IP ban these stupid spammers!

clixx13 · January 13th, 2008, 01:01 AM

What's with all the porn spam? I've been here for a few weeks and it's only started popping up now.

I say, if it isnt being done already, that some admins do some sweeping IP bans or something on these idiots. As well as those people registering just to spam their little websites.

Sorry if I just stated the obvious here, but seriously! Im sure everyone is getting tired of seeing stuff like 'free porn sex video sex' on the Recent Discussions list.

Mickwish · January 13th, 2008, 01:07 AM

Mods regularly ban any pr0n spammers immediate that either they see them or see them reported. IP banning is often not very effective, as these spammers commonly spoof IP addresses. Your best bet is to use the report post button and await the mods/admins to see them.

Cheers
Mick

clixx13 · January 13th, 2008, 01:18 AM

Meh, yeah.

Hmm.. it seems to me that the names of these threads are all a little too unwieldy with the English language to be done by actual people with nothing to do. Has it ever been considered to use a CAPTCHA in the registering process? They may be being done with a bot or something..

I dunno, just thinking with my typin' hands.

voogru · January 13th, 2008, 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clixx13

Meh, yeah.

Hmm.. it seems to me that the names of these threads are all a little too unwieldy with the English language to be done by actual people with nothing to do. Has it ever been considered to use a CAPTCHA in the registering process? They may be being done with a bot or something..

I dunno, just thinking with my typin' hands.

They all post links, all thats needed to be done is to disallow people to make posts containing links until they have 10 posts or so, but the admin here doesnt seem to mind the spammers and it gives the mods something to do...

Btw, some of them arent bots, but rather humans paid to spam forums with ads, so captcha just wont work.

nomaxim · January 13th, 2008, 01:47 AM

The problem is that the spammers often have different IP's. Mostly from free e-mail addy's like yahoo, gmail and such.

Are you suggesting that we ban all yahoo, hotmail, gmail etc.. e-mail addy's?

**RobRich** · January 13th, 2008, 01:53 AM

Actually, probably 95% (or maybe more) of those would-be porn spam threads are not even accessible by regular forum accounts. Instead, you would need a staff account. What member accounts are typically seeing is the occasional spam-related thread header popup in the recent discussion table due to posts awaiting moderation.

CAPTCHA is deployed. There is even a custom IP-related security script deployed. Most of the spam-related thread headers showing up in the recent discussion table are the byproduct of our recently deployed custom reverse registration system, which partially relies on the posts awaiting moderation feature of vBulletin.

I have already filed a low-priority error report to update the recent discussion script to filter posts awaiting moderation, thus essentially removing most of those spam-related post headers from the recent discussion table. Scott is an extremely busy person, so low priority fixes can take awhile, but nonetheless, it should be resolved in the near future.

clixx13 · January 13th, 2008, 01:56 AM

Yeah! Down with all free and user-friendly internet e-mail sites!

Totally kidding. I'd die without Yahoo.

Also, is that a George Carlin quote I spy in your signature, nomaxim?

@RobRich

I figured the 'invalid thread' thing had something to do with that. That all sounds good. I hereby retract my militant urgings for war against the spammers, in favour of this plan. After all, Scott's a busy guy as you said

Keymaker · January 13th, 2008, 05:50 AM

P0rn posts, time and time again.

Rob, do you use a bot txt file? I'm thinking they get lists for forums or something that way.

EXreaction · January 13th, 2008, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobRich

I have already filed a low-priority error report to update the recent discussion script to filter posts awaiting moderation, thus essentially removing most of those spam-related post headers from the recent discussion table. Scott is an extremely busy person, so low priority fixes can take awhile, but nonetheless, it should be resolved in the near future.

Give me the script and a database schema export of the topics table and I'll fix it in a few seconds for you.

Also, request that they fix the html entities when they get trimmed.

Keymaker · January 14th, 2008, 02:08 AM

Please do so!!!

There has to be an old disgruntled ex member doing this.