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Author Topic: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....  (Read 8139 times)

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Offline Kindred

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Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« on: January 15, 2011, 07:36:37 PM »
OK, so I guess I can not enforce the death penalty on spammers, much as I would like to do so.
However, due to the recent influx of idiot spammers, I have added some anti-spam functionality to the site.

I added some questions to the registration which require a human to interact/answer.

I added link-removal/protection:
Users with less than 10 posts can not post links. period.
Users with less than 20 posts will have links in the posts disabled. If the reading users want to follow the link, they would have to copy/paste the link to their own browser.
Users with less than 50 posts will have links marked as [nofollow] so there is no search engine benefit

Also, while it may be frustrating, users in the newest group (3 or fewer posts) are required to enter the CAPTCHA when they post.

I know how annoying and frustrating these things might be to users who just want to participate in the community, but the rash of idiot spammers that we have had recently required me to take some drastic action. Blame those idiots.... :(
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Offline Raktra (So long, I guess)

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2011, 08:15:02 PM »
It's a necessary evil to be fair. You've got no real choice.

Offline Spectral Arbor

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2011, 08:59:59 PM »
I don't know about you guys, but since I'm now able to buy cheap pharmaceuticals online, my life has never been better! ;)

Offline Rasmus

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #3 on: January 16, 2011, 02:01:57 AM »
I don't know about you guys, but since I'm now able to buy cheap pharmaceuticals online, my life has never been better! ;)
Sadly, that is part of the problem. A lot of this is legitimate business, meaning people are willingly parting with their money to these people. A lot of it is fraud, theft and phishing, but still, there are people paying this beast, sustaining it. Spammers, in this respect, are an awful lot like the paparazzi and the tabloids; they would go away the instant people stopped giving them money.

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Offline Kindred

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2011, 03:14:46 AM »
We have also recently (today) joined Stop Forum Spam and Project HoneyPot and well as activating "Bad Behavior"

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Offline Irisado

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2011, 07:00:09 AM »
I think that this is a necessary step, and I'm grateful that you have implemented it.  During my time on the forum, this recent period has seen the most spam I have seen, and something has to be done to make it more difficult for these spammers to post their scams, links, and similar material.  It may well be an inconvenience for newbies, but you've explained the reasons clearly, and the benefit to the forum as a whole should outweigh any inconvenience.

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Offline tryanotherone - smurfernating

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #6 on: January 16, 2011, 07:22:32 AM »
Ok, I am openly showing my ignorance: Can anybody tell me what CAPTCHA stands for?

Never mind. I just found it on wikipedia.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2011, 09:04:05 AM by tryanotherone - rumour board raider »
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Offline Crossrifles

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #7 on: January 16, 2011, 11:54:27 AM »
I completely support this. All spammers do, is take up space on the internet, annoy people, steal money and are down right rude.
Proving that you're human with CAPTCHA, is just a simple step to help keep them away.
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Offline Calaeth

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #8 on: January 17, 2011, 05:30:23 PM »
Always a good idea to stop spammers.. but why does my IP get marked as spamming when I only registered today and made a total of 6 posts? Seems a bit hard that I have to use my cellphone to read the forums...  :o

Offline Kindred

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #9 on: January 17, 2011, 06:41:19 PM »
your IP is marked as a spam-site?


ALL USERS:
Please PM me your contact information including any message that you get from this site that indicates you might be a spammer. The problem with blacklists is that, if you get put on one, it now affects you internet-wide, and it is difficult to get off of the list.   One potential reason is that your IP address is part of a block which has been compromised at some previous date and you have a cycling IP address with your host which may (or may not) include that block
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Offline faitherun (Fay-ith-er-run)

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #10 on: January 18, 2011, 01:02:43 PM »
I have to say thank you. I understand the work this is taking and I really appreciate what you are doing. I think the measures you have taken are very fair and while a tad annoying to newer users, they shall not be hindered forever. Thank you
So, what your saying is it's not your fault you look stupid by using words you don't get?
Flawless logic.

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #11 on: January 18, 2011, 02:35:39 PM »
Apart from one unwarranted ragequit today, the new system is a non-issue for users.  Most users make 20 posts within the first few days of having an account, and after that 20 post threshold the anti-spam measures do not directly affect the user.

It's a great way to stop spammers without being an "evil" at all, let alone a necessary evil.
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Offline Kindred

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #12 on: January 26, 2011, 10:19:34 AM »
BTW: For those of you who feel that the anti-spam actions are severe or unwarranted, in the last week, these have blocked over 300 spammers AT REGISTRATION! Meaning that the mods have not had to deal with the metric ton of spam posts those 300 would have made and they can focus on being moderators, not clean-up crew.
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Offline Awfully Dandy

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #13 on: January 26, 2011, 10:53:44 AM »
BTW: For those of you who feel that the anti-spam actions are severe or unwarranted, in the last week, these have blocked over 300 spammers AT REGISTRATION! Meaning that the mods have not had to deal with the metric ton of spam posts those 300 would have made and they can focus on being moderators, not clean-up crew.


I guess this isn't SPARTA!!!

On topic, that's great. Good to see we can kick them is the bot.

Offline Rasmus

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #14 on: January 26, 2011, 12:14:02 PM »
I am happy that we don't have to deal with them, because if we did it means they would have already been a nuisance to all the posters with their junk on the boards. Stopping them at the door has saved you all all that grief, and all of us that work.

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #15 on: January 26, 2011, 01:33:00 PM »
BTW: For those of you who feel that the anti-spam actions are severe or unwarranted, in the last week, these have blocked over 300 spammers AT REGISTRATION! Meaning that the mods have not had to deal with the metric ton of spam posts those 300 would have made and they can focus on being moderators, not clean-up crew.

Damn thats alot man. Youve done a great job hope it keeps working.

Offline tryanotherone - smurfernating

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #16 on: January 26, 2011, 02:07:40 PM »
BTW: For those of you who feel that the anti-spam actions are severe or unwarranted, in the last week, these have blocked over 300 spammers AT REGISTRATION! Meaning that the mods have not had to deal with the metric ton of spam posts those 300 would have made and they can focus on being moderators, not clean-up crew.

I am curious.

How do you know these registrations were attempted by spammers?

Other than that, that's good news. It leaves our mods with more free time for finding our own spammers, flamers and trolls. ;) ;D
« Last Edit: January 26, 2011, 02:10:34 PM by tryanotherone - rumour board raider »
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Offline Kindred

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #17 on: January 26, 2011, 02:50:41 PM »
one of the protections we have in place checks a list (frequently updated) of know spammer usernames, email addresses and IP addresses and, if there is a match on any one, it sends the potential spammer to a "check this" list which I review at leats once a day. If the account hits at least two of the three checks, it's gone.  If it hits one, I check a little more, but usually it's fairly clear that it's a throwaway account like"buyviag at someplace dot ru"
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Offline tryanotherone - smurfernating

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #18 on: January 26, 2011, 02:55:01 PM »
Ok, I see.

So accidental refusal is ruled out? Can't IP addresses be highjacked?
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Offline Rasmus

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Re: Spam, Spammers and the death penalty....
« Reply #19 on: January 26, 2011, 03:34:40 PM »
No, but the tools are very good. So think 99%.

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