007 Author Share Posted February 3, 2007 one fix is to require registraton, with moderator approval, its a bit of a pain, but just about everyone does it now due to the spamming. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 Isn't needed on boards that use other scripts but PhpBB and SMF are weak in this regard (I've moderated on all 4 at one time or another). I haven't used IPB in some time so they might have prevention tools, but VB has plenty of tools to stop this without resorting to constant mod intervention, and is the whole point to use it for this, in my opinion. Your forum is a reflection of your business, and seeing these type of posts here can be a turn off (ironically) for visitors who might be looking into your product. In spite of the mod's efforts, it is not being prevented, only being cleaned up after, like a game of "whack-a-mole". 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Host4cheap Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 I dunno why Spammers target this Forum. Almost 95% of people visiting the forums are people who have been using Internet for long time and know what all * happens. Nobody is too dumb to click "Spam" links 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 They don't need to be clicked to benefit the spammer. They just need to be found in search results...SE spamming. Why target this one? PHPBB is easy to spam. Just had to kill another one! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SwiftModders Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 I suggest getting IPB or vBulletin (better to get vBulletin), but both will help to make the forums better. It shouldn't be that grave an expense for Matt, and if he wants I will integrate the look of his site into it ;-). PHPBB can make sites look very unprofessional. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScarabWeb Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 I just received a PM on this forum with the same kind of crap in it 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taylorwilsdon Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 They are bots, not real people. We used to get 500+ registrations per day by them on our boards but a script stopped that. I'll see if I can find it. I got a PM with spam, too! They're getting very creative. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 Yup, that PM got to me as well (banned him too). I don't believe it's a bot, though. If it does get moved to VB, I've offered to help with the migration of data... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainboy Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 PHPbb, is very easy to control, and to get these kind of spam bots out of here, you just have to put some effort into it. One of the most simple tricks would be to add a VIP code the the subscription form, and you wont get any of these spam-bots anymore, using that system for a couple of months now on a busy form, and no more spam bots. It really doesn't matter which form you use, as soon it gets popular, a spammer might try to get trough the protection, phpBB is a popular board, and there are also a lot of popular counter measures you can take. As said.. my favourite a VIP code, which asks for a code from the end-user which they can find in a designated area on the forum itself. As this differs from board to board a general bot will not be able to spam your system anymore. Sounds easy ? That's because It is.. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MACscr Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 I agree that just switching the board is not good enough. Does anyone know how a bot is registering on the forum when their is a captcha? Also, is there a way to limit urls being posted until the user has so many posts? I honestly hate the forum searching in VB in comparison to phpbb. I would way rather see phpbb modified to handle the spammers versus switching to another board. But thats just my opinion. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 And then you have something from VB like: !NoSPam from VB, where you are asked a registration question..any question...and provide the answer to be able to register. No bots. Replaces CAPTCHA, which is defeatable. In addition, another mod can be used that watches for any member under a certain number of posts that tries to include a URL, and sticks all his posts into the moderation queue. No Spam. Then there's groups and promotions, where you don't allow things like PMs until the member has more than xx number of posts. No more PM spam from new members. Word censors that work properly, removing the word even in URLs. Removing posts from a particular problem member by clicking checkboxes next to all of them and removing. No more "visit post, click delete, confirm, go back to list, next spam... Many more than I can list here The plus side is huge, the down side is just initial cost, configuration, import and then skinning. None all that terrible, IMHO. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear Posted February 3, 2007 Share Posted February 3, 2007 To be fair about it, I scouted a bit on the PHPBB site, and they have some equivalent mods, though some are kind of old and may not be compatible any longer. (v 2.07) PM threshold: [url]http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=167150[/url] (2.0.20) Mod Troll [url]http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=389005[/url] Anti-Spam ACP [url]http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=465600[/url] Deny posting certain text or links until xx posts [url]http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=471992[/url] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DataHosts Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 VBulletin has my vote if we go..I would be willing to donate a license to WHMCS to see that the forum is taken care of. I am sure that we could all donate a $ here or there to assist 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xxkylexx Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 Just got a PM as well from a spam bot. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MACscr Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 VBulletin has my vote if we go..I would be willing to donate a license to WHMCS to see that the forum is taken care of. I am sure that we could all donate a $ here or there to assist That would make sense if this was an open source project, but this is a commercial company and site and matt makes a decent amount off whmcs, so i think he can pay for it. Sorry Matt. =P 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WHMCS CEO Matt Posted February 4, 2007 WHMCS CEO Share Posted February 4, 2007 To be fair about it, I scouted a bit on the PHPBB site, and they have some equivalent mods, though some are kind of old and may not be compatible any longer. Mods have now been installed to prevent users with less than 15 posts being able to post links or send private messages. Hopefully this will reduce the number of spam posts being submitted on the forums. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DataHosts Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 Mods have now been installed to prevent users with less than 15 posts being able to post links or send private messages. Seems to be a good thing and hope it works. Of course if they register and just post simple post like 'hello', 'blah blah', and they get to 15 quick. However, there is truely no way to prevent post like this, and this MOD is a great step towards cutting it down on the forum 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bear Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 Thanks Matt! I'm sure it will help quite a bit. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebyp2 Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 glad it wasn;t just me that was getting the rubbish, if you need help sifting through them then let me know (and i'm sure others will also pitch in as well) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 I just got a PM to.... arrgghhh 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WHMCS CEO Matt Posted February 4, 2007 WHMCS CEO Share Posted February 4, 2007 You got it now, but I presume it wasn't sent just now? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rainboy Posted February 5, 2007 Share Posted February 5, 2007 Trust me, that won't stop them. So far i found only one module to stop everything, but its a bit user unfriendly, however a community website with mostly non-tech-savvy users is running very well with it. If you are interested Matt i got some examples for you. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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