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Spambots - Page 1

Spambots

Posted by: Guy
Date: 2010-08-02 17:07:18
It's shocking how many of these we've been getting. It's almost always been be that bans them, so I just wanted to point it out to the rest of the forum. If there is any trend in them that can be made use of to help prevent them from registering, I would highly recommend that we use that and at least try and stop this.

Re: Spambots

Posted by: Wild MissingNo. appeared
Date: 2010-08-03 04:34:14
I know how that feel, as I've had endless spambot sign-up at my forums and was forced to disable registrations. What if the system used like a math question as proof if that person is human, but if they bypass it (whatever question anyone can come up with) when we'll know it's a bot.

Re: Spambots

Posted by: Torchickens
Date: 2010-08-03 05:51:53

It's shocking how many of these we've been getting. It's almost always been be that bans them, so I just wanted to point it out to the rest of the forum. If there is any trend in them that can be made use of to help prevent them from registering, I would highly recommend that we use that and at least try and stop this.


I haven't seen any more alleged spam bots post since March, when a few users would continuously post content which would either advertise something else, or spread some kind of rumor.

Looking at our newest users, a lot simply have signatures which advertise some kind of website related to business or politics. We can't prove that they are spam bots simply by looking at their user profile but I agree that we might need some kind of verification question.

Re: Spambots

Posted by: Wild MissingNo. appeared
Date: 2010-08-03 11:40:45
Most forum systems can add a security question, where I don't think mine can. I've had a bot post at one of my dead forums, and he/she/it had a link to something pointless, so I think we need a security question to prevent bots.

Re: Spambots

Posted by: shaggs
Date: 2010-08-03 13:00:47
Maybe we can have a captchca, and two easy questions to answer like "what is the name of this planet?" or "in what direction does the sun rise". Fairly simple as I see it.

Re: Spambots

Posted by: Wa
Date: 2010-08-03 18:00:41
A captcha is a good idea, but there are also a bunch of bots lying around registered in the userlist. Normally they're very easy to identify; they have some generic username like JennaSmith or anna2947 and have a link to a site in their signature or another part of the profile. More recent ones have more profile information; older ones have less. Some examples:
http://forums.glitchcity.info/index.php?action=profile;u=1062
http://forums.glitchcity.info/index.php?action=profile;u=1060
http://forums.glitchcity.info/index.php?action=profile;u=1104
http://forums.glitchcity.info/index.php?action=profile;u=1009 <– one of the newer kinds

Perhaps we could clean them up? Technically there's nothing wrong with them, but combating spam is a good cause.

Re: Spambots

Posted by: GARYM9
Date: 2010-08-03 18:42:22
Well, I've just created 5 MANDATORY questions on BASIC knowledge of Gen I/II glitches.  Every question can be answered by a quick referral to the wiki or knowledge of the game.  This should drastically stop spambots.

Re: Spambots

Posted by: shaggs
Date: 2010-08-03 18:44:43
Good job!

Re: Spambots

Posted by: Guy
Date: 2010-08-03 21:28:47

Well, I've just created 5 MANDATORY questions on BASIC knowledge of Gen I/II glitches.  Every question can be answered by a quick referral to the wiki or knowledge of the game.  This should drastically stop spambots.
Excellent idea! I don't think I would have thought of that.

Re: Spambots

Posted by: Wild MissingNo. appeared
Date: 2010-08-04 03:32:11
Good work Gary, hopefully that'll keep the bots away.

Re: Spambots

Posted by: SCared_Fir3
Date: 2010-08-04 07:33:37
Yeah that will definitely reduce or even get rid of the spambots here. Good plan.

Re: Spambots

Posted by: xparasite9
Date: 2010-11-26 23:27:28
but…but spambots are hilarious…