SRL Archive - Discussions and Debates

Hey

Spam bots are getting more and more annoying, taking up the mod's time.. I think a Administrator/Wizzup? should install this plugin for VB…

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=248470&page=4

Thing that caught my attention:

B) Auto-Moderation:
Auto Moderation lets you:
[B]Define how many URLs a new member can post before being sent to moderation.[/B]
Define keywords that will send a post to Auto-moderation (viagra, porn, meds, etc)
Define minimum post count to avoid Auto-moderation.
Excludes admin and moderators from Auto-moderation.
Completely disable Auto-moderation if you don't want it.

Would setting this to 1-3 block the spambots from posting?

It would just add extra work for the mods, to be honest. They're not as bad as they use to be though.

Maybe add a captcha?
And/or a minimum of X posts before being allowed to post links?

From: Sin
Maybe add a captcha?
And/or a minimum of X posts before being allowed to post links?

Hay, I really like the idea of minimum post count to post links! That would be awesome. :p

Say,
10 posts required to add links to profile / topics… Else the action will be blocked (post/topic wont be sent, edited profile wont change)

At least it would take care of some spambots, for sure. :stirthepot:

Or perhaps only post internal (as in Villavu) links being allowed until a certain post count has been reached?

From: Janilabo
Hay, I really like the idea of minimum post count to post links! That would be awesome. :p

Say,
10 posts required to add links to profile / topics… Else the action will be blocked (post/topic wont be sent, edited profile wont change)

At least it would take care of some spambots, for sure. :stirthepot:

^ that's a good idea, unless the spam bots get smarter and post the links typed out such as:WWWdotBLABLABLadotCOM

From: P1nky
^ that's a good idea, unless the spam bots get smarter and post the links typed out such as:WWWdotBLABLABLadotCOM

or just spam ten posts then start putting up their crap…

please install such a plugin to stop them.

http://villavu.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1006692#post1006692
:/

I don't know why they can't delete them instead of just ban. Clogs up the forum and inflates the user numbers (< maybe why they don't delete them).

And do a question and answer that's like "What is one of the most prevalent color script engines?" and use SCAR/Simba as an acceptable answer.

All these bots just use XRumer which can solve some simple addition types questions and they use captcha services to solve them. A half decent Q&A would stop them (at least it does on my forum).

Just use good captcha…

And do a question and answer that's like "What is one of the most prevalent color script engines?" and use SCAR/Simba as an acceptable answer.

This.Simplicity is sometimes the best:)

From: beginner5
Just use good captcha…



This.Simplicity is sometimes the best:)

Bots use captcha services: deathbycaptcha, captchasniper, etc for which a human fills out their captcha for them.

It won't help any.

Also, don't reply to the threads started by them ;) Report them and let them die, simple.

From: smurg
I don't know why they can't delete them instead of just ban. Clogs up the forum and inflates the user numbers (< maybe why they don't delete them).

And do a question and answer that's like "What is one of the most prevalent color script engines?" and use SCAR/Simba as an acceptable answer.

All these bots just use XRumer which can solve some simple addition types questions and they use captcha services to solve them. A half decent Q&A would stop them (at least it does on my forum).

Admins dont care about inflated membership statistics. And, I dont think the admins are conspiring to make the forums seem successful. However, senior members like myself only have the power to ban spam bots, not delete them.

Links need the nofollow tag. They only spam for the Google Rankings. Adding that will reduce spam a lot, because there's no reason at all for them to do so.

Also people clicking links (including dumb spiders) shows up in referral logs = they come back to places where more people click. So they really need to be deleted as well.

From: Bam Bam
Admins dont care about inflated membership statistics. And, I dont think the admins are conspiring to make the forums seem successful. However, senior members like myself only have the power to ban spam bots, not delete them.

Seems like I've seen it quoted on a number of occasions.

And I didn't even know Senior SRL Members could ban, interesting.

From: Harry
Links need the nofollow tag. They only spam for the Google Rankings. Adding that will reduce spam a lot, because there's no reason at all for them to do so.

Also people clicking links (including dumb spiders) shows up in referral logs = they come back to places where more people click. So they really need to be deleted as well.

No 'nofollow' please ;). Link juice is good for the legit people + more plugins = more possible vulnerabilities.

Just delete them.

From: smurg
more plugins

There are no plugins needed, it's an option in vBulletin's adminCP.