Fighting spam

[jods]

Does anyone have a good idea how to efficiently fight spam on those forums (powered by SMF)?

At first, a captcha was all we needed.

But then, it seemed that either the spam-bots were getting more intelligent, or the spammers are just poor people earning their lives posting crap into forums. So now, to register you have to be approved, in addition of the captcha.

It's a lot more effective, and the spammers aren't too hard to spot (hopefully I'm not refusing too many honest users). But it takes a lot time because there are so many... I have been away from my computer for 2 weeks, and I am welcome by 200 (99% spammers) registrations...

I'm getting tired of this, so I'd be interested if anyone knows a solution for this problem?

[Kurt]

Try having a required field when registering that requires numbers to be inputted. Such as: What's 11-2?

It helps fight spam bots. At least on the forums I run, which is Invision Power Board.

[brine]

the problem is that there's actual people signing up for accounts now instead of simple spam bots, so even user verification isn't safe anymore.  You'll never win the war against spam, they'll always find ways around your safeguards.

The worst part is that it seems spammers are only doing it to piss people off at this point, especially the ones that come here.  Those recent spammers seem to be posting shock-material more than actual products spam.

Maybe you should find a few trustworthy people to help you moderate the forums, or at least elect someone as the "spam watcher" which can flag/deactivate accounts and delete threads.

[Kurt]

the problem is that there's actual people signing up for accounts now instead of simple spam bots, so even user verification isn't safe anymore.  You'll never win the war against spam, they'll always find ways around your safeguards.

The worst part is that it seems spammers are only doing it to piss people off at this point, especially the ones that come here.  Those recent spammers seem to be posting shock-material more than actual products spam.

Maybe you should find a few trustworthy people to help you moderate the forums, or at least elect someone as the "spam watcher" which can flag/deactivate accounts and delete threads.

That will definitely be your safest bet. I know on my forums I was having about 95% of them register under a specific email which was @yahoo.ca

What I did was permanently IP ban any accounts that were were using that email, as only spammers seemed to be using that email. Since then I have have no problems with spammers at this time.

Your best bet is to do what brine suggested, to help clean up any spammers that get through.

[Oen386]

Allow registration, but deny posting privileges until 5 or more posts have been approved?

Or make more people moderators?

[jods]

Well, thanks for your replies.
To minimize work, I've created a ban rule for registration, and I add a trigger for every recurring pattern. Frequently used IP or e-mail address (e.g. everything @mail.ru) is now automatically prevented to register.
So there should be less work approving new accounts (or more precisely: less work refusing new accounts).

[brine]

can you disable HTML or posting images if the user has less than 3 posts?

[Kurt]

can you disable HTML or posting images if the user has less than 3 posts?

Has there been spam like that with them using those options? I haven't seen any yet like that.

[brine]

oh, I meant posting an image through the HTML code, not uploading a picture manually.  If HTML code could be disabled for new members, then that should at least eliminate the porn-based spammers (as well as that one with the car currently in the general discussion board).

[Kurt]

oh, I meant posting an image through the HTML code, not uploading a picture manually.  If HTML code could be disabled for new members, then that should at least eliminate the porn-based spammers (as well as that one with the car currently in the general discussion board).

Ah okay. That is a great idea then.

[rico]

I posted a reply on one of those spams. SMF has some good capcha add-ons that i think were already mentioned. I had the same problem on mine for a day and i was like. eh , denied

[Kurt]

Jods if your interested in using a different forum software LMK. I have an extra license of IPB (Invision Power Board) and would be happy to let you use it. I could setup the forums and skin it for you to have it match similar to the site layout. You would be able to transfer all members / posts from this forum onto the IPB one. It's a lot safer regarding spam and would make your job a lot easier.

If your interested feel free to PM me for more details.

[rico]

i think smf is better :X he could just upgrade to the newest version of smf though, this one is a lil outdated.

jods just go into your admin panel on here and its just a click to upgrade, i doubt your theme will have any conflicts with the upgrade.

or check out the mods on the smf site for the capcha/anti spam addons u can do.

[jods]

I don't really manage the server and forums software. (It's Zark who does).

So I'm not going to install extensions or change the forum software, but if Zark reads this and would like to install a better captcha or whatever, he's welcome.

[Kurt]

I don't really manage the server and forums software. (It's Zark who does).

So I'm not going to install extensions or change the forum software, but if Zark reads this and would like to install a better captcha or whatever, he's welcome.

Alright.