Spammers Suck - Are Forum Changes Required?

Mike Temporale

I'm just plain sick and tired of spammers. It has been gradually getting worse for a while now, until last night when it just got ugly. Last night we got hit with about 200 spam forum messages. These posts were not like the rest. This spammer decided to reply to existing posts with his spam. The result is numerous emails being sent out to you, are members, about a reply being posted to a specific thread. I don't know about you but I have over 150 of them in my inbox. Evil or Very Mad

So the spam didn't just hit the server, it hit your inbox too. Rocco spent a incredible amount of time last night cleaning up all the spam. (Thanks Rocco! :way to go:

) So if you clicked on one of those emails and saw a post not found message, that is why.

I really like the way the forum is currently setup and run. There's a lot of good people here and I don't like the thought of changing things. However, as I said earlier, I'm just plain sick of the spam. I already spend too much time each day dealing with the spam messages. The more time I spend dealing with spam, the less time I can spend finding news, writing reviews, and answering (attempting, anyway) your questions in the forums. There's a couple things we can change to try and block the spam before it gets into the forum. I would like to know your thoughts on these, or other means you might have in mind to help curb the spam. Try to keep in mind the experience for a first time visitor to the site. We don't want to drive anyone away, except the spammers. Wink

I'm not going to make any promises about what if any, changes will be made. But I do want to know how you all feel about this.
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"I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein

zeke009 · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 8:03 am Post subject:

I don't remember for sure, but can't you ban domain names in phpBB2? I've noticed that the *.ru addresses have been quiet lately with their spam, I'm seeing a lot of *cashette.com addresses hitting the forum I admin. So I added them to the banned address list. We're using IPB, but I am sure that phpBB allows you to someway block addresses of a certain domain.

Unless the script kiddies are using @hotmail.com or another popular address.

That's my $.02 cents, good luck! Wink

Edit:
Admin Panel - Ban Control (Under User Admin) - Ban one or more email addresses

Jerry Raia · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 8:38 am Post subject:

I went with all the above. Rather than try to visit all those posts I just deleted the emails. Will I, or anyone who did what I did, not get notified if new legit posts are made to those threads?
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[3125] [BlackJack] [8525]

Mike Temporale · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 9:04 am Post subject:

Mike Temporale · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 9:06 am Post subject:

Jerry Raia · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 9:09 am Post subject:

It will be worth the extra work. I've been visiting threads I can remember so Ill get notified. What a pain this clown caused us.
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[3125] [BlackJack] [8525]

Ed Hansberry · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 9:43 am Post subject:

what is worse is that sometimes there is a glitch in phpbb and when the last post of a thread is deleted by an admin, everyone is unsubscribed. Sad

Jason Dunn · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:01 am Post subject:

The best solution, I believe, is that posts by new users are held and moderated until they have 5 posts (or something similar). That would STOP the spam problem completely. The problem is that phpBB doesn't support that, and I don't know of any way to hack that in. This issue weighs heavily on me as well, because I spent a good chunk of time dealing with forum spam as well...so believe me, I'm always thinking about how to find a better way of dealing with it.

hotdram · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:43 am Post subject:

You just have to find what goes well with spam to enjoy it Wink

I detest spam just like the rest of you. I voted for "all of the above". I know it is work for the admin/mods, but is it more work to implement the above features or to take care of the spam after it "hits" (like last night)? One forum I belong to won't let you register unless you have an email address that is NOT from one of the usual free places (yahoo, gmail etc). That stinks, since alot of people have those addresses and have had to find a different one (by finding one that site accepts or paying for one). As a sbcglobalnet subscriber, I had one from there I could register with.

~Rob
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crispeto · Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2006 11:12 am Post subject:

I think whoever spammed everyone should be fined and restricted from all computer use. This should be mandatory for all spammers. Grrr Mad

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