Spamming Countermeasures

[Twilice]

We need to do something about all those spammings, it is starting to annoy me alot!

[Cisz]

Yes. I can't delete users, and I don't want admin rights. Maybe an auto-ban for 2 warnings will do.

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=597284

[Karawasa]

Cisz, you can now delete users. Make sure to check the delete posts box too if they are a spammer.

[Cisz]

Oh. Didn't know thats possible w/o admin rights. I'll make good use of that.

[dvdlesher]

We support you, Cisz!

[Guest]

Edit: This is Cisz writing. Ironically this post was a spam post in am anti spamming thread. Feel free to send insultive pm's to the idiot who tried this.

[Cisz]

My current meaures are: On the first offense I warn and delete all posts. On the second offense I delete all posts and the user.

My thinking behind this is: If I wait with the ban till the second spamming, they have more work to do. And since I check the forums more than once daily, the spam level is practically zero anyway. So as a result I hope to raise the cost for spamming.

What do you guys think?

[Karawasa]

Cisz,

I'd recommend just deleting all posts along with the user immediately if it is clearly spam.

[Cisz]

Why? Don't you think it's annoying to them if they have to post again and still have no effect?

[Kaini]

Hm I don't think so.

The registration has to do a human (capata etc.) but posting is bot-work.

[Guest GoSu.SpeeD]

Hm I don't think so.

The registration has to do a human (capata etc.) but posting is bot-work.

I doubt they have to even register manually, coding a captcha breaker for PHPBB is not very complex. Also due to the fact that specific websites will create a captcha breaking program for a small amount of money.

[Cisz]

Hm, if the posting is done by a bot, it'd be foolish to not delete them.

To bad, I really wished there was some violence I could do to them. Any suggestions to abuse spammers in some way?

[Guest GoSu.SpeeD]

Hm, if the posting is done by a bot, it'd be foolish to not delete them.

To bad, I really wished there was some violence I could do to them. Any suggestions to abuse spammers in some way?

nothing you can do will really effect them in any way, they sign up using disposable emails most of the time and they most likely won't leave any real details. I don't know about PHPBB but i know on my forum (which is vbulletin) you can ban certain email addresses from registering, i have a list of them hosted on my site:

http://3rdstrikehq.com/emailbanlist.txt

if you still find the odd spammer signing up, then look up his email provider and add it to the list (just make sure it's not hotmail, yahoo or any other popular provider)

[Kaini]

Another nice idea is: (assuming that registration is botwork too)

Show a picture of a cat/house/lamp/clock and under it you ask: What is that? And the user has to type 'cat'

[Twilice]

There could be some activation thing. Like on the dota forums.

You have to write a MANUALL letter NOT consisting any spam.

And then a mod or so activates your account.

[Cisz]

I know that method from other forums as well. Sounds like work. More work that removing spam.

[jolin012]

perhaps spammers have in common to do their first 3 posts with less than 1 minute in time between them? i mean if they have a bot that copies pastes, that should be faster - unless thei're dlayed to avoid filters allready? idk, just an idea if they're a script or w/e it's called, avoiding it, if it is true that they almost always spam their first 3 posts without delay in between.

Also i like the "what animal is on the picture" or "how many eyes does the cat have?" if it's possible to add and if the registrers are bots